UK Freeview DVB-T Setup + XMLTV Program Guide

[mrcandu]

Ok..... So If you have just got your brand new DVB-T card, a copy of SageTV v5 and you are struggling finding simple up to date documentation on how to get the 2 talking to each other, this guide will tell you how I setup tuning my Hauppauge NOVA-T PCI card + download program guide information for uk freeview channels.

First off...... I presume you have installed SageTV v5, completed the configuration wizard, but hit a stumbling block when it comes to setting up video sources and tuning digital channels.
Here is what I did:
Goto the "setup menu", then to "video sources"
Remove any sources you have have previously set up then click "Add New Source"
Click on your DVB-T card ... in my case "Hauppauge WinTV 88x Video Capture"
Click "Digital TV Tuner"
At this point sage starts scanning for channels. Sometimes it finds 1 channel, sometimes it finds none. Don't wait for it to do any scanning, just click "Device to use: Digital TV Tuner"
Click "Use Tuner on Capture card to tune Antenna/Broadcast"
Click "Do Not use Program Guide Data with this Source"
You can then click "Done with Channel Setup"

At this point sage has created an .frq file in the SageTv folder which contains frequency information for the channels that you have tuned, or not in this case.
The file name will be "the name of your tuner".frq, be located here (if you are using the c drive):
C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV
and look something like this if opened in notepad:

#DVBT channel setup table ver 2.0, country:
loaded predefined freq table: 0 channel freq
total_channel:200
#ch:index onid tsid program_id freq band 0 ctrl_bits(1:enable; 0:disable)
ch:1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 #
ch:2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 #
ch:3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 #
ch:4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 #
ch:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 #
ch:6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 #
etc
etc
etc

Basically, what you now need to do is modify the frequency information for each channel in this file to what it should be for your tuner.
The frequency will be dependant on where about in the country you are. I am in hampton, south London. My frequency table looks like this:

#DVBT channel setup table ver 2.0, country:loaded predefined freq table: 0 channel freqtotal_channel:29
#ch:index onid tsid program_id freq band 0 ctrl_bits(1:enable; 0:disable)
ch:1 0 0 4164 506000 8 0 1 #
ch:2 0 0 4228 506000 8 0 1 #
ch:3 0 0 8261 482000 8 0 1 #
ch:4 0 0 8384 482000 8 0 1 #
ch:5 0 0 12866 562000 8 0 1 #
ch:6 0 0 8325 482000 8 0 1 #
ch:7 0 0 4351 506000 8 0 1 #
ch:9 0 0 16832 530000 8 0 1 #
ch:10 0 0 8294 482000 8 0 1 #
ch:11 0 0 22208 578000 8 0 1 #
ch:12 0 0 22272 578000 8 0 1 # #
ch:13 0 0 8442 482000 8 0 1 #
ch:14 0 0 8448 482000 8 0 1 #
ch:16 0 0 13120 562000 8 0 1 #
ch:18 0 0 25664 538000 8 0 1 #
ch:20 0 0 25856 538000 8 0 1 #
ch:21 0 0 25728 538000 8 0 1 #
ch:22 0 0 25920 538000 8 0 1 #
ch:23 0 0 14272 562000 8 0 1 #
ch:24 0 0 15616 562000 8 0 1 #
ch:30 0 0 8353 482000 8 0 1 #
ch:31 0 0 27136 538000 8 0 1 #
ch:32 0 0 22336 578000 8 0 1 #
ch:35 0 0 27072 538000 8 0 1 #
ch:36 0 0 8452 482000 8 0 1 #
ch:80 0 0 4415 506000 8 0 1 #
ch:82 0 0 22080 578000 8 0 1 #
ch:83 0 0 22144 578000 8 0 1 #
ch:105 0 0 19520 530000 8 0 1 #

This table has all freeview channels available in my area................ so,........ you are now thinking................. how do I put this together?

Lets break 1 row of channel info down into its segments:
This is BBC1
ch:1 0 0 4164 506000 8 0 1 #

"ch:1" - This is the channel number in sage that your channel is tuned to.
0 - Don't know what this is, I am sure its probably useful, but we don't need it.
0 - Don't know what this is, I am sure its probably useful, but we don't need it.
4164 - This is the program id (unique id)
506000 - This is its frequency (different channels have the same freq)
8 - Band (8 is for the uk)
0 - Don't know what this is, I am sure its probably useful, but we don't need it.
1 - Don't know what this is, I am sure its probably useful, but we don't need it.

Ok..... so to get the info I needed to put my frequency file together, I used WINTV2000, the software that was bundled with my NOVA-T DVB-T card.
When you scan for channels using this software, it captures all the information regarding all found channels in an access db. "hcwChanDB_5.db"

I am not going to go into detail on how I put the info I needed together, but just to say the following tables in the access file contained the info I needed:
table hcwChannels : "Channel Name"
table hcwServiceDigital : service_id is the "program id"
table hcwServicesl : freq_actual is the "frequency" (you need to add 3 zeros on the end of these firgures

I copied the info into excel rearranged the channel numbers to how they should be, according to the freeview websites channel lineup:
http://www.freeview.co.uk/channels/channellineup.pdf
copy and pasted into notepad, and bish bash bosh, there is my new frequency table.

If you don't have WINTV2000, access, excel, or a clue what u are doing, there is information in other posts in this forum on how to get frequency information for channels in your area.

If all is going well at this point, you should save your file, restart sagetv, and hopefully find when you go to watch live tv, you can skip through all channels you have setup in your frequency file.

I need some lunch now................., xmltv program guide info to follow shortly.