fine-tuning frequency

[etienne74]

Hello,

What I have seen so far of GBPVR it is (to be) a great program (guide, recording etc.).
I have a Hauppauge pvr 350 in my Pundit-R.
The problem I am having is that certain dutch channels are not tuned correctly. I used the TuningAssistent which gives me the numbers necessary. But 5 channels or so are just a bit more or less these numbers, resulting in only images and no sound. (for the dutch among us: I live in Rotterdam and this is happening to RTL4, RTL5, Veronica, Discovery, TV5).

Is this a hardware problem with the pvr 350 or can I adjust something in GBPVR/Windows? In case of thelatter, will GBPVR have a fine-tuning possibility in the future? Or the option to enter frequencies (as displayed by TuningAssistant) instead of channel numbers?

Any help is appreciated.

Thx,
Etienne

[sub]

This is a common problem in the Netherlands where your broadcasters often seem to use non standard broadcast frequencies.

The Microsoft API I use for changing channels does not allow me to specify a frequency. I must specify a channel number. Luckily there are some overrides in the registry that allow you to correct the problem.

Here is one post on the subject, but use the "search" link in the top right of the forum and you should find several more.
http://gbpvr.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?a...etherlands

[HarR]

You can download this reg file and import it. It has the right frequencies for Rotterdam. Regfile for rotterdam

Below are the channel numbers you will have to check in your caprure source settings. If you have below channels, the reg file will substitute the right frequencies.

Nederland 1 1
Nederland 2 2
Nederland 3 3
RTL 4 4
VRT TV1 5
KETNET/Canvas 6
BBC 1 7
BBC 2 8
ARD 9
ZDF 10
TV 5 17
National Geographic 18
MTV 25
CNN 26
Discovery Channel 29
RTL 5 31
TRT int 32
Veronica 34
TMF 35
SBS 6 36
NET 5 37
Yorin 46
TV Regionaal 74
TV E 87
Nickelodeon 89

Good luck
Harry

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply.I figured it out using freqcopy.zip

Short summary for anyone who is still looking:

First printing the frequencies from the cable operator.
Then using wintv suite manager to enter the frequencies manually.
And finally runing freqcopy setting country 0 and antenna. (TS0-1 I believe). Freqcopy copies the wintv channel/frequency settings in your registry.
In GBPVR the channel numbers given by wintv could be entered.

[HarR]

Yep, that's how I did it as well.

[eurojojo]

Hai,

As programmer of FreqCopy, I think I have to make one improvement to the software the next week or so. With WinTV you put all channels in a practical order. "Nederland 1" on "1", "Nederland 2" on "2", etc., "Net 5" on "5". But, then, if you get XMLTV data, you will find that "Net 5" needs to be on "37". I reprogrammed everything by hand, but FreqCopy could do it for you: convert the WinTV tuning to a useful table for GB-PVR (and other software), and put the channels in specific positions to accomodate XMLTV...

Currently I am working on a software that can use scripts to grab XMLTV information from websites. It will allow movie guides from Cinenova.tv, Hallmark, Discovery Science, etc. and other channels that do not appear in the current XMLTV grabber lists. The trick is to have a script language that is powerful enough to describe the coding of an online TV guide. The generic grabber software then can use the scripts to get the data into an XMLTV file. Necessary, since within a few weeks I will have GB-PVR operate the UPC Digital set-top box, and it is helpful to have all TV-guides integrated.

All the best,

Joost

Update 30 Oct 2004:

Quote[/b] ]But, then, if you get XMLTV data, you will find that "Net 5" needs to be on "37". I reprogrammed everything by hand, but FreqCopy could do it for you: convert the WinTV tuning to a useful table for GB-PVR (and other software), and put the channels in specific positions to accomodate XMLTV...

Just to let you know that in GB-PVR you can pick any order of channels you like, after the initial configuration there is no link between the XMLTV data and the position in which you put channels. In other words, within this example: "Net 5" may have "channel id" 37 in the XMLTV data, but you can tell GB-PVR to capture it from channel 5. And, what's more, in the channel order you can yet put it in a different position. One is easily mistaken, or overwhelmed, by all these possibilities.

[HarR]

Joost, do you have a website we could monitor for new versions or new programs you are creating ?

Harry

[eurojojo]

I think I will put everything on SourceForge, including sources. I write in Delphi. Currently I am developing the script language, after which I will start coding. If anybody knows of a TVguide-grabber that already works with scripts, it will save me time... I could not find one. Advantage of my work will be that you can get f.e. BBC-schedules from the BBC site. The grabbers that I know get data from tvgids.nl, which does not always have current schedules about BBC. Like Lego you will be able to select scripts, websources of schedules, and download your selection at will.

The difference with another SourceForge projects like XMLTV and PyTVGrab is that the scripts are very difficult. And it should be quite easy, since schedules are usually tables with times and descriptions.

One peek behind the scene, the main data for "Nederland 1" could be retrieved with a simple script like:

Channel_id=”{ChannelName}”
URL=”http://www.tvgids.nl/zoekprogramma.php?&station={ChannelIDno}&interval=0&timeslot={dayoffset}”
Language=”nl”
Startdump=”via SMS voor aanvang programma”
Tab1=value
Tab2=”hh:mm-hh:mm”
Tab3=TitleLink
IfFound(“Volgende</A>”)=LinkNextPage
Table-level=1

For "Cinenova 1" it will be:

Channel_id=”Cinenova 1”
URL=”http://www.cinenova.tv/tvGids/kalender.htms?d={yyyy-mm-dd}”
Language=”nl”
Tab1=”hh:mm”
Tab2=TitleLink
Startdump=”cinenova_kalender.gif”
Startdump=”06:00”
Table-level=2
Default-endtime=06

It is still under development. The idea is that anybody should be able to write these scripts, and the best scripts will be published on a site. The main engine will hold all intelligence, and the routines will be documented such that others may port it to whatever other program language. I will write the thing mainly for myself, but if some clever Java/Python/Perl/C programmer makes a better engine, I'm completely happy with that. After the main part is more or less bug-free, I will probably make some extensions, f.e. grabbing JPG-images belonging to TV shows, and/or getting IMDB information (like the IMDB user rating).

Sites to be scripted are:
http://www.tvgids.nl/
http://www.teveblad.be/FS_index.htm
http://www.kabelkoerier.nl/main/html/telezap.htm

All the best,

Joost