Windows 7 64 bit (x64) ATSC HDHomerun (HD Homerun) + EPG Setup Success (1 Viewer)

han357

Portal Member
August 5, 2008
10
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*** CONFIRMED WORKING WITH 1.1.0 RC2 ***

*** Also read below for free atsc over comcast info ***

I have seen several posts requesting a working HDHomerun Windows 7 64 bit Mediaportal configuration so I thought I'd share what worked for me for my Over The Air (OTA) ATSC setup. My HDHomerun is dual tuner both tuning ATSC OTA digital.

I started with a totally clean install. I uninstalled everything and began again as I had so many problems with Mediaportal 1.0.2.

My initial issues were with channel scanning using HDHomerun in my Mediaportal Setup. I can't guarantee this will work for you but this setup worked for me after all other attempts had failed.

Read through the entire install prior to beginning. I don't actually begin configuring any Mediaportal settings until step 06 so don't jump the gun :)

01. Because I knew I'd be installing the TV server I pre-installed mysql by installing xampp. Xampp installs a webserver, php, mysql, ftp server and other tools which is more than necessary, but it's an easy install and comes with a built in tool to manage the mysql database.
  • Prior to installing xampp, you may have to disable settings in Skype if you have it installed and running on the same computer as this install as Skype may use port 80 which is the default webserver port.
  • I installed to C:\ (xampp automatically creates the xampp directory) to avoid any permission issues with Windows 7. apache friends - xampp for windows
  • I installed xampp to have the mysql server be a service. This is important as the TV Server service will need mysql to be available when it starts.
  • Lastly you must create a database user that has a username and password using the built in phpmysql admin web tool. Generally to get to the tool you go to http://127.0.0.1 and select the PhpMyAdmin under the tools menu. If Xampp installed correctly you should be at the PHPMyAdmin home.
  • Click on the Privileges tab at the top (7th tab from the left)
  • Click Add a New User in the middle of the page.
  • Enter a username, select the host as any or enter "%" in the field.
  • Enter a password. You will need to remember the username and password for the Mediaportal setup.
  • Under global privileges click check all. (I uncheck the grant option, but I leave that to you)
  • Click GO in the bottom right of the page.
  • That should be it. Now what you have a username/password for an administrator level account, we can install Mediaportal.
02. I installed my standard codec pack which is K-Lite (full) 32-bit. The only change I make in the K-Lite install is to use AC3Filter for AC3 and DTS only. I only have these codecs installed, no others, but the codec selections/installs are up to you. This is only a suggestion and what I used for my install.
03. I installed Mediaportal 1.1 Beta with the then latest SVN dated 02-06-2010. *** CHANGE 05-17-10 I am now using 1.1.0RC2 and the same setup seems to work fine! *** I installed the first option which is that the same computer has the tuner (will play TV and HD TV content) and also the Mediaportal main application running on it. Use the ADVANCED setup if you plan on using the mysql database server from xampp. Select Mysql as the database during the advanced setup and enter the username/password you selected in the Xampp setup above.
04. Run the HDHomerun setup.
  • On the Location Tab, enter your zip
  • On the Application tab select OTHER: ATSC/Remap for the Main Application
  • On the Tuners tab select Digial Antenna for both Tuners
  • On the Digital Antenna tab scan both tuners for channels, hit APPLY after each scan.
  • On the Advanced tab I have everything selected except the "Send diagnostic information to Silicondust support"
  • You can click on REPAIR to reinstall the drivers/firewall exceptions. If you have problems dry disabling your firewall (at your own risk) to see if it resolves your issues connecting to the HDHomerun box.
05. I clicked ok and rebooted. (rebooting may not be necessary)
06. Run the Mediaportal TV Server Setup.
  • Expand TV Servers, there should be your local machine listed under the TV Servers. Expand the local machine and you will see various cards listed, hopefully two of those are the HDHomerun Tuners labeled "ATSC Silicondust..."
  • Click on your local machine listed just under "TV Servers". This should yield a list of the cards on the right panel with two tabs called Cards and Hybrid Cards respectively.
  • Click once on the first "ATSC Silicondust..." card to highlight it, then click on the EDIT button below.
  • Make sure CAM is unchecked, Grab EPG is checked, Preload card is checked, and that the last dropdown "Preferred Network Provider" is set to ATSC. ** This is important **
  • Repeat for the other tuner.
  • Now click on the "ATSC Silicondust..." tuner in the LEFT pane. This should bring up the scan channel dialogue in the right pane. Click can for channels. The system should successfully scan for all channels found in the HDHomerun setup above.
  • Repeat this step for the other tuner.
  • Once done scanning both, you can click on TV Channels on the left. If you know you want to exclude certain stations from your Mediaportal TV guide/EPG, you can. Otherwise leave all channels for now. Hopefully they all have station identifiers/names.
07. Before continuing the configuration of the TV Guide/EPG, mc2xml needs to be setup and configured to download 14 days of tv listings data on your computer. Again make sure firewalls are bypassed/disabled/or exceptions to the firewalls are made during this config. You can leave the Mediaportal TV Server configuration open while configuring the mc2xml data grabber.
  • Copy the C:\ProgramData\Team Mediaportal\MediaPortal TV Server\xmltv directory to C:\
  • If this was done properly you now have a C:\xmltv directory which has, at the very least, the xmltv.dtd in it.
  • Download mc2xml.exe from mc2xml and put it into C:\xmltv
  • Now you should have, at the very least, two files in C:\xmltv (mc2xml.exe and xmltv.dtd)
  • run mc2xml.exe once by double clicking on it. Check Microsoft legacy, do not check any checkboxes at this time, enter your zip, country code ("us" for United States) and hit OK.
  • You may get a firewall exception alert, allow mc2xml to connect to the outside internet. A screen will popup asking you to select a lineup. For ATSC Over the Air, select Digital Terrestrial (should be first in the list). Hit ok.
  • Mc2xml will create an mc2xml.dat file and an xmltv.xml file. If you ever want to redo the initial setup delete the mc2xml.dat file and re-run mc2xml.
  • Once the mc2xml.dat file is created, mc2xml will not ask you the initial setup questions again and this is important as in the future we want mc2xml.exe to run without prompts for user input.
  • The xmltv.xml file will never be used as it's not named properly. To make sure the correct filename is generated and that updates can be made behind the scenes so to speak, we need to now create a batch file.
  • Create a text file named mx2xml.bat and place it in the C:\xmltv directory.
  • Edit the batch file to contain this line:

    mc2xml.exe -c US -F -g <your 5 digit zip code> -a -A -o tvguide.xml
  • Some of the flags are optional (-F, -a, -A)
  • Save the batch file and close it. Run it once by double clicking on it. A little dos prompt should open showing the download of data and then dissapear. If all went well you now have a tvguide.xml file in your c:\xmltv folder.
  • We now need to have Windows 7 schedule the running of this batch file every day at some later hour (I choose 4am).
  • Go to Task Scheduler and in the right-most pane click on Create Basic Task.
  • Name it anything you want with any description. I chose mc2xml as the name and "automated epg grabber" as the description.
  • Click Next and select Daily.
  • Click Next and observer the start day/time and the recurrance which should be every 1 days.
  • Click Next and select Start a Program
  • Click Next and select c:\xmltv\mc2xml.bat using the browse button for the Program/Script box.
  • Click Next and then click Finished.
  • That is the end of the mc2xml setup
08. Switch back to the Mediaportal TV Server configuration.
  • Click on Plugins in the left pane and check xmltv.
  • Now in the left pane Plugins can be expanded. When you expand you should now see xmlTv listed uner Plugins.
  • Click on xmlTv and you will see the right pane have three tabs (General, Mappings, Remote)
  • In General, I changed the directory location of the tvguide.xml file location to be C:\xmltv
  • I checked Import new tvguide.xml and Delete old programs before import.
  • Do not check Import files in new tvguide.lst nor Apply time compensation.
  • Click the Import button. An important note that even on fast computers, this import takes upwards of 3-5 minutes. You can tell the import is done if you can click on the Mappings tab and the dialog responds. If not, be patient.
  • Once the import is done you can see the date/total channels imported, total programs imported, etc. Another indicator your import was successful.
  • Click on the mappings tab.
  • I checked the Load Partial Matches box and then clicked Load/Refresh
  • The box below should list all your channels and have dropboxes for each channel where you can select the proper channel to map. Some will automatch, some will not. The headache here is to figure out which dropdown entry matches which channel. You may have to do some research to figure this out. I referenced a local digital tv listing on wikipedia, looked at my hdhomerun setup channel names, etc. This took me quite a while to figure out properly. Note that there are color codes for matched/unmatched entries.
  • Once you think you have the mappings correct, click on the SAVE button at the upper right.
  • once you have saved, click on load refresh again and all entries should reload and all be in white now (no colors). I clicked save again just to be sure.
  • Click ok at the bottom to close the Mediaportal TV Server setup as hopefully we are done with it.
09. You can now configure Mediaportal proper with various options. Look at other postings to figure out what you want to do here. For the sake of testing I skipped any config and jumped right into launching Mediaportal.
10. Launch media portal and go into MyTV. If all went well you should have tv playing! Go into the TV Guide and see if the channels/programs are all loaded and working and that when you select a program for a station the actual program playing matches. If it does not, it means the channel mapping is incorrect in the xmltv plugin setup in the mediaportal TV Server setup.

At this point hopefully everything worked out and you now have a successful Windows 7 64 bit HdHomerun dual tuner EPG setup complete.

- Han

*** NEW DEVELOPMENT, TUNING ATSC (free HD over the air local channels) OVER COMCAST ANALOG CABLE/INTERNET SERVICE ***

I have recently found some fascinting results with HD Homerun and analog cable/internet service through Comcast Minneapolis.

In two seperate setups (my condo building and a residential home 10 miles away) I was able to tune ATSC channels over Comcast cable internet service that had analog cable signals. I am not paying for any cable tv service, but do find I have analog standard definition basic cable (local stations) either as an oversight or policy/package.

What I did was to go into HD Homerun setup and for my two tuners select DIGITAL CABLE as my antenna/source on the TUNERS tab.

I then clicked on the DIGITAL CABLE tab and scanned both tuners for stations. What resulted was all the ATSC channels (several more than I can pull with an aerial and since this is a seperate coax for comcast than my ATSC aerial it must be coming from the comcast line!)

I noticed some of the channels were on a different carrier frequency (remap/offset) but the channel names, etc. did come through within HD Homerun's channel scan. You have to set the tuners to be Digital Cable for the right frequency scan ranges (will find no channels when set to ATSC tuner), but it's clearly ATSC programming and channel names.

Now in Mediaportal, I did not know whether I should scan for ATSC or QAM so I tried all the combinations and found the one that worked best was the following:

01. In the TV Server configuration, expand the TV SERVERS menu item until you see your local PC listed (usually some network name like media-server or whatever your computer is named)
02. Click on the computer name itself. You do not have to expand the menu item yet. If you did this correctly, the RIGHT pane will display a list of hardware cards available in your system with little green card icons in front of each hardware device. The Silicondust HD Homerun servers should be showing (2 in my case as I have a dual tuner).
03. SINGLE click on one of the Silicondust HD Homerun tuners then click the EDIT button in the lower left corner. (double clicking will uncheck/check the device)
04. On the popup dialog window DO NOT check CAM. Check Grab EPG and Preload Card. AT the bottom *** IMPORTANT *** for preferred network provider, select GENERIC. (NOT ATSC) then click Save.
05. Repeat for the other hd homerun card.
06. Now in the LEFT pane, expand the computer name menu item until you see the cards listed below it. Click on one of the Silicondust HD Homerun tuners. (this may restart the tv service).
07. DO NOT check Tune QAM (I know, weird!). Click Scan for Channels at the botttom.
08. One the channel scan is done do the same for the other HD Homerun tuner.
09. Once the scans are complete, you can continue with the setup process as listed above at step "08. Switch back to the Mediaportal TV Server configuration."

If anyone else can confirm/deny that this is working for them, please post/let me know, especially if you do not have any analog cable signals and just pure internet service. I'm very curious about this turn of events.

This makes me happy as I no longer have to worry about weather factors, etc. and it's still "free" for me but could just be both installations I've done were lucky enough to have the basic cable service included?

I tried this tuning setup due to posts I came across randomly while searching for QAM/ATSC questions:

http://www.highdefforum.com/cable-providers/9978-comcast-new-atsc-qam-channels.html
http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/2/167766.html
 

Paranoid Delusion

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  • June 13, 2005
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    Wow, thanks, keep up the good work, always nice when people help each other out, especially when we do not have the hardware to test ourselves.

    :D
     

    rekenaar

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  • December 17, 2006
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    Hi :)

    Agree with Ray, thanks for sharing your experience.

    I have however deleted some of your other posts.
    Cross posting is against forum rules and bumping old threads and threads that is already marked as fixed is not necessary.


    Again thanks for the thorough write-up. Keep it up :)
     

    han357

    Portal Member
    August 5, 2008
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    Hmm sorry I'm not sure as I don't have cable in my setup. :| I assume yes, but cannot guarantee.
     

    buzzforb

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    March 9, 2010
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    I will not be trying for paid cable stations, but the Clear Qam channels that are sent over the cable no matter what.

    I though you were using 1.1 since most people with Windows 7 seem to be doing so. Will this work on 1.1? Will 1.02 work on windows 7 64 bit.
     

    bradvido

    Portal Member
    March 26, 2010
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    When i try to import the tvguide.xml with xmltv, it only imports the channels. It does not import the programs.
    Any ideas why this might be?
     

    han357

    Portal Member
    August 5, 2008
    10
    4
    Hmm the import process is a bit complex. First make sure the mc2xml.bat file is run and pay attention to the dos prompt to make sure it has either downloaded the new program data or says there are no more updates.

    Once you are in the TV Server setup, and you have activated the xmltv plugin and are now configuring the plugin by expanding the plugins menu item and clicking on xmltv, click on the IMPORT button at the middle/bottom of the page on the GENERAL tab. The label just before the button is FORCE IMPORT. This should take quite some time (3-12 minutes depending on your computer). Once done you should see the number of channels and also the number of programs. If you went with 14 days it should be several thousand, 6400+ in my case.

    Once done click on the next tab MAPPINGS. Optionally click the PARTIAL MATCH checkbox. Click the Load/Refresh button. The fourth column should have color coding for perfect matches to no matches (white/blank, green, red, yellow). You can now manually edit the match for the channels that appeared in the scan versus the channel names that were in your xmltv import. This can be a PAIN so take your time, look up channel names/indicators/frequencies/etc.

    Once you have a decent match (or feel it's as close as you can get for now) click the SAVE button at the top left of the screen. Right under the SAVE button should be a small text field that says Mappings Saved.

    After saving, click on Load/Refresh again and then Save again just to be certain the processes were completed.

    Now close the TV server configuration and reboot your machine.

    After reboot (optional but recommended), launch Mediaportal (forces tv service to shutdown and restart upon reboot and makes sure you don't have MP running in the tray, etc.). Your listings should now appear even if you've incorrectly mapped channels to xmltv listing channel names. Sometimes if you have a lot of channels that are not mapped it may seem like the EPG is not working but scroll down a page or two and see if any of the guides show up. In my case the top 15 channels were not mapped so it looked blank, but under that several mapped channels showed the program guide information.

    The PITA part is going back to accurately map channels to the xmltv guide channels until all channels have the correct program guides. I have to revisit the channel mapping in the xmltv plugin area a lot to get all the channels set properly, often one at a time until I can see the channel guide and the actual signal I'm watching are accurate.

    Lastly if you want to stop having a channel show up in your guide, you have to disable the channel in the tv server config. Click on TV CHANNELS in the left column (do not expand just click on the label) and uncheck the channels you want to hide in your EPG display.

    Hope that helps.
     

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