Channel Mapping problems | 1.5 | HDHomerun Prime (1 Viewer)

[JoeyDee]

Hello everyone, I'm a bit new to MediaPortal, but time has come for me to ask a question as I've hit a wall.

I have an HDHomerun Prime on Comcast West Palm Beach. I've setup MC2XML to pull the guide data and XMLTv to pull it.

No matter what I do, I'm unable to map the HD channels. Each channel appears 3 times, probably because there's 3 tuners.

Example: ESPN on the guide is a low channel number (33), matching the SD channel in Windows Media Center, when when I go to the higher numbered channel (403), it doesn't show ESPN, rather several TWC's. I cannot find ESPN HD anywhere.

Is there a way to simple map the channels based on channel number? I really love the fact that image quality is much better than MCE, and I know that Microsoft has kicked MCE to the curb, so I want to replace it. MediaPortal looks to be the way to go, but I just wish I wasn't having such a hard time getting this to work...

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[mm1352000]

Hello and welcome JoeyDee

The main questions I'd have are in relation to whether MediaPortal has completely pulled in your line-up from the CableCARD.

Are you aware of this thread?
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/cablecard-tuner-support-for-mediaportal-1.112585/

The info in the first post should help set things straight. Everything starting from "At this point you should see one or more CableCARD tuners..." is still relevant for MP 1.5. In particular, there are a few vital keys like increasing the SDT/VCT timeout and setting the CAM limit. That SDT/VCT timeout controls how long MP will wait for the line-up info... and if you haven't increased it, that could explain why you're not seeing ESPN HD.

The other thing to point out is that if you want really good help then we need to take a look at your log files. Please could you:
1. Open TV Server configuration.
2. Click "open log directory" in the top left corner.
3. Zip up all the files you find there (you may need to copy the files to a new folder first).
4. Attach/post the zip file here.

Thanks,
mm

 

[JoeyDee]

Hello and welcome JoeyDee

The main questions I'd have are in relation to whether MediaPortal has completely pulled in your line-up from the CableCARD.

Are you aware of this thread?
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/cablecard-tuner-support-for-mediaportal-1.112585/

The info in the first post should help set things straight. Everything starting from "At this point you should see one or more CableCARD tuners..." is still relevant for MP 1.5. In particular, there are a few vital keys like increasing the SDT/VCT timeout and setting the CAM limit. That SDT/VCT timeout controls how long MP will wait for the line-up info... and if you haven't increased it, that could explain why you're not seeing ESPN HD.

The other thing to point out is that if you want really good help then we need to take a look at your log files. Please could you:
1. Open TV Server configuration.
2. Click "open log directory" in the top left corner.
3. Zip up all the files you find there (you may need to copy the files to a new folder first).
4. Attach/post the zip file here.

Thanks,
mm

Thanks for the quick response!

I actually did follow that, I meant to mention that. Regarding the SDT/VCT, I increased it to 120, rescanned, and it's made no difference. However, I don't believe I was clear enough. ESPNHD shows up properly as channel 403 when I go to TV Channels and sort by Channel Number. The issue is when I used XMLTV to map them. The Channel ID's there start off in the 1000's, which I know other times i've tried to setup MediaPortal, I saw regular numbers there. It would just make things much easier if it just mapped by channel numbers I guess? Right now in mappings, i'm seeing just about every ESPNHD/3D channel mapped to ESPN 33, there's a ton of them.

 

[JoeyDee]

Update: I sorted the mappings by channel name, and I found ESPN showing as channel 492? That's way off. Maybe it's been pushed back because of all the duplicates?

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks for the quick response!

No problem.

I think I'm starting to better understand what you mean now.

Just to pick up on a couple of comments...

Each channel appears 3 times, probably because there's 3 tuners.

Having three copies of each channel is not normal. You should be able to scan with the first tuner then link the channels to the second and third tuners:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...Server_Configuration/03_TV_Channels/2_Mapping

To be clear, that means you should not need to scan three times as you currently appear to be doing.

Regarding the SDT/VCT, I increased it to 120, rescanned, and it's made no difference.

It doesn't seem right to me that you're getting 162 new channels each time you scan. If it were me, I'd:
1. Delete all my channels.
2. Rescan on tuner 1 with VCT timeout 120.
3. When the scan completes, link the channels to tuners 2 and 3.

After doing that I would expect to have zero duplicates in the TV Server channel list.

No matter what I do, I'm unable to map the HD channels.

...when when I go to the higher numbered channel (403), it doesn't show ESPN, rather several TWC's. I cannot find ESPN HD anywhere.

The Channel ID's there start off in the 1000's...

The numbers that you see on the left hand side in the "ID" column are internal channel IDs... which is to say they're not the [logical] channel numbers that you're talking about here (33, 403 and so on).
To be clear, the TWC channels may have been assigned IDs in the 400 range... but that is purely by chance. Really, that ID column should probably be removed as it is confusing. Please ignore it.

To more directly help you...
I think the channel list shown in the XMLTV plugin is sorted by name. From your scan logs, ESPN HD (403) is called "ESPHD" in TV Server - you should be able to find that a bit above the ESPN ("ESPN" 33) channel. I have no idea what the guide channel is called, but possibly "ESPNHD" or "ESPN HD" at a guess?

Is there a way to simple map the channels based on channel number?

At present the XMLTV plugin matches solely by the channel name. That means the best way to get channels to match automatically in the XMLTV plugin is either to edit the channel names in either the XMLTV file or TV Server so that they match. Since you've got hundreds of channels that is probably not feasible... so I note the option to enable/disable partial matching. This may help you avoid incorrect auto-matches.
To more directly address your question, the ability to match with the channel numbers relies on both TV Server and the XMLTV file containing the channel numbers... which is actually not as common as you might think. Does your XML file have the channel numbers in it?

Right now in mappings, i'm seeing just about every ESPNHD/3D channel mapped to ESPN 33, there's a ton of them.

To be clear, the TV Server channels are the channels that are listed in full. The channels in the XMLTV file are the ones that you select from the drop-down/combo box (in the "guide channel" column).
In other words, your scan has picked up a bunch of "ESPN-like" channels:

• ESPN (33)
• ESPNG (766)
  
• ESPNU (396)
  
• ESP3D (790)
  
• ESPHD (403)
  
• ESPn1 (702)
  
• ESPn2 (703)
  
• ESPn3 (704)
  
• ESPn4 (705)
  
• ESPn5 (706)
  
• ESPn6 (707)
  
• ESPN2 (34)
  
• ESPNC (726)
  
• ESPND (612)

Taking an example, ESPNC is "ESPN Classic". I have no idea what the channel names in the XMLTV file look like but they are almost certainly more like "ESPN Classic"... which is why the XMLTV plugin thinks "ESPN" is a better match than "ESPN Classic" for ESPNC.
(Note: I can't find the 702..707 channels on Comcast's website so I have no idea what they are.)

Am I making any sense here?

Summary:

• I hear you on the channel number request - it isn't supported right now, and it is actually tougher to implement and probably less useful in practise than you might think (due to either XMLTV files not containing channel numbers or TV Server not being able to grab the channel numbers when scanning)
• Mapping the HD channels should be possible. Hopefully the information I've given you above will make sense and assist you to understand how to do it.

 

[mm1352000]

Update: I sorted the mappings by channel name, and I found ESPN showing as channel 492? That's way off. Maybe it's been pushed back because of all the duplicates?

I didn't see this comment until after my reply. To reinforce: 492 is the internal ID. I acknowledge that column is not helpful, but in the meantime please ignore it and use the names to match.