Comcast DTA / win7 x64 SP1 + Hauppauge HVR-1800 w/ MCE remote and IR blaster

[feniks]

Hi,

Recenty I had to switch direct analog cable to Digital Transport Adapter to keep access to basic TV channels.
For the life of me I cannot figure out how to make things work with my setup.

I created a fixed channel (ch.3) on analog tuner (using latest Hauppauge drivers from wintv7), but I cannot change channels nor I can make the EPG work (it asks for channel mapping when I enable it on fixed ch.3), using mc2xml here.
I pointed the channel to haupblast.exe for changing channels, but it doesn't work.

Running latest NPVR 2.1.5 with R1 patches.
System was running fine with raw QAM tuner (analog was disconnected for some time), now switched over to analog temporarily and trying to make it work with Comcast DTA box (sort of a STB with analog output).

I have the setup working in win7 Media Center with remote, blaster and everything except the QAM tuner (now disconnected, waiting for a new low dB 3-way splitter to come in mail).

any help please?

[Reddwarf]

How is your STB connected to your PC, is it by S-Video or composite?

[feniks]

How is your STB connected to your PC, is it by S-Video or composite?

no, the only output on that "STB" (actually an adapter from digital channels to analog TVs) is an analog coax, so I plugged it in to analog coax port on my Hauppauge 1800. it uses separate tuner for analog and digital, so there should be no problem later adding QAM feed (separate tuner on the same card).

[sub]

When you imported all your channels, was the input set appropriately? ie, set it to 'fixed-channel' and CH3.

[HolyDiverUSA]

I have two HVR-1600 to the best of my knowledge haupblast.exe is incapable of sending the right ir codes for the comcast DTA's for some reason. I tried for hours to get it to work and in the end I had to buy a usb ir receiver/transmitter off ebay the hp ones that are out there are cheap and seem to work well (like this one http://cgi.ebay.com/Original-HP-USB-MCE-...19c7a727bd ). Then using IR server suite to figure out the ir codes and then using pBS's irblast2.exe to blast to 2 different box’s.

I use Schedules Direct for my EPG listings so I can't help you with the mc2xml.

[sub]

I have two HVR-1600 to the best of my knowledge haupblast.exe is incapable of sending the right ir codes for the comcast DTA's for some reason.

If you can configure the box in Hauppauge's BlastCFG and it tests ok, then it should work in HaupBlast.exe (which just asks blastcfg to blast the required channel number).

There are some DTAs that use the nonstandard XMP IR protocol, which cant easily be learnt.

[feniks]

When you imported all your channels, was the input set appropriately? ie, set it to 'fixed-channel' and CH3.

I didn't import anything. I actually deleted all digital channels I had in QAM and tried scanning the analog frequency fresh when pointing to haupbalst.exe and having fixed channel set at Ch.3, it didn't work. channels are not changing at all even in Live TV.

[sub]

I didn't import anything. I actually deleted all digital channels I had in QAM and tried scanning the analog frequency fresh when pointing to haupbalst.exe and having fixed channel set at Ch.3, it didn't work. channels are not changing at all even in Live TV.

You didnt do the right thing then. You cant scan for analog channels when using a set top box (no software can do that). Instead you need to import your channels in the way I showed above. ie, click 'import channels' in your analog capture source, set the input to 'fixed-channel' and set the channel to CH3.

[feniks]

"no software can do that"
win7 Media Center can do

also, as I said before, the analog channels were NOT used for a very long time, so I have NOTHING to import... are you telling me that NPVR can't scan the DTA even if it knows that IR blaster should be used on an STB? that sucks. I guess I will have to stick with Media Center then for watching most of TV channels on my PC and use NPVR only for QAM (once I set the physical connections up).

You didnt do the right thing then. You cant scan for analog channels when using a set top box (no software can do that). Instead you need to import your channels in the way I showed above. ie, click 'import channels' in your analog capture source, set the input to 'fixed-channel' and set the channel to CH3.

[sub]

"no software can do that"
win7 Media Center can do

WMC doesnt do it either. They just download channel lists from their web service. ie, not scanning your set top box.

also, as I said before, the analog channels were NOT used for a very long time, so I have NOTHING to import... are you telling me that NPVR can't scan the DTA even if it knows that IR blaster should be used on an STB? that sucks. I guess I will have to stick with Media Center then for watching most of TV channels on my PC and use NPVR only for QAM (once I set the physical connections up).

Presumably you're going to want an EPG anyway, so all you have to do is click import and point it at your xmltv file, or enter your schedules direct info and it'll automatically import all your channels and set them up. This pretty much the same as WMC is doing, except they're providing the listing service for you.