One channel not working

[big3b69]

I have an issue with one of my channels not working. When I am surfing through and come to my ABC channel it just stays black. Now when I view it through the TV tunner it comes in fine. Now a weird thing that happens, is if I try and record from that channel it will record but the playback is not great. It will freeze up then fast forward. I do not have time rigt now to zip the log files, but after work I can if necessary.
Thanks,
Matt B.

[johnsonx42]

You are I presume talking about digital OTA, not analog, right?

I happen to have the same problem, strangely enough with ABC as well. In my case, I've determined one of my tuners has somehow lost the ability to tune that particular channel (right now, ABC is on UHF 53 here). My other tuner can tune it fine, and my TV's have no problem with it. I think my ABC signal is too strong for that tuner, as I lost it when I made improvements to my antenna setup (when I do the channel scan, the tuner reports zero signal on that channel and skips it quickly, while the other tuner reports excellent signal - that's also why I think the signal as actually too strong rather than weak). The tuner that gets ABC is a HVR-1250, while the one that doesn't is a KWorld ATSC 340u.

I worked around it by disabling ABC on the problem tuner, and putting that tuner first in the recording order. This way LiveTV can always access ABC, unless of course ABC is actually being recorded in which case I have little reason to care if LiveTV can't get ABC.

I suspect you have the same sort of problem (though I can't say whether it's a too strong signal or too weak), except in your case neither tuner can pull in ABC well. The first tuner (which is used for recording) gives you a choppy signal, while the second tuner (which is used for liveTV) gives you nothing (see? it's not really weird that you get different results when recording vs livetv).

You can view the raw signal from each tuner in the config app (the map digital channels to epg button). You could also re-run your channel scan to see what each tuner thinks of ABC now (when I was troubleshooting this I actually modified my scan file to include just ABC so I could run a quick scan without waiting for all 69 channels)

Have you changed ANYTHING about your antenna or cabling since you had this working?

[big3b69]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, it is digital OTA. I could be wrong, but I am thinking that the only thing different is when I upgraded to 1.3.7 and now I am at 1.3.11 . I might have to go up in the attic to see if my antennas are still standing. They should be since I am able to watch ABC on the regular tv tuner. It just seams that the PVR has the issues. I will try and start a recording in the morning and the try and watch live TV through the PVR and see what happens, maybe one of my tuners is bad? I will post the results later.
Matt B.

[big3b69]

Ok, I tired to record 49.1 ABC and then watch it on the PVR, and it still is not comming in. I went in the config. and mapped channel area without rescanning and clicked on the channel and still the same thing happens. I have zipped and attached the logs to see if that helps.

[johnsonx42]

Ok, I tired to record 49.1 ABC and then watch it on the PVR, and it still is not comming in. I went in the config. and mapped channel area without rescanning and clicked on the channel and still the same thing happens. I have zipped and attached the logs to see if that helps.

According to your logs, your signal is no good for channel 49, it's not able to lock the signal:

Code:

2009-01-23 04:15:33.312    VERBOSE    SubmitTuningRequest(T:48,0,0~P:3~V:49~A:52~PMT:48~PCR:49~N:>49.1  KTKA-HD (000(AC3)))
...
2009-01-23 04:15:36.421    VERBOSE    locked=0    present=0     strength=26000     quality=0

For a good channel, you get this:

Code:

2009-01-23 04:15:57.781    VERBOSE    SubmitTuningRequest(T:23,0,0~P:3~V:49~A:52~PMT:48~PCR:49~N:>11.1  KTWUHD (000))
...
2009-01-23 04:15:58.671    VERBOSE    locked=1    present=1     strength=-7000     quality=100

What I'm not sure of is whether Strength=26000 is a very strong signal or a very weak signal. It seems odd that the channel that gets a 100 for quality gets a -7000 strength. Perhaps someone else (sub maybe?) can tell us more about how to interperet the Strength value.

[sub]

Perhaps someone else (sub maybe?) can tell us more about how to interperet the Strength value.

Unfortunately the range of values and whether its linear or logarithmic is up to the manufacturer (or tuner module manufaturer), and GB-PVR cant determine this. All I can do is query the drivers strength/quality and report it, even though GB-PVR cant interpret the numbers into anything meaningful.

[big3b69]

Is there anything that I can try? I just think it is strange that I can get the channel through my TV just fine. I was hoping that there was something that I can play with or tweak.
Thanks,
Matt B.

[johnsonx42]

I just think it is strange that I can get the channel through my TV just fine.

That's why I think that your signal is too strong rather than too weak; for whatever reason, PC tuners seem more sensitive to this sort of thing than regular TV tuners (or in my case, the KWorld tuner is more touchy than my Hauppage 1250). If you've got a signal booster or amplified splitter, you might try removing it; yes, that may make other channels go away, but at least you'll have proven the theory. Then you can work on getting a strong-enough-but-not-too-strong signal.

Also, what is your zip code? I'd be curious to look you up on antennaweb to see what your channel reception list looks like.

[big3b69]

My zip is 66616. I do not have any amplified splitters. I do have two antennas up in the attic pointing in the same general direction though.

[big3b69]

Ok I figured it out, I feel a little silly though. I was playing around and looked behind the TV and I forgot that I have a single coax comming from the antennas in the attic to a 2 way splitter, 1 to the tv and 1 to another another splitter for the 2 tuners on the pvr. I disconnected the main coax and hooked it directly to the splitter to the pvr and 49.1 came in with no problem. So tomorrow I am going out to get a 4 way splitter.

The only other thing is when I start gbpvr with the Hauppauge remote it does not go completely into full screen mode, the toolbar at the bottom still shows. I Do have the correct box unchecked marked in the config. If I use the mouse to right click and start then all is ok, any ideas?

Thanks for all of your help,
Matt B.