Settings to scan QAM cable channels?

[hkeiner]

I am having no success in scanning for QAM channels on my cable. I can get 60+ QAM channels using BeyondTV, so I know there are plenty of QAM stations on my cable and that my HVR 1600 card is working OK.

The first thing I want to determine is the correct selection to make on the type of channels on the Device Setup Screen (see attached). There are three choices (see attached) but when I scan, I get the following results.

(1) Digital ATSC - I get no channels at all. This makes sense as I am not using an external antenna.

(2) Analog TV - I get channels 1-34 with a very poor picture and poor sound. The channel list shows the word 'analog' next to the channels. This makes sense since QAM is a digital signal and not analog.

(3) External Inputs - I got no channels at all.


My limited understanding is that QAM fits neither of these three choices. What does not make sense is how it is possible to scan for QAM channels when there is apparently no choice to do so.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Mr X]

What is the 5 digit model number on your card?

or if you look in device manager what's the full Hardware ID?

[hkeiner]

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll work on getting the full hardware ID and control log info uploaded as soon as I can. In the mean time, I attached a jpg of my card's specs in case that helps in the mean time.

As a start, I am first wondering which one of the three choices on the Device Setup Screen (as listed above) is the correct choice for scanning QAM channel on cable, or is there a missing fourth (QAM) choice that is somehow not showing up on my setup. Knowing the answer to this would get me started in the right direction.

Thanks

[Mr X]

it's missing the QAM option. I need the 5 digit code on side or the HW ID to check if that's already fixed in CD 1.2

[hkeiner]

I attached the hardware ID info (screenshot from Device Manager/Details Tab/Hardware ids). I think that this in the info that you asked for. If not, let me know where in Device Manager the info is. I didn't pull the HVR1600 card to find the 5 digit number yet (kind of hard to do right now), but I will if it is necessary.

I also uploaded 4 or the five logs. I didn't upload the last one (WinTvTray.ext) as I was limited to 5 files on this post. If the last one is important, I'll add another post with that file attached.

I appreciate your taking a look at my problem. Your stating that "it's missing the QAM option" tells me that I may have a hardware/driver/software problem, rather than I am simply too dense to configure this on my own.

Thanks

[Mr X]

That hardware ID indicates it doesn't support QAM according to my model matrix, which is why it's disabled in the Wizard but if other apps are getting QAM it obviously does work.

Unzip this file to C:\Program Files\WinTV\TVServer

This will enable the QAM source on your hardware ID board. Let me know if it works.

[hkeiner]

Replacing the existing GenPCI.ini file in the TVServer folder with the one you provided did the trick. I now have the QAM Scan option available during setup and when I scanned, I got all of the QAM channels.

The next phase is for me to update the channel descriptions from "Unknown ###.#" to what they really are. Seems like a tedius process but apparently necessary to know what channel is what. I spent quite a bit of time earlier trying different scan configuration settings and redoing my cable connections (to eliminate weak signal as the cause) but I would have never fixed the problem without your help.

Thanks again.

[Mr X]

This is normal. The channels names are not typically broadcast, so there is usually nowhere to parse them from. Digital cable boxes typically uses OOB data for channel list.

For CD 1.2 we added support for Cable Virtual Channel Table (CVCT), but it is optional for broadcasters, and very few transmit it. So, even with this in place, the majority of QAM channels will show as 'Unknown', and there will be nothing we can do about it

Unfortunately in the US there is no one standard all broadcasters must conform to like DVB in Europe.

We are looking at alternatives for the future like having some sort of shared database users can connect to to pull channel names from by selecting their area and cable provider.

[Mr X]

BTW I've rolled the Missing QAM Soruce fix into CD 1.2 so this will work automatically without this patch

[Mr X]

with CD 1.2 you'll need this patch

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=17896