A long rambling about my Channel setup

[sharky905]

I am very lost. Hopeing someone can help me understand. I have read through lots of information about the new guide changes, and these error messages about Channel lineup lost from EPG Server, but I still don't understand how to fix it.

I live in Toronto, so I get both Canada and US stations, so I posted here.

I run three tuners, two are from a HD Home run (digital) and one is a Avermedia dual capture card, which I seem to only be able to run digital OR analogue and not both in Sage. So I have it set to Analgue so that I can tune in TVO until they go digital.

In the Source setup wizard I have three listed, the HDHomerun are listed with ":Antenna" after and the AverMedia is listed, then a : and then listed again.

For the Digital Tuners, when I click on them it says
Cable/Antenna: Antenna
EPG Lineup: Antenna
Tuner Control: N/A

For the Analgue is says
Cable/Antenna: Antenna
EPG Lineup: AverMedia 7231 Analog Capture TV Tuner
Tuner Control: N/A

When I click on the Channel Setup, I have basically Manually created each channel by "Edit Channel Lineup", and then Add Channel to Lineup, creating the Logical Chan#(eg. 2-1), Physical Chan# (eg. 33-2-1), Station: (e.g. NBC), ID: (e.g. 31507) and Desc (eg. NBC)

I did this for every channel, because I found when Sage scanned and created channels, either the names were not what I wanted (e.g. used WNLO instead of CW for 32-23-1) or it was really difficult to load in the ID properly to get the guide data.

There are lots of channels that are not "checked", for example WNLO, 23-1 32-23-1 with ID 87 is in the channel Setup but not checked. I don't see a way to just delete these channels from my channel setup.

On the Analogue tuner guide I seem to have a massive amount of channels in the guide, but only one checked (as that is the only channel I want that tuner to be in place for.

How do I:
1) Get rid of these error messages coming up - do I have to delete channels, or change something in the setup
2) Am I going to have problems migrating to the new version that is in beta - I hear the channel setup changes
3) Once TVO goes digital (lets hope August!) I am going to want to turn off the Analog tuners and turn it into a Digital tuner - I assume then I can use just one channel setup - this should be easy to convert over right?

Boy I wish setting up channels were easier for us with cross border problems. I think it would be great if when editing a channel Sage would let us edit all fields in the channel setup to whatever we wanted.

thanks for listening.

[HTPCguy]

It sounds like you're having a lot of problems with Sage's built-in guide offerings. I can't relate though, as I use customized XMLTV listings instead, which maybe you might want to consider. The main advantage with this setup is that you can customize your channel lineups from multiple sources/ providers outside of SageTV in a web browser, and you might find the lineups/ guide source is more specific and reliabile/ consistant for your location. The main disadvantage with this setup is that installation involves several steps, and the XMLTV service provider charges a nominal $20 annual fee (they're supposedly non-profit). If you're interested in trying this out, you need to read up on a few things - it's not easily explained in one post, and ease of setup will be dependant on your familiarity/ comfort with computers.

In a nutshell, you would begin by going to the Schedules Direct website (schedulesdirect.org) and signing-up. Through this website, you would then add and configure your channel lineup (they also offer antenna listings based on your location/ postal code). Next, download the XMLTV program (also referred to as a "grabber") from Sourceforge (google it for a link). Then it's a matter of using xmltv.exe to "pull" your customized listings from Schedules Direct - it does this via command line, which is executed every time you pull new listings (this can be automated with Windows task scheduler).

The data you pull with the grabber is then captured in an .XML file, which is then "imported" into Sage. There are several ways of importing, but the only one I'm familiar with is a program offered by LM Gestion (again, google for a link). This program "maps" the channels in your .XML file so that the information can be utilized in Sage - this program also allows you to manually assign whatever you want channel numbers & callsigns to appear as in Sage, in whatever way you'd like. Once configured, the importer program is run, and it puts all the individual TV episode listings into a format understood by Sage. Lastly, you would then go into Sage and in your tuner setup, select XMLTV listings for the guide data source, and complete any final adjustments you might want in the channel lineup. Voila, you'll then have a stable and customized guide.

It's a bit of a pain to setup at first, but once you've completed and automated it, there's not much needed on an on-going basis, as new channels can be set to be automaticly added.

Good luck with your setup!

[vikingisson]

I feel your pain. It has always been a pain in Canada. But the newest updates have made it a lot better. The full scan will pull in any channels that didn't come over on the postal code. Those 23-xx channels are just more Buffalo channels. If you don't want to see them or can't get signal then just disable them, being in the lineup won't hurt since you won't see them in the guide.

After the scan I disable the SD versions of channels that I also have as HD (PBS 17-2 for example).

I just got a message that a new Hamilton station (15-1 I think) was added but so far I don't see it. I'm getting 23 tunable channels and I disable 2 SD dupes. A couple more I don't want at all but overall the antenna beats cable for everything except the pain of reliable guide data. That is still an issue at times. Right now it is the US stations that aren't always updated.

[j3rt]

To address your Q 2)
Have you moved to v7 yet? I would start from scratch, and not bother trying to import any old sageproperties files.
The new OTA wizard/setup is much better. I found once I had one tuner setup, had all the untuneable channels disable, I could easily rename and set channel number as I prefered.
Q 3) Yes when you no longer need the tuner, delete the source from
SageTV. Enabling the digital version should be automatic if you have "Enable channel automatically" (or whatever that option is called) checked.

I will say the new OTA setup for us is much better.

[sharky905]

Good to hear the new setup is easier. After reading the replies I think I am going to wait for the next "new" version - write down everything I have (Zap-to-it guide number to channels), delete what I have, upgrade and see what I get. I am extreemly nervous about the favourites!

I started this install with V7. Overall love Sage, and haven't found the install too difficult, just very "nit-picky" and fragile. It took me many tries to get the guide the way I like it today and hate the fact that it is changing, but I guess change happens.

I wish there was some manual option where you (a) select the channel, (b) select with tuner(s) to use for that channel, (c) select the guide data to use, (d) select the name and logo. Automation is great until something goes wrong.

Cheers

[bohan]

I think this thread exposes a real problem in the current way things are setup:

1. Why can channel names not be edited on the fly AFTER scanning/adding the channel?

2. Why should the system be dependant on the guide, we should be able to manually setup recordings with titles, categories to override/supplement the guide (or inplace of the guide, where the guide is not available - e.g. FTA C-band satellite TV)

3. LCNs embedded in DVB-T scans are not honoured: you have to manually reassign the correct number (e.g. in Australia, channel Nine should be on 9, which is what you get when scanning on a normal STB, because it reads the LCN from the broadcast during scans)

I understand that SageTV is highly optimized for the US, but I just think a peice of software should be generic enough to function on its only, without dependence on a guide service. traditional PVRs all have this functionality. In addition, there are not net-connected PVRs in Australia that subscribe themselves to a guide service called IceTV BUT continue to retain all the important, classical PVR features like titles for recordings. For SageTV to remain the best-in-class solution, I think this kind of grass-roots functionality needs to be added.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by bohan

I think this thread exposes a real problem in the current way things are setup:

1. Why can channel names not be edited on the fly AFTER scanning/adding the channel?

2. Why should the system be dependant on the guide, we should be able to manually setup recordings with titles, categories to override/supplement the guide (or inplace of the guide, where the guide is not available - e.g. FTA C-band satellite TV)

3. LCNs embedded in DVB-T scans are not honoured: you have to manually reassign the correct number (e.g. in Australia, channel Nine should be on 9, which is what you get when scanning on a normal STB, because it reads the LCN from the broadcast during scans)

I understand that SageTV is highly optimized for the US, but I just think a peice of software should be generic enough to function on its only, without dependence on a guide service. traditional PVRs all have this functionality. In addition, there are not net-connected PVRs in Australia that subscribe themselves to a guide service called IceTV BUT continue to retain all the important, classical PVR features like titles for recordings. For SageTV to remain the best-in-class solution, I think this kind of grass-roots functionality needs to be added.

Agree on all points - the most frustrating thing is the channel I.D. concept that Zap2it uses. They assume that the Canadian version of an American parent channel MUST be running the same programming, which as we all know is a fallacy.
Seeing that there are only about 20 channels with cross-border name similarity (HGTV, Speed, CNN etc) how hard would it be for Zap2it to change the I.D. numbers for the Canadian channels.
Sadly, the problem lies with Zap on this one