How to set ivtv frequency table to us-cable-hrc?

[jpwegas]

How do I force SageTV to use the frequency table us-cable-hrc instead of us-cable?

I am running on Linux with a PVR-500 card and wasn't able to tune anything at all - just static.

After a LOT of banging my head against the wall, I discovered that my cable provider (Comcast in Northern Virginia) uses the us-cable-hrc frequency table instead of the us-cable table.

Using ivtv-tune, I can set the frequency table to us-cable-hrc and tune into any channel. However, SageTV seems to reset the value back to us-cable when it tunes channels, so I get static again.

The Setup Wizard only seems to have settings for "Cable" and "Antenna/Broadcast".

How do I force SageTV to always use us-cable-hrc when tuning?

Thanks!

[jpwegas]

Ok, after a lot of looking at the strings in various config and library files and lots of guessing, I've answered by own question:

In Sage.properties, changing tuning_mode to "HRC" (instead of "Cable") for the tuner in question lets me tune channels!

[jpwegas]

I think I am having similar frequency issues with my new pcHDTV 5500 card. Trying to tune ClearQAM channels from Comcast in northern Virginia.

When I use SageTV to do a scan for QAM signals, it sees nothing.

If I use "scan" from dvb-utils, I get better results:

Using "us-Cable-Standard-center-frequencies-QAM256" for the initial tuning date file, I see NO channels.

Using "us-Cable-HRC-center-frequencies-QAM256" for the initial tuning data file, I see some local HD channels.

How do I get SageTV to scan using the correct frequencies?

Or, how do I tell SageTV about the channels I've found with the dvb-utils "scan" tool?

SageTV includes a PredefinedDVBC.frq file, which by the name sounds like it might be something useful, but there are not sections for US frequencies that I can see.

Thanks!

[bcjenkins]

Have you seen this?

Edit
/opt/sagetv/server/Sage.properties

change the line
linux/enable_dvb_capture=false


Now when you launch the sage front end you should see in the add tuner menu adapter0 (ignore the extra videoX tuner it doesn't work).
Select adapterX, set up xmltv, and the let Sage scan in your new QAM channels (it takes a long time).
Finally you'll need to remap all of the new channels using the instructions in the Sage manual.

From here: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...ight=linux+qam

B

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Have you seen this?

From here: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...ight=linux+qam

B

Ok, now I'm really getting confused. That thread shows:

and edit
/opt/sagetv/server/Sage.properties

change the line
linux/enable_dvb_capture=false
to true and start sage

My Sage.properties file has:

linux/disable_dvb_capture=false

Which seems odd - did the flag change names recently?

If I change that line to "true" (which makes no sense but I thought I'd try) then my adapter0 device (the HD tuner) disappears from the capture device list, so that can't be right.

[bcjenkins]

What happens if you just change one of the channel mappings from the dvb-scan results?

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

What happens if you just change one of the channel mappings from the dvb-scan results?

I'm still sorting out exactly how to set up the frequency file with the data from the dvb scan.

I was able to use mencoder to (relatively quickly) step through all the signals that scan found looking for video streams. That narrowed it down to 9 clear channels. And I can view the channels with mplayer - although the video card in my server machine can't keep up with the bit rate on most of the signals. But I know those channels can be tuned.

[jpwegas]

Update:

Turns out there was a bug with scanning for digital channels on cable systems using the HRC frequency allocation. Apparently I am the lucky first person to catch this.

Qian at Sage was able to work with me to test a fix and the digital scan now finds the QAM channels on my system. Only 9 unencrypted (not counting the 50 music channels ) but that's about what I expected.

Many thanks to Qian for the great customer support to get this resolved!

John

[jpwegas]

Update:

I just installed 6.2.6 RC1 and unfortunately this problem has resurfaced.

At first I was excited because the digital channel scan found a lot of channels. But it was 125 "copies" of the same channel. The "scan" had detected the same channel (tuned to before the upgrade) over and over.

It seems that the scan is not actually tuning the channel properly during the scan process.

I've submitted a bug.

[jpwegas]

Update: Problem still exists in 6.2.7rc2. It seems it's not detecting ANY QAM channels, regardless of the frequency allocation.