device setup - no channels found

[honeypotGlen]

Hello ,

I'm new to nPVR. I have a Hauppauge internal dual tuner. Microsoft Media Center was able to recognise channels, but I get no channels when scanning in nPVR. nPVR found both tuners; a QAM and ATSC type on each. My log files are attached. My cable goes to a splitter; one half goes to the internet modem and wireless router, and the other goes to a settop box and then to the tuner card. The log files are attached. Why do I not get any channels?

John

[johnsonx42]

you seem to be doing lots of ATSC scans, which aren't going to pick anything up from the cable company. Digital cable uses QAM. I do see you did one QAM scan for channels 70+, which did not pick up anything. Did you try a QAM scan of all channels? Did you try an HRC scan? Are you sure you do indeed receive digital cable channels? (I would assume that you do in 2012, but maybe there are still some cable operators only doing analog?) If you're trying to tune Analog channels, see post #2 of the thread in my signature (the sticky at the top of the support forum); the section on Analog Capture Devices will point you towards the wiki instructions for getting Hauppauge's SoftPVR installed.

I do notice something else odd, that every single channel during the QAM scan reports "locked=0, present=0, strength=80, quality=100", always exactly the same, which is weird but I don't know why; almost like the tuner isn't really changing channels, but it's not the sort of problem I'd expect to see with a Hauppauge device (I'm assuming you must have an HVR-2250?).

[honeypotGlen]

Hi johnson, thank you very much for your reply.

Yes, I am using a Hauppauge 2250. I am 99% certain my cable is digital (at least I've been paying for it for several years now ). I tried scanning with both QAM devices again using several options (updated logs attached).

I am wondering if this has something to do with my connection or Hauppauge setup. I did not see on nPVR a description of what needs to be installed with the tuner, or required connections. Forgive me if this is a stupid question; I'm trying to figure this out for the first time. This is what I did:

- installed the Hauppauge 2250
- ran the co-ax from the wall to a digital splitter, and ran one output from the splitter to the modem provided by my cable company, and the other output to the Atlanta Scientific Explorer 3100 settop box provided by my cable company.
- from the modem, I ran a WAN cable to a router, which provides the ethernet cable connection to the PC running nPVR (Win7 pro SP1 64bit).
- From the Explorer 3100, I ran a coax to the TV input on the 2250 card, and I also ran composite and s-video from the Explorer 3100 to the AV expansion cable that connects to the 2250. Does my digital signal degrade to analog with this setup?
- I turned on my PC, skipped the MS auto driver install, and used the Hauppauge disk as instructed in the 2250 directions.
- Since I planned to use nPVR, I skipped loading WinTV, and followed the instructions to setup Windows Media Center. When I tried to "Setup TV Signal" in WMC per the Hauppauge instructions, I could receive video and audio in the S-Video and Channel 3 choices. However, I had to cancel before the setup finished due to a WMC "IR Hardware not detected" error. There are solutions on the web to "trick" WMC and get around this error, but I didn't want to go down that path.
- Since nPVR doesn't list WMC or WinTV as requirements, I decided to go straight to loading nPVR.
This is where I stand. Did I need to complete the WMC or WinTV setup? Do I need to uninstall it?

Thank you to anyone that an straighten me out. I'd like to have this running for Christmas.

John

[mvallevand]

- From the Explorer 3100, I ran a coax to the TV input on the 2250 card, and I also ran composite and s-video from the Explorer 3100 to the AV expansion cable that connects to the 2250. Does my digital signal degrade to analog with this setup?

The coax should be a raw cable feed not the tv feed that will just have channel 3 or 4 analog. For the analog capture (composite and s-video) that is correct, but you should install WinTV to get it worksing.

- I turned on my PC, skipped the MS auto driver install, and used the Hauppauge disk as instructed in the 2250 directions.

From the log I am not sure you installed everything you needed to get the card working.

2012-12-23 08:53:40.505 [DEBUG][1] KSPROPSETID_BdaDigitalDemodulator is NOT supported!!!
2012-12-23 08:53:40.505 [ERROR][1] PropSet Set() failed (80070492)

However, I had to cancel before the setup finished due to a WMC "IR Hardware not detected" error. There are solutions on the web to "trick" WMC and get around this error, but I didn't want to go down that path.

That is not an error, you will need some sort of blaster if you expect your analog card to capture more than one channel.

Martin

[honeypotGlen]

Hi mv,

Thank you for replying.

You say "The coax should be a raw cable feed not the tv feed that will just have channel 3 or 4 analog." Do you mean run the coax from the wall directly to the 2250, and the composite/s-video from the settop box to the 2250?

I forgot to mention that I plugged in the receiver/blaster in the main card, and positioned the blaster infront of the settop box. Is there an indicator that shows the blaster is communicating with the settop box?

I'll try re-installing the card and getting WinTV to work.

Thank you.

John

[Graham]

From reading ...

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/d...r2250.html

You can plug the coax cable into the 2250 and use the 2250 to receive QAM. The 2250 will be a tuner and will change channels. I am too far away to get my head around the US cable styuff about clear/encypted and copy/no copy.

I addition, you can plug the cable coax into the set top box and connect the set top box to the 2250 using AV or component. The STB will now do the tuning (and handle encryption and copy stuff).

I would expect (but don't really know) that you could do both at once. That is, have one channel coming into the 2250 via coax and one channel coming into the 2250 via component.

The 2250 has a hardware MPEG encoder for the AV/component connection so you can ignore the stuff about analog in the NextPVR wiki.

[johnsonx42]

ah, I see I missed a critical bit if info from your first post: you're using a cable box, with an analog connection to your tuner. You said that, I just didn't read it right.

yes, you do need to install wintv7, or at least the softpvr part to enable analog support in npvr. You also need to install the Hauppauge IR receiver and blaster software (which may just be part of wintv7, I'm not quite sure as I've never setup my blaster). Once you have setup your blaster with the Hauppauge software so that it knows how to control your cable box, then you'll import your analog channels in npvr Settings->channels (use haupblast.exe for the blaster command, and svideo for the input source). You can't scan for channels in this setup, you get them from your EPG source (I strongly recommend Schedules Direct).

also, as you have a single cable box, but a dual tuner, I suggest you use a 3-way splitter and give your tuner a direct feed from the cable. This will let you tune whatever unencrypted digital and analog channels you get directly with tuner 1, while getting channels from the cable box via s-video with tuner 2.

[mvallevand]

You say "The coax should be a raw cable feed not the tv feed that will just have channel 3 or 4 analog." Do you mean run the coax from the wall directly to the 2250, and the composite/s-video from the settop box to the 2250?

Full cable, you can have some splitters but digital signals deteriorate faster than analog.

I forgot to mention that I plugged in the receiver/blaster in the main card, and positioned the blaster infront of the settop box. Is there an indicator that shows the blaster is communicating with the settop box?

When it works the channels change.

I'll try re-installing the card and getting WinTV to work.

That is the easiest choice especially if you want analog to work. You still have a lot to figure out by Christmas

Martin

[Graham]

The 2250 has a hardware MPEG encoder for the AV/component connection so you can ignore the stuff about analog in the NextPVR wiki.

Have I got this wrong?

[johnsonx42]

Have I got this wrong?

yes, you do. Softpvr is required for ALL use of analog capture devices with npvr, hardware encoded or not.