Sagetv confused about changing channels through tuner or cable box

[vmadahar]

I have a pvr500 and SA3250 cable box from cox. I have setup a usb-uirt to change channels for the cable box and use the tuner on my pvr500 to get basic channels off the composite cable(without cable box). I have setup the channels so i am only getting minimal basic channels off the tuner and setup the cable box to get all the channels including the basic channels through s-video.

I have Sagetv 5.0 and it gets confused and if I go to a basic channel, sagetv uses my cable box to tune to that channel and if i start recording that channel I cant tune to a non basic channel anymore. So my quesiton: Is there a way to make sagetv smart enough to know to use tuner on the pvr500 to record and dont use the cable box to record the basic channels? Or is there a way to specify what device to use for recording before sagetv starts recording a program?

[doublebogey]

Originally Posted by vmadahar

I have a pvr500 and SA3250 cable box from cox. I have setup a usb-uirt to change channels for the cable box and use the tuner on my pvr500 to get basic channels off the composite cable(without cable box). I have setup the channels so i am only getting minimal basic channels off the tuner and setup the cable box to get all the channels including the basic channels through s-video.

I have Sagetv 5.0 and it gets confused and if I go to a basic channel, sagetv uses my cable box to tune to that channel and if i start recording that channel I cant tune to a non basic channel anymore. So my quesiton: Is there a way to make sagetv smart enough to know to use tuner on the pvr500 to record and dont use the cable box to record the basic channels? Or is there a way to specify what device to use for recording before sagetv starts recording a program?

Try setting the cable box to get all the channels except the basic cable and the pvr500 to get only the basic.

Phil

[trini0]

Something what you're describing happens to me too.
I have a dual tuner setup, where the sat box comes in on the ATI 550 card for analog, and OTA antenna for digital on the Fusion card.
I noticed it during the NBA finals, and for some reason, I couldn't get to watch
it in its full HD glory.
It was then I noticed that whenever I tuned to the digital station, the
USB-UIRT was flashing (indicating that it was changing the channel on the sat box), and I was watching the analog station.

Rather frustrating.

Im currently using Sage 5.0.4

[vmadahar]

Originally Posted by doublebogey

Try setting the cable box to get all the channels except the basic cable and the pvr500 to get only the basic.

Phil

That does not work I tried that, I want to also use the cable box to get the basic channels so, I can record with the tuner and watch another basic channel with the cable box. I am using Sage 5.0.4

[paulbeers]

have you told Sage which card takes priority? If you haven't done that, then of course it is just going to use which ever it wants. I had that problem for awhile, and then I read the manual and it told me how to set priorities for cards. I have it set up that for my local channels, it uses my PVR500 for OTA capture of (most) SDTV channels, and my PVR150's for all channels period (several of my broadcast channels come in like crap thru cable, but I am only 5 miles from my broadcast towers). My PVR500 is the highest priority so that Sage will assign local broadcast to that before it assigns my local broadcast channels to my PVR150's. This way unless I am already recording 2 OTA channels, I still can use my PVR150's to pick up the 3rd.

[vmadahar]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

have you told Sage which card takes priority? If you haven't done that, then of course it is just going to use which ever it wants. I had that problem for awhile, and then I read the manual and it told me how to set priorities for cards. I have it set up that for my local channels, it uses my PVR500 for OTA capture of (most) SDTV channels, and my PVR150's for all channels period (several of my broadcast channels come in like crap thru cable, but I am only 5 miles from my broadcast towers). My PVR500 is the highest priority so that Sage will assign local broadcast to that before it assigns my local broadcast channels to my PVR150's. This way unless I am already recording 2 OTA channels, I still can use my PVR150's to pick up the 3rd.

I am a noob when it comes to sagetv or pvr systems for that matter...I am not sure how you can set the priorities on the tuners. I tried to under the video setup to configure the basic channel tuner device first and then configured s-video cable box. But the cable box is still tuning the basic channels first. I could not find any options to make the tuner my priority channel changer for basic channels.

[PGPfan]

Originally Posted by vmadahar

I have a pvr500 and SA3250 cable box from cox. I have setup a usb-uirt to change channels for the cable box and use the tuner on my pvr500 to get basic channels off the composite cable(without cable box). I have setup the channels so i am only getting minimal basic channels off the tuner and setup the cable box to get all the channels including the basic channels through s-video.

I have Sagetv 5.0 and it gets confused and if I go to a basic channel, sagetv uses my cable box to tune to that channel and if i start recording that channel I cant tune to a non basic channel anymore. So my quesiton: Is there a way to make sagetv smart enough to know to use tuner on the pvr500 to record and dont use the cable box to record the basic channels? Or is there a way to specify what device to use for recording before sagetv starts recording a program?

I think the problem may lie in your connections. In your first post (that I've quoted) you have basic channels listed as coming from the "composite" cable. This isn't possible. The ONLY way that the onboard tuner can work is if it is connected via "coax" cable (like RG-6, or RG-59 cable). Correct me if I'm wrong, but you should have your cable coming from the wall into a splitter. From 1 output of the splitter you connect to the TUNER of the PVR-500 via coax input. The other output of the splitter should connect to the 'input' of the cable box. The output of the cable box should go to the 'input' of the PVR-500 via s-video.

Setting up your capture card you should select PVR-500 #1 as your basic channels. Select it as connecting via 'onboard tuner', and choose the basic cable guide source for whatever area you live.

Set up capture card 2 (since the PVR-500 is 2 tuners in 1 hardware card) listed something like PVR-500 #2 as connecting via s-video and use 'cable or satellite' as your tuner. This setup will use the USB-UIRT to send channel change commands to the SA-3250 cable box.

Once this is configured correctly Sage will transparently handle all recording chores without you even thinking about it.

Hope this helps!

-PGPfan

[vmadahar]

Thanks alot I figured it out, I guess the problem was that I am using those pvr500 external connections that have s-video/composite that just connects to the pvr giving you options to connect those sources. I had it connected to i guess the first tuner or something. The only thing I did was I moved it to the other pin connector and I re-intialized the tuner/and s-video setup and it worked. Thanks Alot for all the help.