newbie needs help with pvr-150 (1 Viewer)

[rlongfield]

Well, let's be practical. It is possible to add channels manually. If you know some of the channel numbers for channels that you're interested in then we can use that as a way to test whether there is only a problem with scanning or if there seems to be a more general problem. So here are some instructions for adding a channel manually:

1. Go to the TV Channels section in TV Server configuration.
2. Click "add".
3. Enter a name up the top.
4. Click "add".
5. Enter the following details:
- channel = (the physical channel number of the channel eg. 44)
- frequency = 0 (leave as default)
- input type = cable
- country = Canada
- is VCR signal = untick
- video source = tuner
- audio source = tuner/automatic
6. Click "OK" and "OK" again.
7. Expand the TV Channels node in the left panel and go to the TV Mapping section.
8. Select the PVR-150 tuner up the top.
9. Select the test channel on the left and use the '>' button to map/link the channel to the tuner.

Now you should be able to test that channel with the preview function back in the TV Channels section or in the Manual Control section (start timeshifting). If any of that doesn't make sense then let me know and I'll try to explain in more detail.

Alright, thanks for the steps. I hope you cut and pasted them I followed your steps to the letter and when I went to preview I got "Preview Failed, No Signal Detected"

I notice you also have another analog tuner (part of a hybrid tuner perhaps?) that you may be able to test with. If you send a PM to the guy from -->this thread<-- then he might be able to direct you to some software encoders that would enable that tuner to work. Come to think of it, the SoftMCE package from Hauppauge might install since you have a Hauppauge product. You can get that from the bottom of the accessories tab -->here<--.

I have a pinnicle 800i with a hardware atsc tuner and a software analog tuner (I assume it's software I've never used it) It's connected to my antenna. I will look into the analog portion more though

PS: potentially obvious reminder (please don't be offended, just trying to cover everything) - I take it you're aware that you can only use the tuner in one application at a time? TV Server runs as a Windows service. If you attempt a scan or otherwise use the tuner in some way within TV Server and then test in [for example] WinTV then TV Server would probably be thrown for a loop. You may have to restart TV Server before TV Server could regain proper control over the tuner.

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Well you are not going to offend me by trying to help. Sometimes it's best to point out the obvious just in case I've overlooked it. I looked at what was running in my task manager and there was something called 'WinTV Tray' so I killed it and tried the preview again after restarting TV Server Config and I got the same error message.

I can't remember if I mentioned it but WinTV scanned the cable channels just fine and I was able to watch TV using the hauppage card. Seems like MP is having some difficulty with the card.

I'm more than happy to provide system specs, logs etc to help track this problem down.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again rlongfield

Just to follow up with you again: there really is nothing obvious in the logs that suggests that there is a problem. I am totally stumped as to why your channels aren't being found except to say that it seems like the tuner really isn't finding channels on the frequencies it is scanning. This might be a dumb suggestion but is it possible to try scanning with USA set as the country? I just can't help but feel that there is something very minor but non-obvious that is being missed. Also, did you manage to get your Pinnacle tuner going?

mm

 

[rlongfield]

Hi again rlongfield

Just to follow up with you again: there really is nothing obvious in the logs that suggests that there is a problem. I am totally stumped as to why your channels aren't being found except to say that it seems like the tuner really isn't finding channels on the frequencies it is scanning. This might be a dumb suggestion but is it possible to try scanning with USA set as the country? I just can't help but feel that there is something very minor but non-obvious that is being missed. Also, did you manage to get your Pinnacle tuner going?

mm

Well here is a kick in the pants. I set my country to USA and did a cable scan and got nothing. For the heck of it I set it do an Antenna scan and it is currently finding channels. Of course it only finds channels up to CH 13 and for the channels (in my case 6 & 11) are showing as not new channels but Updates because 6 & 11 are different channels on my hybrid analog tuner. I guess I need to setup different groups or something.

So the card is sort of working in Media Portal. It is scanning but for some reason it does not see the channels when on the cable setting. I'd leave it here but I have more than 13 channels on cable.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again

Good to hear back from you!

For the heck of it I set it do an Antenna scan and it is currently finding channels.

That suggests that the cable scan is scanning the wrong frequencies - my understanding is that the only difference between the two types of scans is frequencies scanned. When you have a moment could you upload the antenna scan logs and I'll cross check the frequencies with the cable scan logs to confirm.


mm

 

[rlongfield]

I wasn't sure which one is the Antenna Scan log so I zipped them all up.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again

Thanks for the logs. I'm at work at the moment so I can't spend much time checking them now but this much I can say at this point: when you rescanned with the antenna setting using "Canada" the tuner was actually scanning the same frequencies as it scanned when you did the USA scan. I suspect that is the only reason why the channels were picked up again. It may take a TV Server restart for a change in the country setting to take effect. USA and Canada frequencies are subtly different. For that reason I am guessing that the issue here is that the wrong frequencies are being scanned. The trouble is that the frequency settings are somewhat out of our control. We scan by channel number and country - the tuner "magically" determines the correct frequency using a lookup table supplied by Microsoft...

mm

 

[rlongfield]

Hi again

Thanks for the logs. I'm at work at the moment so I can't spend much time checking them now but this much I can say at this point: when you rescanned with the antenna setting using "Canada" the tuner was actually scanning the same frequencies as it scanned when you did the USA scan. I suspect that is the only reason why the channels were picked up again. It may take a TV Server restart for a change in the country setting to take effect. USA and Canada frequencies are subtly different. For that reason I am guessing that the issue here is that the wrong frequencies are being scanned. The trouble is that the frequency settings are somewhat out of our control. We scan by channel number and country - the tuner "magically" determines the correct frequency using a lookup table supplied by Microsoft...

mm

I'd be shocked if the frequencies are different between Canada and the US, but I'm not a TV engineer or play one on TV

Well the tuner can pull in the channels just fine using the hauppauge Win-TV app, and it also worked fine with Mythtv but if I remember correctly it used the schedules direct info to populate the channels I receive.

Can I manually add the channels? Well I know I can manually add them but is there a list I can get of Freq's etc so I can set the channels up properly?

I'm going to restart the TV Service a few times and try another scan and see what happens