PVR350 Tuner in the Netherlands, UPC

[radiopaque]

Hello,
I would like to record cable TV from UPC in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. As suggested in several topics, I used FreqShifter to fill the registry with a few channels and their frequencies.
I use tvtv for EPG, and have a PVR150 and a PVR350.
For some reason, I cannot get these channels in my lineup. All I have is a few hundred channels with snow ...
Could someone baby-step me through this tuning problem please? Much appreciated!
Cheers,
Mark

[davephan]

Originally Posted by radiopaque

Hello,
I would like to record cable TV from UPC in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. As suggested in several topics, I used FreqShifter to fill the registry with a few channels and their frequencies.
I use tvtv for EPG, and have a PVR150 and a PVR350.
For some reason, I cannot get these channels in my lineup. All I have is a few hundred channels with snow ...
Could someone baby-step me through this tuning problem please? Much appreciated!
Cheers,
Mark

I don't understand what you are talking about using FreqShifter to fill the registry. However, I do have a Hauppauge PVR-350, which was my first tuner card for SageTV I bought six years ago. I no longer use the PVR-350, it has been retired. Many people on the forum had trouble with the PVR-350 card. My PVR-350 did work using the S-video input, but not the analog tuner. When I used the analog tuner, I had snow and very weak channels. I tried using an amplifier, which did not help. The tuner could have been bad since the beginning with my PVR-350, since I never tried using the analog tuner until owning the card for several years, since I always used the S-video input with a set top box. Your PVR-350 may also have a bad analog tuner. You might be able to use a set top box and use the S-video input instead.

It's not clear from your post if you are trying to use the PVR-350 for over the air or cable TV. Are there analog over the air or cable TV channels that you can receive?

If you do have analog TV channels available, then you should first try to get the PVR-350 to work with the Hauppauge PVR software, before using SageTV.

You also mention you have a PVR-150 card. Does that work? How do you have that setup?

Both PVR-150 and PVR-350 are pretty obsolete cards by today's standards. So you might be better off replacing them with more current technology. You don't mention what type of computer you are using. Is your computer also the same six year old vintage? If so, you might need to replace that too. If the computer is too old and slow, basically a doorstop that is too much of a clunker to use for anything else, it is way too old for SageTV too. I've tried using old clunker computers with SageTV years ago, and the results were very poor.

More details about your setup would help. What is your video content source? Over the air, cable, or satellite? Analog or digital? Do you intend to have SageTV work with standard definition or HD?

Dave

[radiopaque]

Originally Posted by davephan

I don't understand what you are talking about using FreqShifter to fill the registry.

Thanks for answering! I am doing that since I am trying to tune in on the cable frequencies. It works a bit differently in The Netherlands than in the States...

Originally Posted by davephan

Your PVR-350 may also have a bad analog tuner. You might be able to use a set top box and use the S-video input instead.

These two cards worked in a different setup (mythtv), so there must be something I am doing wrong software-wise...

Originally Posted by davephan

It's not clear from your post if you are trying to use the PVR-350 for over the air or cable TV. Are there analog over the air or cable TV channels that you can receive?

First line of my original post I am trying cable TV, but currently only the analog signal that is sent over the cable, so that I can use the PVR tuners. Later on, I will deal with the digital channels through the settop box and a USB-UIRT.

Originally Posted by davephan

If you do have analog TV channels available, then you should first try to get the PVR-350 to work with the Hauppauge PVR software, before using SageTV.

You are probably right about that. Once I get home, I'll get that software installed and let you know how I fare.

Originally Posted by davephan

You also mention you have a PVR-150 card. Does that work? How do you have that setup?
Both PVR-150 and PVR-350 are pretty obsolete cards by today's standards. So you might be better off replacing them with more current technology. You don't mention what type of computer you are using. Is your computer also the same six year old vintage? If so, you might need to replace that too. If the computer is too old and slow, basically a doorstop that is too much of a clunker to use for anything else, it is way too old for SageTV too. I've tried using old clunker computers with SageTV years ago, and the results were very poor.

The 150 is currently connected to the s-video output of the settopbox, but I accept that it doesn't work (not configured ).
The system is a Dell Poweredge PE840, a pretty modern machine which should be plenty powerful to run SageTV and CQC...
I would consider an HD or at least full resolution SCART RGB solution for recording, but since most recording cards do not know what to do with an RGB Component signal through SCART, I don't want to invest in hardware until I hear from someone that such a combination works in The Netherlands... An alternative is Sat, but that's an even bigger investment...

Originally Posted by davephan

More details about your setup would help. What is your video content source? Over the air, cable, or satellite? Analog or digital? Do you intend to have SageTV work with standard definition or HD?

I intend to have one hauppauge use analog cable source, one hauppauge digital cable through the setttopbox. Both SD.

Thanks again,

Mark

[radiopaque]

I downloaded the hauppauge software, but it complains that it needs the CD! What kind of installer is that!!

[davephan]

Originally Posted by radiopaque

I downloaded the hauppauge software, but it complains that it needs the CD! What kind of installer is that!!

That's strange. I downloaded the Hauppauge PVR-350 software before and installed it from files on the hard drive. Is the download an ISO file? If so, you can burn the ISO onto a CD with a CD burner. There are a lot of free CD burning software on the web for free too.

Do you have a CD drive in the computer? If you do have a CD drive, does the software have to be on the CD, or is it just looking for the presence of the CD drive?

If you don't have a CD drive, it is a good thing to add to your computer anyway, although the software shouldn't require it. A CD/DVD drive could be added, that way you can rip DVDs and boot from a recovery CD with imaging recovery software.

If the problem turns out to be that the PVR-350 isn't supported anymore, and the software isn't on the Hauppauge web site, I have an older CD with the PVR-350 software, which you might be able to download from one of my computers.

Are the TV signals on cable TV analog? In the US the over the air analog signals are gone and many cable systems are dropping analog too. ClearQAM on cable TV is being dropped in many areas too. So, if that is the trend there, you might need to change your capture card setup in the future.

Dave

[radiopaque]

I just turned the entire house upside down. Took me the better part of an hour, but I found the original CD. After installing, Win2k finds channels perfectly.
The trick is: how do I get this result in SageTV?
There used to be a trick with freqcopy, but those threads are from 2003! If sagetv is not using the registry anymore, that won't work. Is there a place where I can just enter the frequencies?