Newbie trying to sort the TV channels (1 Viewer)

[CyberSimian]

I thought I would try again but the same happens.

When I rescan my Sony TV, the TV deletes all of the existing channels and then performs the scan. But TV Server does not do this. TV Server retains the existing channels and tries to update them. So if the channel list contains bad entries, they will be retained.

If you have a working system, I don't want to mess it up for you, but I would be inclined to start again from scratch. So:

• Delete all of the existing channels by performing the normal Windows multiselect and then clicking the DELETE button. (Multiselect: click first channel, then click last channel whilst holding down the shift key.)
• Then scan again selecting the transmitter for your location.
• When the scan has finished, take a screen shot of the result. It should look something like the following (please note: this was an "all regions" test for another purpose; you should not have so much red):

• Take screen shots of the "TV Channels" panel showing all of the channels found. (Maximise the height first, so that you need the fewest number of screen shots, and increase the width so that the channel numbers are visible.)
• Post all of the screen shots here.

MediaPortal does have various settings and timeouts that control the scanning, but the defaults have not caused a problem at my location (Rowridge transmitter), and I am not aware of anyone else reporting a problem. It is possible that there is something strange about the Sandy Heath transmitter. But I suggest performing the clean scan and posting the screen shots so that we can see what TV Server has found.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[PhilipJ451]

Hi CyberSimian,
I will do as you suggest later today.
Thanks for your continuing help
regards
PhilipJ

 

[spludlow]

Media Portal server has been doing this LCN 10000 thing for years.

UK DVB-T2 (do all regions as the MUX lists can be out of date)

It is temperamental / non-consistent. Yesterday it took 6 attempts (with everything else the same) 5 with a bunch of LCN 10000 and the 6th go it had all the correct LCNs.

I rescan from scratch each time I delete "C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal" then do a scan, if it works I then leave it and configure EPG.

So if you see LCN 10000 just keep trying!

 

[PhilipJ451]

Hi Spudlow,
thanks for the advice. It does sound as though it is a timing issue with getting the LCN numbers from what is being transmitted and maybe different transmitters (I am on Sandy Heath) or possibly different TV tuner cards, need longer.
If anyone knows how to change the setting for how long the scan loiters on each frequency then that would be much appreciated, as I mentioned in a previous post, with nextPVR I changed it to 6 seconds and it got all the channel numbers correct where previously it had been having similar issues.
regards
PhilipJ

 

[CyberSimian]

If anyone knows how to change the setting for how long the scan loiters on each frequency then that would be much appreciated,

This page in the Wiki shows the "Scan" tab where you can specify various timeouts. I have never had to change any of those timeouts, so I don't know which would be relevant in your case. The Wiki may explain what each timeout does.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[spludlow]

I just did a test did a scan with defaults got LCN 10000 issue.

Set General->Scan -> PAT & CAT bumped both from 5 -> 10.

Did 4 scans in a row they all worked fine.

So looks like that fixes it.

Cheers CyberSimian.

The devs may consider changing the defaults. This issue has annoyed me for literally years. It may put people off the product.

 

[spludlow]

Oh dear, having said all that I just saw it LCN 10000 with PAT & CAT at 10.

Although it seems more likely to work than with defaults, hard to say.

 

[PhilipJ451]

Hi again CyberSimian,
I've done as you asked previously and the images are attached, I hope there's not too much.

I'm going to try what Spudlow has done with General->Scan -> PAT & CAT and see what results I get.

regards
PhilipJ

 

[PhilipJ451]

OK, I have set General->Scan -> PAT & CAT to 10 as suggested by Spudlow and it has worked fine. All the channels that were numbered as 10000 are now correctly numbered with their respective LCN numbers.

I agree with Spudlow that it might help if the developers set the default values to 10. As I mentioned, I came to this program because nextPVR was bugging me and when I saw this program also getting the channel sorting wrong I was tempted to just abandon it and move on but my message to this forum and the helpful advice that came back almost immediately, encouraged me to persevere.

Good on you all, thanks all for the help and advice
regards
Philip

 

[CyberSimian]

I have set General->Scan -> PAT & CAT to 10 as suggested by Spudlow and it has worked fine. All the channels that were numbered as 10000 are now correctly numbered with their respective LCN numbers.

I have used MP for 7 years, but this is the first time that a problem with scanning was caused by the timeouts being too small. I am not a TV expert, so I don't understand the significance of this result.

I notice that you are using a TBS 6280, which (if I remember correctly) is the same generation as my TBS 6284. But I have never had this scanning problem with the TBS 6284. Do you get occasional pixelation on some channels? I was wondering whether it is a signal-strength problem. Regardless, problem solved!

One point I will mention -- when you rescan in the future, it is a good idea to select the Enable channel movement detection setting. This causes TV Server to try to match the channels found during the scan with those already in the database. This:

• Preserves any channel-name edits that you have done (I have done lots).
• Preserves the deselected status of channels that you don't want in the EPG.
• Preserves the recording schedule for programmes on moved channels.

There are certain types of channel movement where TV Server cannot perform this action, so in those cases you end up with two channels with the same number (usually), only one of which works. You need to fix those up manually (find the one that does not work and delete it, and then reschedule any recordings that were intended for that channel).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK