HDHR/digital tuning in v6.5 & later

[flavius]

I have used the instructions at the beginning of this thread quite recently, and I understand your apprehension. I don't like the process either, but it is what it is, and the instructions work.

[Peter_h]

Originally Posted by inghamb

Setup: OTA Antenna, HDHomerun, Sage Home Theater, Linksys Switch etc.

Ok, i'm a new kid on the block and need a quick reply. I've ordered the Sage HD Home theater and the HDHomerun dual tuner. I can't seem to get a clear step by step picture in my head of the setup. I believe i plug the HD Homerun into my network and install the software but DO NOT scan for channels. How far do i go with the HDHomerun setup before doing the Sage Installation? Is there by chance a clear step by step? Thanks tons for any pointer(s).

I think the instructions in the thread are pretty good. I actually just reinstalled my HDHR last night after getting it back from repair and install was a breeze with these instructions. What part are you having trouble with?

[jasonl]

You can scan in HDHomeRun Setup; it won't hurt anything and it will enable you to use the QuickTV viewer if you just want to watch something on your PC without loading SageTV. You will also need to go through the normal channel scan in SageTV.

Jason
Silicondust Support

[Tiki]

After going through the setup process on a new PC this week, I found that the setup instructions for the HDHR need to be updated...

If you are installing on a PC running Windows Vista or Windows 7 and you have installed Sage to a location other than the default "Program Files" or "Program Files (x86)" directories, you must disable UAC (User Account Control) and re-boot your PC before using the HDHR software to scan for channels.

Here's why:
As of this writing, the current HDHR software (20091024) automatically creates *.scn files when you scan for channels and it attempts to write them to the SageTV install directory (I assume it checks the Windows registry to determine where Sage was installed). If it detects that UAC is enabled, it will try to write the files to the SageTV folder inside the Virtual Store instead of the actual Sage install folder. However, if Sage was installed outside the normal Program Files folder, the Sage Virtual Store folder won't exist and the .scn files won't get written anywhere. Sage needs those .scn files, so this step is important.

[VikingCrown]

Tiki,

thanks for this heads up as I will be doing my new win 7 64 bit build this weekend. I will make sure to disable UAC after installing Sage and reboot before scanning with the HDHR!

~Brian

[jasonl]

If you're not going to use UAC, turn it off first thing after you install. There is no programmatic way to determine if an application's configuration data is in the VirtualStore or not, so the HDHomeRun software makes an educated guess based on the existence of the directory in the VirtualStore. Andy, any chance you could convince the SageTV devs to store the configuration data where it belongs (c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data on XP, c:\ProgramData on Vista/7) rather than in the install directory?

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by jasonl

If you're not going to use UAC, turn it off first thing after you install. There is no programmatic way to determine if an application's configuration data is in the VirtualStore or not, so the HDHomeRun software makes an educated guess based on the existence of the directory in the VirtualStore. Andy, any chance you could convince the SageTV devs to store the configuration data where it belongs (c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data on XP, c:\ProgramData on Vista/7) rather than in the install directory?

If it just went to the wrong directory that would be confusing, but not too bad, since we could always manually move the .scn files if we knew where to look. The problem is that the scn files appear to not get created anywhere if you have UAC enabled and you install Sage somewhere other than the Program Files folder.

I agree, it sure would be nice if Sage implemented full and proper support for Vista / Win7 (maybe the next release - fingers crossed). The fact that it isn't fully supported forces us users to come up with creative work-arounds (such as installing outside of the Program Files folder, disabling, UAC, setting Sage to run with Administrative privileges, or some combination of these). So, for now we end up with a lot of different configurations each with its own potential pitfalls.

[Serra]

I just got the HDHR yesterday and I have to say that it was simple to install. Just basically plugged it in, loaded and ran the software and added it to Sage. Total install time was about 10 minutes. (I even installed a new 8-port switch in that time).

I really do like the HDHR. I'm using it for OTA HD and I'm very happy with it.

[Mitch G]

Maybe I missed a memo, but it looks like the instructions might need to be updated for Clear QAM channels.
Going to the SiliconDust link pretty much points back to here.


Mitch

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Mitch G

Maybe I missed a memo, but it looks like the instructions might need to be updated for Clear QAM channels.
Going to the SiliconDust link pretty much points back to here.

What looks like it needs to be updated? The procedure hasn't changed -- the SiliconDust site's instructions are to be followed if scanning for QAM channels as mentioned in QAM step 2 in the first post of this topic. I'm not aware of any changes related to tuner setup & channel scanning on the HDHR.

- Andy

[jasonl]

I'm not aware of any changes in procedure either. The only real change to SageTV behavior any time recently was an update in the scn file generation in the latest HDHomeRun software beta, which is all behind the scenes and is not visible to the user as anything other than improved functionality with UAC and the SageTV 7 beta.

Jason
Silicondust

[Mitch G]

I'm an idiot, I read the first post several times and kept reading this line:

The below instructions no longer apply wen using the HDHR tuner for OTA (Digital Antenna) tuning. See the section directly above this one.

As if it included QAM tuners as well. So the instructions at the top of the page point to the SiliconDust site. But, then when I went to the SiliconDust page I jumped over the "Software Installation" instructions because my HDHR software was already installed. I didn't see that it included the HDHR scanning steps. ugh. Maybe I should get some sleep.


MItch

[drvnbysound]

I am attempting to add a HDHR tuner to my STV setup and am having similar issues as others have discussed here - STV is not seeing the HDHR.

I have the latest version of STV installed (7.1.9.256), and the latest version of HDHR software (20120128). I am currently attempting to add Digital Cable channels (Comcast). I have run the HDHR software, scanned the channels within the HDHR software, matched channel names and numbers to Zap2it, and verified that it does generate the .scn files in the STV folder. I have also deleted and re-generated them a number of times. I have also uninstalled the HDHR software, and reinstalled it (though apparently files are left behind, because all settings were saved after re-installation). Also, .frq files are also listed, but after viewing them, it seems that they only have information from other countries (e.g. UK, Sweden, Australia, etc); I am not sure if this is correct....

In the end, I continue to get the following message from STV, "No video capture devices were found. Please install a video capture device to use with SageTV." As shown in this screen capture (also shows that the .scn and .frq files are in the folder):

Also, currently only care to add ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox channels (planning to add HD-PVR's for other channels). When scanned with HDHR software they are listed with the digital channel nomenclature (e.g. 13.1). I changed these to match the Zap2it channel number for each channel respectively (e.g. ABC (WMBBDT) = 13.1 = 431). Should I be converting these to reflect the Comcast channel numbers, or leave them as the digital channel numbers?

[osx-addict]

when I setup my first pair of HDHR tuners (I've got 3 now), I loaded up the SiliconDust software as Sage would not see the tuners otherwise. I just did this again on a new Sage server this past Saturday. I loaded up the HDHR software, let it install it's required .Net 4.0 (I was thinking about installing whatever the latest version was from the MS site but decided to just use the one the HDHR software downloads directly from THEIR site).. Once that was done, I fire it up, allow it to update firmware if it wants to, setup each tuner as digital antenna (in my case) and that's about it.. I don't bother with channel scans or anything -- but did once upon a time several servers ago. I then fire up sage and everything just works to add all of the tuners as inputs.. I suspect this will not help with your situation as I've never had that problem but...

[drvnbysound]

Originally Posted by osx-addict

when I setup my first pair of HDHR tuners (I've got 3 now), I loaded up the SiliconDust software as Sage would not see the tuners otherwise. I just did this again on a new Sage server this past Saturday. I loaded up the HDHR software, let it install it's required .Net 4.0 (I was thinking about installing whatever the latest version was from the MS site but decided to just use the one the HDHR software downloads directly from THEIR site).. Once that was done, I fire it up, allow it to update firmware if it wants to, setup each tuner as digital antenna (in my case) and that's about it.. I don't bother with channel scans or anything -- but did once upon a time several servers ago. I then fire up sage and everything just works to add all of the tuners as inputs.. I suspect this will not help with your situation as I've never had that problem but...

Thanks for the response, but as you mentioned, I dont think that really helps my situation all that much. I did initially install the software from the CD that came with the HDHR - so all prerequisite software (e.g. .NET) should also be installed. Upon opening the HDHR software it promted me for the update - directed me to the download page, etc. I believe it updated both the software and the firmware on the particular HDHR that I am trying to add.

[drvnbysound]

Any other ideas to my issue above???

Note, I did turn off Windows Firewall to ensure that there was no blockage there, no different result.

[jbuszkie]

Are the tuners in the sage properties file?
Did you select Sage as the software in the HDHR setup?

[drvnbysound]

Originally Posted by jbuszkie

Are the tuners in the sage properties file?
Did you select Sage as the software in the HDHR setup?

Any idea what keywords to look for in the properties file? The only thing I did check was that they were not under any ignore tags in the properties file; I found that in this or another thread where someone had that issue where I guess the tuner was being ignored.

SageTV was selected in the HDHR software, which I assume results in the .scn files being generated in the correct directory.

[jbuszkie]

Here is one of my tuners.

mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/available_channels=
mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/brightness=0
mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/broadcast_standard=QAM
mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/contrast=0
mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/device_name=
mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/encode_digital_tv_as_program_stream=true
mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/hue=0
mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/last_channel=114-1008-804
mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/provider_id=xxxx
mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/saturation=0
mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/sharpness=0
mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/tuning_mode=Cable
mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/tuning_plugin=
mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/tuning_plugin_port=0
mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/video_crossbar_index=0
mmc/encoders/741616527/100/0/video_crossbar_type=100
mmc/encoders/741616527/audio_capture_device_index=-1
mmc/encoders/741616527/audio_capture_device_name=
mmc/encoders/741616527/audio_capture_device_num=0
mmc/encoders/741616527/audio_processor=
mmc/encoders/741616527/capture_config=299008
mmc/encoders/741616527/default_device_quality=
mmc/encoders/741616527/delay_to_wait_after_tuning=0
mmc/encoders/741616527/device_class=DirectShow
mmc/encoders/741616527/dshow_tv_type=
mmc/encoders/741616527/encoder_merit=0
mmc/encoders/741616527/encoding_host=
mmc/encoders/741616527/forced_video_storage_path_prefix=
mmc/encoders/741616527/last_cross_index=0
mmc/encoders/741616527/last_cross_type=100
mmc/encoders/741616527/live_audio_input=
mmc/encoders/741616527/never_stop_encoding=false
mmc/encoders/741616527/video_capture_device_name=Silicondust HDHomeRun Tuner [yournumber]-0
mmc/encoders/741616527/video_capture_device_num=0
mmc/encoders/741616527/video_encoding_params=Great
mmc/encoders/741616527/video_processor=

This automatically got put where it needed to be. Maybe you had sage running when it tried to insert this. I don't remember having to do it manually. but now you might?? Are Sage and the tuner on the same subnet?

Maybe someone else knows more in depth how this is supposed to work. When I got my new HDHR recently... it just worked.. Sage saw them fine.

Jim

[drvnbysound]

Originally Posted by jbuszkie

Here is one of my tuners.
This automatically got put where it needed to be. Maybe you had sage running when it tried to insert this. I don't remember having to do it manually. but now you might?? Are Sage and the tuner on the same subnet?

Maybe someone else knows more in depth how this is supposed to work. When I got my new HDHR recently... it just worked.. Sage saw them fine.

Jim

Hmm, I am almost certain that the service was indeed running. I will take a look when I return home...

So, did you stop the STV service when running the HDHR setup?

(EDIT: I just went back and re-read the first post and found this nugget, "It is recommended that you exit SageTV before installing the HDHR software/drivers, then restart SageTV after the HDHR installation & setup via the HDHR software is complete." I didn't take this to mean stop the service... but apparently I may have misinterpreted. I will report back after I get a chance to try this.)

It certainly is on the same subnet - all on the same network (192.168.1.x)