channel change while watching TV not working (1 Viewer)

[laserheat]

I am seeing some strange behavior with my hauppauge remote setup. I have a Colossus capture card and I am using the hauppauge remote IR blaster. I can select any channel in the guide and it will change channels fine. Everything works like it should. Now, if i am watching a channel and press the number buttons on the remote to go to another channel, the numbers show but the channel change never occurs. I have not been able to figure out why. The other strange behavior is while I am in the guide, and I enter a channel number directly, the numbers display but it just goes to the beginning of the guide instead of the channel I want to go to. I have unchecked select channel by index in the MP config. Which I believe should allow me to go directly to the channel I enter while in the guide, but it made no difference. I am in the US and using schedules direct with a clean install. Been using MP for several years on a hauppauge 150 and decided to upgrade to the Colossus HD. Everything working except direct channel change/entry. Will post logs after recordings are done. Hope someone has heard of this, could be Colossus related?

 

[laserheat]

I have attached the logs. I tuned to channel 201 paging up through the guide to get to that channel and the blaster works fine. While watching 201 I tried changing the channel to 212 by entering the number directly on the remote. The numbers do show up on the screen but no channel change occurs. I also tried entering the channel while in the guide (instead of paging or using the arrow keys) and entering any channel number makes the guide go back to the beginning (channel 1). Thanks for your help.

 

[mm1352000]

Hello laserheat

First, let us clarify one thing...
It does not matter how you select the channel that you want to view - whether using the mini guide, full guide, entering the ch# with the remote, or entering the channel index with the the remote... using remote, keyboard or mouse. None of those will make any difference whatsoever to the number that is sent to the set top box. So it really shouldn't matter if you have select channel by index ticked or unticked etc. etc. etc. What does matter is triggering MP to tell TV Server to start TV or change channel. In other words, what I'm saying is the problem is that whatever you're doing right now... it is not a method that MP recognises as "oh, laserheat wants to change the channel now", because MP is not telling TV Server to change the channel (and hence blaster commands are not being sent).

Given the above, I suspect there is a misunderstanding about how zapping works in MP.

As I understand it and off the top of my head, if you want to use the remote to zap directly to a channel by entering its number, you must be currently playing full screen TV. To say that a different way, if you're in the guide and you want to start a particular channel by entering its number, you first have to start full screen TV [on any channel], then enter the number of the channel you want to zap to.

I also tried entering the channel while in the guide (instead of paging or using the arrow keys) and entering any channel number makes the guide go back to the beginning (channel 1).

If I'm right with my previous comment then this will not work because MP doesn't support it.

If I'm right with my previous comment, it would be good to confirm...
What happens if you start watching 201 in full screen, then you enter the digits 212?
I'd expect if your remote is working and the blaster is working then you should be zapped to channel 212.

mm

 

[laserheat]

Thanks mm. Yes that is how it should work. And that is my problem it's not working that way. I am in full screen watching TV (say channel 201) I press the digits 212 I see them appear on the screen, but the channel change never happens. So I am thinking well maybe I need to hit the ok button, I hear the sound like when you bring up a menu, but nothing happens even after I hit OK after a 2 digit channel. Same thing happens using the keyboard. I can enter digits on the keyboard and they show on the screen as I enter them, but channel change never happens even if I hit enter. If I select a channel in the guide (using up down arrow keys) I have no problem, the blaster changes the cable box and I go to the correct channel. So I know the blaster is setup and working fine. There is some disconnect happening when changing channels directly.......need some help guys and gals.

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks mm. Yes that is how it should work. And that is my problem it's not working that way. I am in full screen watching TV (say channel 201) I press the digits 212 I see them appear on the screen, but the channel change never happens.
... Same thing happens using the keyboard.

Hmmm, that is a problem.

So I am thinking well maybe I need to hit the ok button, I hear the sound like when you bring up a menu, but nothing happens even after I hit OK after a 2 digit channel.

You should not use the ok button at all. I'm not sure what would happen, but it definitely won't be what you expect.
Entering 12 should trigger a channel change after a few seconds (there is a timeout controlled by the zap timeout setting).
If you need to, you can enter 012 instead of 12 in order to trigger channel change immediately.

I can enter digits on the keyboard and they show on the screen as I enter them, but channel change never happens even if I hit enter.

Again, do not hit enter.
You may have to wait a few seconds after entering the number - the exact wait time depends on your zap timeout setting.

If I select a channel in the guide (using up down arrow keys) I have no problem, the blaster changes the cable box and I go to the correct channel. So I know the blaster is setup and working fine. There is some disconnect happening when changing channels directly.......need some help guys and gals.

At this point I'm not sure exactly what is happening but clearly you should [when watching full screen TV] be able to enter a number and have MP change to that channel.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again

I've had a look at the code and I think what may be happening is...
When you are entering the channel number, MP is searching through your channel list to find the number, but not finding it.

Now we are assuming your remote and blaster are working.
Therefore what is not working is the matching of the number you enter and the numbers on the channels.

So lets try something...
1. Open TV Server configuration.
2. Go to the TV Channels section.
3. Select any channel that you receive with a blaster.
4. Click edit.

Now, you should see a popup containing the channel name, number and the list of tuning details that can be used to tune the channel.
The number that you see there is the number that you must enter to zap to the channel in MP.
If you now select the tuning detail row in the bottom area (presumably there is only one for most if not all of your channels - an analog tuning detail) and click edit, the channel number that you see at the top of that popup is the number that is blasted to the set top box.

So to be very clear, if you want to zap with the PC as if you were using the STB you need to set the channel number in two places.

Have you done that?

mm

 

[laserheat]

I think you have found it mm. When I look at my TV channels and click edit they all have a channel number assigned to them of 1000, every one of them says 1000. That is not right. I pull this information down using schedules direct. Where does that channel number come from? Is it schedules direct or does mp assign it in the order they are pulled? The name is right and it list the correct number in the name field, but the channel number field all say 1000?????

 

[mm1352000]

I think you have found it mm. When I look at my TV channels and click edit they all have a channel number assigned to them of 1000, every one of them says 1000. That is not right. I pull this information down using schedules direct. Where does that channel number come from? Is it schedules direct or does mp assign it in the order they are pulled? The name is right and it list the correct number in the name field, but the channel number field all say 1000?????

The SD plugin usually sets all of the details.
That channel number field is a new one in MP 1.3, so I suspect the SD plugin has not been updated to populate that.
@geoffstewart
Can you confirm?

Okay, so now we suspect we have found the problem, the solution would be to fix those numbers.
Probably the fastest way to do this (assuming you don't know how to manipulate a database with SQL) is as follows:
1. Open TV Server configuration.
2. Go to the import/export section and export everything.
3. Open the export.xml file in any text editor and work through the list of channels, changing the 10000 value in <channel channelNumber=""> to the corresponding value at the start of the displayName (or the value in the tuning detail channel number).
4. Go to the TV Channels section in TV Server configuration, select all channels and delete. Repeat for the Radio Channels section.
5. Go back to the import/export section and re-import your tweaked export file.

Now you should have all your channels back with the correct numbers, and zapping should work.

mm

 

[laserheat]

Thanks mm for your help. I will work on this tomorrow (getting to be bed time), but I certainly will let you know how it turns out. Hoping geoffstewart will respond as well. I did run the update plug in for SD before I imported, so it is up to date. I would think this would have happened to someone else? Thank you so much. Could be a bug with my setup, I suppose. If anyone needs any more info let me know.

 

[geoffstewart]

That channel number field is a new one in MP 1.3, so I suspect the SD plugin has not been updated to populate that.

@geoffstewart

Can you confirm?

I know another user had an issue with this new column, lately. The SD plugin doesn't know this column yet, correct. Another user, @cwchapma, has done some updates to the plugin lately. Not sure if he added support for this column or not. Clint?