Help with dvb-t and dvb-s tuners setup

Help with tuners from ATI, Hauppauge, AverMedia and more.
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sorethumbs

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Help with dvb-t and dvb-s tuners setup

#1

Post by sorethumbs » Sun Sep 04, 2011 12:14 pm

I'm just getting round to configuring my black gold 3540 with twin dvb-s and dvb-t tuners. I've only really used a single dvb-s tuner before so this with 4 tuners is a big improvement.
I'm just scanning at the moment and wondering how i set up all the channels i will find, i will have a bunch of dvb-t freeview channels and then a great deal more dvb-s channels. I'm guessing media center will display all these channels separately. I've used guide tool often to set up dvb-s but now i'm going to have for example a BBC 1 dvb-t and a BBC 1 dvb-s.
Do i merge these 2 (and other likewise matches) into one channel so that my list of channels is more tidier and shorter?

I know i can record 2 dvb-s and 2 dvb-t channels at the same time but if i merge all similar channels how do i know which tuner is doing the recording?
Say i record BBC1 and BBC2 at the same time, if they are merged do they use the dvb-s or dvb-t to do the recording. If they use the satellite tuner that leaves me with just being able to view freeview channels and vice versa

Or is it best to not merge any channels so that i have a set of freeview channels AND a set of satellite channels and i will always know which tuner is being used

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sorethumbs

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#2

Post by sorethumbs » Sun Sep 04, 2011 1:47 pm

And while i'm at it, how can i tell which channels are broadcast as dvb-s and which dvb-t without manually going into each channel to edit which will take ages

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sorethumbs

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#3

Post by sorethumbs » Sun Sep 04, 2011 1:58 pm

Doh! Just seen in guide tool the columns showing which channels are on which tuner, i had the window minimised so didn't see them.
I'm enjoying my Sunday, talking to myself somewhat but hey. Be glad if someone dropped by even to say hello!

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sorethumbs

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#4

Post by sorethumbs » Mon Sep 05, 2011 12:13 pm

Well got everything working in the end sort of, spent ages reordering my line up to get it all nice but noticed some channels aren't picked up in the scan. Manually enter the frequency and get green signal strength but finds no channels after scanning. Missing CBS Action, Movies4men+1.

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#5

Post by milli260876 » Tue Sep 06, 2011 10:44 am

CBS and others are listed wrong always when I've done a set up. I suggest you look thru your channels and you'll probably find they've been assigned the wrong callsign...
Lee

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sorethumbs

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#6

Post by sorethumbs » Tue Sep 06, 2011 11:27 am

Yeah i know the cbs ones come up with zone thriller or something similar. I copied my channel lineup settings from my pc running a single compro tuner and its definitely omitting a good number of channels, i'm getting more with the compro which is a shame

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sorethumbs

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#7

Post by sorethumbs » Wed Sep 07, 2011 3:06 pm

Ok i have a black gold tuner that doesn't pick up all available channels and i have a compro card that does.

If i have both installed in same pc and scan the transponders what is going to show up - all of the channels that the Compro finds or 'most' channels that the BG finds?

or do you have to do a manually scan for each independent card installed?

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holidayboy

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#8

Post by holidayboy » Wed Sep 07, 2011 4:59 pm

I strongly recommend trying DVBLink TVSource (there is a free trial).

http://dvblogic.com/ProductsN

You get to see exactly what each tuner is doing.

If nothing else, it may help diagnose the issue better.
Rob.

TGB.tv - the one stop shop for the more discerning Media Center user.

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sorethumbs

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#9

Post by sorethumbs » Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:23 pm

Thanks Rob, never used it before but installed the trial and think i sussed it out.

I put lnb in one tuner, scanned and got a load of channels, took it out and then put it in the other tuner and did same. One tuner comes up with more channels than the other. I re-ran tv setup in media center with just 1 lnb plugged in (the one with the best results of scanned channels) and media center locked up so given up for tonight.

So if i have one tuner performing better than the other what do i do to get maximum channels

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#10

Post by sorethumbs » Thu Sep 08, 2011 8:02 am

Rob hope you can cast your eye over this!

Had a chance to read the manual a bit this morning (rather dived in clueless last night)

A few questions on this software as i'm not too clear what it actually does differently to a normal scan in media center. So is DVBLink actually used as a tool prior to setting up media center.

So last night DVBLink recognised i had 4 tuners 2 dvbs and 2 dvbt, i selected the top dvbs set up the 'headend' (as Ku Universal?) and found the 28.2 satellite from the dropdown list, moved onto scan page and ran a full scan, at the end of which it gives a report on what its found (gonna try this all over again tonight in case i get new advice)

Then i go back to the device page again and select the 2nd dvbs tuner, and run a scan as i've done before and see what the report gives. If it is exactly the same great, but if it finds more or less channels than the first tuner then i know which input/tuner is not performing - correct????

Now from memory last night when i was experimenting one scan brought up Movies4men+1 and the other scan didn't pick up this channel.

So what is the next step, do i run media center setup and this imports whatever DVBLink finds?

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#11

Post by holidayboy » Thu Sep 08, 2011 8:28 am

Hi.
I'm out all day today but will post later if nobody else jumps in.

Basically, DVBLink installs virtual tuners than media center will use, rather than the actual physical tuner cards.

DVBLnk does the actual tuning of channels when media center asks the virtual tuners to tune something.

There is an updated transponder list that you should download from the dvblogic forums (I'll upload it later if not) that might result in a few extra channels being found.
Rob.

TGB.tv - the one stop shop for the more discerning Media Center user.

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sorethumbs

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#12

Post by sorethumbs » Thu Sep 08, 2011 9:02 am

Cheers Rob later will do (at work all day so trialling tonight) an updated list would be handy (and some advice on what to actually do with it)

So its possible that DVBLink will find extra channels (or the ones i'm missing) better than the native media center transponder scan

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#13

Post by holidayboy » Thu Sep 08, 2011 12:24 pm

At the very least you'll get to see which transponders are not being received properly, you might spot a pattern, or find others are having similar issues over at the dvblogic forums.
Rob.

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#14

Post by holidayboy » Thu Sep 08, 2011 1:38 pm

I think that this is the latest transponder file:

http://dvblogic.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=1565

Put a copy of the .ini file into each of your \Sources\TVSource\Transponders folders (put a copy in the Templates\.... folder as well and this will get picked up if you add more sources in the future).

See this thread for more info:

http://dvblogic.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.ph ... 408#p14099

Try a new scan and see if you get any more channels (I'm not sure if many TP's have changed, other than the S2 ones that carry HD).
Rob.

TGB.tv - the one stop shop for the more discerning Media Center user.

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#15

Post by WarrenH » Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:14 pm

Sorethumbs, after you've finished the DvbS, you need to run each of the two DvbT's. Then you'll end up with 4 completed sources. You should then merge your sources. Before doing so, I'd recommend you go into each scanned source and clean up your listing of channels, removing those you'll never watch. Do this for each source, then merge them all. This will make it easier to set up the guide listings, as well as not importing all those unwanted channels into MC. Once merged, align the guide listings.
It's then real easy to get MC to find the virtual tuners, and you can still show or hide your channels in MC. You should also have no problems with guide listings. Any changes made back in Dvblink will automatically be updated when you restart MC. Say if you get stuck as I have screenshots of my Dvblink installation that may help.

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#16

Post by sorethumbs » Fri Sep 09, 2011 8:52 am

Thanks for the help guys.
Last night i did it all from fresh, i scanned the
1st tuner and got 1076 channels - was still missing some channels on frequencies it should pick up
2nd tuner scanned and i got 1103 channels and some of the missing ones were now there

So the card picks up extra channels on one tuner than the other. I then ran media center setup and just could not get the tuner with the extra channels to load i always got the lesser amount. I figured that this card must be a bit picky about what it receives.

I put in my old compro single dvb-s and ran the DVBLink scan for that card and got 1145 channels, no missing channels.

So as i write this i've stuck in a 2nd s350 and that too gets 1145 channels so going to set both up so i can record/watch 2 programmes at same time. The BGT3540 might go on ebay its not broken seems to work fine just the odd frequency it fails to pick up and my aerial doesn't pick up much quality freeview so think it would be better off in a new home.

Thanks for your advice fellas, the DVBLink suggestions have at least shown how to see easier what was picked up and what wasn't

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