Trying to get an HD Homerun Prime Setup, no luck so far (1 Viewer)

[feeshta]

Hello all. New here, as I have finally had it with WMC now that my TV guide has kicked the bucket, apparently permanently. I'm trying to make the transition to Media portal, but it has not been going smoothly so far. I was able to run the TV server setup, and everything seemed to be fine. It found 229 channels on all 3 tuners, but when I open media portal, the TV menu is inaccessible as it always hides itself before you can click on anything. Going to the home icon and then TV, I always get a "no free card available" error, and it will not tune to any channel. I have all channels checked in the TV Channels menu and all channels mapped to all three cards in the TV mapping menu. I also did change the compatibility mode from WMC to Media portal in the Homerun Prime config.

Any help would be appreciated here, my head is swimming and I'm sick of not having DVR.

 

[mm1352000]

Hello and welcome

I'll try to keep this short and sweet.

but when I open media portal, the TV menu is inaccessible as it always hides itself before you can click on anything.

That's because you're attempting to use Titan - a skin that is not intended for people that use keyboard + mouse - with a mouse. If you want to use MediaPortal with a mouse you'll need to use another skin. For the time being I'd recommend switching to DefaultWide, which also comes with MediaPortal. You select your preferred skin in MediaPortal Configuration here:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...diaPortal_Configuration/13_GUI#Skin_Selection

I also did change the compatibility mode from WMC to Media portal in the Homerun Prime config.

That doesn't make any difference for the PRIME. It's only intended for non-CableCARD HDHR models.

Going to the home icon and then TV, I always get a "no free card available" error, and it will not tune to any channel. I have all channels checked in the TV Channels menu and all channels mapped to all three cards in the TV mapping menu.

I see the error messages, but the log files are telling me you do not have all channels mapped to all 3 tuners:

[2015-08-25 21:21:52,943] [Log ] [24 ] [INFO ] - Controller: find free card for channel WBAL
[2015-08-25 21:21:52,945] [Log ] [24 ] [INFO ] - Controller: find card for channel WBAL
[2015-08-25 21:21:52,947] [Log ] [24 ] [INFO ] - Controller: got 1 tuning details for WBAL
[2015-08-25 21:21:52,949] [Log ] [24 ] [INFO ] - Controller: channel #1 ATSC:tv:Cable WBAL Freq:295250 ONID:4289 TSID:0 SID:4011 PMT:0x0 FTA:False LCN:36 phys:36 maj:11 min:0 mod:Mod256Qam
[2015-08-25 21:21:52,950] [Log ] [24 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:1 type:RadioWebStream cannot tune to channel
[2015-08-25 21:21:52,951] [Log ] [24 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:2 typevbIP cannot tune to channel
[2015-08-25 21:21:52,953] [Log ] [24 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:5 type:Atsc channel not mapped
[2015-08-25 21:21:52,954] [Log ] [24 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:3 type:Atsc channel not mapped
[2015-08-25 21:21:52,956] [Log ] [24 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:4 type:Atsc channel not mapped
[2015-08-25 21:21:52,958] [Log ] [24 ] [INFO ] - Controller: found 0 card(s) for channel

Looking back further in your log files...
For a variety of reasons I have the impression that your channel scanning has not been fully successful. As the wiki says, if you've configured correctly, you should have few if any channels named "unknown..."... but it looks like you have lots of them:

Quite frankly, at this point I would recommend you delete all channels and start over. For best results, follow the guide here carefully:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/cablecard-tuner-support-for-mediaportal-1.112585/

Regards,
mm

 

[feeshta]

Thank you for your help, Sir. I did try to do as you mentioned, and was able to change the skin, but nothing else changed. I still always get the error message stating no free card is available. One thing I don't understand is why the scan channels seems to return a different result on the different tuners, and even varies nearly each time I run it. Tuner 2 in particular does not want to find things about 50% of the time. The prime is running normally, and I can watch TV just fine in Media center, I just can't get the guide to work at all anymore.

Am I correct in using the "digital cable" setting? I tried the other two, but neither seemed to want to work. Clear QAM in particular was taking 2-3 minutes per channel scanned and not finding anything in the first 5 channels so I cancelled it.

 

[mm1352000]

I did try to do as you mentioned, and was able to change the skin, but nothing else changed.

I wouldn't have expected anything else to change. That was simply to enable you to select the TV option in the menu.

One thing I don't understand is why the scan channels seems to return a different result on the different tuners, and even varies nearly each time I run it.

That's because the scan is not given long enough to complete fully. Like I said in my previous post, I saw problems. This is precisely why I recommended you start over and follow the guide.

The prime is running normally, and I can watch TV just fine in Media center, I just can't get the guide to work at all anymore.

Keep in mind that MediaPortal and WMC cannot use the tuners at the same time.

Am I correct in using the "digital cable" setting?

Yes.

Again, can I plead with you to take out the time-wasting guess work and just follow the guide.
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/cablecard-tuner-support-for-mediaportal-1.112585/

 

[feeshta]

I did follow the guide both times, but it makes no mention of which option you should select RE tuning options. For one it appears to be outdated, as many of the menu options do not read or look like they are shown in the guide, with many options simply not listed at all. Also, the channel scan specifically said "finished" each time it was run, and listed the number of channels found, other than when I ran the Clear QAM scans. That is running again at the moment, but I would estimate it is going to take at least 9 hours to run for all 3 tuners, which is ridiculous. It's been running for 10 plus minutes now and is currently at channel 14 out of 900 some.

 

[mm1352000]

I did follow the guide both times, but it makes no mention of which option you should select RE tuning options.

Yes it does!
I quote:

Scanning (Adding Channels)

1. Go to the scanning section for one of the CableCARD tuners. Each tuner is listed under the "TV Servers" ==> <your server name> section in the left hand pane of TV Server configuration.
2. Select "digital cable" as the tuning mode.
3. Click "scan for channels".

For one it appears to be outdated, as many of the menu options do not read or look like they are shown in the guide, with many options simply not listed at all.

Are you sure you're reading the right thing? The guide I linked is not outdated. It is possible there are a few mistakes here and there, but all the important details will certainly be correct.

If you could give specific examples of options that are "simply not listed at all" etc. then I can double-check and clarify.

Also, the channel scan specifically said "finished" each time it was run

That just means the scan has stopped. It doesn't mean it was successful.

other than when I ran the Clear QAM scans. That is running again at the moment, but I would estimate it is going to take at least 9 hours to run for all 3 tuners, which is ridiculous.

You asked the question, "am I correct in using the digital cable setting?". I answered: "yes".

Any option other than "digital cable" is not appropriate for a CableCARD tuner like yours.
DO NOT SCAN CLEAR QAM!!!

Look, I've been using MediaPortal for more than 5 years, and I was also the person that added support for CableCARD tuners.
In other words, I know what it takes to get your tuner working.
I'm trying to help you, but if you choose to keep trying random things then you're wasting your time and you're not going to get anything working.
Please take my advice and follow the guide carefully from start to finish.

 

[wayloncovil]

Feeshta, I just want to throw in that I can appreciate any frustration you may have at this point. From what I've seen, one of the main reasons I recommend a long hard look at Mediaportal as your DVR solution is because of the community. mm's is a volunteer and he here to help.
When moving away from Windows Media Center, expect to have to do some extra work and have some frustration. Regardless of which platform you choose there will be learning that you probably would rather not have to trouble with.
Keep at it.