Setup nPVR with only a VCR (no antenna or cable)

[scfleads]

I have a Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II TV Tuner, and I'm trying to setup nPVR with this device attached to a VCR. I setup SoftPVR, and I am able to view the device in the settings menu, but scanning for cable or antenna channels won't find any channels. My VCR is powered on and running during the scan, so channel 3 should be giving a signal. I can't figure out how to setup a channel manually. Is what I'm trying possible?

My computer is running Windows 7 x32 bit.

[johnsonx42]

In Settings, go to Devices, select your analog device, click Device Setup, and then click Add. There you can manually add a channel.
(though I admit it does bother me that a scan didn't find your VCR's channel 3; it certainly should have. makes me think something isn't hooked up right)

[Zeb]

Assuming that your basic cable channels are still analog, I would suggest connecting the cable directly to the PVR PCI II and then scanning for channels. There's really no need to connect a VCR unless you want to capture video from tapes. Forget about antenna channels: All over-the-air broadcasts in the U.S. have been digital ATSC for about four years now. Neither the PVR PCI II nor a VCR can tune digital channels.

[scfleads]

Thank you for responding.

I don't have cable; I only use the TVTuner to record old home VHS movies.

Unfortunately, I'm sure the setup is correct. I've previously been using BeyondTV and it worked perfectly, but the free trial ended and $99 is far too steep for me. I used WinTV 2000 for years, which came with the device, but couldn't re-install the software because I lost the physical disc, and they require the disc be in the drive when you install.

I tried manually adding a channel as well, but only had static when I went to Live TV.

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

[bgowland]

In the screenshot I think the Number field is anything you want it to be and isn't actually related to a tuning frequency.

Also, for the Tuning radio buttons you need to select Antenna and not Cable - the reason being even though your VCR is connected by a cable, it isn't a cable tuner source. Once you've selected Antenna, set the Fixed CH to be the channel your VCR is sending its output on.

Cheers,
Brian

[jcjefferies]

If you are just trying to copy the VCR recordings to disk you can do this with NextPVR but there are probably easier ways. As you have used other software to do this then your card must have a video and audio in which is connected to video and audio out sockets on the VCR. I used other software to copy my VHS tapes to disk but later connected up to my cable box to record from that with NextPVR which is exactly the same process digitising the video signal. You need to set the "Input Source" to "Video" or whatever the video input option is described as.

[johnsonx42]

@scfleads - what you've done so far is correct, and it should be working. If you get typical analog tv static when you go to LiveTV, that means your tuner is in fact working and NPVR is picking up the signal - that static has to come from somewhere.

one of two things is happening at this point: either you're not actually giving it a signal on channel 3 (are you really sure you've got everything hooked up right?), or the tuner isn't actually tuning to channel 3 when NPVR tells it to (which seems unlikely).

post your logs after viewing livetv on channel 3, and we'll check if anything odd is reported during the tuning operation.

[scfleads]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

@johnsonx42 - Thank you for confirming I've been setting it up correctly; for a while I thought I was going a little nuts. I uninstalled and reinstalled, and the using the exact same steps the scan found channel 3 first try, no problem. I'm guessing something went wrong with the installation the first time, which I would not put past my computer.

Is there a way I should mark the thread as solved, or at least no longer a problem?