Channel changing issue

[nettech_gt]

Sometimes when I select a channel from the guide or I manually input into the remote and the USB UIRT sends the commands to slow the STB tunes to the closest channel it can find. For example I select 182 from guide the USB UIRT inputs 82. So now the channel I'm viewing is 82 but Sage thinks its 182. When this happens sometimes if I press stop and then select it again it will re tune on another STB. However most of the time (after pressing stop) when I re select the same channel it doesn't do anything. This happens with 6.2 and 6.35 beta.

[nettech_gt]

bump

[Opus4]

Do you have the "Always tune channel" option enabled in Detailed Setup -> Customize? That is intended to allow sending the channel change even when the previous one was for the same channel.

- Andy

[nettech_gt]

Thanx, I'll give that a try.

[GStiles]

I too am seeing some issues with channel changing.

My setup uses a serial control cable to change channel on the DirecTV box. For whatever reason, the channels in the 0 - 300s tune fine. Above that the box tunes to the on screen guide and the last two digits (e.g, 520 would open the on screen guide to channel 20).

I've been running this setup for a while now, but recently upgraded to Vista64 (which I know has its own set of peculiarities). I did ensure the always tune channel option is set. I checked my setup using the DirectV control utility and all seems fine there, so I'm thinking it is a Sage configuration. I just installed 6.3.5 (upgraded from 6.3.2) and this does not seem to help.

Any suggestions on things to look at?

[pez]

I just started seeing this behavior about a month ago. Before that I can't remember it being a problem. Last night I had some time to look into it.

I have two PVR250's. TurnerA is feed by cable over coax. TurnerB uses a cable box and is feed via S-Video. TunerA has a higher priority so that if a channel below 100 is turned it will be selected. TunerB can tune channels over 100 (something that A cannot).

If I'm watching via TunerA and select a show on TunerB, the cable box drops the first digit. However, if i'm watching TunerB and select another channel on TunerB it works fine. This is repeatable.

I tinkered with the "Delay Between Codes" and finally set it to 400ms. That helped, but not fully. I then tinkered with "Delay Between Channel Changes" and finally set it to 1200ms. My box is an SA3250.

One more thing. I set the number of digits to 3. It was 0.

I only tried this with live TV because I did not have anything set to record last night. It has worked so far.

[GStiles]

Originally Posted by pez

I tinkered with the "Delay Between Codes" and finally set it to 400ms. That helped, but not fully. I then tinkered with "Delay Between Channel Changes" and finally set it to 1200ms. My box is an SA3250.

One more thing. I set the number of digits to 3. It was 0.

I only tried this with live TV because I did not have anything set to record last night. It has worked so far.

I will have to try that as well. I set my digits to 3, but was not able to find those other options for Delay between Codes or Delay Between Channel Changes. Are those shown in the setup menus, or do I need to edit a file somewhere?

Thanks

George

[pez]

From the SageTV Main Menu select Setup then Setup Video Source then the turner you use with the UIRT (i record via S-Video so i select that tuner). On the right bottom of the "Source Details" menu is the Turner Control. Mine has USB-UIRT Transceiver in the name.

Select that and then Remote Control Option on the popup menu. There you will see the "Delay Between Codes" and "Delay Between Channel Changes".

If that doesn't work, you might try to find out what the remotes "Enter" code is and set that as the prefix code.

[GStiles]

I found the setup options you described. However, I am controlling my box via a serial control cable. So, if I try to modify those values, Sage does not accept the new values I have input. So the values remain at Delay between Codes = -1 Msec and Delay between Channel Changes = null Msec.

My tuner control is set to use: c:\program files (x86)\sagetv\common\directvserialcontrol COM1.

[pez]

Sorry, i missed the serial part of post 5. I just sent an email to a friend who uses serial to control a DirecTV box to see if he has any ideas.

[pez]

I resurrected my old DirecTV box last night and ran a 50ft cable to the antenna. After cutting a phone connector to the RJ9 size, I was able to control it with the serial link. I couldn't recreate your problem. But I did find a program called DTVControl that you might what to try.

Also, you might look at any setup menu in the box to disable the onscreen guide.

-pez

[GStiles]

Thanks pez for all your help on this one.

I have DTVControl already. I have verified that my serial control setup works by using that utility to change the channels successfully. It appears there is something unique to SageTV that is presenting a problem.

I'll have to do some more exploring of my set top box. Maybe I can swap it out with another model in my house and see if that makes a difference.

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UPDATE: I have swapped out my DirecTV box for another model and I still see the same problem. I can successfully tune all channels through the 400s, but all my movie channels are in the 500's. If I enter "520", my box will tune to the channel menu and point to channel 20. Using the DirecTV control utility I can successfully tune all channels, so I'm forced to believe this is a SageTV issue. Anyone have any further advice on what to try?

Thanks

George

[nettech_gt]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Do you have the "Always tune channel" option enabled in Detailed Setup -> Customize? That is intended to allow sending the channel change even when the previous one was for the same channel.

- Andy

I enabled "always tune" and if there is a back to back recording on the same channel if forces a "tune". But if I have a single recording (perticularly a 3 digit channel) the first one is not picked up. (191 gets entered as 91) Any ideas why this is happening? I don't want to miss any more recordings
THANX!

[pez]

are you using the main USB-UIRT transmitter or do you have an ir-blaster extension plugged into the back of the UIRT?
-pez

[nettech_gt]

The cable thats connected to the USBUIRT (no extension)

[pez]

ok, i thought it might be the additional ir-blaster cable. As it turned out this is the real problem i was having in my above post. I don't have another one, so i'm using the main transceiver now.

-pez

[nettech_gt]

Ok so it looks like what is happening is the USBIRT is trying to tune the channel before the STB is ready to accept commands. What settings do I need to adjust do adjust the delay before the USBIRT tries to tune the channel? I tried adjusting the "delay between codes" but this didn't fix it. Or is there a value in the ir file that needs to be adjusted?

Also under setup>setup video sources>USBUIRT name>remote options

The settings were set to:

Digits per channel: 3

Channel Prefix: none

Channel Confirm Code: none

Delay Between Codes: 600 msecs

Delay Between Channel Changes: 800
msecs

Now for some reason they look like this:

Digits per channel: -1

Channel Prefix: none

Channel Confirm Code: none

Delay Between Codes: -1 msecs

Delay Between Channel Changes: null msecs
msecs

And no matter what I change any of them to the settings don't stick.


Is there some where in the properties file I can adjust these settings?

[pez]

If you think that (stb ready) is the problem, then you could put in a channel prefix of say the "enter" command. That might get the stb's attention. But I would think that it won't make a difference and your stb may just have a problem.

-pez

[nettech_gt]

Can someone using a 322 and/or 311 Dish Network STB, that is NOT having issues with recordings with a 3 digit channel please post your ir files. I'm loosing about 40% of my recordings, I can't seem to get the repeat count etc. right. THANX!

[nettech_gt]

I have been emailing Jon at USBUIRT:

To: USB-UIRT Support

Subject: Re: Channel Channing issues

What is odd is the repeat count and delay between digits it set them same on both the 322s and on the 311. Yet one of the 322s it takes 13-14 secs before it starts tuning, the other 322 takes 5-6 secs and the 311 is instant. Do you have any idea why this is? THANX!

Kevin

Kevin,

I believe Sage has yet *another* setting for how long it waits fore *beginning* to tune. This is to avoid sending too many tune events whils skipping through channels.

-Jon

Would this be the other setting for how long it waits to start tuneing?

infrared_receive_repeat_delay=250
infrared_receive_repeat_delay_rc5=350
infrared_receive_repeat_period=120