Qam channels on TV but not on PC TV tuners - Mystery to me

[littlalex]

Hi folks - I've been away from using tv on my htpc because I was subscribing to AEREO...now that the SCOTUS killed that I'm trying to setup tv recording on the HTPC and I'm at a Twilight Zone moment.

My cheapo TCL 40" HDTV picks up 70+ QAM channels. I am not using a cable box. When plugged into the same cable, alone or on a quality splitter the TV still gets the same signals but neither my HVR-1250 (PCI-e) or Pinnacle PCTV 800e (USB) tuners pick up any. Both pick up the few ATSC channels available to me here in the Joisey Alps.

Running Windows 7 (neither tuner works in Linux (openelec) I've switched drivers and PC's ( laptop and desktop). Tried using Npvr, and Pinnacles own software PCTV suite.

Any clues would be greatly appreciated...in the meantime I'll continue my searching.


TIA,
Littlalex

[sub]

Are there really 70+ clear QAM channels (ie, watchable channels)? That seems like a lot. Most cable companies only have a small handful of clear QAM channels. Are you sure your TV isn't incorrectly listing encrypted cable channels (ie, unwatchable channels)?

[johnsonx42]

oh, I get a good 70 or more clear QAM channels here from Time Warner, and those are only the basic broadcast channels. Many of them hablan Español or other languages I can't be bothered to understand because I'm American, many are shopping channels, many are SD versions of HD channels; I only have 23 or so enabled, but there are tons of them.

back to the OP's question, I guess we'd need to see the NPVR.log(s) of a channel scan using both tuners. are the tuners locking nothing, or are they tuning valid channels but the data is somehow not being understood by NPVR?

[littlalex]

Thanks for the quick response sub - I'm on Cablevision (NJ, USA) Yes I do...many of them are duplications SD and HD. I Certainly have more than the standard broadcast channels. On the TV I have most of them locked out and have 23 Channels, most HD and a few SD that are desirable/usable. The 70+ are actual viewable channels (except for two audio only) which I've gone through manually to see which ones to lock out. I am a Internet only subscriber, though except for a wink and a nod, the TV ones are of high HD quality so I'm not sure if that could be affecting me...I don't see how.

MRW

[littlalex]

My situation is exactly as Johnson described regarding what I have available.

[littlalex]

I'm starting to remember the drill from back aways but I can't find a logs directory or the filtercheck logs after running it...been moved??

[littlalex]

Duh - found the logs, interesting little thing called search (sigh)

[littlalex]

Running a new scan now...I have a bunch that were interrupted, etc. will post npvr and scan logs zipped

[littlalex]

Still scanning but looks like this is the killer:

KSPROPSETID_BdaDigitalDemodulator is NOT supported!!!

[sub]

Still scanning but looks like this is the killer:

KSPROPSETID_BdaDigitalDemodulator is NOT supported!!!

Nah - you don't need to worry about that.

I'm wondering if most of these channels your TV is finding are in fact analog channels, and only a subset (those found by NPVR) are clear QAM. You're only scanning clear QAM in NPVR, so you're only getting that subset.