[solved] Advice on settin up a new System (1 Viewer)

[deamon_knight]

Hi, I've been looking into several options for a new HTPC for a while, and I'm trying to give MediaPortal a shot.

I'm currently running an older WinXP MCE system, and its running fine, but I'm thinking of replacing it. I'm trying to set up a new system running Windows 7 and MediaPortal. In my new system I have an Hauppauge HVR-2250 and HVR-1600. It has 3GB RAM, Pentium E5200 and Nvidia GeForce 210 video card. This is a testbed before dismantling and replacing the XPMCE system, but I think it meets the minimum requirements. I'm running Mediaportal 1.9.0, and I have an account with Schedules Direct for EPG data.

My cable service is Time Warner in Columbus Ohio, and I have the standard service, which has 70 channels in analog cable, and some in ClearQAM digital. I may add another card if there is OTA Digital channels I want, but I don't think that is the case. Ideally, I would like to watch and record Digital shows when available, but fall back to Standard Analog if digital tuners are in use, or there is no digital channel.

Using the Native Hauppauge Software I can tune about 30 Digital Channels from my cable service. This includes most Hi-Def local stations that I want, and some other stuff from my cable service I don't care about (several cable access, HSN, and movies on demand advertisement channels.)

I've tried to follow the wiki on setting up a new system for TV viewing/recoding(Combined Frontend and Backend) However, when I scan with the Media Portal TV Server Setup for Standard QAM, I get almost 300 digital channels. If I eliminate those that are encrypted and try the test timeshifting, I get about 17 Channels, and none of the Local HD Broadcast channels I want. There are entries for my local broadcast channels, but using the "Preview" Button, I keep getting no signal.

Also, I'm not clear on the differemce between MP1 and MP2. MP2 seems to be a newer codebase, should I be using that instead?

Any Suggestions on what I should do? Thanks

 

[mm1352000]

Hello and welcome

My cable service is Time Warner in Columbus Ohio, and I have the standard service, which has 70 channels in analog cable, and some in ClearQAM digital. I may add another card if there is OTA Digital channels I want, but I don't think that is the case. Ideally, I would like to watch and record Digital shows when available, but fall back to Standard Analog if digital tuners are in use, or there is no digital channel.

Sounds doable.

However, when I scan with the Media Portal TV Server Setup for Standard QAM, I get almost 300 digital channels. If I eliminate those that are encrypted and try the test timeshifting, I get about 17 Channels, and none of the Local HD Broadcast channels I want.

Did you let the scan run all the way through?
Are you sure that the local HD broadcast channels are digital and not analog?
Unfortunately MediaPortal doesn't always get the encrypted/not-encrypted detection right, so it pays to untick (not delete) the "encrypted" channels. You may find some are actually not encrypted after all... and could be the missing HD channels you're looking for.

There are entries for my local broadcast channels, but using the "Preview" Button, I keep getting no signal.

Okay. Maybe you're running into this:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/missing-channels.122847/

Can't tell for sure unless you post log files:

1. Open TV Server configuration.
2. Click "open log directory" in the top left corner.
3. Zip up all the files in that folder.
4. Post/attach the zip file here.

Also, I'm not clear on the differemce between MP1 and MP2. MP2 seems to be a newer codebase, should I be using that instead?

MP2 is a completely different code base.
No, I would not recommend using MP2 instead. The North American (US/Canada) TV support is currently better with MP1/TVE 3.

Any Suggestions on what I should do? Thanks

Yes, for a start please post log files as described above.
It isn't clear which kind(s) of scan(s) you're going to need to run to pick up your channels, so any additional information you can provide - including your zip code, a channel information/database/export from Hauppauge WinTV if you can figure out how to do that, and a list of the channels you're missing - would be useful.

Regards,
mm

 

[deamon_knight]

Hi, mm1352000, Thanks for the help. Logs are Attached.

I'm in Columbus OH, Zip 43214. I'm fairly sure that the channel scan completed. I selected on of my ATSC cards in the TV Server section, and selected "Clear QAM Cable" as the tuning mode and "QAM Standard" as the frequency. The indicator bar moved from left to right... and that processes seems to being working correctly for scanning Analog Channels. As to whether these channels are broadcast in digital rather than analog, the WinTV software detects them when I do a digital scan (and WinTV runs different analog and Digital scans), so I think they are. Your link may be he problem I have, but I don't know what I'd need to change to solve it. What would the correct channel info for the channels I want? I can't find a way to dump the channel info from WinTV, so let me use an example:

WBNS-10 TV is my CBS affiliate. WinTV can view this channel in HD from my Cable Service. It says this is Channel 2080, Physical Channel 98, but does not give me any frequency info. Within the MediaPortal TV Setup utility. In the "TV Channels" sedction It shows a WBNS-10 Channel, but call this Channel ID 1199, Channel 98, Frequency: 622250. When I try to use the preview button to watch this channel, if fails with an "unknown error" dialog box.[DOUBLEPOST=1415727359][/DOUBLEPOST]Perhaps I'm over thinking this? Can the schedules direct info provide the correct channel and tuning info? I thought I had sucess with something like that in MythTV?

 

[deamon_knight]

Haven't had much time to commit to this, but I'm still stuck. Right now I can install the Native Hauppage WinTV Client, and it detects my analog and digital channels, about 60 Analog and 30 Digital. I have also connected a TV directly to the same cable drop and it can scan for the channels and it gets my list of channels in Analog and HD without an error.

Perhaps I'm over thinking this, does anyone have a walk though or guide that would be right for my situation?

 

[deamon_knight]

OK Solved most of my starting problems. I had a loose connection and a bad cable. Solved that, I can preview all my channels, I've got my guide set up and I can connect to my TV server in MediaPortal setup. However, when I start MediaPortal, I select TV or TV Guide, and nothing happens.

Logs Attached

 

[deamon_knight]

Looks like my new problems are a result of the TV plugin being disabled, (maybe this is a default?) and not creating the Radio "all channels" group.