Hvr-1250

[sub]

The scan didn't find any of the channel names listed in SchedulesDirect, but found some that don't appear like any name in SchedulesDirect.

Post the config.log and config.exe-native.log and I'll take a look.

Is it possible that my HD antenna is too weak?

Certainly a possibility.

I couldnt tell you anything about what antenna to use. This is way out of my area of expertise.

[Wakalaka]

Purchased a new antenna at a local store and depending on how I set the gain, it finds a different amount of channels during the scan. There are still a few channels that never get found during the scan. What to do?

[sub]

There isnt a lot of options there. I guess you have to consider getting a better antenna, or learn to live without those channels.

[Wakalaka]

With the way things are going, who in their right mind would adopt OTA HD? The average Joe won't play trial and error with antenna purchases. Maybe it's for the best so people put down the remote and quit being programmed by the propaganda from the magic lie box.

BTW the "Digital Channel Mapping" dialog has a grammar error ... it says "Please be patient - scanning for digital channels. This can take while...". It's redundant to say "be patient" and "this can take while" (should be "take a while"). Better to say "Scanning for digital channels, please be patient..."

[Wakalaka]

Suggestion would be to allow user to select what channel number to start and stop at during the scan. That way you can quickly try different antennas and settings on the antenna for a channel range where you found channels during a previous scan. It takes a long time when it always starts at channel 1 to get to a known channel where stations should be found.

[Wakalaka]

Is the scanning data saved to a log file so I can have a local TV engineer look at signal strengths for the channel frequencies?

[sub]

The signal strength/quality is written to the config.exe-native.log file when it does a scan.

[Wakalaka]

I just bought an LCD TV that has a built-in HD tuner. If it finds my channels better than the HVR-1250, then how would I set the TV and PC up?

1) Since I have MCE remote, I would have to plug in the IR transmitters to the receiver and aim the transmit part at my TV so GB-PVR can change channels.
2) How would I setup a capture source for this, since I would be letting the TV do the tuning?
3) Capture source would still use SchedulesDirect and HD broadcast setting.
4) Other issues I've missed?

[sub]

Ok, thats a pretty confusing suggestion. You cant use your TVs tuner in this way. TVs are generally not like set top boxes - they dont have any outputs, and even if it did, it'd only give you analog outputs for a standard definition signal (ie, svideo or composite). The HVR1250 doesnt have the required hardware encoder, so even if you TV did have svideo or composite output, you couldnt record this type of analog signal in GB-PVR with this device.

[Wakalaka]

I'm going to hook my antenna up to the TV and let it scan channels. If it finds everything, then it's either the channel scanning code in GB-PVR, or the tuner on the HVR1250.

After that I'm going to yank my PVR150MCE out, which should make WinTV see only the HVR1250 and then see how that scans for channels. I don't know if it's the channel scanning that isn't working well, or if it's an antenna issue.

I appreciate all of your help and responsiveness. This is extremely frustrating to have this much difficulty. I spoke to the antenna/transmitter expert at one of my local stations today for 30 minutes, and he said it's usually the antenna and the direction it's pointed, but since I have no signal strength data to give him (I still have to look at config.exe-native.log to see if it has data) it's like shooting in the dark.

This person also suggested I get an analog to digital converter box that will show signal strength on the screen. My local electronics store has one for $60, so I may also try that. The stores have 30 day full refund return policies, and they know what I'm trying to solve.