ATSC Problem - Avertv Hybrid Volar Max TV Tuner Kit (H826) (2 Viewers)

[cdalton713]

Hello,

I just bought an Avert Hybrid Volar Max USB tuner. It currently works fine on Windows Media Center, but after reading about MediaPortal I would like to switch to using this for Live TV.

When I get to the tv setup options I have two options: Analog AverMedia H826 Hybrid TV and ATSC AverMedia H826 Hybrid TV. I can tune the Analog tuner just fine, but I can not get the ATSC tuner to work. I found an old forum with this problem, but it was posted in 2010. I'm hoping that since then there may be a work around. Any help would be great. I'm not sure which of the logs would be helpful, but Ill post whichever one you may need.

Thanks

 

[mm1352000]

Hello and welcome

You may know this already, but just in case you weren't aware: hybrid means that at any given time you can only use the analog tuner or the ATSC tuner. You can't use both at once.
MP supports hybrid tuners. They do need a little extra configuration as described here:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...er_Configuration/02_TV_Servers/1_Hybrid_Cards

That basically prevents TV Server from trying to use both "parts" of the tuner at once.

If you've configured your tuner correctly and you're still having trouble, best thing to do is post all your log files. It is far better for us to have more information than we need than to keep nagging. So:
1. Open TV Server configuration.
2. Click "open log directory" in the top left corner.
3. Zip up the files you find there.
4. Attach the zip file here.

Note: I'm about to have a search for the old thread you mentioned, but it would be good if you could also provide a link so we know we're talking about the same thing.

Cheers,
mm

 

[mm1352000]

Me again.

So I guess you're referring to this thread:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...r-max-h826-does-not-tune-atsc-channels.79301/

Could you confirm?

 

[cdalton713]

Sorry about the slow reply, I've been out of town the last few days and haven't been able to get near the computer with the card.

Yep that's the thread.
I just ran the scan again. I did the Analogue search and found channels, but when I did the ATSC search (with or without QAM) nothing came up. I know I have channels 1-10ish, so I cancelled the scan when it wouldn't pick up anything in that range (to save time). Here are the log files too.

 

[mm1352000]

Hello again

First, thanks for the log files.

Sorry about the slow reply, I've been out of town the last few days and haven't been able to get near the computer with the card.

No need to apologise. We've been pretty busy here with the release of MP 1.3 beta too.

From the other thread:

If Generic Provider is selected, then scanning for ATSC OTA channels results in BSOD telling that bdasup.sys is causing the error.

When I switch preferred network provider to ATSC, there is no crash during the scan, but none of the ATSC channels are found.

This "preferred network provider" setting that is being referred to can be found here:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...nfiguration/02_TV_Servers#Edit_Tuner_Settings

From the log files it looks like you're using "generic". Since you're not seeing a BSOD (blue-screen-of-death = total computer crash) like the person from the other thread, I don't think you're dealing with the same problem.
I'd absolutely encourage you to try the "ATSC" network provider. We do recommend the "generic" option on Windows Vista upwards, however some tuners require the use of the other options. That's just how it goes sometimes with tuner drivers.

Based on the pictures of your tuner on AVerMedia's website, it looks like it is a USB stick with only one cable/aerial connector. Is that correct?
If so, I guess that you must have the tuner hooked up to a cable connection rather than an aerial since as far as I'm aware they've pretty much stopped broadcasting analog (NTSC) over-the-air in the US.
That means when you scan, you should be scanning with "tune QAM instead of ATSC" ticked.
If I'm wrong and you do have the tuner connected to an aerial, you should be scanning with "tune QAM instead of ATSC" unticked.

...but when I did the ATSC search (with or without QAM) nothing came up. I know I have channels 1-10ish, so I cancelled the scan when it wouldn't pick up anything in that range (to save time).

The 1..10 numbers that you're aware of are almost certainly virtual channel numbers. It is not possible to scan by virtual channel number with PC tuners, so when you see the channel number references there you're seeing physical channel numbers. Virtual channel 1 might be carried on physical channel 50... so in other words, you need to let the scan run all the way through to be sure that nothing is found. I know it is time consuming, but hopefully you only have to do it once.

About the "QAM tuning frequencies" field: most people should select "QAM standard" or "QAM HRC". HRC+3 and IRC are not very common as far as I'm aware. "QAM Std. Alternative" is almost identical to "QAM standard". You should really only use that option if you're missing a few channels.

Generally speaking it looks like the digital side of the tuner is functioning okay. It just isn't finding channels.
Summary:

• try the "ATSC" network provider
• choose the right value for "tune QAM instead of ATSC"
• let scans run all the way through
• try QAM standard, then QAM HRC... then if all else fails try the other options

mm

 

[cdalton713]

I've made progress, and thanks for all this help.

After running ATSC with QAM for all the variations - Standard, Alt, HRC, etc - I've found 34 channels. The scans pick up hundreds, but I'm assuming these are the scrambled channels from Cox that need their cable box, so these do not work. I have 34 channels, but with regular cable I am usually have 50-60. Are there any other QAM modes I could possibly scan with, or are the 50-60 channels I usually have a combination of Analogue and ATSC channels mixed together, which is why I have so many more than I have now? I also do not have sound just yet, which audio codec is usually recommended?

Thanks again for all this help, and here are the logs if they'd be useful for anyone.

 

[mm1352000]

The scans pick up hundreds, but I'm assuming these are the scrambled channels from Cox that need their cable box, so these do not work.

The ones with the red icon next to them are scrambled. The ones with the green icon should be in-the-clear.

Are there any other QAM modes I could possibly scan with...

The QAM modes are frequency plans. All cable providers use the same frequency spectrum - roughly 100 MHz - 900 MHz. It is just a question of how they divide that up. See here for more info:
http://www.jneuhaus.com/fccindex/cablech.html
You'll see that the frequencies for each channel only vary a little from plan to plan. If you pick the wrong plan then you're not going to get optimal signal reception because the tuner will be locking on to the wrong frequencies.

In other words, the answer is no... and ideally you should ask your provider what frequency plan they use so that you can scan with the correct option in MediaPortal.

...or are the 50-60 channels I usually have a combination of Analogue and ATSC channels mixed together...

No idea. It is possible. The only person who can answer questions like this is your cable provider.

I also do not have sound just yet, which audio codec is usually recommended?

Your analog audio will be MPEG format.
The digital audio will be AC3.
Try AC3Filter or LAV.
http://ac3filter.net/
http://1f0.de/downloads/

mm

 

[cdalton713]

Thanks again for all this help, and I swear this is my last question lol (hopefully).

I searched the forums but didn't see any answers to this. All of my channels have "UNKNOWN" followed by different long numbers as their names. The channels work fine, but they're not much use without some type of name to work with. I scanned with webEPG and the other channel guide addons, but they don't recognize these names. I then renamed the channels by clicking "Rename channels by SID", which webEPG could pick up, but it information was not correct and I now have multiple channels named 1,3,11, etc. Sorry if this is a simple fix, but as you can see I'm very new to this program.

Thanks!

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks again for all this help, and I swear this is my last question lol (hopefully).

No problem... and keep asking if you have questions... though this post that I made recently may have helped:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...ome-here-for-support.5231/page-51#post-937051

We're going to try and get that information added to our wiki (which should generally be your first port of call for info, but is currently lacking detail on ATSC and North American cable).

All of my channels have "UNKNOWN" followed by different long numbers as their names.

This is normal for most cable channels. I explained the reason in the post linked above:

Channels found via a cable (QAM) scan are unlikely to have proper names. This is because cable providers usually only provide the name info via a so called "OOB" (out of band) channel that PC tuners can't receive. Consider yourself *extremely* lucky if you get proper names. Otherwise, it is a case of trial and error to see which channels can be received and what they are actually called. Sorry - every other piece of software except WMC and HDHomeRun config/QuickTV have this problem. Blame the cable providers.

The channels work fine, but they're not much use without some type of name to work with.... I then renamed the channels by clicking "Rename channels by SID", which webEPG could pick up, but it information was not correct and I now have multiple channels named 1,3,11, etc.

The "UNKNOWN ..." means the name was not found. The numbers on the end are <frequency>-<service ID>. They're meaningless from your perspective, but it is really all the information that we have available.
You can give the channels proper names.
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...TV_Channels#Two_slow_clicks_on_a_channel-name

So click on the name, wait about half a second, then click again... and you'll be able to enter the name. Or click edit, enter the name up the top of the popup, then click OK.

Sorry if this is a simple fix, but as you can see I'm very new to this program.

Everybody has questions to start off with. No need to apologise.

mm