[mythtv-users] Confused about the channel editor / adding HDTV QAM channels

[Phil Bridges]

On 2/8/07, Phil Bridges <gravityhammer at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/8/07, R. G. Newbury <newbury at mandamus.org> wrote:
> > Phil Bridges wrote:
> > > On 2/7/07, Phil Bridges <gravityhammer at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >> What am I missing when it comes to adding my channels from my new QAM
> > >> HDTV card?  I have the card installed, and I did a channel scan.  From
> > >> there, I was able to go into live TV mode (with no stuttering on a
> > >> 3000+)  and view the few HD channels I can get.  This is when I ran
> > >> into problems, though.
> > >>
> > >> I could edit the channels (mostly local), and I assigned the same
> > >> callsigns to them as my analog channels (for instance, WSB, which is
> > >> channel 3 on my analog cable.  After I did this, I could no longer
> > >> tune to that channel using the up/down keys.  Does this sound correct?
> > >>  It is as if Myth is trying to tune to the actual channel 3 (or it may
> > >> even be 2) on my HD card.
> > >>
> > >> In addition, when I just looked at my listings via Mythweb, I don't
> > >> even have my WSB listed.  In it's place, on channel 3, I now have:
> > >>
> > >> 3
> > >> Adding Channel 3
> > >>         NO DATA
> > >>
> > >> What am I doing wrong?  Hoe do I set up MythTV to (a) show only the HD
> > >> channels that I want to watch in HD and (b) let me tune into and
> > >> record listings off those channels?
> > >>
> > >
> > > Well, I've been able to add the channels in using a local broadcast
> > > DirectData feed, but it's changed my channel frequencies - for
> > > instance, it moved my ABC to 5#1, when it's somewhere in the 80's.
> > > Perhaps I shouldn't have obeyed the big bold warning at the told of
> > > this wiki entry:
> > > http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Adding_QAM_Channels_For_HDTV_Tuner_Cards
> >
> > Myth gets horribly confused if you have 2 channels which are exactly the
> > same. I suspect that your analog WSB is repeated as a digital channel.
> > In that case, the xmltvid would be the same. Myth 'wants' to have
> > discrete sets of channels, without overlaps of channels on different
> > hardware setups. It does not mind having similar tuners, such as the 2
> > in a PVR500. It dislikes having the *same* channel tunable by 2
> > completely different methods. (Not to say that in a perfect world it
> > should be able to do that, but it is what it presently is...)
> >
> > So you must choose the channels you want to get digitally, and set up
> > your Zap2it lineup for those only. The others go into a different lineup.
> >
> > Others have faced this problem. I do not think there is an easy answer.
> > You might try the wiki and search the list archive.
> >
> > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> >
>
> Oh, I'm very familiar with the list search ;)
>
> Here's what I did - after doing a DVB scan through the mythtv-setup, I
> started up Mythfrontend and browsed my new channels.  When I
> discovered all I really had that I could pick up in HD were local
> channels, I made an additional listing at Zap2It with just the OTA
> stations, and just the DT versions of those.
>
> I edited each channel that I wanted to view using the frontend channel
> editor.  For each channel, I put in the XMLTV id from the new listing
> - all of these should be new, since I don't have the DT channels on my
> analog cable.
>
> I *believe* that what happened is when I did my next mythfilldatabase,
> Myth re-assigned the frequencies for these channels from the QAM
> digital cables frequencies I'd scanned to the OTA frequencies.  Now, I
> can't tune those channels in.  I'm guessing that what I need to do now
> is do a manual dvbscan and find the actual frequencies of the channels
> I want to use and manually hack the channel table to use these
> frequencies.  Does this sound correct?  Is this the *normal* way of
> doing this, or did I botch something else somewhere?  Will these
> frequencies get changed again when I do my next mythfilldatabase?
>

Last night, I deleted my DVB source and set up a new listing with
zap2it for digital cable, selecting only the channels I could receive.
 I set up the FusionHDTV card, and scanned for channels.  This time
through, it named the channels it knew from DataDirect.
Unfortunately, now, some of my channels are labeled xx#x (e.g., 11#1)
while others are labeled xxx (e.g. 801).  It seems that the xx#x
channels record properly, but the xxx xhannels do not.  looks like I
need to go back to my channel editor once again.  Also, for some
reason, I can no longer tune in my ABC affiliate - it seems the
channel up/down keys sort of hop around when they change from a xx#x
channel to a xxx channel.

On a side note, I set up the DVB channels to be represented by xx.x,
but even though I verified that setting, it does not seem to be able
to affect the actual representation that comes through - xx#x.  Any
suggestions?