Digital Channel Mapping - backup, manual editing?

[JohnInSJ]

So, things are working shockingly well with the lastest GBPVR + HD-PVR1600 Hauppaugh + Comcast and its expanded number of clear QAM channels.

Problem: Comcast likes to move those channels around
Solution: (Warn me if I am looking for trouble!) I find manually editing the tuning requests to use the correct channel under 'Map digital channelsl' works fine...
ie, use T:80,80,2~P:2~etc....

works fine - it tunes to 80-2, and whatever clear QAM is there comes in.

I am not sure what the P:2 means :p

Question 1: where is this mapping table stored, and can we edit it directly?
Question 2: for QAM tuning how much/what do I have to "get right" in the Tuning request? It would be totally perfect if all I needed was the T:CH,CH,subch - and tell me what the P:Y means? is that important? Is that the audio? What?

So yeah... in short is there a way to export/import that list into some editable form, and is the format of the Tuning Request knowable so I can put them in myself?

I'm using the great silicondust lineup generator to see the channel mappings.

Example for me on comcast:

http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lin...code=95129

Does any of that make sense?

[sub]

I am not sure what the P:2 means

Its the "program number". A broadcast transport stream can carry one or more programs.

Question 1: where is this mapping table stored, and can we edit it directly?

Its stored in teh SOURCE_CHANNEL_MAPPING table in the gbpvr.db3 database. It can be edited, but if you make mistakes, then recordings and live tv will fail.

Question 2: for QAM tuning how much/what do I have to "get right" in the Tuning request?

The key info needed are:

"T:x,0,0" the last two numbers arent used so can be set to anything. x is the physical channel number or frequency.
"P:x" is the program number
"PMT:x" is the PMT PID
"V:x" is the video PID
"A:x" is the audio PID

[whurlston]

"T:x,0,0" the last two numbers arent used so can be set to anything. x is the physical channel number or frequency.

Was there a change in the logic processing with this? When I first started using the multi-record feature, the last two numbers had to be "0,0" or multi-record wouldn't work.

[sub]

True, they're not used, but they should be left as consistently as the same thing (0,0 is a good choice).

[JohnInSJ]

So, looks like I need all of it

Ok, good to know, thanks!

[JohnInSJ]

Its the "program number". A broadcast transport stream can carry one or more programs.

Its stored in teh SOURCE_CHANNEL_MAPPING table in the gbpvr.db3 database. It can be edited, but if you make mistakes, then recordings and live tv will fail.

The key info needed are:

"T:x,0,0" the last two numbers arent used so can be set to anything. x is the physical channel number or frequency.
"P:x" is the program number
"PMT:x" is the PMT PID
"V:x" is the video PID
"A:x" is the audio PID

Sorry to ressurect this old post, finally got some hacking time

For QAM tuning, seems like all you would *need* would be T:x and P:x, right? So as long as I have something for all the fields, and T and P are correct, it should work?

If that's true, then I should be able to map the info from say
http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lineupui/US:95129
to the database, and skip the scanning completely.

Or do I have to have valid PMT/V/A values? It's really tedious to remap 30+ channels every time comcast decides to shuffle the deck!

[dennit]

If that's true, then I should be able to map the info from say
http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lineupui/US:95129
to the database, and skip the scanning completely.

Or do I have to have valid PMT/V/A values? It's really tedious to remap 30+ channels every time comcast decides to shuffle the deck!

I have a similar problem with hundreds of satellite channels. My solution is to make a backup of the scan .CACHE file for my source, then run a new scan. The scan has all the tuning string data I need. I just backup the gbpvr.db3, copy the tuning string from the new scan.cache file and paste it into the correct field in gbpvr.db3. I never do any manual mapping. For new sources, I have it automated with SQL commands, but for a few minor changes on an existing source, I just compare the two scan.cache files (old and new), see what's changed and fix the db3 file directly.

[JohnInSJ]

That's not a bad idea... of course with an external provider (silicondust's web site) I get the T/P numbers without needing to scan (this is the bit I want to avoid! I should be able to automate the whole thing...)

[dennit]

That's not a bad idea... of course with an external provider (silicondust's web site) I get the T/P numbers without needing to scan (this is the bit I want to avoid! I should be able to automate the whole thing...)

I don't find the scan to be hard - just start it and forget it. It's the mapping that killed me. Half of my channels would say "unknown" for the name, and the other half would have some cryptic identifier that didn't match the XMLTV EPG name. I had to figure out which of several hundred "unknowns" matched to each of their station identifiers from the guide. Even when the channel wasn't unknown, the EPG might call it SportsNet2 and the scan might be SPNT2. I started by trying to fix the scan.cache file names to make manual mapping easier, but found that completely skipping the manual mapping step in config by directly modding gbpvr.db3 was easiest.

[whurlston]

Sorry to ressurect this old post, finally got some hacking time

For QAM tuning, seems like all you would *need* would be T:x and P:x, right? So as long as I have something for all the fields, and T and P are correct, it should work?

If that's true, then I should be able to map the info from say
http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lineupui/US:95129
to the database, and skip the scanning completely.

Or do I have to have valid PMT/V/A values? It's really tedious to remap 30+ channels every time comcast decides to shuffle the deck!

You definitely need the PMT/V/A values. That tells GBPVR which streams to record.