sagetv 9 and HDHR Quatro... no channels

[irishattorney]

Hi,
I just bought the Quatro and attempted to use it with Sagetv9. Sage saw the device, all 4 tuners, but it could not find any channels when it scanned.

No other sources on sagetv. Downloaded channel lineup from schedule direct.

The HDHR software found channels.

How can I get sagetv to work with the Quatro?

Thanks,

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by irishattorney

Hi,
I just bought the Quatro and attempted to use it with Sagetv9. Sage saw the device, all 4 tuners, but it could not find any channels when it scanned.

No other sources on sagetv. Downloaded channel lineup from schedule direct.

The HDHR software found channels.

How can I get sagetv to work with the Quatro?

Thanks,

I had to do a channel scan from the web UI of my Connect (not Quatro, but guessing similar) before SageTV picked up the channels.

[irishattorney]

The web search that connects to the HDHR came up with channels and I can view them with the silicon dust software, but sage tV is not finding them.

When my Tv tunes them in directly the channels are like 10.1 19.4 etc. Same for t he silicon dust software.

Anyway to manually tune them in?

Any idea what is wrong?

[Tiki]

What is your source: OTA antenna, or digital cable QAM?
The setup process is different depending on the source.

[irishattorney]

Hi Tiki,

I am doing digital cable clear Qam. My TV tunes it without a card. The HDHR tunes it with the silicondust software, but SAGETV does not get it.

Sage sees the 4 tuners 0-3.

I set the HDHR software to sagetv.

I used channel direct for the local cable company and tried scanning with and without a channel list.( Not sure if the channel list effects the ability to scan for channels)

Am I missing some software that sagetv requires? Aside from downloading and installing sagetv 9.17 what else do I need?


Your help is greatly appreciated.

[irishattorney]

Someone on another forum asked if I was using OPENDCT, is that required?

I am using windows 7, is OPENDCT for windows or only linux?

If not required, is it better than just using sagetv?

[JustFred]

Originally Posted by irishattorney

Am I missing some software that sagetv requires? Aside from downloading and installing sagetv 9.17 what else do I need?

All that's needed is the HDHR setup software and Sage. No other software needed.

The HDHR tunes it with the silicondust software, but SAGETV does not get it.

It would be helpful to have some more info about your system. Example: What OS is being used: Windows (which version?), or Linux? Is the HDHR s/w installed on the same PC as Sage?

After performing HDHR setup's channel scan, did you also have Sage do a channel scan (Setup -> select input source -> Channel Setup -> Scan for available channels)? If so, what channels did the scan report?

Have you tried rebooting the computer since running HDHR setup?

Someone on another forum asked if I was using OPENDCT, is that required?

I am using windows 7, is OPENDCT for windows or only linux?

If not required, is it better than just using sagetv?

When tuning clear QAM stations, OpenDCT isn't required.

[irishattorney]

Hi Fred,

Windows 7 Pro. Sage 9.17 and HDHR Version 20171013beta1 software on same computer. First did normal HDHR, now trying Beta. For both HDHR found 34 channels on their scan.

I did a sagetv scan multiple times, found 0.

[JustFred]

Time to gather some more info. Restart Sage. Capture the Source Details screen for one of the HDHR tuners. Then, go to Channel Setup -> Scan for Available channels for that tuner. Time how long it takes to do the scan (probably will be somewhere around 30 seconds or so).

Completely shutdown Sage (Placeshifter, Client & the service). Copy the following files from the SageTv/SageTv program folder: sage.properties, the relevant *QAM.frq and *QAM.scn files for the specific tuner and sagetv_0.txt.

Locate the "Digital Cable.xml" file (probably in C:/ProgramData/SiliconDust/HDHomeRun). Copy that file, too.

Post all the above (will probably need to zip them) and the screen capture, along with how many seconds it took Sage to do the scan. All this may provide some further clues.

[irishattorney]

Hi,

I did not find a digital cable xml, I did a computer search. I did find a hdhomerun digital cable wpl.

The tuner I did the scan on was tuner 0. It took 25 seconds this time, but when I first tried it a while back it took a long time. Never has it found a channel. I included the tuner frq ans scn for tuner 2 as well.

I have attempted to attach the zip, hopefully it will work.

And thank you very much!

[JustFred]

Originally Posted by irishattorney

Hi,

I did not find a digital cable xml, I did a computer search. I did find a hdhomerun digital cable wpl.

Do you see C:/ProgramData ? It may be a hidden folder; un-hide it and search for the .xml file

The tuner I did the scan on was tuner 0. It took 25 seconds this time, but when I first tried it a while back it took a long time. Never has it found a channel. I included the tuner frq ans scn for tuner 2 as well.

I have attempted to attach the zip, hopefully it will work.

And thank you very much!

The .scn file should contain channel-scan info created by SiliconDust. Instead, yours is basically empty. That probably explains why Sage doesn't find any channels. Sage then creates the .frq file (also empty) from what it finds in the .scn.

Unfortunately, sagetv_0.txt doesn't contain any of the channel-scan debug info, either because the scan wasn't done immediately after restarting Sage and/or because there's soooooo many other Exceptions being logged. Next time, post sagetv_0 thru _4.txt.

Hard to tell if there are multiple problems in addition to the HDHR scan issue.

Is this a brand-new Sage install? Has it ever worked correctly? Do you have any other tuners cards that you can setup?

I set the HDHR software to sagetv.

Can you again confirm that in the HDHomeRun Setup app, Application tab, Main Application is set to "SageTV"?

It's also worth rerunning HDHR's scan. When it finishes, be sure to click "Apply". Then exit HDHR Setup. At this point the contents of the xml file should contain the scan results. Stop & restart Sage. Then do another Sage scan. See if the .scn file contains valid channel info.

[irishattorney]

I did find the xml in that hidden file, thank you.. but all it said was:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<Lineup />

One thing though... and I do not know if it is only for the quatro, but when I scan for channels, I do not do it with the software on my computer, they have me go to: my.hdhomerun.com and scan through their website.

Attached are screenshots.

Is that how you set up your quatro? or did you have software to scan it on your computer?

Hmm thinking out loud... maybe my chrome would not allow that site to write to my computer?

[irishattorney]

the other sage info

Thanks again

[JustFred]

PM sent.

[JustFred]

Whoa.... Let's back the up the truck ... did you download and install the HdHomerun Setup program? I'm guessing NOT. Get it here: https://www.silicondust.com/support/downloads/

You want "HDHomeRun Software for Windows".

Install & run the setup program. Have it scan for channels. Check for the .xml file.

[Tiki]

I think JustFred is on the right track. It's been years since I setup an HDHR for clear QAM, since Comcast started encrypting 100% of their channels several years ago and requiring a cable box for everything. But, here is the setup procedure as I remember it:

1. Install SageTV.
2. Install Silicon Dust HDHR software on the same PC (must be done after Sage is installed).
3. Run the HDHR setup program.
4. Make sure the HDHR setup program shows "SageTV" as the main application (this choice won't show up if Sage isn't already installed, and won't be able to scan for channels in Sage if this isn't selected).
5. Scan for channels in the HDHR setup program. Repeat this for each tuner. This step should generate *.scn files that Sage will use later.
6. Launch SageTV.
7. Add the HDHR tuner in Sage.
8. Scan for channels in Sage. This should be very fast as it won't really be doing a scan - it should just read the *.scn files and use them to generate *.frq files. This needs to be repeated for each tuner in the HDHR.

If this doesn't work, Sage probably couldn't find the *.scn files, or they weren't created correctly and would need to figure out why. The *.scn files are just text files with information about the stations that the HDHR was able to find when it scanned for channels.

[irishattorney]

Thanks everyone.
I got it working.. sort of.

The problem was when I followed the Silicondust instructions, it said to scan for channels through their website. I did download their software and set it to sage and scanned for tuners... but on the next tab I did not scan for channels. Did not even notice I was supposed to. The silicon dust viewer worked fine without it.

One more question, the four tuners all work, I pick up 34 channels mainly the major networks and their sub channels, but my TV internal tuner picks up over 70... the ones missing are cable channels like MTV CNN Nick etc... Any idea why my TV would tune them in ( without a cable card) but the Quatro does not?

[JustFred]

Originally Posted by irishattorney

Thanks everyone.
One more question, the four tuners all work, I pick up 34 channels mainly the major networks and their sub channels, but my TV internal tuner picks up over 70... the ones missing are cable channels like MTV CNN Nick etc... Any idea why my TV would tune them in ( without a cable card) but the Quatro does not?

Hard to guess without some more info. What are the channel NUMBERS that your TV picks up that the Quatro doesn't see?

Using the TV as a debug tool, compare the channel info between a channel the Quatro sees, vs. one that's seen only by the TV. Is one analog (not just ATSC) and the other digital (QAM)?

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by irishattorney

Thanks everyone.
I got it working.. sort of.

The problem was when I followed the Silicondust instructions, it said to scan for channels through their website. I did download their software and set it to sage and scanned for tuners... but on the next tab I did not scan for channels. Did not even notice I was supposed to. The silicon dust viewer worked fine without it.

One more question, the four tuners all work, I pick up 34 channels mainly the major networks and their sub channels, but my TV internal tuner picks up over 70... the ones missing are cable channels like MTV CNN Nick etc... Any idea why my TV would tune them in ( without a cable card) but the Quatro does not?

I assume that Sage is able to get all the channels that show up without DRM in the Silicon Dust app? If so, it sounds like an issue that Silicon Dust would need to help with. I've heard mostly good things about their tech support, so I would reach out to them.

[irishattorney]

Thanks everyone. I was able to get it.. sort of... working.

I moved to the Columbia SC area temporarily and they have non HD or analog channels over the Cable along with HD. The Quatro was able to tune the HD then I dug out an old analog tuner I have not used in ten years and now I get the other channels.

Have an issue with play back, but will open a new thread for that.

Thanks again.