Get one thing working the other quits This time the HDHR quit...

[bennyhill]

My HD Homerun will not setup now. I finally god my HD PVR up and running well but now the HDHR is broken.

I am trying to re-setup the sources and I all I can get is "there was a problem rendering the video portion of the content for playback"

I cannot for the life of me figure what is going on. VLC can view the content just fine. I have switched MPEG decoders and the like without any progress. Any Ideas?

[bennyhill]

ALSO-

If I just escape past the source selection. I have just tried telling it to use no guide data and let it scan for channels. Before it would scan and find all channels available not it scans and doesn't find anything.

[bennyhill]

One more detail-

I attempted source setup from my HD Extender (to rule out windows codec issures)

All I get there is "Waiting for video preview"

I don't know what to make of all this.

Any input would be much appreciated. I am new to Sage and feel like I am very close to getting everything working.

[carlgar]

Are you using the same EPG lineup for both the HDHR and the HD PVR? If so, I suspect that the HDHR needs a different physical channel number than the HD PVR. What version of Sage are you using?

[Conejo]

My question would have been what version of the HDHR drivers is he using? We don't do automatic channel scans with the HDHR Tuner using the BDA drivers in SageTV.

Benny,
try using the SiliconDust HDHR setup program and activate just TWO or FIVE channels in the remap, THEN start SageTV find the stations BY CALL LETTERS that you activated and use: REMAP >>> Physical Channel.

Test

[EDIT]
As Calgar was trying to say, Your 'HD PVR-Tuner Box' will require a different Lineup from the 'HDHR', since they use different remap setups. If you have a neighboring city with a similar lineup you can use them and use REMAP to assign the HDHR 'Physical' channel and the Cable Lineup 'Logical' channel to the appropriate Station IDs.

[bennyhill]

I do realize that it will need a different lineup, I figured that out when I got it working the first time.

Basically when it quit working, I would try to tune in a station and it would say "no signal". But I noticed that some of the stations would tune in OK still. So I thought maybe my Cable Co. had changed some of the locations of the channels or something. Then I noticed that the hdhr channel editor was still able to tune in all the channels with VLC even though I didn't rescan the stations.

So I deleted the two tuners from sage restarted the computer (this has since been done several times for various other issues) and attempted to re input the hdhr tuners in sage.

Now I am only able to get this error from sage.

"There was a Playback error in playback. Details: Sage.PlaybackException: ERROR (-4,0x0): There was a problem rendering the video portion of the content for playback."

I have attempted to search for this issue and Haven't found anything of help yet.

[carlgar]

do you still have the *.scn files for the HDHR in the sage directory?
Since the problem was only on some stations I would think that it is a channel mapping issue.
I would ignore the Sage.PlaybackException:, it is probably just telling you that the file is garbage.
When you find a problem station compare the physical channel number with the phy: number in the *.scn file. It they compare verify against what the HDHomeRun Setup program shows in the channel lineup. The remap column shows 3 numbers, only the first one is the physical channel.

[Conejo]

Benny,

A couple of questions:

Can you record a program off the HDHR tuner and manually play back the .mpg file?

Have you used the HDHR Setup application to reinstall the BDA drivers... <Support> tab, there are two reinstall buttons.

Also, I've seen playback issues if the system clock and the SageTV clock are different.

[bennyhill]

After reinstalling the BDA drivers I am getting further that before. But still not all the way.

Just to keep it simple I am trying to setup the tuner without guide data. I am just letting Sage scan for and find the channels (worked fine previously) Well it does all that just fine but once I get back to the program guide it just says "no Data" when I try to tune to any of the scanned for channels.

Frustrating.

[carlgar]

Are you following the instructions from http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/hdhomerun/instructions

It appears not because the instructions for cable say:
Choose "No - scan for channels later".

I quit using the Sage scan long ago because it just caused problems for me. The only scan needed is done by the HDHR software. You then know the stations you have and just need to map them.

[Conejo]

In addition to what Calgar said; once you've used the HDHR Setup Program to scan and have selected the channels you want active, you then want to follow the SiliconDust instructions and not use channel scan but find the existing channel in the Tuner Setup by Call Sign and use Sage remap to enter the xx of the xx-yy-zz.

Yes, the Channel Scan still works for the HDHR in SageTV BUT it's unsupported, doesn't always work and doesn't match up with the pre-existing guide data. SageTV channel scan relies on .scn files that may be out of date.

When SiliconDust decided to use the BDA drivers they created a small setup headache for the users trying to set the damn things up. But if you follow the new directions (separate Digital-City name, 'scan later', don't use 'channel scan' and hand enter the x of the x-y-z remap) you should have it working.

If you can view the channels in the HDHR GUI app (using VLC) then activating them in HDHR Setup, and using BDA drivers, they should be working in SageTV.

Let us know what happens.

[bennyhill]

Can you explain to me what the exactly the xx-yy-zz numbers mean?

I know that when Sage does the scan it inputs the exact same numbers as what the channel editor does.

Thanks for the help, I will start fresh w/o the scan and see what happens.

[bennyhill]

So I have completely re-setup one of my HDHR tuners. Still having issues though.

I have picked a new lineup from a different neighbor city. (I read somewhere that lineups would be copyable soon anyone know when?)

Followed Silicon Dust instructions to a T.

Once I am done adding the source the new channels don't even appear in the program guide. (guessing they might take awhile to appear?)

Back in sage's channel editor I can preview only a few of the channels. The ones I can see show a signal strength in the 90's while the ones that say "no input" have a signal in the 50's.

Keep in mind VLC can view ALL of these channels perfectly.

[Conejo]

ATSC (8VSB) over-the-air broadcasts are available by tuning a digital stream (channels 2-69).
Each digital stream can contain multiple sub-channels of data, or video/audio programs. Usually one Hi-Def and a couple of Standard Definition programs.

The format Digital Tuners use to select the stream and program is usually to enter an xx-yy (2-1 or 2.1) or an xx-yy-zz (2-1-1 or 2.1.1). The first number is the Channel, the second, or second and third, are the sub-channel or program.

(Please note that I use xx-yy-zz but everyone else uses x-y-z, I only use the double xx because someone came along and asked how to map channel 12 into a single x. A valid question, but )

The ONLY reason any of this is relevant is because Microsoft refuses to provide modern drivers that would allow applications to talk directly to and control Digital Tuners for QAM (the direct cousin of ATSC used by Cable Cos to deliver their signals) so the companies 'translate' the QAM channels into ATSC channels that applications can access)

[Conejo]

Originally Posted by bennyhill

Once I am done adding the source the new channels don't even appear in the program guide. (guessing they might take awhile to appear?)

You will only see the STATIONS in the SageTV guide that were available when you added that lineup. If you can receive extra channels on the HDHR then you will need to use ADD CHANNEL to create the entry, and use the remap information to set the new channel up just like you did with the other channels.

Back in sage's channel editor I can preview only a few of the channels. The ones I can see show a signal strength in the 90's while the ones that say "no input" have a signal in the 50's.

Keep in mind VLC can view ALL of these channels perfectly.

If you can see the channel in the HDHR GUI application then you should be able to assign it to one of the 2-68 remap channels x-y-z and then assign a remap in SageTV to the x only Physical Number.

I don't think SageTV properly represents the signal level of the HDHR so you should ignore this. If the channel shows up in VLC and is stable over a period of time then it should also work in SageTV. (Note, some of the slow-scan Music Video channels have issues)

Once you get a couple of channels remapped, try using DONE and FINISH then select PROGRAM GUIDE and find one of the channels you set up and see if it works. Try each channel in turn.

[Conejo]

Originally Posted by bennyhill

Once I am done adding the source the new channels don't even appear in the program guide. (guessing they might take awhile to appear?)

I guess I should have asked if you activated them in SageTV "Setup Video Sources" Channel Setup by making the green dot appear?

Back in sage's channel editor I can preview only a few of the channels. The ones I can see show a signal strength in the 90's while the ones that say "no input" have a signal in the 50's.

Keep in mind VLC can view ALL of these channels perfectly.

And I should have asked how many channels did you activate in the HDHR setup program by selecting them with an 'X' in their box?

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by bennyhill

So I have completely re-setup one of my HDHR tuners. Still having issues though.

I have picked a new lineup from a different neighbor city. (I read somewhere that lineups would be copyable soon anyone know when?)

This is in the current beta. You will have to wait for the new release or use the beta version.

Once I am done adding the source the new channels don't even appear in the program guide. (guessing they might take awhile to appear?)

When adding a new EPG lineup, it may take a while for all of the channels to show data. It has to load all 14 days of data, where a normal update only adds 1 day of data.

Back in sage's channel editor I can preview only a few of the channels. The ones I can see show a signal strength in the 90's while the ones that say "no input" have a signal in the 50's.

Keep in mind VLC can view ALL of these channels perfectly.

You should have a Signal Strength in the high 80s or 90s. The HDHomeRun Manager shows those in green because they are good to go. Lower values are show in Yellow and Red. The real question is, since all the channels are coming from cable why is there should a difference in the signal strength. I would say that you need a signal amplifier, but you could over amplifer the stong stations. I had a signal strengh in the 70s and 80s before I amplified my signal. I replaced a 4 way splitter with a 8 port amplifier. The lowest signal strengh I see is about 88%. The signal strength is not the only thing you should look at. If the Symbol Quality is 100% then the show is viewable. This may be why VLC works. It may ignore the strength and just display what it can. You may not be seeing the best picture you should and just not realize it. I believe Sage insures some min. signal strength.

Edit: I just realized you may have 2 different cables going into the HDHR which could account for the signal strength differences. Are the differences seen on the same tuner?

[bennyhill]

Strange things happening now.

First I really don't think it is a signal strength issue. A few years ago, I got fed up with poor signal strength and hired a friend who works as cable installer to COMPLETELY rewire everything in my house. Also we used a very high quality signal strength amplifier at the source. Also I am only using one of the tuners from the hdhr at a time, I have tried them both separately and get the same exact behavior.

On to the weird stuff. The new channels are only showing up on my Client machine. Not on my HD100 or server. Also the client machine is now missing a few channels from another tuner. While the server and the HD 100 still have those channels just fine. All the stations are selected and have a green dot next to them. And they are also selected in the channel editor provided by Silicon Dust.

When adding a new EPG lineup, it may take a while for all of the channels to show data. It has to load all 14 days of data, where a normal update only adds 1 day of data.

Does it take awhile for station to even appear in the EPG? Not just the data the entire station.

As far as tuning in those stations with the hdhr goes, from the client machine I get the same behavior as I do in the Sage setup, some station come in while the majority don't.

[carlgar]

Have you added any signal splitters since you rewired everything?
When you are viewing the signal strength, are you using the HDHR software or the sage software. I only use the HDHR software.

It has been a while since I added a new EPG lineup, but I believe all the stations show up just the data takes a while.

The server, HD100 and client should all be operating with the same data. So something is acting strange if you are not seeing the same thing. I would pick a selected station in either the client or HD100 and deselect it. After you finish the channel lineup. Go to the server and see if it shows the channel as being deselected. If not something strange is going on with your system.

[bennyhill]

I agree that something is strange.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to solve these strange issues. Should I just remove all my sources and start over? Will I lose my favorites if I do this? Should start completely over with a fresh install? If yes what is the best way to go about doing this.

back to the xx-yy-zz question. On the silicon dust instructions it says to remap the physical channel in Sage to match the xx portion of the scan. How does sage know what subchannel to use. This just doesn't make sense to me, Is sage looking at the files created by the hdhr setup software or something?