HDHomeRun Prime + OpenDCT...so close!

[c4674593]

Spent 4 hours on this today so far....got Sage v9 up and running, installed and got schedules direct setup as well as OpenDCT.

It's SO CLOSE to being perfect, but I have a few serious issues:

Missing guide data: random chunks of schedule missing. Very frustrating as it won't allow me to tune to a channel when there's data missing.
http://i.imgur.com/y6NUk4e.png


Incorrect channel mapping: The original guide data pulled in from SD seems ok (minus the above complaint), but it shows ALL channels, not just the ones I subscribe to. If I use the channel "scan" feature it eliminates all the un-tunable channels from the guide, but kills the mappings for a significant number of channels and disables the guide mapped version:
http://i.imgur.com/0VwnALm.png


Where am I going wrong here?

[EnterNoEscape]

Those values coming back from the channel scan in OpenDCT are a little odd looking, but I think I know why that happened. Someone needs to correct me if this is wrong, but it looks like the Schedules Direct EPG appends zeros to the channel numbers. When OpenDCT returns values for a channel scan, it does not do that and has no way to know how the EPG is formatted so that's how you end up with channels being created like you see after the scan. I would imagine that all of the channels that have at least 3 digits look ok.

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by c4674593

Incorrect channel mapping: The original guide data pulled in from SD seems ok (minus the above complaint), but it shows ALL channels, not just the ones I subscribe to. If I use the channel "scan" feature it eliminates all the un-tunable channels from the guide, but kills the mappings for a significant number of channels and disables the guide mapped version:

Where am I going wrong here?

I've never had good results from channel scans on cable card tuners.

I just load the guide data, disable all channels and then enable the ones I want of the ones I get in my subscription.

If I'm in doubt about a channel I use the preview feature to check it out.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

Those values coming back from the channel scan in OpenDCT are a little odd looking, but I think I know why that happened. Someone needs to correct me if this is wrong, but it looks like the Schedules Direct EPG appends zeros to the channel numbers. When OpenDCT returns values for a channel scan, it does not do that and has no way to know how the EPG is formatted so that's how you end up with channels being created like you see after the scan. I would imagine that all of the channels that have at least 3 digits look ok.

Honestly, I didn't even think scanning was implemented in OpenDCT.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Honestly, I didn't even think scanning was implemented in OpenDCT.

A lot of it is there. The best experience would be with an HDHomeRun Prime because it will just take the last scan you did via the web interface of the Prime and everything not marked DRM, it passes right in to SageTV. ATSC scanning with or without the help of the web interface is good too. As for the InfiniTV, since it makes it looks like everything works even when it's just streaming null packets, it's a little more tricky to tell if it's really streaming something or not and SageTV will not give the network encoder enough time to do a proper channel scan, so the only way to use that effectively would be to enable offline scanning which works and won't disrupt recordings, but it feels like it shouldn't be necessary. I don't know if the DVB-T or DVB-C scanning works well or not since I have nothing to test against.

[matt91]

I'm not sure exactly where you are stuck, but I learned previously NOT to run a channel scan in Sage (on my similar setup.)

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&postcount=636

So these would be the steps that got me going:

run HDHR Prime channel scan (via Prime web portal)
run console-only to generate a lineup file
add HDHR Prime (CC) as tuner in sage; download EPG data for cable package
Try to tune channel

[davephan]

I successfully got SageTV OpenDCT to function perfectly with the HDHomerun Prime and SageTV version 9! The instructions below were followed and worked great!

Now, I am trying to add a second HDHomeRun Prime. The second HDHomeRun Prime is functioning with the HDHomeRun Prime Setup Program and is registered to work with Comcast cable. All the channels scan OK using the HDHomeRun Prime setup program. However, for some reason, SageTV cannot 'see' the second set of three HDHomeRun Prime tuners.

Is there some steps that I am missing to get SageTV to recognize the second HDHomeRun Prime tuners?

______________________________________________________________
Steps followed to get the first HDHomeRun Prime working with OpenDCT and SageTV version 9:

Ok, so here's the latest after I uninstalled OpenDCT 0.3.13-beta (Also manually removed folder under C:\ProgramData).

For Reference:

Operating System: Windows 8.1
SageTV Version: 7.1.9.256
Java Version: 1.8.0_66 (32-bit)
Network Tuners: 2x HDHomeRun Prime (CableCard) = 6 Tuners

Installation:

1) Downloaded OpenDCT 0.3.14-beta.
2) Stopped SageDCT Service, Changed Startup Type to Disabled.
3) Stopped SageTV Service.
4) Made Backup Copy of Sage.properties and Wiz.bin.
5) Installed OpenDCT 0.3.14-beta.
6) Ran "OpenDCT Run as Console".
7) CTRL-C on OpenDCT Following Download of Channel Lineups.
8) Ran "OpenDCT Start Service" - Success!
9) Edited and Saved Sage.properties and changed network_encoder_discovery=false to network_encoder_discovery=true.
10) Started SageTV Service.
11) Started SageTV.
12) Setup>Setup Video Sources>Add New Source.
13) Selected New Video Capture Device (Ex. DCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 13113C69-0 on 127.0.0.1:9000).
14) Selected "Digital TV Tuner" (Box Turns Red).
15) Selected "Digital TV Tuner" Again (Message: "The Broadcast Standard is being determined. Please wait...").
16) Selected "Use Tuner on Capture Card to tune Antenna/Cable TV. (To select between Antenna of Cable, use the SageTV installation that is controlling this Network Encoder)".
17) Selected "Use or Copy an Existing Channel Lineup for this Source".
18) Selected the Existing Lineup (Ex. Comcast Digital - Fairfield).
19) Selected "Use the same channel lineup".
20) Repeated Steps 12-19 For Each Remaining OpenDCT Tuner Available.
21) Exited SageTV.
22) Stopped SageTV Service.
23) Edited and Saved Sage.properties and Removed the "mmc/encoders" Entries For Each SageDCT Tuner Identified. (Ex. "mmc/encoders/123456990/video_capture_device_name=SageDCT-HDHomeRun Prime Tuner 13113C69-1" is the Identifying Entry That Ties My SageDCT Tuner to #1234560990, So All "mmc/encoders/1234560990....." Entries Were Deleted As Were 5 Other SageDCT Tuner Entries.
24) Started SageTV Service.
25) Started SageTV.
26) Setup>Setup Video Sources>Add New Source.
27) Confirmed only OpenDCT Tuner Entries Were Present.
28) Tested Recording On All 6 Tuners Simultaneously - Success!

Notes:

1) Default configuration worked fine, no modifications of any file were necessary.
2) OpenDCT Tuners show "DCT-TunerName Etc....." as a Source. I expected "OpenDCT-TunerName Etc....." as a Source. I see no reason why to not do that since SageDCT does it as well.


So far so good, thanks for the hard work by everyone on this project and helping keep SageTV alive. I have high hopes with this release!!

Also, I have attached a copy of the Channel Lineup that was bombing out in the 0.3.13-beta in case it helps clarify what a Lineup might return and why.

[davephan]

Problem solved. I checked my SageTV computer a day o two later, and the new cable card tuners were being displayed as 3 new tuners. I am now running two Silcon Dust Cable Cards, for a total of 6 tuners. I removed the two Hauppauge Win-HVR-2250's digital over-the-air capture cards, and the one Hauppauge Colossus capture cards.

Maybe I'll use the Colossus capture card later to record video /audio streams from an old VCR to get old VHS tapes into a digital format, so I can throw away the old VHS tapes.

I did see a couple errors where the Silcon Dust cable card(s) lost connections. I'll buy two 10/100/1000 Eithernet cards for my SageTV computer, so that each cable card box will have it's own dedicated Eithernet NIC instead of running those two cable cards into my 24 port switch. The cable card network traffic would not have to compete with any other traffic on my home network.

[KryptoNyte]

FYI, SiliconDust finally recognized the problem that some of us Prime users were having with the Prime's falling off the network. They are working on a fix that you can follow in this thread (might be best to start on the last page of the thread and start reading backwards);

https://forum.silicondust.com/forum/...?f=113&t=33934

[Bob F]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

FYI, SiliconDust finally recognized the problem that some of us Prime users were having with the Prime's falling off the network. They are working on a fix that you can follow in this thread (might be best to start on the last page of the thread and start reading backwards);

https://forum.silicondust.com/forum/...?f=113&t=33934

I am having this problem in 2021, but that link is dead, and I have been unable to find such a thread. If anyone has pertinent info, or other sources of a real fix to this, I would appreciate help. I have read about the scripts to reset the modem or computer, but consider those a little flaky. I have found the best solution currently for me is to reboot the PC frequently, but would like to eliminate the problem.

[KryptoNyte]

There was a firmware update that eventually fixed the problem. Check to make sure that you Prime is running the latest firmware.