I'm stuck - no tv

[tahoetim]

I read this forum for hours, ordered the parts to build a new server but no tv!

I have a fresh WHS box with 3 drives set to 64k buffers. WHS is awesome BTW. I stuck in my old pvr-500 with no luck. I got a HDHR today, no luck. It finds 0 channels. I also have a pvr150 somewhere.

Good cable feed - tried it on a tv sitting next to my setup.

I am down to thinking it's my cable provider. I found threads where they said they are not digital. No HD here either. How would you test out what is really coming in from the street?

I was pretty sure the HDHR wasn't going to pick up much, but 0 channels?

I'm tired and lost....

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by tahoetim

Good cable feed - tried it on a tv sitting next to my setup.

I am down to thinking it's my cable provider. I found threads where they said they are not digital. No HD here either. How would you test out what is really coming in from the street?

What is the cable provider?

Does the TV have a QAM tuner for digital cable? Or, is the TV only receiving analog channels?

How are you connecting your tuners?

I was pretty sure the HDHR wasn't going to pick up much, but 0 channels?

The HDHR can only tune OTA digital (ATSC) from an antenna or clear QAM (unencrypted) digital channels from cable. Its setup instructions are here: HDHR setup for Windows.

- Andy

[davephan]

Another way you could test the HDHomeRun is to connect it to an antenna. If you don't have a TV antenna, try connecting wires to the center connectors on the HDHomeRun F-connectors. If you can pickup over the air HD, then you would at least determine if you SageTV setup is working.

The cable TV is another matter, as Andy said, you need clear QAM (unencrypted) digital channels from cable. If you don't have unencrypted cable TV, then you need a cable TV set top box and different tuner card. If the HDHomeRun does not work with cable, it's not a total waste of money. You can receive the local channels with the HDHomeRun. There will be less recording conflicts, and you will still have local TV the next time there is a cable TV outage.


Dave

[tahoetim]

I have Charter service. Before I ordered the HDHR I ran the listing test on their site. Even though it came back with a lot of channels, I am pretty sure it's all analog. When they finally switch over to digital I'll be in good shape.

The antenna won't work. I'm at the lake in a forest. It sucks living in paradise, no dish, no antenna. Cell service is patchy too.

Anyway, is there a free software package that I can use to simulate the broadcast before I cofigure Sage? I want to eliminate that end of the system as the problem.

[davephan]

Too bad you don't have a view to the south not blocked by trees. I have seen people user towers in those situations to get the small satellite dishes high enough so the signal path clears the trees. You might need a pretty high tower if you have trees that are tall, near your house.

You could try downloading videos from www.crankygeeks.com to test your system for playing back videos. They have several different formats. I usually download H.264.

Another way you could test the system if you moved the system temporarily to someone's house that has over the air TV or the same cable TV company.

Dave