Two PVR 150MCE card configuration

[extreme.paradox]

Hi,

I have two PVR 150MCE cards installed in my HTPC with one of them connected to my digital cable. I would like to use the second card to record while i watch tv but don't know how. Can someone walk me through setting the secound card up in sagetv 2.1 so i can record with it?

[Opus4]

Essentially: you hook it up to your cable & set it up in SageTV as a 2nd tuner, just like you did with the first one, except that you may have to select a different EPG/lineup/guide provider. The steps really aren't much different & the v2.1 manual spells out pretty much every step.

If you want both tuners to record your digital channels, you will need a 2nd converter box. Or, you could just run the analog cable into the 2nd one and set it up for the non-digital listing for your provider.

- Andy

[extreme.paradox]

Opus 4,

Thanks for the quick response, i assume that i need to have a coax cable going to each tuner card and if so can i use a splitter to do that? I only have one cable tv harness in the livingroom.

[mikejaner]

You mentioned you have a Digital Cable box hooked up to one of them. I would just run the cable in the living room split to the cable box, and the second tuner. Then you have the cable box hooked up to the first tuner.

If your cable box and straight cable connections get the same channel numbers for the lower channels, I would then just uncheck the channels on the cable lineup that don't come over the cable to the second tuner, IE the ones that the Digital Cable box can get like HBO etc....
You do this by going to Setup--SetupWizard, and select the second tuner. Then click on Channel Setup and unselect the higher up channels.

If they have the lower channels on a different numbering setup from each other, then do like Andy said and setup the second tuner with a different channel lineup.

If you wanna bypass the Digital Cable box altogether, then, yes split the cable to two and run both into the puter, and download the cable lineup for a "Cable Ready" setup in the Wizard for your area on both tuners.

Hope this helps.

[Opus4]

Mike already covered splitting the cable (1: cable->box->card; 2: cable->card), but you don't need to start deselecting channels...

Originally Posted by mikejaner

If your cable box and straight cable connections get the same channel numbers for the lower channels, I would then just uncheck the channels on the cable lineup that don't come over the cable to the second tuner, IE the ones that the Digital Cable box can get like HBO etc....
You do this by going to Setup--SetupWizard, and select the second tuner. Then click on Channel Setup and unselect the higher up channels.

If one tuner is connected to the digital cable box & the other is connected to the straight cable (analog), you need to select two different providers: one for your digital channel lineup & one for the analog channel lineup. At that point, each tuner will use its own channel lineup. You do not need to enable/disable any channels unless they happen to be ones that really don't work or are ones you don't want to see. You do not want to disable a channel on one tuner just because it is listed on the other tuner or you will limit that channel to one tuner only, making it harder to schedule recordings to prevent conflicts.

SageTV will track all channels properly between the two separate lineups, regardless of whether the same network is on two different channel numbers (CNN is 10 on digital, but 25 on analog) or whether the same channel number is used for different networks (chan 10 is CNN on digital, but 10 is HISTORY on analog). See p. 110 of the v2.1 manual.

If, for some reason, you only have a single provider listed for your cable company, yet some channels _must_ go through the converter in order to be received... then you might as well get a 2nd converter. When both tuners use the same lineup, any channels you enable/disable are set the same way for both tuners.

If you wanna bypass the Digital Cable box altogether, then, yes split the cable to two and run both into the puter, and download the cable lineup for a "Cable Ready" setup in the Wizard for your area on both tuners.

In this case, both lineups/providers will be the same for each tuner.

- Andy

[Opus4]

Oh -- I forgot: If you have one tuner connected to analog cable & the other to a converter, you may want to set the mmc/encoders/XXX/encoder_merit property (p. 178) for each tuner so that the analog tuner has priority. That way, the digital tuner won't be used needlessly for an anolog show, leaving it free for a digital channel, should the need arise.

- Andy

[mikejaner]

You do not need to enable/disable any channels unless they happen to be ones that really don't work or are ones you don't want to see. You do not want to disable a channel on one tuner just because it is listed on the other tuner or you will limit that channel to one tuner only, making it harder to schedule recordings to prevent conflicts.

I meant he could disable the ones on the second tuner which only show up on the Digital Box, therefore, Sage would utilize the correct tuner when that channel needs to be recorded. Again this is only if his cable box and analog cable utilize the same numbering schema, which I stated. If they are different, then he needs to use two different lineups. I just think we stated it differently

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

I meant he could disable the ones on the second tuner which only show up on the Digital Box, therefore, Sage would utilize the correct tuner when that channel needs to be recorded. Again this is only if his cable box and analog cable utilize the same numbering schema, which I stated. If they are different, then he needs to use two different lineups.

But, when using a converter on one tuner & analog cable on the other tuner, you have to use 2 different lineups anyway -- otherwise you cannot disable a channel on one w/o also disabling it on the other.

Hmmm... Maybe you meant that the analog lineup might also list the channels that require a converter? If so, then we did say the same thing. (I also commented that channels that don't actually work should be disabled.)

I just think we stated it differently

That's entirely possible... I know that some people used to think that you had to disable channels that were on different numbers for each tuner (but could be received on both), so that's the way read your comments.

- Andy

[extreme.paradox]

Thanks for all your help, i'm going to use a splitter. I checked out my listings and found that i have two, one for digital and one for analog.