Htpc tuner issue with cable system...

disneyjoe7

My htpc system doesn't lineup my cable digital input correctly, it see's some but doesn't see everything? Is this something I can with Windows Media Center to help this? Using Hauppauge tuner http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hvr2250.html

Syndil

Are you using a boxless connection? In other words, does your HTPC connect to a cable box or directly to your coax?

disneyjoe7

No box straight from the street connection. I have a digital tv which see's vitural channels ok, but the htpc doesn't scan these channels.

EndersShadow

I have that card and when I was using it I could get some channels but not all as cable encrypts some of their higher channels, specifically so you cant DVR them using a tuner like you and I are using (they really want you to be forced to use one of their boxes). The way around that is to buy/rent an actual cable card which can decrypt those channels.

I could get all the basic HD channels, but most of the other stuff was a no go.

Syndil

Sounds like you need to find out what your cable company's boxless lineup is. Assuming your cable company is like most and has gone all-digital (no analog broadcasts) then all of your channels are going to be something like 34-1, 34-2, 34-3, etc. As an example, here is my carrier's boxless lineup:

http://www.myinsight.com/documents/boxless_channellineup_ken.pdf

This is information that WMC is not aware of, so you'll have to go into the settings for WMC and manually tell it where to find each channel.

That is done via Tasks > Settings > TV > Guide > Edit Channels.

It should display a list of all channels it has detected a signal on. If not, have it run a channel scan again.

Basically what you'll have to do is go down the list and look for channels that are either missing from your guide or do not have correct guide data. If they are not in the guide, the check box will be blank. If they are in the guide but there is no listing data, they will have a check mark but the listing data to the right will be incorrect.

Once you find a channel that needs to be corrected, click on the listing data box to the right of the channel number, and then click Edit Listings. Then you will have a list of all listings available for your selected cable company/market, and you'll have to scroll through it and pick the right one for that channel. To speed things up, you can type the first few letters and it will take you to that part of the list.

Once you select the correct listing, you click Save and then move on to the next channel, etc.

disneyjoe7

Ok got a virtual channel list from BrightHouse, but not sure what the really channels is I know that digital channels are like 78 to 90 and not 2.1, 2.2 ect. Is there any software update I can do so QAM channels are scanned correctly like a modern tv tuner?


Steve

Syndil

Not sure what you're asking. If you don't use a cable box or a cablecard tuner, then you're going to see channels like 2.1, 2.2, etc. There's no way around it. It's not a matter of updating software or anything like that--that's just the way the system is.

A channel without a dot (or dash or whatever you want to call it) is going to be an analog channel. It's the same whether you're using an HTPC or a modern TV. Without a box, you have to use the dotted channels.

disneyjoe7

My issue is my modern tv see's 2.1, 2.2 which is NBC my htpc doesn't see 2.1 2.2 which is on channel 79 or something like that and not channel 2. I need to enter 79.2 and call it NBC-HD on my htpc but my tv scan's the channels and call's it 2.1 / 2.2. Why doesn't WMC work like this?

Syndil

I have no answer for that, as it makes no sense at all to me. I have the same channels on my HTPC that I have on my TV. I can see no reason why they would be different, unless one is using a cable box and the other is not.