Rogers/Shaw cable STB migration

[Len_Lekx]

In case anyone is following this...

My problem turned out to be not with the splitters or extractors I tried, but with the Hauppauge WinTV10 app I'm using in the interim. For some weird reason, every splitter I tried returned a 'No Signal' with that app... however, when I tried using Hauppauge Capture instead - it took a moment to 'lock on' the signal, and worked perfectly with every splitter I tested.

I wonder if WinTV tests for a signal once, and doesn't try again...

[VideoHoarder]

Hi Martin,
I think I saw a related thread from you on the Sage forum, and ideally I'd be staying with Sage, as it runs most of my media ecosystem. But regardless, because I assume the issues of getting signal where it needs to go and tuning channels would be pretty much the same, could you explain a bit more of what you're connecting to what (i.e. cable boxes, tuners, converters), and how you're getting channel-change commands sent to the RF boxes - or how to use USBUIRT to talk to them via IR? By way of background, I'm using Windows 10 Pro and a collection of Hauppauge tuners. None are using HDMI. Current inputs are all coax: some are antenna and others are cable output as channel 3/4. I'm willing to buy extra equipment if it's reasonably priced. I have Xfinity/Comcast. I don't need to record in HDMI (currently not doing so for cable shows), nor do I t care about interactive cable features, on-demand, etc. My cable recordings are currently done on the little Comcast DTA boxes, tuned with a USBUIRT.

[mvallevand]

@VideoHoarder, NextPVR will easily support your Hauppauge ATSC tuners (antenna) but it doesn't easily support any analog coax RF input on Windows The only analog SD possibility would be via the oldest Hauppauge HDPVR model 1212 from your DTA with composite or svideo input. Before spending any money maybe research what Comcast is doing with their legacy coax based STB and DTA boxes. I know my cable company has slowly been moving to replace these with digital boxes and moving to only IP delivery. These old boxes use frequency needed for high speed IP delivery over cable and one day they won't work.

For tuning, NextPVR would be able to run any command line tools you currently use based on the channel number so that part would be very similar but I don't see any reason for you to consider changing from SageTV it is all old tech so should continue to work well as long as Comcast and hardware doesn't fail.

Martin

[VideoHoarder]

My main concern is channel tuning if Comcast switches me from my current IR-tuning devices to their more "modern" RF-tuning boxes. My current Comcast boxes are having some issues with signal drop-out, and Comcast insists the problem is they aren't fully supporting those boxes anymore, and eventually they won't work at all and I'll have to "upgrade." I've been reading up on that situation, and it might turn out that IR-tuning will still be available, but I have more research to do.

I agree that so far I'm not seeing anything I need to do that would work better in NextPVR than it does in Sage (so should probably pick this discussion upon the Sage forum). My current tuners that I use with Sage are listed as WinTV 885 Video Capture TV Tune4 Channel 3 (which I think is a Hauppauge 1250 card) and WinTV 418 Video Capture TV Tuner Channel 4 (AKA Hauppauge 1600 card, I think), and they both get their signal from a little Comcast DTA spitting out channel 3 or 4, and tune via USBUIRT. My ATSC tuners are USBs 850, 950, and 980. I also have an ancient HDHomeRun connected, but it is a weaker tuner, and so last in the "merit" list for recordings.

[mvallevand]

Maybe I wasn't clear when I wrote I use LIRC. What this means is the Comcast X1 system STBs (XiOne and Xi6) allow both IR and RF tuning. It even uses the Pace IR codes in the RNG-150. What you might not be able to do easily is change your scripts to hit the OK since they don't time out. You might need the Esc key too to clear the OSD since the system will timeout live TV after 4 hours.

Martin