Problem setting up HDHomerun EPG using both tuners

[whurlston]

Channel numbers don't really matter to digital devices because they are tuned using the Tuning Strings specified when you map them to the EPG channels. With the TMS data (which is supplied by Schedules Direct), a channel will have the same ID whether it is in the OTA lineup or the cable lineup because it is in fact the same channel. GBPVR treats it as one channel since the IDs match. However, as mentioned, you can adjust the tuning parameters for that channel on a per tuner basis so that the QAM tuner sends a different tune request than the OTA tuner. You can tell which is being used by selecting "Show Status" from the GBPVR tray icon.

[fiteclub]

... However, as mentioned, you can adjust the tuning parameters for that channel on a per tuner basis so that the QAM tuner sends a different tune request than the OTA tuner. You can tell which is being used by selecting "Show Status" from the GBPVR tray icon.

Whurlston

Can you elaborate on this statement (or point me to a place that explains the "tuning strings"); I'm sorry to be such a dunce on this. I understand how GBPVR internally selects redundant channels to use but I would like to be able to select the tuner that will be used because many times the OTA signal is of much better quality than the QAM signals because the cable companies compress the signals due to bandwidth limitations. So it would be nice to choose explicitly the OTA tuner for shows of particular interest. Is the method that I described a few posts back just not going to work to do this? Is this the cause of my problems of only seeing one tuner at a time?

[sub]

I'm sorry to be such a dunce on this. I understand how GBPVR internally selects redundant channels to use but I would like to be able to select the tuner that will be used because many times the OTA signal is of much better quality than the QAM signals because the cable companies compress the signals due to bandwidth limitations. So it would be nice to choose explicitly the OTA tuner for shows of particular interest.

Sorry, you dont get any say in which tuner it'll use, other than tweaking the capture source order in the config app.

Is the method that I described a few posts back just not going to work to do this? Is this the cause of my problems of only seeing one tuner at a time?

I dont have an HDHomeRun device, so I'm not familiar enough with this device to tell you whether it can have one tuner doing 8VSB while the other does QAM. I can tell you that GB-PVR has no problems with these types of combinations though - you can mix as many QAM and ATSC tuners as you like.

[fiteclub]

Sub,

Thanks for the quick reply; as noted earlier in this thread, I have since confirmed that the HDHomerun does indeed support 8vsb and qam on each tuner at the same time.

So why did the channel mapping list download two entries for the same station when I was setting up the second tuner? Is this because of the redundant station information in the SchedulesDirect QAM and OTA lineups? I guess eliminating the redundancy by editing the lineup would solve this. Could this cause the problem with only one tuner working? Sorry to keep harping on this but I am just trying to understand this channel mapping stuff. This is my first foray into the digital channel world.

Thanks for everyone's patience,

[sub]

So why did the channel mapping list download two entries for the same station when I was setting up the second tuner? Is this because of the redundant station information in the SchedulesDirect QAM and OTA lineups? I guess eliminating the redundancy by editing the lineup would solve this. Could this cause the problem with only one tuner working? Sorry to keep harping on this but I am just trying to understand this channel mapping stuff. This is my first foray into the digital channel world.

To be honest, I have no idea what you're talking about, which makes it pretty hard to answer your question.

If you're unable to record from both tuners at the same time, then try doing a recording on both at the same time, then zip and attach the logs and I'll take look.

[fiteclub]

Sub,

Sorry for all the confusion; after rereading my last post I am embarrassed that I sent it.:o

I will follow your suggestion about the recording test tonight. Also will take the time to try and compose clearer dialog in the future!

[fiteclub]

Sub,

I hope you can follow this post a little better.

OK, I have gotten GBPVR to access both tuners at the same time. Tuner 0 set to QAM and Tuner 1 set to 8VSB. The problem was with the HDHomerun setup utility. You have to select the "advanced" option in the drop down "Signal Source" menu on the "Tuners" tab of the HDHomerun Setup utility. This allows you to set the HDHomerun in a "mixed" tuner mode. This is certainly not intuitive and, AFAIK, not mentioned in any of the scant instructions provided on the HDHomerun CD or Website.

That being said, I am going to explain in detail what is happening with the EPG. Here is a step-by-step explanation of my configuration of the EPG. I live in the USA and am using SchedulesDirect for my EPG info source. I have two lineups in my SchedulesDirect account; one for Digital Cable and one for OTA Broadcast. As one might expect, many of the channels are the same in both lineups but some are unique to each lineup. As a test I disabled all but three channels which are found in both lineups (WRLKDT, WRLKDT2, and WRLKDT3). I then followed the steps below to setup the tuners in GBPVR config utility.

1. I modifed the BDA.ini file as described in the instructions on the HDHomerun forum for setup of GBPVR.

2. I then added both tuners to the "Capture Sources" list in the config utility. I named the first one (tuner 0) "HDHomerun QAM" and the second (tuner 1) "HDHomerun OTA".

3. For "HDHomerun QAM", I selected SchedulesDirect as the EPG source, entered my login info, and pressed "update EPG" which brought in the three channels mentioned above.

4. I pressed the "Map Digital Channels to EPG Channels" button and initiated channel scan. The scan found all expected channels. I assigned WITVDT3 (000(AC3)) to WRLKDT3, WRLKDT (000) to WRLKDT, and WHMCDT2 (000(AC3)) to WRLKDT2. Pressed OK and Channels box shows tuning strings for each channel.

5. Now for "HDHomerun OTA", I repeat step 3.

6. I repeat step 4 and the scan again found all expected channels. I assigned 35.3 ETV HD (000(AC3)) to WRLKDT3, 35.1 ETV (000) to WRLKDT, and 35.2 SC Chnl (eng(AC3)) to WRLKDT2. Pressed OK and Channels box shows tuning strings for each channel.

7. I now close GBPVR config utility, update the epg from the recording service and open PVRX2. The TV Guide shows 6 channels:

35 WRLKDT OTA
800 WRLKDT3 QAM
801 WRLKDT QAM
802 WRLKDT2 QAM
821 WRLKDT2 OTA
822 WRLKDT3 OTA

Three of these are QAM channels and three of them are OTA channels. This is not what I expected from the way I thought GBPVR works. As you can see, I have separate channels with the same id accessing two different tuners exclusively. This is actually what I prefer because this seems to allow me to have a choice of which tuner to use. Interestingly, If I only use one lineup in SchedulesDirect (the digital cable lineup), I still get the same duplicate channels but only the QAM channels have any guide information.

My questions are:

1. Did I setup the EPG correctly considering I have multiple lineups? If not, how should I do it?

2. Will leaving it this way cause any problems?

Thanks and sorry for the long post.

[sub]

1. Did I setup the EPG correctly considering I have multiple lineups?

It would normally have only produced three channels, with two possible sources (one via QAM, the other via ATSC). Its kind of difficult for me to guess why this happened, but if you delete your database and reproduce the steps above on an empty database, then post the logs, I'm happy to take a look.

2. Will leaving it this way cause any problems?

The most obvious thing that will occur is that is the application will not be able to look for an alternative source for these channels when you want to record or watch live tv, so some recordings that could otherwise occur would be marked as conflicts, and if you try to watch live tv on the wrong version of while a recording is occuring, you'll be told the capture source is unavailable.

[fiteclub]

OK will try that tonight. This may be a dumb question, but how do I delete the database? I have never done that before.

[sub]

Just delete the gbpvr.db3 file. It'll create a new one when you run config.exe.