OTA channel tuning problem

[photon]

I did a clean install of Sage TV 7 then upgraded it to sage TV 9 on Windows home server v1 (which is Windows server 2003). This formerly ran SageTV 6 with HDhomerun tuners without issues for years. I uninstalled all all of the v6 sage tv and hdhomerun software because this install is for a relative in a different state. There were no issues during clean install of v7 and v9 except the error message which I understand can be safely ignored regarding failure to register STVEVRPrstr.dll. The tuners are still the original white HDhomerun tuning only off air channels from an antenna.

In the HDHomerun config gui software all channels tune normally. In SageTV the root channels tune but not the sub channels. For instance channel 5.1 will tune but channel 5.2 will not. Channel 8.1 will tune but channel 8.2 will not. This is true for all channels.

I'm stumped. I uninstalled, restarted and reinstalled every software component without any change in behavior. I have removed all tuners and added them back several times. Upgraded sage TV as new installer versions have come out.

I know this can work properly if the server and HDHomerun tuner is transported to a different location that has a different OTA channel lineup. This is what I just proved by taking the server and HDHomerun to a different state which has one OTA channel from a different broadcast station in common. Channel 5.1 and 5.2 will tune normally in that state without making any changes at all to the server. The server was still using the schedules direct lineup for the state it was no longer located in so no other channels would tune.

Anybody have any ideas why sub channels will not tune but main channels will?

[wayner]

Weird.

Have you gone through and checked through the detailed physical and logical channel numbers? Surely it is an issue with the channel lineup if you can get it to work in another location and the same hardware.

What stations are these? Is it possible that something is screwed up in the broadcast feed? I doubt it, but you never know.

[photon]

Originally Posted by wayner

Weird.

Have you gone through and checked through the detailed physical and logical channel numbers? Surely it is an issue with the channel lineup if you can get it to work in another location and the same hardware.

What stations are these? Is it possible that something is screwed up in the broadcast feed? I doubt it, but you never know.

Yeah too weird. Getting weirder too. I'm no expert on the physical and logical channels numbers but I didn't see anything the looked questionable compared to my own setup in a different state.

I hadn't mentioned before that playback was via a HD300 connected to a new Hitachi TV. It was used for playback via HDMI connection at both locations. The only difference was the TV used for playback and the cables used for connection.

Since the sage TV server doesn't have a sound card I couldn't successfully playback by launching the sage client on the server. Playback gets a playback exception because it can't create the audio stream. So I installed SageTV client on a laptop to see what happens. Everything works perfectly playing on the laptop. All channels tune!

Next I connected the HD300 via component connection. Now all channels tune when playing back from the HD300!

So now I'm wondering why doesn't HDMI work... I have already tried it in all 3 HDMI inputs on the TV and that made no difference. Bad cable? HDMI1.4a on the TV a factor?

Update before post.
Solved though it still makes no sense to me!. The brand new HDMI cable didn't have very far to run between HD300 and the HDMI input of the TV so I hadn't unspooled the full length of the cable. It still had one twist tie on it looping the cable neatly. When switching from component cable back to HDMI cable I unhooked the cable and removed the twist tie and extended the cable it's full length then hooked it back up. Working!... But Why? Why did the cable only impact tuning of sub channels? Or was it the changing of video output setting in the HD300 from HDMI to Component and back to HDMI that actually fix it? But WHY would a video output issue from the HD300 impact the HD300 changing to sub channels and everything else work?

[photon]

Originally Posted by wayner

Weird.

Have you gone through and checked through the detailed physical and logical channel numbers? Surely it is an issue with the channel lineup if you can get it to work in another location and the same hardware.

What stations are these? Is it possible that something is screwed up in the broadcast feed? I doubt it, but you never know.

Thanks for your help!