Just getting a black screen with 3.1.1-R1 and HDHomeRun Dual

[drzwave]

I am new to NextPVR and hoping it will work better than WMC.
My #1 desire is to be able to watch recorded shows from my Samsung SmartTV. The TV will play a variety of file types but not ones created by WMC. I tried a few file converters but couldn't get those to work. Plus I like the ability to schedule via the web on NPVR.


My setup is a Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Dual for the tuners, a Win7 e-machines PC with sufficient power but not much extra and an external USB drive for storage, Basic cable (Metrocast) which is clear-QAM which the TV and HDHR can decide without any problems.
The HD HomeRun apps work fine and I can watch TV on the PC using the silicon dust apps.

I have downloaded NPVR 3.1.1 and applied the R1a patches.

Firewall is OFF (for now - once I get NPVR to work I'll turn it back on).

I can get NPVR to scan for channels and it appears to work. though the channel mapping does not match the HDHR but I am OK with going thru and mapping them by hand as I'm really only interested in a dozen or so channels (skip the shopping channels!).

I installed the XMLTV grabber and made a .bat file that also seems to work for the few channels I have properly configured for now.

But when I click on LiveTV, NPVR thinks about it for several seconds, then tunes to the channel (the channel # and name come up in the title bar), but there is no video.

Attached are the logs.
Can anyone give me a clue where to go next?
Thanks in advance!

[sub]

It's almost certainly firewall related. It's always that, even when users think they have their firewall configured or off, so double check there first.

If it's not that, then the only other thing we've seen is some users needing to set the default app in SiliconDust tools to 'Other ATSC/QAM'.

If you schedule a recording, and end up with a zero byte file, then no data is making it to NextPVR, and it'll definitely be one of the two things above.

[Zeb]

I think a signal is making it through any firewalls because the live TV clock changes from default MPEG1 to AC3; but as sub said, a recording larger than zero bytes would prove that. The first thing I would do is move the live TV buffer to C:\Temp or somewhere in C:\Users\Public on account of this:

Code:

2013-12-29 15:13:43.269    [DEBUG][1]    Noticed live tv buffer file was still presented. Unable to delete it: System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path 'C:\Users\hh\Videos\live-WENH 11-3502.ts' is denied.
   at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)
   at System.IO.File.InternalDelete(String path, Boolean checkHost)
   at System.IO.File.Delete(String path)
   at NextPVR.Players.LiveTvPlayer.Stop()

The ffdshow video decoder requires a little configuration for MPEG2; but since you're running Win7, why don't you just select Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder for now? However you cannot use the Microsoft decoder for AC3 Audio. I'm not sure if you can use ffdshow audio decoder for AC3; mvallevand might know about that; but most of us download either AC3Filter or LAV, both of which are free.

[drzwave]

I finally solved the problem on my own. I had to randomly try various video decoders and things until they randomly started to work!

The key problem is probably that the channel list is completely wrong and the first 20 channels on the list are not real channels at all. Once I found a real channel, then I was able to find a video/audio decoders that worked. The Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder for both MPEG2 and H.264 got video to work.

I can play the file on my Samsung TV! Yeah!

Now the real problem is that the channel list is completely wrong.

The NPVR scan finds over 100 channels and the Silicon Dust also finds over 100 channels. But the 2 lists look nothing alike.

And in particular, is there a way in NPVR to default to XMLTV instead of DVB/ATSC EPG because Metrocast (cable provider) specifically removes all EPG from the signal and requires you to buy their decoder if you want it. XMLTV works but I don't want to have to manually enter every channel if a utility exists to do it for me.

There is a utility from Silicon Dust to convert their list to WMC which I have used in the past. Is there one for NPVR?

Metrocast is about to change all the channels with their conversion to 100% digital in the next month or two so I don't want to have to do this manually twice!

So that's my question - How to get the HDHOMERUN channel list into NPVR (or fix the NPVR scan so it matches the one from HSHOMERUN)?

[sub]

You'll need to either double click a channel on the Settings->Channels screen to set it's XMLTV mapping, or use the 'Bulk Map' button to map multiple channels.

On the bulk map screen NextPVR will try to do the mappings automatically for you if it can, like when the cable company broadcasts real channel names. When they don't, which often the case with US cable networks, then you'll need to tell NextPVR which channel is which by manually doing the mappings.

[Zeb]

I installed the XMLTV grabber and made a .bat file that also seems to work for the few channels I have properly configured for now.

I have noticed that grabber mentioned in the Wiki, but most Americans are using either Schedules Direct or mc2xml. We might be able to offer better support if you changed grabbers.

...the first 20 channels on the list are not real channels at all.

Those are probably encrypted premium channels that sometimes slip through when scanning a QAM device, and should be deleted from Settings->Channels. Are you saying that some Clear QAM channels were not found by the scan?

[drzwave]

I'm using mc2xml and that seems to work OK.

The problem is that the channels found by scan in NPVR do not match those found by scan in HDHOMERUN. There are a few here and there that match but most don't. NPVRs are mostly wrong. I have fixed a handful of them manually by tuning to the station in NPVR and then also on a TV and viewing them then entering that info manually in NPVR. Tedious but I'm getting there.

The problem I have now (maybe I need to start a new thread) is that a few channels are not able to be viewed on NPVR but I can view them in the HDHOMERUN app and directly on several TVs. Maybe this is a flag setting by the cable provider??? how would I know? I tried a few other decoders but either didn't make a difference or didn't work at all on any channels. I'm using the Microsoft ones mentioned above and those seem to work best. The channel that does not work is HGTV but other cable-only TV channels (like NECN) work fine. I haven't gone thru all the channels to figure out what works and what doesn't. Most of the UNKNOWN 38.1 channels don't work but a scan finds them. I assume those are not "real" channels. I have 1 older TV that finds a lot of channels that are not real (blank or "no broadcast") but my newer TV must check that there actually is a real TV show and not just "data" on the channel and then declares that as a channel as there are no bad channels.

[drzwave]

BTW - I LOVE the web server interface! NPVR is so much better than WMC! Once I get this fully operational I'll show this to a lot of other people!

[sub]

I'm using mc2xml and that seems to work OK.

The problem is that the channels found by scan in NPVR do not match those found by scan in HDHOMERUN. There are a few here and there that match but most don't. NPVRs are mostly wrong. I have fixed a handful of them manually by tuning to the station in NPVR and then also on a TV and viewing them then entering that info manually in NPVR. Tedious but I'm getting there.

It's not unusual for it to be a crappy experience mapping digital cable channels in North America. The regulator has said they're not required to transmit meta data like channels names etc, so very few cable operators do, leading to NextPVR not having access to channel names/numbers or any other identifiers. This results in lots of channels with names like "Unknown 84.7".

The HDHomeRun's own utilities can sometime end up with better scan results, but only because users have manually named the channels in the past, and the scanner has made an online query to the SiliconDust servers to ask if more info is known about these channels. NextPVR is unable to call these services, so we just have to make do with info is in the stream (very little).


Sometimes you get lucky and find your cable company uses a SID that machines the channel number on your cable box, so "Unknown 87.712" would be channel 712, which makes it relatively simple to map your channels without having to watch them. Otherwise, there is very little you can do other than watch the channel for a short period of time to identify what channel it is. To help make it a bit easier, from in live tv you can right click, and click 'Set Channel EPG Source' to enter the channel name and a mapping, then press CH+ to the next channel and so on (ie, not having to go to Settings->Channels->Channel each time).

The problem I have now (maybe I need to start a new thread) is that a few channels are not able to be viewed on NPVR but I can view them in the HDHOMERUN app and directly on several TVs. Maybe this is a flag setting by the cable provider??? how would I know? I tried a few other decoders but either didn't make a difference or didn't work at all on any channels. I'm using the Microsoft ones mentioned above and those seem to work best. The channel that does not work is HGTV but other cable-only TV channels (like NECN) work fine. I haven't gone thru all the channels to figure out what works and what doesn't. Most of the UNKNOWN 38.1 channels don't work but a scan finds them. I assume those are not "real" channels. I have 1 older TV that finds a lot of channels that are not real (blank or "no broadcast") but my newer TV must check that there actually is a real TV show and not just "data" on the channel and then declares that as a channel as there are no bad channels.

NextPVR should be able to view all the channels you can view in the SiliconDust QuickTV.

I'd be surprised if your cable company had HGTV available via ClearQAM. Usually you'd only get the local channels. Sometimes you'll still have analog versions of channels like HGTV etc, but these are not accessible via a digital-only tuner like the HDHomeRun.

Some of the channels in the list NextPVR found are probably encrypted, which wont be viewable in NextPVR or the SiliconDust software. NextPVR tries to identify these encrypted channels at scan time, and filter them out, but sometimes it doesn't get this right, and you can end up with encrypted channels in the list. It sounds like these 38.x channels are probably encrypted.