Setting analogue tuner channel is OK with WinTV 7 but not NPVR

[rwnz]

I'm being a bit lazy here but I've been unable to sort this issue out before heading into the office today and I'm hoping that someone might give me an answer so that I can fix it immediately I get home tonight!

I'm unable to get a program signal on the desired channel on my analogue tuner. I have a WinTV-HVR-2200 and NPVR 1.5.25. The DVB channels have set up and work fine but I have a cable STB with an analogue output fixed to 815.25MHZ = cable chan 332 = TV chan 64 which I wish to set the analogue part of tuner to. However when I go to Settings-Devices-Analog-Device Setup and program in the cable cable channel 332 I get a blue screen and some audio noise.

I've confirmed that it is the correct channel & the that tuner card works OK by programming it into WinTV 7 and viewing it there. I've also confirmed that NPVR is set to channel 332 by opening up Device Setup afterwards and checking. I've tried each of the mpeg2 video decoders (a couple result in a black screen and lockup). We have analogue signals broadcast on lower channels which I don't normally use NPVR for but I've found that TV channel 1 plays OK on NPVR, but haven't had time yet to check other channels.

So, why does it work for channel 1 but not channel 332 when WinTV7 is OK?:confused:

[rwnz]

I've tested my tuning further and still can't see a cause of my problem. I can play all of the analogue channels received by my TV system OK on WinTV7 but NPVR won't play some of the higher ones. Of the signals that I receive:

• 224.25MHz: The highest channel that I can successfully play on both WinTV7 and NPVR is Cable 91 - Ant 11

• 655.25MHz: Cable 256 will play but Ant 44 won't

• 783.25MHz: Cable 319 won't play and Ant 60 plays channel 44 content

• 815.25MHz: Cable 332 won't play while Ant 64 plays channel 5 content

[sub]

Your description above is confusing. I'm not sure exactly what you're asking.

If you have a STB and are trying to see its output, first I'd try running the GBPVR TuningAssistant to confirm what country/tuning(antenna-vs-cable)/channel number it sees the STB output on, then go into the device setup in NPVR click 'import' select that same country/tuning, set the input source to 'fixed-channel', and enter that same channel number in to 'Fixed CH' setting.

[rwnz]

Thanks for looking at this sub. I apologise about the confusion. Does this sentence help?: "On some upper channels, NPVR does not appear to be tuning into the channels that I have programmed into it."

I don't have GBPVR installed at present so don't have the tuning assistant running. However I do have Hauppauge WinTVv7 installed figure that if I program a channel number into it and successfully view it, then I should be able to do exactly the same thing on NPVR, but this doesn't work for some upper channels. With NPVR I get either no signal (blue screen with audio crackles) or an incorrect channel is played). It does not seem to be giving the tuner card the correct instructions.

[sub]

Thanks for looking at this sub. I apologise about the confusion. Does this sentence help?: "On some upper channels, NPVR does not appear to be tuning into the channels that I have programmed into it."

No, not really. Arent you using a STB and all the channels are going to NPVR the one fixed frequency? ie, NPVR tunes when you first start live tv, and never tuners again (but does run IR Blaster when you change channels), so effectively is just showing whatever the STB is tuned to. So it shouldnt matter if the STB is on a low channel or high channel or whatever.

[rwnz]

Arent you using a STB and all the channels are going to NPVR the one fixed frequency?

Yes. I have a STB in another room and send the analogue RF output of that through the house to the computer running NPVR [SIZE="1"](the video quality is poor but it's only used ocassionally and I don't intend this arrangement to be forever though suggestions for improving the installation are welcome)[/SIZE]. This is a single channel only and is independant of the incoming channels that the STB tunes to. It is 815.25MHz = Cable 332 =Antenna 64. I use DVB-T for everything else.

So it shouldnt matter if the STB is on a low channel or high channel or whatever.

Correct. There is only one analogue channel that I wish to select with NPVR [SIZE="1"](Cable 332 / Antenna 64)[/SIZE] but I can't get NPVR to select it. That is why I tried other channels of the analogue TV signals that I no longer watch - only to test the tuning capability of my NPVR. And when I couldn't see some of the programmes I was expecting I entered exactly the same channel numbers into WinTV7 and was able to view all of the programmes I was expecting.

[sub]

You might need to get the GBPVR TuningAssistant on there to check it. The three facts that Microsoft use to determine the tuned frequency is the country code, the tuning system (cable vs antenna) and the channel number.

Assuming you've got the country set to New Zealand, these are the frequencies Microsoft use for the various channels for both cable and antenna.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/...S.85).aspx

815MHz looks like you should be using channel 49 / Antenna / New Zealand.

[rwnz]

Thanks sub. I determined the frequency/channel correlation a year or four ago so can't remember how I did so. However, even if I ignore the frequency, I can still state that setting WinTV7 to Cable Chan 332 enables me to watch my STB but setting NPVR to the same channel gives me a blue screen, and it worked for my old GBPVR installation so there must be some basis to it, but I see that it doesn't agree with the data on the link you gave so I'll look into it tonight and may install GBPVR in order to run the tuning assistant to see if that will give me some clues. I appreciate the consideration that you've given to this. Cheers.

[rwnz]

OK. I've had reasonable success. Channel 49 / Antenna / New Zealand works.

• I see that I've used Channel 64 / Antenna / New Zealand before because that is what the output of my STB is set to.
  

• Channel 49 / Antenna / New Zealand does not work in WinTV7 but Channel 64 / Antenna / New Zealand does.

It therefore seems to me that there is a mix of standards where my STB and Hauppauge use channel 64 = 815MHz, but Microsoft uses Channel 49 = 815MHz.

[sub]

OK. I've had reasonable success. Channel 49 / Antenna / New Zealand works.

Great.

It therefore seems to me that there is a mix of standards where my STB and Hauppauge use channel 64 = 815MHz, but Microsoft uses Channel 49 = 815MHz.

Dont blame me for this one. Talk to Microsoft - they define these frequency tables.

Hauppauge have always used their own custom frequency tables, so dont end up with the same frequencies as other Directshow apps. They did this because in the past the Microsoft tables were lacking in several countries, including NZ (where antenna only went to CH11).