TV Server - QAM Tuning (1 Viewer)

[aclark20]

Trying to get my HVR-2250 set up with Comcast Cable...

I scanned the digital channels, telling it to use QAM. What I get is a list of 150+ “Unknown Channel 151262-30”. The type is listed as ASTC although it is really tuning QAM. A channel is listed as “18 0:0” - whatever the channel number it’s always followed by 0:0.

None are marked encrypted. If I click the “unmark encrypted” button, nothing happens, but when I go to preview most of these channels, I am told “Preview failed-ChannelIsScrambled”

Am I really supposed to try to watch each of these channels and manually remove the scrambled ones? Am I supposed to guess at the channel call signs or channel numbers? I have no idea where to start.

Supposedly there is some correlation between:

Channel Number
Virtual channel number
Frequency
Major/Minor Channel number
Channel ID (Schedules direct site)
Channel Name (HDHR site)

WinTV, BeyondTV, etc all use the standard QAM designations... 112-4, 92-1 etc.... There I can easily map to my SiliconDust lineup (http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lineup_web/US:98258#lineup_478730)

How does anyone ever manage to map any of these channels properly in less than a week (only to be redone when comcast decides to mix up the channels again)

 

[moab]

Trying to get my HVR-2250 set up with Comcast Cable...

I scanned the digital channels, telling it to use QAM. What I get is a list of 150+ “Unknown Channel 151262-30”. The type is listed as ASTC although it is really tuning QAM. A channel is listed as “18 0:0” - whatever the channel number it’s always followed by 0:0.

None are marked encrypted. If I click the “unmark encrypted” button, nothing happens, but when I go to preview most of these channels, I am told “Preview failed-ChannelIsScrambled”

Am I really supposed to try to watch each of these channels and manually remove the scrambled ones? Am I supposed to guess at the channel call signs or channel numbers? I have no idea where to start.

Supposedly there is some correlation between:

Channel Number
Virtual channel number
Frequency
Major/Minor Channel number
Channel ID (Schedules direct site)
Channel Name (HDHR site)

WinTV, BeyondTV, etc all use the standard QAM designations... 112-4, 92-1 etc.... There I can easily map to my SiliconDust lineup (http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lineup_web/US:98258#lineup_478730)

How does anyone ever manage to map any of these channels properly in less than a week (only to be redone when comcast decides to mix up the channels again)

I have almost exact same issue.
Hopefully someone has an answer.
I did notice that a few of my channels actually automatically identified the call sign after scanning channels with the 1.0.2 version of MP.
There is a move to share channel scans so that there is a central shared database of mappings.
Until that time here is the process...
Once all the scanning is completed, go into Channels and you'll see a ton of Unknown XXXXXX-XX channels. Here comes the PITA part. You'll need to click on the green dot next to the channel (Make sure to not click on the channel name as there's a weird bug in this section of the TVServer that if it goes to rename the channel and you just press enter to get out of renaming, the channel will save itself with no channel name at all). Once you have the first channel highlighted, click Preview. If it comes up Channel is Scrambled or Unable to Start Graph, delete the channel. If you actually come up with something on the channel you'll have to figure out what it is. There's 2 ways to go about this. If you have a 2nd TV and your HTPC is close to it, you can just preview the channel and try to figure out what channel it is on. Or, you can open AOL's TV listings and try to hunt down the program on via the channels branding or what show is currently playing. Once you figured out what channel it is, go ahead and close the preview window and then click Edit to change the name of the channel. Name the channel something legible. I chose channel number and callsign.

If anyone has a better way then please share!

 

[naape]

first thought i've got was that kinda problem could be caused by a crappy signal. i used to get lots of unknown channels during search when signal were weak, although my tuners were then dvb-t. but check your cables, it could help.

nowadays i've got cabletv and sometimes when getting unknown channels i just delete those and do a new scan. it have allways worked for me.

 

[aclark20]

It's not even the unknowns that's the most bothersome... It's the fact that I don't even get the standard QAM channel designation (113-4, 76-2, 34-5... etc) All mediaportal is giving me is some 6 digit frequency ( that I can't relate to anything..... 151262-30)....

WinTV, SageTV, BTV, Tv's built in tuner all use the QAM Numbering.... Why doesn't MP, or am I missing something??

 

[moab]

It's not even the unknowns that's the most bothersome... It's the fact that I don't even get the standard QAM channel designation (113-4, 76-2, 34-5... etc) All mediaportal is giving me is some 6 digit frequency ( that I can't relate to anything..... 151262-30)....

WinTV, SageTV, BTV, Tv's built in tuner all use the QAM Numbering.... Why doesn't MP, or am I missing something??

It is a bit of an elephant in the room that no one talks about.
Once you have figured out your channels YOU MUST WRITE THEM DOWN.
Otherwise it is another 2 weeks of figuring em out when you have time to burn.

Cable TV is pretty much obselete for me.
I watch the providors web stream or Netflix watch me now. It sucks having to trawl thro' a guide and find shows. Then when you do they are riddled with ads. I expect that once it is fully on the net the need for MP will diminish somewhat.

 

[milhouse]

In the U.S., the FCC mandates that over the air digital broadcasts need to be made available over QAM (unscrambled) by the cable companies. But they forgot to mentioned it should also be easy and follow standards. So in most markets, QAM is a mess. The virtual channel (major/minor) MAY be broadcast correctly, or it may not. It is quite common for your digital television to list a channel as 22.1 but major/minor is actually broadcast as 0.0 as seen by mediaportal. And, as you mentioned, they can move them around at will, and you have to do it all over again.

As you noticed, ALL channels show up in a channel scan, even if encrypted. A patch has been submitted for 1.1 that will help a lot, I think, in removing encrypted channels during the scan.
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/improvement-suggestions-46/remove-scrambled-channels-55119/

Most of the detected channel are scrambled. So your best best is to go to the EPG and try to tune each channel, one at a time. Make a list of the handful that actually tune. Then delete the rest. Then you'll have to go through and watch the channels to figure out what channels they really are, because usually the channel information is also not included in the QAM broadcast.

There is also a script that has been posted that will automate this one-by-one process for you.
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...scrambled-clearqam-channels-48106/#post326295

And don't even get me started on getting EPG data for those channels. If you have a subscription to Schedules Direct see post #397 here:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...mexico-epg-plugin-updated-10-01-2007-a-26951/

/milhouse

 

[moab]

In the U.S., the FCC mandates that over the air digital broadcasts need to be made available over QAM (unscrambled) by the cable companies. But they forgot to mentioned it should also be easy and follow standards. So in most markets, QAM is a mess. The virtual channel (major/minor) MAY be broadcast correctly, or it may not. It is quite common for your digital television to list a channel as 22.1 but major/minor is actually broadcast as 0.0 as seen by mediaportal. And, as you mentioned, they can move them around at will, and you have to do it all over again.

As you noticed, ALL channels show up in a channel scan, even if encrypted. A patch has been submitted for 1.1 that will help a lot, I think, in removing encrypted channels during the scan.
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/improvement-suggestions-46/remove-scrambled-channels-55119/

Most of the detected channel are scrambled. So your best best is to go to the EPG and try to tune each channel, one at a time. Make a list of the handful that actually tune. Then delete the rest. Then you'll have to go through and watch the channels to figure out what channels they really are, because usually the channel information is also not included in the QAM broadcast.

There is also a script that has been posted that will automate this one-by-one process for you.
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...scrambled-clearqam-channels-48106/#post326295

And don't even get me started on getting EPG data for those channels. If you have a subscription to Schedules Direct see post #397 here:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...mexico-epg-plugin-updated-10-01-2007-a-26951/

/milhouse

Thanks for the explanation - I figured there was some logical reason for it.
Those changes will go along way towards making it more user friendly for USA folks.

For me the EPG step is actually easy once I have named the channels.
I like using XMLTV + MC2XML + SchedulesDirect + Scheduled Task + Batch Script.
All I have to do is manually map the Channels to the guide Channels.

 

[chesh]

I'm going to throw this out there for anyone that needs it. I found a hopefully simpler way of going through all these QAM channels for Comcast users. First off, it'll require the Digital Transport Adapter provided for free by Comcast (the little box that they're now telling you that you need to keep on getting your lower end analog channels....ya know, after they told you that you wouldn't need any type of box for the digital transition. Ya, that one. Pic of it here.) Anyway, a user over at the AVS Forums found that the DTA has a hidden menu that gives ya some info on the QAM lineup it's tuning. Here's the link. Scroll down to Tuning Comcast Cable-QAM channels for the explanation. Now, I don't have this box yet, but will probably pick one up tonight as they're free to existing subscribers. The way that I see it might have to work (now mind you, this is a theory as I don't have the box yet) is you'll have to scan your lineup for QAM channels, and then use that hidden menu in the box to give you the frequencies. Then you can find those specific frequencies in the list and just rename them to the appropriate channel name/number. I don't believe you'll be able to hand create the channels from the info, as I don't think it gives you the networkid, stationid, transportid, and PMTid. If that info is there too, then you should be able to hand create all the channels. Dunno, half a dozen one way or the other. I'll post a follow-up as soon as I get time to try it out.


Edit: Well, I've done some more digging around the AVS forums and it seems that when Comcast comes through your area and does a digital transition, kiss your clearQAM goodbye. At that point, you'll only get the couple of local broadcast stations and their HD versions (essentially, all the OTA stuff). You need the DTA converter box in order to receive the channels, as they have put a encryption on it (although, very weak. Supposedly only a single DES public key) and the decrypt code is held in the firmware of the DTA box. It's a simple way for Comcast to save money and prevent you from having access to the other channels. I'm still going to pick up one of these DTA boxes tonight and check anyway, but I'm not really hoping for much.

Edit2: I got the DTA box last night. There's not enough information covered in it to actually program Mediaportal with it. If MP did only Major/Minor and not NetworkID, StationID, PMTID, etc., we'd be ok, but as it doesn't, you still have to run the scan and watch every channel. As for that script mentioned by Milhouse, I've found that when I try to preview channels, I almost need to preview it 3-4 times before I get a signal on some of them. I'd think it was weak signal, but I've plugged my HVR-1600 directly to the cable coming into the house (no splits in the line, direct from the pole) and I still have this issue. It started happening in MP 1.0.2. So, for now, I'm stuck checking each one multiple times until it's all figured out. Anyone know if espirit's patch for 1.1.0 has been compiled for 1.0.2? I'd really like to try it out as now I'm going to have to go through the whole scanning process again.