QAM to Lineup database

[anthrax79]

I just spent the last 2 hours attempting to map my QAM channels to the Comcast Lineup in Houston and I must say it is a slow and painful task.

Would it be possible to start and maintain a database of QAM to Lineup cross ref?? I know it would have to be Cable Company Specific, and probably location specific as well.

Something like this would really help new installes and rebuilds.

[sgilani]

This site is what you are looking for:

http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/hdhomerun/channels

[agidius]

hello local guy!!!!!



that site is great!!!
I didnt know anything like that was out there
mine got re-arranged not to long ago, and I just turned off the digital tuners because I didnt want to go through it again.
looks like it will be back on this weekend!!!!!

[ceandra]

An extension of this thought:

Comcast seems to like to change the audio and video stream ID's, but they generally seem to keep the channel and program ID the same for a given channel. They may or may not properly name the channel.

So, once we have gone throught the pain of identifying channels on Comcast, if we could have a local (in GBPVR) database that tracked this match-up, then a re-scan could automatically map the channels we have previously mapped.

Maybe this is specific to Comcast, but it would be of great help.

Chuck

[agidius]

NONE of my channels are named.
they just say "unknown" while mapping them

I didnt know they could be named until I hooked one of the tuners to the roof antenna and all those were named.

[ceandra]

Some of mine the names come and go, some are always unknown.

Either way, in GBPVR we can assign a displayed channel number. the physical channel number and program number rarely change, only the video and audio stream ID's.

So, if we stored the identified channel number (what we assign in GBPVR) and the physical channel/program, then whenever we re-scan it could automatically map those known values.

Chuck

[sub]

The name showing as "unknown" is very common for QAM source, but not for other digital source.

Unfortunately delivering the name is in the stream is optional for digital cable and very very few cable operators broadcast it. Instead they use their own proprietary mechanisms for doing stuff like channel names.

[ceandra]

Sub:

Yeh, I've gathered that much from my dealings with Comcast.

But, if we could look at an "automap", where once we map the scanned findings once (manually cut and past from Cache file to the tuning parameters), then upon re-scan, it would look to find the same physical channel and program, and map the new tuning parameters.

I suppose I could do that externally with Excel basic or something. I would have to know where to insert new tuning parameters. I could go into config, scan, exit config, run a program to read the Cache file, find my matching physical channels and program numbers, and then copy the new tuning parameters to your database or file. Probably would have to run config again to save the results?

I would probably have an input text file list of the channel/programs I have found.

Or, if it made sense to others, you could do same within Config to automate things.

Comcast does not seem to move these things around, and Silicon dust only ID's channels by those two parameters, so it would seem possible, and would be a great help.

Along those lines, the ability within config to just enter one channel to scan would help, because Comcast does not seem to scramble everything at once. They only scramble on physical channel on any given occasion.

Thanks
Chuck

[sub]

The app already mostly takes care of PIDs changing, but there is a couple more bits that need to be done on the north american ATSC/QAM side to make it work in that part of the work. Some of that went in with the 1.2.13 release, and I'm saving the rest of that project for a rainy day.

[ceandra]

OK, I can wait. I have not tried the new release yet due to reports of hanging on rescan. Since I have to rescan often, well I have been hesitant. However, I'll have to try this out.

Anything I have to do to activate these new features, or is it not complete enough to do the job yet? Do you need any TS's? I imagine you have plenty.

Thanks again
Chuck