more channels on QAM than I can map to?

[gbpvriwanna]

i found a bunch of channels during the QAM scan and I don't know how to map them. FOr example, I found WABC+ and WABCHD and anoter WABC channel. I know WABCHD is the one that maps to my cablevision 707. but i don't know to which channel I map the others, and map that to a channel on the EPG...
perhpas i need to look at this a little deeper with my cable compnay line up but if anyone has done this, and know of any easy way to map channels from EPG -> channel number -> QAM frequency - plese let me know.

thanks in advance

[johnsonx42]

Mostly I think you just have to figure it out. You can enter your zip here: http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/channels_us which may help you if they've got the correct info for your area.

If you find you have more channels than are provided by your EPG source, you may need to choose a different lineup or switch to a different source.

If you end up with a few channels you just can't get EPG data for, but still want to map them, you can add channel names by hand.

[pcostanza]

In my area some local stations have a 24 news station, weatherstation or station that plays old tv shows. You can usually find these by looking at your cable stations line up. For me, these are the mid range digital only channels.

[gbpvriwanna]

this is good stuff - thanks for the link...

Although i think I am making some progress here - my fear is the overlapping of a channel between QAM and ATSC... Can this happen?

I've attached a spreadsheet of the QAM channels I found. In some cases, I am clear as to how the channels map. But in most, I am not.

The above begs the following open questions I need to find answers to:
1. I have a QAM tuner and an ATSC tuner. How do I pick which tuner I want to use when I click on "live tv" How do I pick which tuner to watch/record when I add a third tuner, the hauppauge HD-PVR, which will have the actual cable box connected to it.
2. I'm assuming there can only be one EPG for all the tuners - is this correct? Since I can execute only one udpateepg.bat file.

[dennit]

The above begs the following open questions I need to find answers to:
1. I have a QAM tuner and an ATSC tuner. How do I pick which tuner I want to use when I click on "live tv" How do I pick which tuner to watch/record when I add a third tuner, the hauppauge HD-PVR, which will have the actual cable box connected to it.

In your sources in config the order top to bottom controls this. The recordings are assigned from the top down, the live TV watching from the bottom up. There are buttons in config that change the order

2. I'm assuming there can only be one EPG for all the tuners - is this correct? Since I can execute only one udpateepg.bat file.

No, you have one EPG per source. udpateepg.bat should build all your EPG files.

[dennit]

Just to expand a bit - From GBPVR's point of view, you have a table of "Channels" and a table of "Sources." A channel is determined by its "name." Every unique channel name gets its own line in the Guide screen.

Every Source has an associated set of EPG data (XML file, Schedules Direct, DVB, etc.) The EPG update process fills in the lines on the Guide screen with guide data from the EPG data based on a match between the channel name in the guide data and the channel name in GBPVR's channel table.

If two Sources have the same channel name, one set of EPG data is ignored. If a Channel name doesn't match any names in the EPG data, the Guide screen will show no guide data for that Channel. If EPG guide data for a source suddenly gets a new name that is not in the Channel table, GBPVR will add that name as a new Channel.

The Channels have channel numbers that are known only to GBPVR.

None of this has anything to do with tuning. That is controlled by the Sources. If you try to record a program on a Channel, GBVR checks to see what Sources have that Channel. It will record from the highest Source (top to bottom in the config screen listing of Sources) that is available. You might have 4 or 5 Sources with the same Channel. The highest Source might be busy recording something, so it goes to the next lower, etc. until it finds one that is free.

If you try to watch live TV, GBPVR uses basically the same process to find a free Source with that Channel, but starts at the bottom of config's Source list. Once a Source has been found, GBPVR uses a source_channel_mapping table to find our how to tune to that Channel on the selected Source.

For example, the Guide may tell you that the Channel with name "WXYZ" is known to GBPVR as Channel number 4. WXYZ may be actually be available on analog channel 4, on QAM channel 104 and on satellite channel number 207. source_channel mapping maps those source_channels to GBPVR's Channel 4 named "WXYZ.".

[gbpvriwanna]

dennit,

thanks for the details - this is very helpful... I thought I got to pick but gbpvr is smart enought to go to the next source if a particular source is busy.

i'm still confused about epg. I'm using mc2xml to get my epg data. I need to review the instructions on this again but i can have a cpl file to determine the channels i want/need and buased on this do the update.

[dennit]

i'm still confused about epg. I'm using mc2xml to get my epg data.

I also use mc2xml - for some of my data.

I need to review the instructions on this again but i can have a cpl file to determine the channels i want/need and buased on this do the update.

Mc2xml is very flexible - check out the options here

I use all of these options for each source:
# -R <filename> set ren filename (default = "mc2xml.ren")
# -D <filename> set dat filename (default = "mc2xml.dat")
# -C <filename> set channel file (default = "mc2xml.chl")
# -o <filename> set output file (default = "xmltv.xml")

The dat file tells it what guide data to pick up for the source.

The channel file tells it what channels I want data for (I may not want the shopping channel.)

The rename file is really useful to control the channel name in the XML data file so that it matches (or doesn't match) the names of other channels from other sources. From my summary, you can see that the name of the channel in the XML data file controls whether GBPVR thinks it's the same channel as another channel available from another source. If you want the standard def analog and high def QAM to be considered different, then they need different names. If you want them to be the same, so that it rolls over to recording from the analog source when the QAM source is busy, then they need to have the same names, etc.

[dennit]

Excuse my rambling, but sometimes I post here to clarify my own understanding of something. It makes it available to others, who may know less than I do, it makes it searchable for the future and it lets those who know more than me correct me.

(I was kind of hoping sub would tell me what really happens when two channels in different EPG files have the same name - I'm not sure if it really "ignores" the second EPG data for the same channel name. Maybe it overwrites with the second set of data?)

Anyway - there is another aspect of this that is interesting. A Source is usually thought of as a single card or a single tuner on a card. Thus my HVR-1600, with an analog and QAM tuner is a single card, but it's two sources. However, my Twinhan 1020a DVB-S card, which has only a single tuner, is set up as 5 sources. Three of them are different satellites. The card has to issue a diseqc command to select one of three cables to the sat dish. GBPVR is smart enough to know that all 5 of these sources are the same, so that if any one is busy, they are all busy. Two of the sources are the same satellite as two other sources. I did it this way because for those sources I don't have any guide data and I just wanted to be able to see what was being broadcast on those channels by tuning to them live.

If you want to, you can set up a single QAM tuner as two sources. I like to have my HD QAM channels named the same as the standard def analog channels. This gives a single line in the Guide screen. When I set a recording on this line, it tries to record in HD (the QAM is higher than the analog source in config), but if QAM is busy, then it records low def. The problem with this is that if I decide to watch live from this line in the Guide screen, I always see the low def, not the high def, even when the HD QAM is not busy. That's because for live TV, GBPVR always selects from the bottom up.

To fix this I set up a second source for QAM - pulling guide data with MC2XML and renaming each channel to add "-HD" to each name. This makes GPVR see it as a unique channel, giving a second line on the Guide screen. I never record anything from a "-HD" line, only from the line that has the name shared with analog. I put this special duplicated source at the bottom of the list of sources in config (below analog). I added 1000 to the channel number to find the channels easily. I can select channel 1037 (WXYZ-HD) whenever I want to watch channel 37 HD live. I choose 37 (WXYZ) to record channel 37 so it records HD 37 and rolls over to analog 37 if QAM is busy. GBPVR is smart enough to know that 1037 and 37 are on the same tuner.

[gbpvriwanna]

thanks for the detailed explanation..

after setting up EPG, and rmoving/re-adding the video sources, my "live tv" does not work... the channeltuner.exe picks up the channels but not GBPVR. also, my weather plugin stopped working.

I think i'm going to uninstall and reinstall gbpvr and give this a try again. My HDTV has a QAm tuner (which I never used). I'm going to give this a try to see what channels/stations it picks up.

I'll also list my EPG by using the station call letters instead of the channels.