Struggling with HDHR Prime and SageDCT

[Brent94Z]

Hey Guys!

I hate asking for help because it is likely that the answer exists here somewhere but I've spent 6 hours trying to get this to work correctly and I'm no further than I was after about the first 30 minutes A lot of instructions are a couple years old and don't seem to be applicable anymore (like firewall settings in Windows 7) which might be some of my problems.

I have Windows 7 64bit, newer fairly powerful computer, 16gig ram.

*Windows Media Center is enabled.
*Network discovery is enabled (I think that is the old UPNP framework?).
*I checked the firewall and SageDCT appears to automatically set itself to allow all ports all types.
*But, just in case, I added the three Prime ports (UDP) as an inbound allowance for SageDCT.exe.
*I tried turning off the windows firewall and no difference so turned it back on.

It didn't take me too long to get things up and running with the same (I believe they are the same) channels as I get with my standard HDHR. However, I can not for the life of me get channels like FOX, CNN, etc. to work. After struggling for a bit, I started up WMC (never started it before) and set it up. After a fairly painless configuration I am able to watch, I believe, every channel I can watch using my cable box including Showtime. So, my cable card and Prime are working as I can watch everything just fine in WMC (which is on the same computer as SageTV and SageDCT).

In SageTV, tuning the same HD network channels that I can get on my standard HDHR is PERFECT and quick. However, after a reboot, if I tune to Fox or CNN (HD channels) I will get a blip or single frame and that's it. After this, I only get a black screen with nothing if trying to tune any channel other than a standard HDHR channel.

In SageDCT 2.6.0.0 I played around with the test feature for START and STOP. Doing this for about 15 seconds on a standard HDHR channel works great when viewing the .ts file in VLC. However, when doing this with one of the channels that doesn't work in Sage I get a 95% gray screen with some pixelation in the upper corners and across the top. One time, when doing this right after a reboot, I got the single "blip" frame (like I see in SageTV) which then slowly like "washed" off the screen down towards the bottom. Very weird.

Anyway, I'm at a loss for stuff to try. Am I correct in thinking that...
1) If I can use SageTV to view channels using the Prime that my standard HDHR gets and this works perfectly then I must have the firewall settings correct? Firewall settings, if set wrong, would cause it not to work at all, right?
2) If I can view Showtime, FOX, CNN, etc. using WMC then I should be able to view it using SageDCT?

Any ideas would be most welcome. My goal was to get this done this morning but it is dinner time and I'm still failing. UGH

Thanks!

[nyplayer]

Viewing in WMC is different as Sage with SAGEDCT cannot record channels that are not copy freely. You will be able to record them in WMC but not in Sage if they are not copy freely.

[Brent94Z]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Viewing in WMC is different as Sage with SAGEDCT cannot record channels that are not copy freely. You will be able to record them in WMC but not in Sage if they are not copy freely.

Ah, crap. I thought if they worked in WMC then it would work in SageDCT. I'm not sure if my Prime is even of any use then as compared to the regular HDHR? I haven't tried everything but so far it looks like I can only get the standard HDHR channels. Hmph.

Is there an easy way to tell if a channel is "copy freely"? I've looked through the HDHomeRun setup and config and didn't see anything.

I'm on Brighthouse in the Tampabay area. Not sure the point in having a cablecard if I can't get anything more than I can with a HDHR plugged straight into the wall!?!? ARGH! Bummer

[nyplayer]

You can look here looks like yours are only copy once.

http://www.missingremote.com/forums/...us-master-list

[Brent94Z]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

You can look here looks like yours are only copy once.

http://www.missingremote.com/forums/...us-master-list

Thank you for that. I did find that earlier in a search as well but it doesn't seem accurate... I can't even get the stuff like the History Channel to play (which comes with basic cable). So far the only stuff I've found that works are the channels that I can already get with my old HDHR. Ugh again

[JerryB]

Originally Posted by Brent94Z

Thank you for that. I did find that earlier in a search as well but it doesn't seem accurate... I can't even get the stuff like the History Channel to play (which comes with basic cable). So far the only stuff I've found that works are the channels that I can already get with my old HDHR. Ugh again

Here's a quote from the SD forum on how to check your channels:

"If you're running recent firmware on the PRIME, run a channel scan in HDHomeRun Setup, then when it finishes, go to the HDHomeRun PRIME's web page and click on Channel Lineup then Basic Channels. Everything on this list is not protected."

[Brent94Z]

Originally Posted by JerryB

Here's a quote from the SD forum on how to check your channels:

"If you're running recent firmware on the PRIME, run a channel scan in HDHomeRun Setup, then when it finishes, go to the HDHomeRun PRIME's web page and click on Channel Lineup then Basic Channels. Everything on this list is not protected."

Thank you, JerryB! That is exactly what I was looking for. As with everything else I do, it seems to take forever. The cable guy came out and setup my cablecard last year sometime and I remember going to the internal web page but didn't know it had that option in there. Thanks! That will save me a ton of time trying to figure out what channels to disable in Sage

Looks like I do get more than a standard HDHR but, as kinda expected... nothing that is very useful. LOL

[JerryB]

Originally Posted by Brent94Z

The cable guy came out and setup my cablecard last year sometime and I remember going to the internal web page but didn't know it had that option in there.

You didn't miss anything. I don't think that option was available last year. I think it was only recently added as part of the upgrade that turned the HDHR Prime into a DLNA server since the Prime now needs to be able to distinguish between open and copy restricted channels. The Prime can serve up open channels to any DLNA client but can only serve up copy restricted channels to a DLNA client that understands and respects this restriction.

In any event it's a great way to quickly determine what channels are marked copy freely by your cable provider. Hope you find more open channels than you expect.

[Brent94Z]

That is for sure! I thank you for that tidbit of info... I already have two of the older HDHR tuners and was considering just removing the Prime completely due to the amount of time it was going to take to go through a few hundred channels and see what was good and what was not. This will make it very easy for me to unselect the channels not available. Thanks!!!