Major Nub Needs Help

[Kevs02Accord]

Looking for some help for a newbie. I am having problems getting my set up to work. Here is what I have, TWC and HVR2250 MCE, WinXP 32bit. I split the cable coax from the wall, 1 split to the box, 1 split to the main 2250 board. I took the component video from the box, the green cable, plugged it into the rca connector on the daughter board, then I connected the l/r audio from the box component to the daughter board, via rca to 3.5 mm connector. I dl'd the latest NPVR, installed it, when to set it up, my analog devices were not there. I installed WinTV 7.2, that fixed the problem. Now I have 6 devices showing, 2x analog, 2x qam, 2x atsc. How do I add channels for the analog, I see the add channels button but what do I input, what the actual channel is, won't this take a long time? Secondly, when I scan for channels I get nothing from ATSC and only 24.x to 120.x from QAM. I have looked at the wiki and it wasn't much help at that point. I also searched the forum, but no one was having such basic problems as myself. Any help would be appreciated, just spent several hours getting no where.

[johnsonx42]

for the analog channels, it's simplest to prepare your EPG source first (XMLTV or Schedules Direct), and then simply import the channels from the EPG.

for the digital tuners, getting nothing from ATSC is to be expected if you're connected to cable. For QAM, you'll only get the few channels your cable company provides unencrypted. you can plug your zipcode into http://www.silicondust.com/channels to see which channels you should be getting and what virtual channel numbers correspond to which real channels.

also see the sticky in my signature. there is some tidbits of help here and there, while the wiki gets up to speed. you should install the patch archive in post #2 as well, else your 2250 is going to have problems once you get going.

[Kevs02Accord]

Ok, I updated NPVR. I checked out xmltv dled it, ran it and nothing happened. Looked at the readme and it was way over my head. I checked out schedules direct, it seems more straight forward, but cots money. About the tuners, what are the ATSC tuners used for, OTA signal? As for what channels I get, since I have a connection through my stb shouldn't I be able to get all the encrypted and unencrypted channels on that tuner? And the other tuner I should get all the unencrypted channels, in my case 2 through 100, give or take a few channels? I thought I knew how this was going to work, guess not, now I am very confused about the whole thing.


Edit: Ok, so I did some more digging and found an xmltv grabber, I used mc2xml. That seems to have gotten me an xmltv listing. Right now I am trying to import it. Also, when I select watch live tv it says "live tv buffer directory does not exist c:\tem" is that a result of having not imported my channels yet?

[johnsonx42]

sorry for the confusion - XMLTV is two different things. It's an xml format for EPG listings to be used by programs like NPVR, and it's also a program that can put listings into an XMLTV file. So the XMLTV program can create XMLTV files. However that's not the only program that can create XMLTV files, and that particular program is command-line only and somewhat difficult for new users to comprehend. You've found your way to MC2XML which is what I was going to suggest. Be aware though, MC2XML seems to be prone to randomly quit downloading listings for mysterious reasons... I was using it temporarily and suddenly one day I had "No Show Details" across all my channels; re-running MC2XML would get a new file, but with no new listings. So I re-configured back to Schedules Direct and washed my hands of it. Schedules Direct does have a free trial and then it's only $20 per year for good, reliable, legal listings with easy integration with NPVR.

Regarding your live tv buffer error, it means exactly what it says. The directory you have specified for the Live TV buffer in Settings doesn't exist. Make it exist.

[johnsonx42]

to get the channels through your cable box you have to configure an IR blaster so that NPVR can change the channels. you would configure the analog tuner to take video from the SVideo connection, then set it to call the blaster program. I've never set this sort of thing up though; I think you need to do some configuration in WinTV7 so that the blaster program knows how to talk to your cable box. Haupblast.exe is included in the patch file, but I think it still depends on some configuration done by WinTV. You might want to have a look in the old GB-PVR wiki; the basic blaster setup stuff is all the same.

Can anyone with more knowledge of blasters point our new friend in the right direction?

[johnsonx42]

as you appear to have the MCE version of the HVR-2250, which also implies you have the MCE blaster rather than the Hauppauge blaster, you may need to use HIP and net2hipsend to run your blaster. See here: http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Tips/HipGuide (part 6 on)

[Kevs02Accord]

Yeah, mc2xml was much easier for me to understand. I agree with you about a legal and reliable source, right now I guess I am still trying to figure out the basics, then I will worry about the xmltv source. I added a live tv buffer folder, I tried to start live tv, it told me to wait, then went to just a black screen and no sound. I dont think I did my setup right.

After I had the xmltv file I went into device setup, selected my first analog device, and imported the channels from the xmltv file. I then wen to the channels list and went to update epg data. After about 20 mins the program was responding but the screen didnt change. I exited that, then I was able to hit ok. There were like 600 some channels, but the listing seemed right.

Edit: ok, didnt realize you had posted, let me check this out first.....

Edit 2: I am guessing I have the MCE blaster, it came with 2 blasters one is just a single piece, the other was 2 pieces, I am guessing that one receives from the remote and then blasts the cable box? At any rate, my brain hurts, I am going to go numb it with some games and come back to this later. Thanks for the help thus far. Hopefully I will figure this out before something gets thrown and or broken.

[Kevs02Accord]

Ok, I pulled things back. I updated, etc... I checked that my tv had cable w/o the stb, it does. I got the coax connection working, at least a/v, I didnt try to record anything yet. I was looking at the info you posted about the mce remote and blaster. How would I know whether or not I had the mce blaster?

[Kevs02Accord]

Alright, so I fiddled around some more. I checked out the hip and net2hipsend sections. It seems like they are 2 separate programs, and net2hipsend is easier to use, however, I can not download it. The link through the wiki leads to "invalid attachment". I have the 2250 av panel hooked up, l/r in, composite video in, and the ir blaster/ receiver hooked up. I was wondering how do I use, or tell npvr to use that as the input? I have looked through the settings and I don't see anything. I guess I am wondering, even if I had the ir blaster/receiver hooked up how would I change the source. Currently when I watch live TV I am only getting the coax connection, not my stb.

[Kevs02Accord]

bumpsies