ATSC tuners mixed with ClearQAM and CableCARD?

[barnabas1969]

I've often toyed with the idea of connecting an external, OTA antenna to one or two of my tuners so that I can get better quality HDTV for the local channels (less compression). Currently, I have a Ceton InfiniTV4, a Hauppauge HVR-2250 (dual hybrid) and an Asus WinTV NXP FM1236/F (basically just a re-branded Hauppauge dual combo card).

So, I have three tuners on two cards that are capable of ATSC reception.

I can't remember... If I connect either the hybrid or the combo card to an OTA antenna, will the tuner setup wizard (and the Guide) be able to handle having some tuners connected to Cable, while others are connected to an antenna (OTA)?

Any "gotchas"?

I think I read about this once, but I can't remember where.

Thanks in advance,
Brian

[rantanamo]

yes it will

[barnabas1969]

OK, thanks. That's what I thought. I just couldn't remember. I didn't want to go out and spend money on a nice outdoor antenna unless it was going to work correctly. In my area, I'll need a large outdoor antenna on at least a 20' mast.

[gus8]

I didn't understand a previous answer in this thread: any gotchas and yes?
I have been using an internal tuner card, Windows7 64bit, Media Player and OTA input to the tuner.
Now I have bought a DCR-2650 which I want to add without removing the internal card tuner.
Can I have both the internal tuner card with OTA and the DCR-2650 via TW cable connected?
How will Media Player work with this setup?
thanks.

[Tracer]

Media Center will see the OTA channels by there channel numbers, it will see the cable channels by their channel numbers. With Media Center you can combine channels. Example if you have CBS HD on 6.1 and on cable as 460 you can go in the Settings for the guide and combine channel 6.1 with 460. This will leave only one channel listed in the guide 460. However, Media Center knows that you have multiple tuners available for this channel both the OTA and CableCard tuner.

Currently I have setup 2 OTA tuners, 2 QAM tuners, and 1 Ceton InfiTV4 tuner that I use and Media Center handles them with no issues.

[pduncan1963]

Media Center will see the OTA channels by there channel numbers, it will see the cable channels by their channel numbers. With Media Center you can combine channels. Example if you have CBS HD on 6.1 and on cable as 460 you can go in the Settings for the guide and combine channel 6.1 with 460. This will leave only one channel listed in the guide 460. However, Media Center knows that you have multiple tuners available for this channel both the OTA and CableCard tuner.

Currently I have setup 2 OTA tuners, 2 QAM tuners, and 1 Ceton InfiTV4 tuner that I use and Media Center handles them with no issues.

Just want to double check what I would need to do to achieve the same thing on my system. I currently have a Ceton InfiTV4 installed. I do have a dual tuner ATSC for the OTA that is not installed, but will be doing it tomorrow. I know that WMC has a limit of 4 tuners. Will "Tuner Salad" take care of this limitation?

[adam1991]

Tuner Salad will help with this.

But word on the street is that the latest Ceton software load already did this for you.

[Tracer]

You shouldn't need Tuner Salad, the limit is of the same tuner type 4 QAM, 4 CableCard, 4 ATSC, and so on. If you were to add addtional CableCard Tuners then you would need Tuner Salad or something similar that ups the limit of tuners you can have of the same type. Adding the tuner for OTA recordings will not effect the tuner limit for the CableCard tuner.

[Beradon]

Apologies for resurrecting an older thread, but I've just added a Hauppauge WinTV HVR 950Q to my system and I'm wondering about the statement someone made about the Ceton software combining the channels for you.

Do I need to re-run setup or something? I'm already running the Ceton InfiniTV4 and want to add the 950Q. I'm able to get the channels through the 950Q but they show up as things like 33.2 next to a channel that is identical to them in many cases, or next to the SD version of the channel that it is receiving in HD (the HD version on TWC is usually preceded by a 1).

So what I see is, for example:
5 (SD NBC channel, InfiniTV4)
5.1 (HD NBC channel, WinTV 950Q)
1005 (HD NBC channel, InfiniTV4)

Any suggestions or do I need to configure 7MC myself to combine them?

[richard1980]

Go to Tasks > Settings > TV > Guide > Edit Channels. From there you can combine channels. Just click on the ATSC channel and then Edit Listings. Find the listing for 1005 and click on it. You'll be prompted if you want to combine the listings. Use the first option to combine the 2 listings to channel 1005, which removes 5.1 from the guide. Then go back to the channel list and find 1005 and Edit Sources. There you can prioritize which tuner/frequency gets tuned first....that way you can have the 950Q as a priority tuner for ATSC channels and save the CableCARD tuner for other channels.

[Beradon]

Thanks, I appreciate it

Was just hoping there was an automatic way to do it

[adam1991]

That process isn't all that hard. I've done it a few times--most recently at 6am this morning, because WOW decided to re-rig all of their QAM frequencies overnight. I had to rescan all the clear QAM stuff and re-match it up with the cableCARD channels.

Oh, this was planned way in advance. It's not like I woke up and WHOOP! there it is. They gave me two months notice of this. I even gave thought to simply dumping the Hauppauge QAM tuner and either living with the four Ceton streams or else getting a second Ceton card. In the end, I simply went through the above routine to again map the QAM channels to the cableCARD guide, and all is well again.

(I think my long-term plan is to get a six stream Ceton when it comes out, and then dump the QAM tuner and end up with 10 cableCARD streams...)

[barnabas1969]

Hey Beradon,

Interesting that you resurrected this thread exactly four days after I put up an outdoor antenna and connected it to one of my tuners. I re-purposed one of my Hauppauge QAM/ATSC/NTSC tuners.

I don't see anyone above mentioning something that will merge the channels automatically. I used Guide Tool, and I set my ATSC channels as the highest priority, followed by QAM, then CableCARD, and finally NTSC.

So, for example, my local CBS channel comes in as:

6 - NTSC
26.3 (6.1 virtual) - ATSC
79.2 - QAM
1060 - CableCARD

I combined them all under 1060 so that it fits in with my other HD channels in the Guide. It works great. I like it so much, that I'm thinking about getting rid of the Cable TV service and saving $100+ each month.

[Beradon]

I appreciate the suggestion of Guide Tool, however in trying to use it, it doesnt seem to 'do' anything.

I see it load up my channels and all the available carriers in the area, but when I try to merge tuners by any of the options, none of my channels change in the guide, nothing appears to be merged. Do I need to select each channel and use the merge button individually?

EDIT:

Well I did it the manual way inside 7MC anyways, I only needed to do the major networks anyways (ABC, CBS, NBC, CW, PBS, FOX) cause they are really the only ones I use. So it was simple enough, thanks to both of you for the information and suggestions

[rjairam]

From my experience there's usually no need to manually merge ATSC channels with their cable equivalents. At least in my case, media center does it automatically and even sets the ATSC tuners as the higher priority.

The ATSC channel numbers (eg. 2.1, 5.1, 13.1) are still there but if you record from the local channels it will go to ATSC first.

ClearQAM is a different matter and I believe you have to map it manually in that case.

[barnabas1969]

I appreciate the suggestion of Guide Tool, however in trying to use it, it doesnt seem to 'do' anything.

I see it load up my channels and all the available carriers in the area, but when I try to merge tuners by any of the options, none of my channels change in the guide, nothing appears to be merged. Do I need to select each channel and use the merge button individually?

EDIT:

Well I did it the manual way inside 7MC anyways, I only needed to do the major networks anyways (ABC, CBS, NBC, CW, PBS, FOX) cause they are really the only ones I use. So it was simple enough, thanks to both of you for the information and suggestions

You can merge by channel number or call sign... if you have identical channel numbers or call signs. Or... you can read the post linked below and do it channel by channel in guide tool... still much easier than doing it through Media Center's menu.

http://experts.windows.com/frms/general ... spx#401455