Recording Digital Over the Air Shows

[duglin]

I'm probably going to ask some really basic questions, so forgive me,
but I'm running into a problem which, on the surface, seems like it
should be trivial....

I've recently bought a new TV and since it supports digital signals
I'm able to get all sorts of new channels in amazingly clear format.
I have Time Warner Cable's most basic service - I am _not_ signed
up for any digital service at all. Upon setting up the TV I let it
scan for all possible channels and it found a lot of digital channels.
I wasn't surprised since I figured most of them were actually "over the
air channels" - however, some of them appear to be channels that
were not local or they had TWC's logo on them. Either way it was a
nice surprise.

What's confusing to me is whether these are from TWC or whether they're
from "over the air". The TV finds them on non-integer channels, like 11.1 -
which leads me to think its over the air since I would have thought that
a TWC channel would be an integer. So, while this isn't a SageTV
question - if someone knows the answer to this one I'd appreciate it
since it might help my figure out the rest of my confusion below....

Getting all excited I then added a new video source to my SageTV thinking
that I could now recored these new channels. I have a Hauppauge
WinTV-HVR-1950 - which claims support for digital - include digital
over the air.

However, SageTV (or perhaps Hauppauge) wasn't able to find _any_
digital channels at all. I've tried a ton of various options.... telling
it the new source was digital cable, saying it was over-the-air....
But nothing I try is able to find these new channels.

So, I'm looking for any guidance here since I'm a bit confused as to
where the problem lies. If these channels are from TWC then it seems
like SageTV/Hauuppauge should be able to see them. If they're from
over-the-air, then perhaps the TV has a better antenna/tuner than
Hauppauge???

Any help would be appreciated...
thanks
-Doug

[gplasky]

Those channels you are receiving are referred to as "ClearQAM" stations. These are digital stations broadcast by your cable co. with no encryption so a set top box is not required to receive them. Make sure you have the latest drivers for your card and use the latest SageTV beta-6.5.8. Your source is cable-not OTA. Search the forums for your specific cards or maybe the 1800 to see how to scan for the channels. I don't have that card.

Gerry

[duglin]

Gerry,
thanks for the quick response. Hope you don't mind... have some follow-on questions...

If those are coming over the cable then will SageTV find them on whole integer
channels or on the non-integer channels? Take as an example my NBC channel.
Using the TV I set the channel to 17.1 - but when I look on TWC's web site
I see that channel (I think) on channel 217.

You said that the source is 'cable' - but I assume its 'digital cable' and not normal cable, right?

Do I really need to upgrade to the latest SageTV? I'm on v6.4.8 and I get nervous
upgrading things :-) so, I will do so if there's something specific to the newer
version that I need.

[gplasky]

It will find it as the 17.1 number. But in Sage you can remap that to another logical number-217 in your case.

Yes-I meant digital cable. Or my point was NOT OTA.

If you have issues and contact support that would probably be one of their suggestions. It's pretty close to being released so it shouldn't be a big deal. Try to get it running on the version you have now first. If all ealse fails make a copy of the SageTV direcotry and put it somewhere. If the upgrade is no better or worse uninstall it, copy your old direcotry back inplace and install 6.4.8 over it. (Just like nothing ever happened.)

Gerry