Is there a way to force a channel to ONLY record to a specific encoder?

[mkanet]

There is one channel in my Guide which I need to use ONLY a specific encoder. Is there a way to do this?

[GKusnick]

Sure. Use a different channel lineup for that encoder, and make sure that channel is enabled only in that lineup and no others.

[mkanet]

No.

That encoder is responsible for recording several hundred channels... its a specific channel on the guide on a cable TV lineup that needs to this encoder only no matter what.

PS: Hmmm maybe you're right.. i need to think about this. I guess this encoder can be use on more than one line up?

[pez]

So you must have more than one encoder/tuner. You need to find a line up that is close to your regular one. I have a PVR250 for tuning analog cable and one for recording digital cable from a cable box via S-video. I use the Cox Extended lineup for the analog cable and the Cox Extended Digital for the other. The digital has more channels.

Now, I added an HDHR for clear QAM. I had to select another line up from a nearby city also served by Cox so that I could select only the channels that are delivered on Clear QAM.

You may have a problem if you live in a remote area and don't have many lineups to select from. Several Sage user complain about not being able to select channel for a lineup in a way that is unique to a tuner. I am one of them.

BTW, are you using firewire to get digital out of a cable box?

[GKusnick]

If a capture device has more than one input (e.g. onboard tuner plus S-Video), you can assign different lineups to the different inputs. But you can't assign more than one lineup to a given input. If the device in question has just one input (e.g. Firewire or R5000), you can assign just one lineup to that device.

You can assign the same lineup to more than one device, but that's not going to help you here. You need to get that device a lineup of its own so you can enable and disable channels on that lineup independently of other lineups you're using.

I'm not saying it will be easy or fun to get that encoder a lineup of its own. Possibly there will be some laborious channel remapping involved. But lineups are the mechanism by which you tell Sage which encoders to use for which channels. There isn't another way to do it.

Complaints about channel lineups and remapping are common enough that I'm somewhat surprised nobody has come up with a third-party tool to automate the tedious parts. I haven't looked into it very deeply, but it seems like something along those lines ought to be possible.

[mkanet]

Hi GKunnick, thanks for noticing that I own R5000's. I actually own 2 R5000's

To make a very long story short, I want to be able to select the 1 VODDM On Demand channel on my guide, and it NOT chose the first available R5000 unit. Instead, ONLY choose R5000 #2.

If I didn't use my second R5000 unit for anything except On Demand, this would be a no brainer, but it would be a big waste. I was crazy enough to get 2 R5000's, but getting a 3rd one just for Ondemand would be just too much.

If you can think of a clever way to have just that channel go to my second R5000, that would be AWESOME.

I am also able to achieve what I want if:
a) If there's a way to tell R5000#2 to start recording a certain channel from the command-line
or
b) Send a single http URL command via my SageTV Webserver interface.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Originally Posted by GKusnick

If a capture device has more than one input (e.g. onboard tuner plus S-Video), you can assign different lineups to the different inputs. But you can't assign more than one lineup to a given input. If the device in question has just one input (e.g. Firewire or R5000), you can assign just one lineup to that device.

You can assign the same lineup to more than one device, but that's not going to help you here. You need to get that device a lineup of its own so you can enable and disable channels on that lineup independently of other lineups you're using.

I'm not saying it will be easy or fun to get that encoder a lineup of its own. Possibly there will be some laborious channel remapping involved. But lineups are the mechanism by which you tell Sage which encoders to use for which channels. There isn't another way to do it.

Complaints about channel lineups and remapping are common enough that I'm somewhat surprised nobody has come up with a third-party tool to automate the tedious parts. I haven't looked into it very deeply, but it seems like something along those lines ought to be possible.

[pez]

Ok, so how are you doing your channel mapping with your HDHRs? I don't understand why it isn't the same process. Are they on different cable sources?
-pez

[mkanet]

Pez, actually i figured out how to do it... It should have occured to me after you your post...

I'm not sure if its actually worth my time, but I "can" add yet another lineup with a zip code close to me and make the secondary tuner use that channel, but disable it for the first one. I already did this trick for my R5000/HDHomeRun linups. I just have to spilt the R5000 linups.. one for each R5000.

Thanks so much for you help guys!

Originally Posted by pez

Ok, so how are you doing your channel mapping with your HDHRs? I don't understand why it isn't the same process. Are they on different cable sources?
-pez

[pez]

Cool, you just needed to be remined about something you already knew.

I think sage should add a feature to allow one lineup to be setup unique to individual tuners. The HDHR and Firewire users see this all the time.

-pez