[mythtv-users] hdhomerun scan produces pound signs

[ojw at weilerfamily.com]

>>>> With the new DTV transition, I figured I needed to rescan for    
>>>> current digital channels using one of my HDHomeRuns.  What   
>>>> happens  now is that all the channels come out with pound sign   
>>>> separators,  ie. 7#1, 13#2.  I saw a message way back from 2008   
>>>> on this list  saying I should increase my tuning timeout, which I  
>>>>  did (from 3 to  6 seconds) but that didn't seem to help.
>>> The choice of seperator is user selectable via drop down box on the
>>> scan page. You must have changed it by accident.
>> I thought about that but as it turns out the pound sign is not one   
>> of the available separators.  There's underscore, dash, period and   
>> zero but no pound sign.  Also, after the scan, there's no channels   
>> on 2, 4 or 5 along with a bunch of others.  On those channels, the   
>> signal strength is great but the scanner says "no tables".  Any   
>> other ideas?
>
> Pound sign means, "I know you chose something else for a separator, but
> there was no channel number specified by the signal, so I'll use a
> pound sound to indicate that you need to look at the channel and verify
> it's number--and then edit it to put in the separator of choice."  I.e.
> you're getting garbage, so you need to fix it (likely increase
> timeouts, though it's possible your local broadcasters are just sending
> garbage).
>
> For example, my local NBC affiliate is channel 2.1, but broadcasts on
> frequency ID 11.  Therefore, if the signal contains the channel number
> and I chose a period for a separator, I'd get channel 2.1.  If it
> doesn't contain a channel number, I'd get 11#1--thus the reason Myth
> flags it.
>
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/309882#309882
>
> Mike

Thanks Mike, that helps quite a bit.  I ended up increasing my  
timeouts to what I would consider ridiculous numbers (signal: 10  
seconds, tuning 20 seconds) and ended up getting all the channels back  
with dashes the way I expected them.  During this process, I also  
upgraded to the latest hdhomerun firmware but based on what Mike said,  
I think changing the timeouts to large numbers is what really helped.

Thanks again for your help.