Ceton & HDHR Prime

[scoful]

I currently have an HDHR Prime (which works pretty well) and I'm considering adding a Ceton (probably the USB version) to the mix.

Has anybody else done this? I don't think I want to be the Guinea Pig if it might not work. An extra tuner sounds nice though...

[KeithAbbott]

Have you considered just adding an HDHR dual-tuner to the mix? You'd get two additional QAM tuners, to use for all of the ClearQAM (broadcast) channels. Your three HDHR Prime tuners would only be used for the channels that are not ClearQAM. Probably be quite a bit cheaper, and might be easier to get working.

Also wouldn't need to fork over $X per month to the cable company for a second m-card.

That's what I would do if my darn cable company provided any copy-freely channels.

[scoful]

Actually that's probably not a bad suggestion. I had a dual and single Hauppauge QAM tuner setup going in conjunction, but the QAM channel mappings change all the time here and WAF was poor when the channels would shuffle and the wrong shows would record.

Correct me if I'm wrong please - the HDHR QAM setup automatically remaps the QAM channels?

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by scoful

Correct me if I'm wrong please - the HDHR QAM setup automatically remaps the QAM channels?

Sorry, can't help you with that question, maybe someone else knows the answer. Is OTA an option for you? If so, you could use a dual-tuner HDHR connected to the antenna, and eliminate remapping issues completely.

[NetworkGuy]

I currently have 2 HDHR QAM Tuners and 1 HDHR Prime Tuner.

Since the future of the program listing is unsure in about 6 months, I converted over to using Slugger's mc2xml EPG Plugin. I defined one lineup of just the channels from the HDHR tuners and a second lineup that are the channels only viable from the "M card". That way the Prime Tuner is only used for the "cable" channels.

It is working great!

John

[scoful]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

I currently have 2 HDHR QAM Tuners and 1 HDHR Prime Tuner.

Since the future of the program listing is unsure in about 6 months, I converted over to using Slugger's mc2xml EPG Plugin. I defined one lineup of just the channels from the HDHR tuners and a second lineup that are the channels only viable from the "M card". That way the Prime Tuner is only used for the "cable" channels.

It is working great!

John

Can you please clarify though - do the QAM channels automatically show up as their cable channel equivalent? With my Hauppauge I have to manually remap them all.

[JerryB]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

Since the future of the program listing is unsure in about 6 months

You might be interested in the recent SageTV at CES thread. The program listing has been guaranteed through the end of the year.

[scoful]

Originally Posted by scoful

Can you please clarify though - do the QAM channels automatically show up as their cable channel equivalent? With my Hauppauge I have to manually remap them all.

Still looking for a definitive answer on this. Anyone?

[flavius]

I haven't configured the HDHR in a while, but IIRC you either have to regenerate the configuration from the SD software or flip the bits manually inside Sage.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by scoful

Still looking for a definitive answer on this. Anyone?

It depends. All the remapping is done in the HDHR setup program. Silicondust has a lineup server which may or may not contain information about your provider, and that information may or may not be correct. My experience has been that their lineup server is pretty good and all the remapping was done accurately.

If you do have to manually remap it's easy in the HDHR setup program. Just browse the channels (all in the setup program) and make sure the channel names match what's in Zap2It.

[scoful]

Thanks - that was what I was looking for.

I've used their site for quite a while to reference when remapping the Hauppage ones.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by scoful

Thanks - that was what I was looking for.

I've used their site for quite a while to reference when remapping the Hauppage ones.

The HDHR setup is very easy. Install the HDHR software, run a scan for each tuner (using HDHR software), make sure the channel names in the HDHR setup match (exactly) what's in Zap2It. When done add the source in Sage, run a scan (takes seconds because Sage uses the info generated by the HDHR setup program).

Make sure Sage is stopped before running the HDHR setup and scan.

[scoful]

Thanks Keith for the suggestion and Tmiranda for the clarification.

Works great and I'm not out $5 a month for another cablecard.