After completing configuration can't get to my TvGuide

[johnsonx42]

yes, do what whurlston said - click the mapping field next to each channel - you have to select the physical channel which matches the EPG channel.

I notice also that you are in the so-cal area, as your scan results look just like mine. I see that your scan got the video PID wrong for KABC, just like it did for me (it got 986, when it's really 49)

See my post here: http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=43637. Yours probably got all the same channels wrong as mine did. You'll have to fix the tuning requests by hand on the capture source screen, or edit them beforehand in the scan.cache file.

You may also want to install the scanning patch sub posted here:http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=3...ostcount=3 and see if it can scan the correct video PID for ABC. The patch specifically addresses an audio PID issue, but it may also catch the video PID... I'd sure be interested in knowing if it does, but my system is working fine right now so I'm in no hurry to patch and re-scan.

[eramos581]

(1)Thank you for the “Initial Setup Guide - ATSC and QAM Tuner.zip” reference I was able to use this to map out my local digital channels to the EPG channel names in the “digital channel mapping page. I had tried to use the Wiki instructions found at the “define HDTV source (Configuring OTA ATSC HD channels USA) which seemed to imply that the mapping columns in the “digital channel mapping page (which would translate into the previous “edit recording source” page tuning request columns) would be somewhat “automatic” or at least it would initially attempt to match up my scanned local channels to the EPG channel names. Your guide proved otherwise.

(2) The remaining issue here is that since the channel scan picked up 68 digital channels, mapping my local picked up channels to the EPG channel names which have UNRELATED numbers (ones eventually showing up in the TV guide rather than my local channel numbers), this is really an incredibly long mind numbing task. Isn’t there something I can do or use to automate this since automation is really what the computer age is all about right?

(3) What can I do to have my local picked up scanned channel numbers rather than the EPG channel names that contain UNRELATED numbers, to come up in the TV guide? Note that having the EPG channel names that contain numbers that are UNRELATED to my local channel numbers is pretty useless since there is no way I can tell that EPG channel name “98 KOTS” means my local channel 5.4 etc.

(4) I noticed that the EPG channel names that come from the “xmltv.xml” file are in total less than my local channels, I am assuming here that the reason for this is that the grabber program I am using “mc2xml.exe” only picks up the main channels like 4.1 but does not pick up the ATSC sub channels like 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 etc. This being the case, can I use the ADD button found in the ““edit recording source” page to add in placeholder labels with names like 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 then map my local channel numbers to these added labels to compensate for this? If not what would be the purpose/intent of the ADD button?

[dennit]

(1)Thank you for the “Initial Setup Guide - ATSC and QAM Tuner.zip” reference I was able to use this to map out my local digital channels to the EPG channel names in the “digital channel mapping page. I had tried to use the Wiki instructions found at the “define HDTV source (Configuring OTA ATSC HD channels USA) which seemed to imply that the mapping columns in the “digital channel mapping page (which would translate into the previous “edit recording source” page tuning request columns) would be somewhat “automatic” or at least it would initially attempt to match up my scanned local channels to the EPG channel names. Your guide proved otherwise.

IIRC, it does attempt to do this on an initial scan, but it requires that the name of the channel picked up during the scan match the name of the channel in your EPG. I've never had them match up.

(2) The remaining issue here is that since the channel scan picked up 68 digital channels, mapping my local picked up channels to the EPG channel names which have UNRELATED numbers (ones eventually showing up in the TV guide rather than my local channel numbers), this is really an incredibly long mind numbing task. Isn’t there something I can do or use to automate this since automation is really what the computer age is all about right?

The short answer is "No." I dealt with 900 channels - consider yourself lucky. Your tuner scans physical channels - frequencies. GBPVR just assigns the channels it finds in the order it finds them. The longer answer is still mostly no. At 68 channels the tools I used to make it a bit easier aren't worth the effort.

You might find SiliconDust's site to be of use: http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/channels_us - based on your zipcode, it will tell you what channels you should be able to receive, and what physical channels they'll be on. It may make it easier to match them up.

(3) What can I do to have my local picked up scanned channel numbers rather than the EPG channel names that contain UNRELATED numbers, to come up in the TV guide? Note that having the EPG channel names that contain numbers that are UNRELATED to my local channel numbers is pretty useless since there is no way I can tell that EPG channel name “98 KOTS” means my local channel 5.4 etc.

You can assign any numbers you want to any channel (see config). Unfortunately X.X format subchannels as used in the U.S. are not supported (the rest of the world doesn't use this style). Some people assign 5.4 to 54, etc.

(4) I noticed that the EPG channel names that come from the “xmltv.xml” file are in total less than my local channels, I am assuming here that the reason for this is that the grabber program I am using “mc2xml.exe” only picks up the main channels like 4.1 but does not pick up the ATSC sub channels like 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 etc. This being the case, can I use the ADD button found in the ““edit recording source” page to add in placeholder labels with names like 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 then map my local channel numbers to these added labels to compensate for this? If not what would be the purpose/intent of the ADD button?

Yes, subject to the channel numbering limitation above (number them 42, 43 or 420, 430, or whatever.) mc2xml.exe picks up the data that is used in Microsoft's Media Center. It doesn't include most subchannels.

[johnsonx42]

1,2&3) basically this is because GB-PVR is a program used world-wide, but written by one very talented guy in New Zealand. He has neither time nor energy to sort out the different tv systems in each country and find a way to match up with the different EPG sources the users may use.

For question 3, the channel # assignment is done on the Channels tab in config. As dennit said you can assign whatever numbering you want... gb-pvr doesn't use the numbering for anything other than you (ie, you see the channel numbers in the guide, and can tune them that way with the remote, but they have no deeper meaning to gb-pvr - it does everything based on the channel name).

To deal with the lack of sub-channel support (don't bother asking sub about this, he's not going to add it), I just fit them in where it makes sense to me. I put KTLADT2 (ThisTV) at channel 6, KNBCDT4 (Universal Sports) at 14, the useless subs of KABC and KNBC at 15, 16, 17 (I keep hoping they'll put something good on those channels, to no avail). Then most of the other ones I just numbered in sequence from their base channel numbers; KCETDT is 28, KCETDT2 is 29, but then I put KCETDT4 at 27 since KPAXDT is at 30, and so on. This way the traditional channels all have the numbers we expect them to have, and the subs are all worked in nearby.

In regards to question 4, I recommend using Schedules Direct if you want EPG data for the sub channels. The other alternative is to donate to the author of MC2XML to get the newer version that uses the new Microsoft Windows 7 epg data source that does include sub channels.

If you don't care about having EPG data, and just want the channels to be available, then yes, what you describe is correct. You add a name for the channel, and then map a tuning request to it. The TVGuide will simply show two hour blocks of "No Show Details" for those channels.

[dennit]

In regards to question 4, I recommend using Schedules Direct if you want EPG data for the sub channels. The other alternative is to donate to the author of MC2XML to get the newer version that uses the new Microsoft Windows 7 epg data source that does include sub channels.

I get subchannel EPG listings even with the older version of mc2xml for a few subchannels where the subchannel actually has varied/scheduled programming (typically sports). The 24 hour news and weather subchannels, which are the most common, however, don't show up. Is there much programming on the missing subchannels?

[eramos581]

Gentlemen;
I thank you for all of your supplied information. Very informative and well laid out. I will try out some of your recommendations later on today. By the way I noticed the individual quotes relating back to my specific query parts (1-4). How does one do this? I would have thought that if I clicked on the "quote messages in reply" selection at the time of posting it would just return the whole 4 parts I had posted.
Thanks again to all that responded.

[whurlston]

Gentlemen;
I thank you for all of your supplied information. Very informative and well laid out. I will try out some of your recommendations later on today. By the way I noticed the individual quotes relating back to my specific query parts (1-4). How does one do this? I would have thought that if I clicked on the "quote messages in reply" selection at the time of posting it would just return the whole 4 parts I had posted.
Thanks again to all that responded.

It requires manual manipulation of the text. Just copy the "quote=" tag and paste it where you want to start the next quote part. End each part with the "/quote" tag.

[dennit]

It requires manual manipulation of the text. Just copy the "quote=" tag and paste it where you want to start the next quote part. End each part with the "/quote" tag.

Yes - that's basically how I do it. You can also just move the last /quote tag to after the first question and just before your first answer, then highlight each numbered question and hit the quote button, which wraps the highlighted question in quote tags.