HDHomerun and no channels found/no signal problems

[queequeg99]

I recently reinstalled Windows XP Pro and am having fits getting Sage working again. While Sage sees the tuners, it cannot find any channels.

Following the reinstall, I went to the Silicon Dust site and downloaded the newest HDHomerun software (version 20080430)) and installed it. I went through the configuration routine following installation and it appeared that the tuners were working perfectly. The channels had strong signals and I could view them in VLC without any problems (consistent with my experience before the Windows reinstall). I use over the air only (NO cable). I closed out of the HD Homerun configuration and VLC (leaving the HDHomerun manager running in my system tray).

After verifying that the tuner was working, I installed Sage TV (version 6.3.10). When I got to the point where I had to set up the tuners (following the Silicon Dust instructions), SageTV found the tuners without any problem. However, when I got to the channel scan, Sage didn’t find any channels. After it ran through all 69 channels (not finding any), I saw a list of channels. However, none of them had the (number-number-number) information following the channel, as the SD instructions said they should. And there is no “view” button next to the channels (just a remap button). Presumably the list of channels I was seeing was generated from the online program guide (based on the TV market I said I was in).

The SD instructions were very easy to follow precisely so I am at a loss. The version of Sage is the exact same version I was using before the Windows reinstall. The HD Homerun software, however, is substantially different. I had been previously using whatever was available when I bought the tuner back in the summer of 2007. I gather from reading the forums that there have been some fundamental changes in how the drivers work. It sounds like this is a Silicon Dust problem and I have made a similar post on their forums.

Any clues? I have uninstalled everything (deleting any remaining Silicon Dust and SageTV folders) and reinstalled but that hasn't worked. This is very frustrating as it has rendered an $80 piece of software and a $200 HD extender completely useless. If I could, I would go back to using the older HD Homerun software (unfortunately, I no longer have a copy).

[DOS64K]

I'm at work right now and don't have access to my cheatsheet for the HDHRs and Sage, but...

I do recall not letting Sage scan for channels during the setup process. Just skip that step and press on. Gplasky has posted on the forums here about that same issue. You might try to search for related threads.

**EDIT**
I found this thread that might be of some help:
http://http://forums.sagetv.com/foru...DHR+scan+setup

[queequeg99]

Thanks for the link. I have read a lot of posts that pertain to similar issues but most of them (like the one you linked to) address cable reception, not over the air. Your thought that scanning isn't needed would be correct for cable (per the Silicon Dust instructions). The instructions for OTA reception are quite different and do call for going through the channel scan.

It almost seems like another program is using the tuners (which means that sage couldn't access them). I ran into that problem when I switched from BTV to Sage and forgot to tell BTV not to load automatically upon Windows startup. Except in this case Sage is the only program running that could affect the tuners, except possibly the HD Homerun Manager (which needs to be running, doesn't it?).

I am going to try going through this exercise on my wife's machine this evening to try to rule out the possibility that the problem is related to some other aspect of my machine (e.g. installation of SP3 or something else I can't think of).

Thanks again for any help.

[queequeg99]

Just a follow up.

I tried installing everything on my wife's machine and was extra careful to go through Silicon Dust's instruction to the letter. Again, no luck. Sage sees both tuners but cannot find any over the air channels. Using the HDHomerun setup program, I tried reinstalling the Windows BDA drivers (and HDHomerun components) to no avail. I tried deleting the wiz.bin and sageproperties files (appears to simply wipe the setup slate clean) but that didn't work.

Is there anyone out there kind enough to provide me with the older (non-BDA enabled) HDHomerun drivers? I can kick myself for not saving the older installation files. I would very much like to continue using the HDHomerun and avoid the cost of buying two tuner cards that don't have these problems.

[queequeg99]

The problem has been fixed! It was a Windows Firewall issue. Credit goes to Nick (jafa) at the SD forums for helping me figure it out.

Interestingly, I had seen that as a potential problem in another post before I posted my problem. I specifically remembered checking the box during the Sage installation asking Sage to configure Windows Firewall but after reading the other posts I checked the firewall configuration again. There were a ton of Sage exceptions so I figured that wasn't the problem. I should have checked closer. Sage had apparently created firewall exceptions for:

SageTV Bootp
SageTV Client
SageTV ClientDiscovery
SageTV EncodingDiscovery
SageTV EncodingServer
SageTV MediaServer
SageTV MiniClient
SageTV MiniDiscovery
SageTV MVP
SageTV Service
and
SageTV Tftp

However, it had not created an exception for . . . . . SageTV!!!!! This was also the case on my wife's machine.

I created a custom exception and pointed it to SageTV.exe and all works now. Thank God, as I really like the networked aspect of the HDHomerun and the service I have gotten out of it and cannot really live without my HD Extender.

[davephan]

Now that you recovered your system by re-installing the operating system, you should seriously consider getting disk imaging software. You can recover easily and quickly if you recover to an image that was taken when the system was running without problems. Disk imaging has helped me several times.

Dave

[queequeg99]

You don't know how many times I have told myself that same thing and never followed up on the idea. Do you have a decently priced suggestion for such software?

[davephan]

I use Symantec Norton Ghost 9.0. This is a back level version of Ghost, the current version is Ghost 14.0. There are some changes with the new version of Ghost, which makes it look very similar to Symantec's business product called Backup Exec System Recovery, which I use at work. I started using Ghost 3.0 at work many years ago. Ghost did not always recover back then, but the product improved drastically over the past several years.

I bought Ghost 6.0 very cheap at a swapfest several years ago. CompUSA had a very good offer to upgrade to version 9.0 for about $10. Version 9.0 is much more reliable than version 6.0 and it allows saving images to an NTFS volume instead of FAT32, which was a big advantage for me. CompUSA periodically had great deals with Ghost over the years. It's too bad that CompUSA is gone now.

You might be able to buy an older copy of Ghost for cheap, look for Ghost 9.0 or higher.

Many people use Acronis, and report good success.

I have been using disk imaging software for about eight years at work and at home. Even if you have to pay about $70 for it, the price is cheap compared to the hassle of building up everything again.

Just before I upgrade SageTV or install trialware software, I take an image. I can easily recover the computer to the older SageTV version or completely remove the trialware software by recovering to an image.

I strongly recommend to image to a hard drive, not a DVD. Imaging to a hard drive is faster and the recovery is more reliable. If you image directly to a DVD, sometimes the DVD recoveries are not successful.

I recommend that you image to a second hard drive, with 100 meg file segments, not 4.5 gig segments. Then you can copy the segments to DVDs for off site storage and redunancy. If you have several DVD copies, it will be unlikely that the same spot on two sets of DVDs is bad. If you use the 4.5 gig segment size, then there is a higher risk that both DVD copies could be bad, if any spot on both DVD copies is bad.

If you need to recover a computer with an image, it takes about 20 - 30 minutes. You just need to boot up to the CD, select the image file, and restore your boot drive. After the process starts, you can walk away and let it restore the computer. When the process completes, your computer reboots into Windows. Whatever the problem was, it is fixed, as long as you recover to an image was taken when your system was working.

Imaging can also be used to build computer systems. If you take periodic images while building a system, then if you make an error while installing software, you never have to start all over from scratch.

There might be some free disk imaging software on the web. Be careful about using it. You need to be able to trust that your images will be able to recover your computer. Many years ago, the Ghost disk imaging software wasn't really reliable - the restorations would sometimes fail - then I had to rebuild from scratch - a big time consuming hassle. Today's Ghost imaging software is very reliable (since version 7.0), it saves a lot of time and hassle - it is well worth the price.


Dave

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by queequeg99

The problem has been fixed! It was a Windows Firewall issue. Credit goes to Nick (jafa) at the SD forums for helping me figure it out.

Interestingly, I had seen that as a potential problem in another post before I posted my problem. I specifically remembered checking the box during the Sage installation asking Sage to configure Windows Firewall but after reading the other posts I checked the firewall configuration again. There were a ton of Sage exceptions so I figured that wasn't the problem. I should have checked closer. Sage had apparently created firewall exceptions for:

SageTV Bootp
SageTV Client
SageTV ClientDiscovery
SageTV EncodingDiscovery
SageTV EncodingServer
SageTV MediaServer
SageTV MiniClient
SageTV MiniDiscovery
SageTV MVP
SageTV Service
and
SageTV Tftp

However, it had not created an exception for . . . . . SageTV!!!!! This was also the case on my wife's machine.

I created a custom exception and pointed it to SageTV.exe and all works now. Thank God, as I really like the networked aspect of the HDHomerun and the service I have gotten out of it and cannot really live without my HD Extender.

I just had the same problem, but in my case, it was the SageTV Service that was missing. Weird thing was, all the SD channels worked fine, just the HD were blocked?!?!?!