How to get HDHR QAM working with v6.2

[srothwell]

So, here's a step by step procedure to get HDHR QAM working with 6.2.3:

1. Make sure to download the very latest driver and install package from:

http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2484

2. In the HDHR setup program, make sure that SageTV is disabled on both tuners. This is for the old non-BDA streaming way and if you turn these on you will see network encoders.

2. Follow these instructions from SiliconDust:

http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2503

Now, that article says that "each major channel number must be unique." I have NOT found this to be true becuase of the way Sage interacts. Maybe this is accurate for MCE, but it does not seem to be for Sage.

So, this is my remap file:

; GSN 
80-6 2 qam256:561000000 6
; UHD 
83-3 3 qam256:579000000 3
; BLOOM 
83-4 4 qam256:579000000 4
; MOVIEPLEX 
91-11 5 qam256:627000000 11
; UNKNOWN 
93-7 6 qam256:639000000 7
; UNKNOWN 
93-27 7 qam256:639000000 27
; MYTV 
101-2 8 qam256:657000000 2
; WTVR 
101-3 9 qam256:657000000 3
; WRLH 
101-4 10 qam256:657000000 4
; TUBE 
101-5 11 qam256:657000000 5
; CBSWX 
101-6 12 qam256:657000000 6
; DSCHD 
108-1 13 qam256:699000000 1
; WRIC 
109-1 14 qam256:705000000 1
; WWBTDT 
109-2 15 qam256:705000000 2
; WWBTDT -WX
109-3 16 qam256:705000000 3

Notice that, for simplicity, I used the exact same channels as HDHR Setup displays for my cable channels. You DO have to make your fake channel number unique (column 3). If someone finds fault with this, please let me know and I'll update this. But mine's working with duplicate major channel numbers.

Now that you're all done with that, start up Sage 6.2.3 and go to the sagetv.properties file and remove all Silicon Dust items from the "ignore_encoders" lines.

Finally, add your new tuner(s).

Assign the proper EPG to the tuner but you don't need to run a channel scan. In fact, if you DO run a channel scan, you will need to find the "siliconDust..... .frq" file in the SageTV directory and DELETE IT. According to Qian (Donkey) since the HDHR is doing all the tuning for you, Sage doesn't need to. If you leave the .frq file in the folder BOTH will try to tune and nothing will work.

So.... this is EASY! You simply need to remap Sage's channel line-up to a new physical channel that matches the fake channel number you made in the remap file.

For instance, WWBTDT shows up on Comcast Cable's EPG lineup as channel 211. In my remap file I set WWBTDT to: 109-2 15 qam256:705000000 2

The fake channel number I assigned was 15 (I don't think the fake major-minor really does anything under sage - I could be wrong).

So just remap EPG channel 211 to physical ch 15 and you're done. Obviously, if you decide to clean up or change your remap file you're gonna mess up Sage.

If you don't like it a 211 in the EPG just remap the logical to whatever you want.

Mine has been working flawlessly since Qian sent me this.

Oh, yes one more thing, you can remove HDHR Manager from your Startup folder as it's no longer necessary!

Again, if anyone finds fault or an error, let me know and I'll update.

Good Luck

Stacy

[jlindborg]

Nice run down

Reconfigured from scratch again to day adding it to the EPG this time and everything works like a champ - you're right, SiliconDust's comments about the first column number having to have a unique value for each row must be specific to MCE or something.

The only issue I'm still having it it only works when running the Sage app interactive - switching back to the service then my clients can't watch the HDHR feed - very strange. Tried it with the service associated with my admin account and as local system and it doesn't make any difference. Puzzling... so for now I'm leaving the sage app running and have the service disabled until I have more time to fiddle with it.

[srothwell]

Originally Posted by jlindborg

Nice run down

Reconfigured from scratch again to day adding it to the EPG this time and everything works like a champ - you're right, SiliconDust's comments about the first column number having to have a unique value for each row must be specific to MCE or something.

The only issue I'm still having it it only works when running the Sage app interactive - switching back to the service then my clients can't watch the HDHR feed - very strange. Tried it with the service associated with my admin account and as local system and it doesn't make any difference. Puzzling... so for now I'm leaving the sage app running and have the service disabled until I have more time to fiddle with it.

Does Qian (Donkey) know about the problem with clients when running in service mode?

[jlindborg]

no, I've been lame and haven't opened a bug report on this one yet - I'm not entirely sure it's not user error yet and I haven't had too much time to fiddle with it. I'll take another run through tomorrow and if I can't get it flying I'll report it.

[KJake]

Mine is working in service mode, but this doesn't seem to be working as well as the patch for 6.2.2. Often, when I switch to an HDHR channel, it starts Paused and I have to press Play - sometimes it will say no signal. I just upgraded yesterday, so I'll watch it for a few days, it could have been something with the cable.

[ToxMox]

I've also had it say no signal for a split second before playback begins.

[oddjob]

Wow, It does work

[malbec]

Will this fix the the digital music channels you can get via QAM?

[tmiranda]

Just for completeness in this thread - you must also make sure that you remove the silicondust entries from the "ignore_encoders" line in the preference file. (Thank to ToxMox for this advice.)

[Crunch]

Ok last night I saw this post and installed the new SageTV beta. Put in this remap file for Charlotte NC

; WTVI-HD 
22-1 2 qam256:579000000 1 
; WTVI-GO 
23-1 3 qam256:579000000 2 
; WTVI-ED 
24-1 4 qam256:579000000 3 
; WTVI-KI 
25-1 5 qam256:579000000 4 
; WSOC-DT 
26-1 6 qam256:579000000 6 
; FOXREAL 
32-1 7 qam256:639000000 13 
; NEWS14 
33-1 8 qam256:639000000 38 
; WAXN 
42-1 9 qam256:651000000 23 
; WWWB-HD 
43-1 10 qam256:651000000 51 
; WCNC-HD 
44-1 11 qam256:651000000 164 
; WCNC-SK 
45-1 12 qam256:651000000 165 
; WCCB-HD 
52-1 13 qam256:657000000 38 
; WCCB-WX 
53-1 14 qam256:657000000 40 
; WJZY-HD 
54-1 15 qam256:657000000 53 
; WBTV-HD 
62-1 16 qam256:735000000 152 
; UNC-HD 
72-1 17 qam256:747000000 2 
; UNC-Kid 
73-1 18 qam256:747000000 3 
; UNC-Edu 
74-1 19 qam256:747000000 4 
; UNC-NC 
75-1 20 qam256:747000000 5

Dissabled the HDHR manager and dissabled SageTv within HDHR

It worked, sort of.
Channel I first select from guide is slow to load. When I change channels I get a blank screen or no signal screen and seem to be unable to run the channel I just switched to. The new channel will show a still of the previous channel I was watching, but not change to the new channel. Tried play,fast forward etc no luck.........

The 'old' method of SageTV was working fine for me. I know my hardware etc can do this no problems. But the new BDA method seems to have a few quirks. I do have a post over in silicondust as I had asked the question about the new Beta yesterday before I saw this post on how to do it.

Is this issue BDA, SageTV or HDHR?

My HDHR post is http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3823
Is there any benifits in changing to BDA?

[technazz]

Originally Posted by Crunch

Ok last night I saw this post and installed the new SageTV beta. Put in this remap file for Charlotte NC

; WTVI-HD 
22-1 2 qam256:579000000 1 
; WTVI-GO 
23-1 3 qam256:579000000 2 
; WTVI-ED 
24-1 4 qam256:579000000 3 
; WTVI-KI 
25-1 5 qam256:579000000 4 
; WSOC-DT 
26-1 6 qam256:579000000 6 
; FOXREAL 
32-1 7 qam256:639000000 13 
; NEWS14 
33-1 8 qam256:639000000 38 
; WAXN 
42-1 9 qam256:651000000 23 
; WWWB-HD 
43-1 10 qam256:651000000 51 
; WCNC-HD 
44-1 11 qam256:651000000 164 
; WCNC-SK 
45-1 12 qam256:651000000 165 
; WCCB-HD 
52-1 13 qam256:657000000 38 
; WCCB-WX 
53-1 14 qam256:657000000 40 
; WJZY-HD 
54-1 15 qam256:657000000 53 
; WBTV-HD 
62-1 16 qam256:735000000 152 
; UNC-HD 
72-1 17 qam256:747000000 2 
; UNC-Kid 
73-1 18 qam256:747000000 3 
; UNC-Edu 
74-1 19 qam256:747000000 4 
; UNC-NC 
75-1 20 qam256:747000000 5

Dissabled the HDHR manager and dissabled SageTv within HDHR

It worked, sort of.
Channel I first select from guide is slow to load. When I change channels I get a blank screen or no signal screen and seem to be unable to run the channel I just switched to. The new channel will show a still of the previous channel I was watching, but not change to the new channel. Tried play,fast forward etc no luck.........

The 'old' method of SageTV was working fine for me. I know my hardware etc can do this no problems. But the new BDA method seems to have a few quirks. I do have a post over in silicondust as I had asked the question about the new Beta yesterday before I saw this post on how to do it.

Is this issue BDA, SageTV or HDHR?

My HDHR post is http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3823
Is there any benifits in changing to BDA?

Im having some of the same issues works for a few channel changes and then seems to get stuck. I've reverted back to the old drivers and everything is fine.

EDIT: BTW i have the HDHOMERUN directly connected to my Sage box using the HDHOMERUN DHCP Server.

Technazz

[Razillian]

I saw this problem as well last night. But I let it sit on the channel change for 30-60 seconds and it eventually went. First channel I select on live TV comes up much faster, so I am hoping that recordings will respond at the same speed as the first channel. If not, the 2 minute padding I have set should cover the black out period (maybe?).

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by Crunch

It worked, sort of.
Channel I first select from guide is slow to load. When I change channels I get a blank screen or no signal screen and seem to be unable to run the channel I just switched to. The new channel will show a still of the previous channel I was watching, but not change to the new channel. Tried play,fast forward etc no luck.........

This sounds like a problem I was having until I discovered that another important step is missing. Go into channel setup and make sure all of the enabled channels are reset to their default physical number.

[lparkin]

Just an FYI...the instructions at Silicon Dust for MCE work but building the remap file is a pain. There is a utility to do that at: http://www.oshinetworks.com/HDHomeRu...per0-1-2-3.zip

The instructions to use it are at: http://www.oshinetworks.com/HDHomeRun/QamMapper/

Use this after the scan and import the channel.txt file into this utility.

[technazz]

I haven't tried it but it should save some time. I have over 40 Unencrypted QAM channels

Technazz

EDIT Lparkin linked it before me thx.

[lparkin]

It did a great job for me. Fortunately I kept a cross reference from the old set up so I could use it to label the channels and descriptions.

My only issue is that it is slow to tune the channel. It is not consistent...sometimes it loads quickly other times it takes up to a minute to load or change the channel.

===========Resolution...disabled full screen exclusive and all my tuning issues went away. It tunes instantaneously. It seems to me that FS Exclusive is still broken...but I don't need it anymore. I have no artifacts or combing issues since I changed to the x1950 pro...agp card. I have filed a bug report on this.

[carlgar]

I have noticed that playback of the files seems unreliable. Sometimes I see the timeline moving but a black screen is shown. I have to use the skip forward to get the picture shown.

I also seem to be losing a lot of recordings, that sure the it is BDA driver related but did not notice until updating to BDA.

edit:

After spending all night trying to get the BDA drivers to work properly, I gave up and went back to the network encoder. The lower channels (2-22) appeared to work properly. But channels 66 and up would not work. I have attached the remap file in case someone can find something wrong with it. the attached is a txt file only for upload purposes. The real file is a remap file.

[lparkin]

Your fake ATSC Physical channels go over 99...according to the notes, those channels must be between 1 and 99.

This is the set of numbers after your x-x number.

You also should check the fake virtual channel number. In the notes, at least for MCE they have to be lower than 99 too. Sage doesn't seem to be as picky. I have my actual channels too but mine end at 110-x.

Also try disabling Exclusive Full Screen...but leave 3d and VMR9 on. That combination gave me instant tunes and the best picture.

[carlgar]

Thank You, that seems to have fixed most of the problems. It looks like channel 66 has moved or gone off the air. Note sure about 98 and 99 but they are not important. The HD channels are now working.

[lparkin]

I am glad it worked. This stuff gets frustrating and everything seems to look the same after a while.