SageTV and HVR-1600

[bcaligi]

Hi Everyone,

I'm in the midst of checking out SageTV to see if it is a viable option for my needs. I currently have a TV setup with no Cable box, my provider is NY Cablevision & I am on Long Island. I have gotten Sage TV to correctly configured for the Standard Definition Channels, but I cannot get it to configure for the Local (OTA) HD Channels. The cable line is split and one line connects to the Analog tuner in the HVR-1600 and the second connects to the Digital Tuner. The Local HD channels work fine in WinTV, but no matter what options I configure for SageTV, it cannot find them...

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[Djc208]

There are lots of previous threads on setting up the 1600 for Sage, might want to read through a couple and make sure you're hitting all the steps. The first issue is what tuner you are selecting for the digital channels. You'll see two tuners under Sage one is SD the other the Digital tuner, however there is a digital input listing under the analog device. You need to set up the second tuner option for digital (not the input).

The search can take a long time to complete under Sage, so let it run. The channel numbers won't match what the cable company names them so don't expect Sage to know what they are. You'll have to remap them to the cable companies channel numbers.

Second these are not OTA channels, they are ClearQAM. OTA channels are from an antenna, make sure you are using the Digital cable linup for your channel listings, you'll still have to re-map but the channel linup will be correct.

[troycheek]

Check out this thread: SETUP WinTV HVR-1600 with QAM

However, I had no luck getting consistent tuning with the 1600 and ended up buying a HDHomeRun.

[bcaligi]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the assistance so far, but I still don't have any luck with the QAM channels....I did find some postings about frequencies and the way microsoft interperts them....could this be the issue? Has anyone had success with SageTV and ClearQAM in the Long Island area?

[kevinlwh]

Originally Posted by troycheek

Check out this thread: SETUP WinTV HVR-1600 with QAM

However, I had no luck getting consistent tuning with the 1600 and ended up buying a HDHomeRun.

I had the same experience with the HVR-1600. I went with the HVR-1800 and had a much more pleasant experience. Also, verify the model number you have actually supports ClearQAM. I believe the earlier models supported OTA, but not ClearQAM.

[kevine]

Have you tried the last post in that thread? There is a link for beta drivers that many people have recently had success with.


http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&postcount=127

[scavenge]

Originally Posted by bcaligi

Hi Everyone,

I'm in the midst of checking out SageTV to see if it is a viable option for my needs. I currently have a TV setup with no Cable box, my provider is NY Cablevision & I am on Long Island. I have gotten Sage TV to correctly configured for the Standard Definition Channels, but I cannot get it to configure for the Local (OTA) HD Channels. The cable line is split and one line connects to the Analog tuner in the HVR-1600 and the second connects to the Digital Tuner. The Local HD channels work fine in WinTV, but no matter what options I configure for SageTV, it cannot find them...

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

My apologies for second guessing you (just trying to help)...

Are you sure WinTV is tuning HD channels and not their SD equivalents?

You mention you have no cable box, if you've never had a cable box your cable line itself could possibly be analog only (i.e. no digital). Do you know if there's ever been a digital cable box set up on your cable line?

BTW - just to clarify some terminology...
OTA HD is "over the air" HD, basically the networks broadcasting atsc signals, you must have an antenna to tune such a signal -- you won't get it from a cable line.

If you have a digital cable signal on your cable line then the digital cable channels are sent in QAM. If some of those channels are unencrypted ("clear QAM") then the 1600 with the latest drivers should be able to tune them (SD & HD).

Of course even once you've got your clear QAM HD channels tuned you then have to get your machine to play them back smoothly which I've personally found nigh on impossible with my lowly specc'd machine.

[bcaligi]

scavenge,

I am definately getting unencrypted Clear QAM Channels, I have a couple of different setups in my home, I have one tv with an HD box from cablevision, i have another tv with an HD tuner in my basement that recieves the locals in HD straight through the cable line with no box and i have a similar "no box" setup in my home office which is where i'm trying to get sage to work.

I did also recently download the beta driver for the HVR-1600, with no luck on that either.

I also contacted Sage Tech support and the tech asked for some log files, maybe they have another suggestion as well.

[Djc208]

Originally Posted by bcaligi

scavenge,

I am definately getting unencrypted Clear QAM Channels, I have a couple of different setups in my home, I have one tv with an HD box from cablevision, i have another tv with an HD tuner in my basement that recieves the locals in HD straight through the cable line with no box and i have a similar "no box" setup in my home office which is where i'm trying to get sage to work.

And those clearQAM channels show up in the Hauppage software but not in Sage? If so then it must be an issue between Sage and the card. Does the Hauppage software tell you signal strength? It could be that Sage doesn't see the signal as strong enough to tune while the Hauppage software does.

The only other thing I can think of is my previous comment about making sure you are using the correct tuner when you do the digital channel scan. You want the TS capture tuner coupled with the digital channel linup from your provider.

I think some have used the software or a listing of the channel numbers in order to direct tune and map the channels, I've never tried it, but it could determine if Sage is seeing the channels or not.