Lost 2 Channels

[Rich A]

Will do. But might be a while .. big recording night here (lots of prime time new shows etc.) and all the tuners are in use for a couple more hours. <grin>

[Rich A]

Sorry ... Having a problem getting attached files working.    Here is status info for 2 sessions.  One tuner status with HD HomeRun Live view app.   The other tuner status is with a recording session with NextPVR        

Tuner 2 status is the NPVR recording

- Rich

[BrettB]

Ah. OK. I definitely see a problem there.

If you look at the 2 tuner status screens, you can see that for the Tuner 0 one that is working, the tuner was set to virtual channel 1205 which is on frequency 117.000 MHz. And on the Tuner 2 one that is not working, the tuner was set by frequency not by virtual channel to frequency 85.000 MHz.

As I mentioned earlier, for HDHR tuners, there are 2 ways that NextPVR can access them. One is the "old way" via BDA Drivers and the ATSC (for OTA) or QAM (for unencrypted cable) device type in NextPVR. The other is the "new way" via the HDHR device type in NextPVR. With the QAM device type, a NPVR scan goes through all of the frequencies and finds which ones have signals on them--it then use that frequency information for tuning. With the HDHR device, NPVR simply gets a list of the available virtual channels from the HDHR configuration and uses that information for tuning. If you cable company is using encrypted QAM signals, then a cable card is required and you have to use the HDHR device type.

When you use the HDHR device type, all of the mapping between logical channel numbers and actual, physical frequencies is done by the HDHR. So if (when) the cable company moves a channel to a different frequency, all you need to do is rescan on the HDHR and nothing needs to be done in NPVR. However, with the QAM device type, if the cable company moves a channel's frequency, then you have to do a new scan in NPVR (and probably also create a new channel at the new frequency, merge the old and new channels, etc.).

Unfortunately, you never posted logs from your NextPVR system, so we just had to guess how you had things set up. And since you said you had a cable card, I think we all presumed that you were using the HDHR device type. However, now I think that you are using the QAM device type. Posting logs would let us confirm.

I would suggest trying a test with a completely fresh npvr.db3 file (save your old one). Make sure to select the HDHR device. Do a "scan" to get the full channel list from the HDHR. Then try doing a recording of the ESPN channel. Capture a full set of the logs. And also get a copy of the tuner status on the HDHR like you just did. My guess is that it will now play ESPN for you.

[Rich A]

Ah. OK. I definitely see a problem there.

If you look at the 2 tuner status screens, you can see that for the Tuner 0 one that is working, the tuner was set to virtual channel 1205 which is on frequency 117.000 MHz. And on the Tuner 2 one that is not working, the tuner was set by frequency not by virtual channel to frequency 85.000 MHz.

As I mentioned earlier, for HDHR tuners, there are 2 ways that NextPVR can access them. One is the "old way" via BDA Drivers and the ATSC (for OTA) or QAM (for unencrypted cable) device type in NextPVR. The other is the "new way" via the HDHR device type in NextPVR. With the QAM device type, a NPVR scan goes through all of the frequencies and finds which ones have signals on them--it then use that frequency information for tuning. With the HDHR device, NPVR simply gets a list of the available virtual channels from the HDHR configuration and uses that information for tuning. If you cable company is using encrypted QAM signals, then a cable card is required and you have to use the HDHR device type.

When you use the HDHR device type, all of the mapping between logical channel numbers and actual, physical frequencies is done by the HDHR. So if (when) the cable company moves a channel to a different frequency, all you need to do is rescan on the HDHR and nothing needs to be done in NPVR. However, with the QAM device type, if the cable company moves a channel's frequency, then you have to do a new scan in NPVR (and probably also create a new channel at the new frequency, merge the old and new channels, etc.).

Unfortunately, you never posted logs from your NextPVR system, so we just had to guess how you had things set up. And since you said you had a cable card, I think we all presumed that you were using the HDHR device type. However, now I think that you are using the QAM device type. Posting logs would let us confirm.

I would suggest trying a test with a completely fresh npvr.db3 file (save your old one). Make sure to select the HDHR device. Do a "scan" to get the full channel list from the HDHR. Then try doing a recording of the ESPN channel. Capture a full set of the logs. And also get a copy of the tuner status on the HDHR like you just did. My guess is that it will now play ESPN for you.
----------------------------------

Thanks Brett  Sorry about the missing logs.  I was trying to see if there was some kind of common solution I could find myself before getting too deep into this.  FWIW, I've had this Comcast cable tv account about 4 years now and they have in the past often moved channels around.  I've always been able to take care of any issues with channel changes without issues in the past.  I'm using a HDHR Prime (three tuner with a type M Motorola cable card).  

I've attached all of the logs as of this email.   Last Friday I guessed that Comcast was at it again .. They have been making some channel lineup changes.  So when I lost (only those two channels) I thought, "no problem" and went thru my process to get things sorted out.  But  not this time.  The most recent try I did, I also added a few "new" never before mapped channels to the NPVR channel line up.  And everything works, the newly added channels are properly setup and all are playable and recorded okay EXCEPT the ESPNHD and ESPN2HD.  

I've attached all the logs I could find.  Meanwhile I'll go through the procedure of doing the HD Homerun setup and channel scan and again scan the channels in NPVR and remap them etc.   I've done this in the past many times.  Maybe my advancing age has caused me to loose a few brain cells.  I haven't had to do this for about a year now.  well that's my excuse .. <grin>  So thanks for the help.  I'll do another attempt at this later this afternoon and see if I might be doing something wrong.   I HAVE done this channel change fix several times in the past but not recently.  

One other note of interest.  When this started I also lost those two channels when using the SiliconDust HD HomeRun VIEW app.   It's a stand alone channel viewing app .. has nothing to do with NPVR.  And even the actual SD HDHR channel view app would not play those two channels .. Only those two.   However I fixed that by installing a new default video video viewing program (VLC) and when I did that the HDHR view program was able to play those channels.   So I guess what ever default media player that the HDHR View program was using was not able to decode those channels.   And when I changed the windows default media player to VLC the HDHR view program picked up the new window default media player which fixed that problem.   So I must be dong something wrong in the NPVR set up or mapping procedure.  <sigh>  

[sub]

You've actually got some unexpected stuff in your logs.

If you open this in your browser, does it return a channel list?
http://192.168.5.251/lineup.xml?show=found

[Rich A]

You've actually got some unexpected stuff in your logs.

If you open this in your browser, does it return a channel list?
http://192.168.5.251/lineup.xml?show=found

 
That link won't work in both IE and Firefox browsers.  Says "not found".  Did a search of the entire system and there is no "channels.xml" anywhere except in a backup folder.  While troubleshooting this on Nov. 4th, I did a channel export of all three tuners' channels .. I've attached those three "channel exports" and other backup channel stuff.  Curious that I can't find "channels.xml" where it should be ???   The only "channels.xml" files I can find are in separate "backup" folder.  A "channels.xml" file is there that was created 6/14/2019 which was probably a backup copy of the original xml file that is missing.  I've attached the three tuner channel exports (made Nov 4th) and that older channels.xml backup made June 14 along with a channels.xml dated Nov.4th.   All those channels.xml files only exist in a folder <NPVR exported Channels> on a backup drive E:   Weird ..

What's strange is that NPVR is and always has been functioning perfectly for the last several months or more, except for this new problem with ESPN that cropped up several days ago.

Let me back up and blow away all the NPVR logs and retry a new HDHR scan and then a new normal scan and setup of the NPVR channels.  Then I re-send a nice new set of logs that might be easier to work with ??   And maybe fix this.   Oh .. just thought of something.  I seem to remember some time back I had some issues with some custom settings in the epg GUI plugin for TV Listings.  I now see that the normal "TV Guide" no longer works (no data) but the "TV Listings" (which I have been using for about a year) has been fine.   I think I also have a problem in the mapping area as well but have been ignoring the error as it didn't seem to be affecting my actual process of mapping  ... Or so I thought ....

[sub]

was that the correct IP address for you HDHR Prime?

http://192.168.5.251/lineup.xml?show=found

[sub]

Basically it looked like your HDHR Prime was trying to tune by frequency and program number, which wouldn't normally happen. With this type of device it'd usually tune by virtual channel number. This makes me think that when you original scanned this device, the HDHR didn't have a channel lineup.

[Rich A]

Basically it looked like your HDHR Prime was trying to tune by frequency and program number, which wouldn't normally happen. With this type of device it'd usually tune by virtual channel number. This makes me think that when you original scanned this device, the HDHR didn't have a channel lineup.

I've tried everything. 

When I do a channel SCAN of HDHomerun Prime device using the HDHR config I get an xml file generated.  It shows up as "Digital Cable.xml".  It is the product of a normal scan using the Digital Cable type device.  

I've attached a copy of that file.  Note that it DOES have the correct channel information for ESPN and ESPN2 in the file.  Proper frequency, etc.

So that works.  But for some reason I'm thinking my NPVR is NOT finding that file to use during it's set up.   I've used NPVR to scan the devices for channels and it finds 410 channels .. But I don't think that data is using the "digital cable.xml" file that was generated when I did the scan in the HDHR setup.   I've done that HDHR setup several times over the last two days.   And did the device setup and channel scan within Nextpvr ... everything works .. no errors but the result of the Nextpvr channel scan parameters  (for ESPN and ESPN2) does NOT match the parameters that are in the "digital Cable.xml" file that the hdhomerun app is generating.   I'm totally lost ...

Can you tell me what the actual name of the file and location is that NPVR uses when I do a device setup and channel scan IN NPVR ?  I don't think it's using the Digital Cable.xml file as a source (which does have the proper parameters for ESPN and ESPN2 channels).  And that is why I can't see those two channels.  NPVR is using some "file" for it's source that is most likely an older and now incorrect file.  And I can't get the NPVR setup to use the correct file that is being generated by the HDHR setup.  Does this make sense ?

[sub]

What is the IP address of your HDHR?

It'd usually get the channel list from an HDHR Prime by reading this url:

http://x.x.x.x/lineup.xml?show=found

(where x.x.x.x is the IP address of the device)