CableCARD tuner support for MediaPortal 1 (2 Viewers)

[breese]

mm1352000, While I do not have a CableCard, I have loaded the new code and tested against my Hauppauge card on the Digital WOW Cable connection.
Scanning went well but, the HD channels Wow has QAM on were not found. I did 2 scans using Clear QAM Cable and QAM Standard. 378 total channels found.

Thing to note is there are less options for scanning
Tuning Mode: ATSC Digital Terrestrial, Clear QAM Cable, Digital Cable
QAM Tuning Frequencies: (same as before) QAM HRC+3, QAM HRC, QAM IRC, QAM Standard, QAM Std Alternative

For non-cablecard users, but directly connected to a Digital Cable Service, should they be using Clear QAM Cable or Digital Cable?

Seeing I have done 2 scans with Clear QAM Cable, I am now going to test Digital Cable just to see the results.
More to follow but wanted you to know that there is someone testing......

 

[Sigpi007]

I'll be testing on the Ceton eth 6 hopefully on Saturday. Will post feedback as soon as scan is complete. FYI... I'm also in the same location with same cable provider as breese. Not sure if that helps for minimizing variables in any way.

 

[CodeMonkey]

I know the patch has only been out for 24 hours or so, but I have to say I'm itching for feedback. AsAre there any "big ticket" features that we are missing?

1. Are there any annoying bugs or usability issues that you'd like to see fixed?
2. What is the one thing that frustrates you the most about MP's TV Server?
3. Why do you use TV Server instead of one of the many alternatives?
4. What is/was the hardest thing for you to setup with MP's TV Server?

The above questions are really just starters. I'm open to hearing any feedback (though I'd prefer it if you stuck to the general topic of TV and radio).
Your feedback will be considered when it comes to planning what we do and how we do it going forward.

I live in the northern US but I really have not been able to use MP for television viewing so far for two reasons:
1) I have cable as my provider and until your wonderful recent work, it wasn't a viable option in MP. Now if only I had FIOS or ComCast
2) I am in the footprint for the Canadian satellite provider. But MP does not support the software needed to decrypt that signal (mainly because it can be used to illegally decrypt satellite TV as well).

So I suffer with the piece of crap cable box (did I ever mention I want FIOS to come here? ). And use a lightweight non-public piece of software to watch the Canadian TV. It is nowhere near as pretty or feature rich as MP however.

I would be surprised if there were a lot MP users in the US right now. But with cable becoming a very viable option for a lot of people that may well change!

 

[mediacowboy]

MM,

So far everything is working. The only thing is have noticed is my channels from the CableCard are all showing up red. I can tune to them and view them from WebMediaPortal. Have not tried in MePo 1.4 yet as this involves kicking the wife and kids off the tv. Will keep testing and report back. Thank you for all your hard work.

MediaCowboy

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks for the feedback folks - much appreciated!

Scanning went well but, the HD channels Wow has QAM on were not found.

Right - that is a bit of an issue. Funny - as I recall they were the only ones that had names previously, so maybe they don't have names now?

Thing to note is there are less options for scanning...

That is an illusion.
Basically what I did is turned that tick/check box into the tuning mode setting and added one extra option.
For ATSC (over-the-air) use "ATSC Digital Terrestrial".
For cable with a clear QAM tuner use "Clear QAM Cable".
For cable with a CableCARD tuner use "Digital Cable".

For non-cablecard users, but directly connected to a Digital Cable Service, should they be using Clear QAM Cable or Digital Cable?

As above: "Clear QAM Cable". "Digital Cable" won't work properly for non-CableCARD.

More to follow but wanted you to know that there is someone testing......

Cheers!

So far everything is working.

The only thing is have noticed is my channels from the CableCard are all showing up red.

That is normal - it means they are encrypted.

 

[breese]

MM,
Forget the scan test below...
Turns out I had the wrong cable line pluged into the card when I did this scan..
I will retest....

I completed a terrestrial scan and found a few things.
First, when I went to clear the log files, I was unable to delete the SetupTV file. I went to Manual and stopped the process, still could not delete it. Went into Task Manager and stopped the TVservice, then I could delete the file. Also had to do this when done with the scan because I was unable to Zip the file with it locked.

The terrestrial scan is not showing QAM Channel names at all..
Besides the normal server logs I am including a screenshot because the other fields are filling in better then I have seen before.

I am going to go back and continue scanning the Cable side..... see what is going on with the few QAM channel names I should be seing...
thanks

 

[mm1352000]

Turns out I had the wrong cable line pluged into the card when I did this scan..

First, when I went to clear the log files, I was unable to delete the SetupTV file. I went to Manual and stopped the process, still could not delete it. Went into Task Manager and stopped the TVservice, then I could delete the file. Also had to do this when done with the scan because I was unable to Zip the file with it locked.

Hmmm, that is due to the new logging framework in MP 1.4. I knew you couldn't wipe the files but I didn't realise you couldn't even zip 'em. Nothing I can do about this I'm afraid.

The terrestrial scan is not showing QAM Channel names at all..

Awesome - found a bug.
Please try the attached TsWriter. It should work for both MP 1.3 and MP 1.4. You'll need to stop the TV service before replacing.

Besides the normal server logs I am including a screenshot because the other fields are filling in better then I have seen before.

I don't see the screenshot.

 

[twemperor]

I installed the patch for MP 1.4. I have the Ceton InfiniTV 4 PCIe and Verizon FiOS TV in the US, and this CableCard support is amazing.

Everything seems to be running great. The channel scanning seemed faster than the 1.3Alpha patch. After a few test channel changes, the tuning seemed both faster (sometimes < 5s) and slower (other times ~30s). I will run some tests this weekend and post logs.

Overall, I wanted to say thank you for working on this feature, and the general support of TV in MP.

 

[breese]

MM, a little bad news when it comes to OTA scans

ota_test.zip shows no qam found on the OTA.

When I tried to rerun the scan, the window did not clear the findings from the first and grayed out the pull downs. 2nd_scan_bug.zip has the log and a screenshot

3rd_scan_NoQAM.zip found 55 chanels but did not find the channel names

I verified by OTA connection by using the WinTV application.
WinTV found 50 QAM OTA Channels

Sample of channels found using WinTV: (Yes I know to stop the non-needed process before starting the other)
<Channel>
<ShortName>Movies!</ShortName>
<Major>50</Major>
<Minor>2</Minor>
<ModulationMode>4</ModulationMode>
<CarrierFrequency>0</CarrierFrequency>
<ChannelTSID>1113</ChannelTSID>
<ProgramNumber>4</ProgramNumber>
<ETMLocation>0</ETMLocation>
<AccessControlled>0</AccessControlled>
<Hidden>0</Hidden>
<HideGuide>0</HideGuide>
<ServiceType>2</ServiceType>
<SourceId>2</SourceId>
<Streams>
<Stream>
<PID>65</PID>
<Type>2</Type>
<Description>ITU-T Rec. H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2 Video or ISO/IEC 11172-2 constrained parameter video stream</Description>
<FlagVals>0</FlagVals>
</Stream>
<Stream>
<PID>68</PID>
<Type>129</Type>
<Description>TBD</Description>
<FlagVals>0</FlagVals>
</Stream>
<Stream>
<PID>69</PID>
<Type>129</Type>
<Description>TBD</Description>
<FlagVals>0</FlagVals>
</Stream>
</Streams>
</Channel>

 

[mm1352000]

Hello again breese

First, thanks for your continued feedback - it is great.

MM, a little bad news when it comes to OTA scans



ota_test.zip shows no qam found on the OTA.

I can see progress. The names are now in the log files...
New (and hopefully final) TsWriter attached.

When I tried to rerun the scan, the window did not clear the findings from the first and grayed out the pull downs. 2nd_scan_bug.zip has the log and a screenshot

There isn't enough info here for me to track down what is going on. What I really needed was the SetupTv log.

3rd_scan_NoQAM.zip found 55 chanels but did not find the channel names

As above - I think we've got this sorted now.

I verified by OTA connection by using the WinTV application.

WinTV found 50 QAM OTA Channels

A quick technical note: QAM is a modulation scheme used for cable, so when I say QAM I'm referring to cable TV. The equivalent term for OTA would be VSB (vestigial side band).
In your first log file (ota_test1.zip) MP finds 43 channels; in the third (3rd_scan_NoQAM.zip) MP finds 56. The difference is due to 10 channels found from [physical] channel 38, 3 channels not found from [physical] channel 21, and 6 channels found from [physical] channel 22. I guess your signal quality/strength for these particular channels must be marginal.