Hauppauge 1600 and HDHomerun QAM

[house1999]

I have a HDHomerun that I have been using to tune QAM channels without any problems. I just got a Hauppauge and want to also tune QAM, but I have not been able to use the same channel lineup as the HDHomerun. Has anyone gotten this type of configuration to work? Thank you.

[kevine]

Originally Posted by house1999

I have a HDHomerun that I have been using to tune QAM channels without any problems. I just got a Hauppauge and want to also tune QAM, but I have not been able to use the same channel lineup as the HDHomerun. Has anyone gotten this type of configuration to work? Thank you.

No. I am pretty sure nobody has because they have a different way of tuning. You will need to use 2 different lineups to tune the same channels.

[house1999]

Thanks. I figured out how to get the channel lineup to work the way I wanted. However, another problem I am having is that the Hauppauge 1600 is only finding 4 QAM channels during scanning. Whereas, the HDHomerun is picking up 11 QAM channels. Is there a way to get the rest of the channels that the HDHomerun is getting? Thanks.

[heffe2001]

Are any of the channels that the HDHR are finding QAM64 encoded? If they are Sage doesn't scan for those by default, you have to create a file called 64QAM.ENABLE in your SageTV directory to enable that. You can also speed up your scanning by using the FRQ Cache, create a file called QAM_FRQ_CACHE.ENABLE to do that (although you may need to edit the QAM frq file to match the frequencies that you get channels on your HDHR, it's kind of a pain but it will most definitely speed up channel scanning). I'm having a similar problem with my m780 not finding alot of the channels I get on my HDHR, and they have enabled those features to see if it helps (Qian is working with my system to see what can be improved).

Originally Posted by house1999

Thanks. I figured out how to get the channel lineup to work the way I wanted. However, another problem I am having is that the Hauppauge 1600 is only finding 4 QAM channels during scanning. Whereas, the HDHomerun is picking up 11 QAM channels. Is there a way to get the rest of the channels that the HDHomerun is getting? Thanks.

[kevine]

I have also found that the HDHR handles marginal signal issues better than the 1600. It took me a while of cable and amplifier tweaking before I could get it to work acceptably.

[house1999]

Finally, I am able to tune all the QAM channels that HDHomerun can find on the Hauppauge 1600. Apparently, the incoming signal was "too strong" for the 1600. What I ended up doing was putting 2 4-way splitters in series between the source and the card and terminating the unused jacks (sort of acting as an attenuator). Now it works great in addition to the HDHR. Thanks for all your help.

[bcjenkins]

how did you determine it was too strong?

B

[zip]

What did you need to do to set up your lineup to work the way you wanted to? Did you have to add a separate lineup for the 1600? I'm currently using an HDHR for QAM, and the 1600 for analog only, but would like to add the QAM tuner if it can use my existing lineup, and supports it.

Thanks,
zip

[house1999]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

how did you determine it was too strong?

B

After all the various connections I've tried and was ready to give up, it came down to this:

When I was messing with the 4-way splitter/amp that was connected to the wall jack, I noticed that when I dialed the gain down, a channel that showed "no signal" started coming in. I then took the wall jack, split it with a unamped 4-way splitter, one output to the 1600, another to the 4-way amp, and terminated the remaining outputs. I did another scan and was able to pick up the missing QAM channels (except for 1 that I manually added later).

However, my cable modem would not connect anymore. The modem is connected to the 4-way amp, so it must have been something about having that splitter before the amp. I then connected the amp back to the wall jack, dialed the gain to the lowest setting, put the 4-way splitter between the amp and the 1600 to act as an attenuator. I went back and tried to view all the channels, but some were showing "no signal" again. So I stuck another 4-way splitter in the line and terminated all the unused outputs. Now all the channels had signal again.

Not being an electrical engineer, I can't say for sure if it was the insertion loss of the splitters that solved the problem because the signal was "too strong" or if it was something else. Regardless, it works now and I hope it stays working. If someone had the same experience and can explain, I'd be more than happy to hear about it. I hope this can help other people that have 1600 QAM tuning problems.

Now my question is: If it is an attenuation issue, should I get some in-line attenuator to achieve around -14dB, or just stick with the 2 4-way splitters in series? Thanks.

[house1999]

Originally Posted by zip

What did you need to do to set up your lineup to work the way you wanted to? Did you have to add a separate lineup for the 1600? I'm currently using an HDHR for QAM, and the 1600 for analog only, but would like to add the QAM tuner if it can use my existing lineup, and supports it.

Thanks,
zip

Yes, I used a different lineup. If you already have a lineup associated with your HDHomerun, I don't think it matters which new lineup you pick. The nearby zip codes did not have a similar lineup to what I used for HDHR, so I just picked an OTA lineup that had a few channels so I don't have a big list of unused channels to scroll through.

Disable all channels and scan for all available channels. Hopefully, it'll find channels like with something like DTV16.1 [16-0-1].

View it and see what channel it is. Go to remap and map different station to this physical channel and select the same station as the one used by the HDHR lineup (for example TNTHD (465)). Remember the number in parenthesis.

Go to remap again and map to different logical channel number. Enter the number in parenthesis from the previous step.

Repeat for all the channels. This seems to have worked.

[Jetracers]

Originally Posted by house1999

Finally, I am able to tune all the QAM channels that HDHomerun can find on the Hauppauge 1600. Apparently, the incoming signal was "too strong" for the 1600. What I ended up doing was putting 2 4-way splitters in series between the source and the card and terminating the unused jacks (sort of acting as an attenuator). Now it works great in addition to the HDHR. Thanks for all your help.

I can confirm this i disconnected my digital tuner for the hvr-1600 from my signal amplifier and it pics up 90% of the channels my HDHR pics up so my signal was to strong for any channels above 91

[Conejo]

Originally Posted by house1999

However, my cable modem would not connect anymore. The modem is connected to the 4-way amp, so it must have been something about having that splitter before the amp.

Sounds like you may not need the amplifier inline at all.

Your Cable Modem should have a diagnostics page that you can use to check Signal Levels. Just connect your Cable Modem directly to the wall jack and then pull up the diagnostics page. It should give you Downstream Signal Level, Signal-to-Noise-Ratio and UPSTREAM Signal Level (push level) all measured in db.

From there you can decide what amplifiers or attenuators (if any) you need once you split the cable for all your devices.

The Cable Modem is a special device because it needs to be able to send signals UPSTREAM back to the headend. So it's normally always the first device on a two-way splitter that allows return signals. It's very important that the Cable Modem doesn't need to 'shout' in order to be heard at the headend, or that the Modem slows itself down because of signal loss or noise, so the lower the Upstream db the better. The second leg of the two-way splitter is then used to deliver the CableTV portion of the signal to the rest of your equipment. By counting the db loss from your splitters you should be able to determine if your equipment is receiving the +10db to -15db signal level your devices expects.

Check out these DSLREPORTS offsite links:
How can I view my Modem's Signal Levels, Firmware Version & Log Entries?
What should my Signal Level be?

And if you really want to be a tech head:
All Cable and Wiring Issues