HVR-1600 setup for QAM?

[gazoo]

Ok, got the HVR-1600 installed. I haven't tried to record anything yet, but I've been playing around with channel discovery. That silicondust website says I have more channels (http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lin...code=32904) than I can find with either PVRX2 or WinTV. I tried all the QAM .ini's too. I settled on the IRC one which seems to yield the most channels. I'm wondering if there's anymore of those somewhere else on the site.

Also, my P4 1.8GHz can't handle viewing 1080i channels at all. It freaks and everything slows to a crawl as frames are dropped. Very disappointing. Not that the channels are a big deal, they're all the very BASIC cable stuff (not even TNT or TBS or discoveryhd). I mean, how many religious channels in high def do I really want? Or city council meetings? :p

Thanks for the help. I'm currently only mapping channels that my computer can handle like 720P and below.

[JohnInSJ]

So here's a guide to QAM on the HVR-1600:

Make sure you have the 1600 that's capable of QAM (there are some that don't) pretty sure you're going to get a QAM enabled one.

Check - says so on the box, is the right model

Make sure you have the QAM enabled driver.

How do I do that? I have the latest driver - the one on the CD matches the latest one on the web, I just did a normal install

Make sure your mpeg 2 decoders and muxes are capable of smooth HD playback. (right now i'm using ATI Avivo and DVR-MS, though the ATI mux and Cyberlink mux found somewhere in this forum works as well.)

I doubt this is an issue - but I can't be sure... right now tuning seems to be the problem

Make sure you dont have too many splitters on the line. The card is a bit finnicky over signal quality, so the stronger the signal the better.

I can only assume this is the problem. However it fails with no splitters. I will try again tomorrow on a different drop.

If you don't find any channels, try using one of the alternate qam.ini files I've uploaded, also found in this thread somewhere.

Could we make a wiki entry with all these? I have not hunted for them yet, but have hopes that they will unlock the 111 clear QAM channels my hp tv can find, but the 1600 cannot :p

[whurlston]

Not sure about PF's ini files but I posted some that you can find by searching for "us-cable.ini".

[badger.packer.fan]

I've noticed something strange. Using the autoscan, I find most of the QAM channels. The ones I'm missing are ABC, CBS, and NBC. I downloaded MediaPortal and tried to do a channel scan. They have different options for QAM frequencies to scan on. Using the "std" frequency scan, I was able to find the same stations as GBPVR. However, using the "alternate std" frequency scan, I found ABC, CBS, and NBC, but not FOX and some of the PBS stations. There were a few that were found during both scans. Is there a way to accomplish something similar in GBPVR so I can get all stations? I'm so close to getting this work. TIA!!

[gazoo]

You can try to use the alternate qam.ini files that are in like page 8-10 somewhere of this posting. I came up with my own using the WinTV access database. WARNING!: these are far from perfect. I only pickup about 95% of what my cable system has available. I couldn't pickup the cable system's local news13 (Brighthouse central florida) in HD for some reason. My HDTV seems to pickup like 3 more channels. You can give it a try, just drop these in your BDA/ATSC folder. It will replace the QAM in the ATSC root and also the one under the subfolder HVR1600.

[shukla]

Okay, I've read through this thread. I've installed the latest version of the hauppage s/w & drivers off their website. I've installed the 1600 two tuners with the digital tuner set as #2.

I've also played with the qam.ini files posted on this thread. I can't find any qam channels. I've played with SageTV and can get clear QAM channels no problem (except the mapping is all goofed up). I can even get QAM on the crappy wintv application, so I'm sure it's not a signal issue.

I'd like to get this working on gb though. I have gotten the analog tuner working no problem. After doing a digital channel mapping, I get an error saying no channels found and I should check my signal and configuration settings. Which config settings? Do I have to make some adjustment in the BDA?

I'm connected to Comcraptic in Montgomery County, maryland. Do I have to customize my qam.ini file. I don't know how to do that (don't understand the format).

Would appreciate some basic newbie help here. :confused:

[sub]

Okay, I've read through this thread. I've installed the latest version of the hauppage s/w & drivers off their website. I've installed the 1600 two tuners with the digital tuner set as #2

If you've only got a single 1600 card, then you setup two capture sources, one analog, one digital - both as device #1.

Try running ReRegisterFilters.bat, then do a scan again. If it doesnt find any channels, zip and attach the config.exe.log and config.exe-native.log and I'll take a look.

[shukla]

Sub,

So last night (EST) I uninstalled the WinTV applications etc... I must have removed some useful driver (though device mgr showed my 1600). I reinstalled the newest drivers and WinTV application.

Then I reinstalled GBPVR. I set everything back up. Sometime around 1am I initiated my channel scan (for some reason it seems to take about 1 hour)-- maybe it's the qam.ini file I was using....

Bottom line, this am, I found a bunch of channels, but have not had a chance to map/adjust them before I left for work this morning.

Sub thank you very much for GBPVR and the quick response. I will follow up properly this evening (EST) and let you (and everyone on this thread) know about my results.

As an aside, when it's conducting the channel scan-- can you please explain the 3 digits in the channel search (ie. XXXXXX,0,0) what do each of those numbers mean by position? I don't understand how the PVR s/w works on the back end. Appreciate any good links/info on how I can understand this.

As an aside, is PVRX2 supposed to scroll like the old UI (up/down)?

[sub]

As an aside, when it's conducting the channel scan-- can you please explain the 3 digits in the channel search (ie. XXXXXX,0,0) what do each of those numbers mean by position? I don't understand how the PVR s/w works on the back end. Appreciate any good links/info on how I can understand this.

The first number is either a physical channel number, or a frequency. The other two numbers are no longer used.

As an aside, is PVRX2 supposed to scroll like the old UI (up/down)?

Sorry, not at the moment, but maybe in a future release.

[shukla]

Sub,

Today it works! Had to rescan again tonight. Once i got that going, I was able to find several clear qam channels. Unfortunately Comcrap scrambles alot of them-- particularly at the upper end.

But... I at least get the broadcast channels in HD- Crystal Clear. Thank you very much. I'll be playing around with GBPVR for awhile now.

A small donation headed your way. Please let me know if you did not receive it-- I was having a little trouble with paypal.

Some small requests for future updates:
1. An easy way to adjust the screen size but maintain aspect ratio?
2. When selecting channels, some way to uncheck all channels at once.
3. Do I have to remove the channels from the listing so that they will not show up in the TV guide? I've checked only the ones I want but the guide shows all channels for my area lineup.
4. How do I decrypt the encrypted channels??