Clear QAM Only?

[Jay]

OK, so I have seen where people have been able to setup their tuner with the use of a cable card to be a Clear QAM only solution. Seems kinda backwards that you have to use a cable card to setup a clear QAM solution, but hey, works for some obviously.

I have a second InfiniTV I purchased for future growth needs, however I would like to use it now as a clear QAM to serve up the network channels so as to not tie up the cable card with network viewing/recordings. I've seen people say the latest software/firmware allows this, but that is not the case for me.

I go through the MCE TV Signal setup, and it wants to add 8 Cable Card tuners after doing the signal search. Even when I go through the manual setup, it will not give me the option to use ClearQAM, only cable card.

I tried sending a PM to erkotz, but I'm not sure if he has received it as it says its in my outbox, not sent items (forum communication). So I'll throw this out to the larger audience.

Specs:

2 InfiniTV4 tuners, 1 w/ cable card paired, 1 naked.
Both loaded with latest firmware and software
Coax cable run to both tuners, active signal
Verizon FiOs service in Harrisburg, PA market.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Jay

[Motz]

Jay,
From my understanding it is actually an issue mostly with WMC and how it detects the tuners. It also apparently varies from market to market. The easiest solution is to get another cable card from Verizon. I am not sure what their additional rate would be for another.

Did you try doing a manual tv setup via WMC? After an auto detect you can say "no don't use these" and then try to force it to use a specific configuration.

[Jay]

Jay,
From my understanding it is actually an issue mostly with WMC and how it detects the tuners. It also apparently varies from market to market. The easiest solution is to get another cable card from Verizon. I am not sure what their additional rate would be for another.

Did you try doing a manual tv setup via WMC? After an auto detect you can say "no don't use these" and then try to force it to use a specific configuration.

Even when I go through the manual setup, it will not give me the option to use ClearQAM, only cable card.

I'd rather not pay for the extra card when it will hardly ever be used for the premium channels. I had a Hauppauge 2250 that is having issues, instead of buying another, i figured I would future proof my machine. But for now, I don't need the extra card, just want the QAM channels.

[foxwood]

I thought it just needed the card during setup? Have you tried putting the card from the primary device into the secondary device, getting ClearQAM going, and then putting the card back where it belongs?

Hopefully someone who knows better will jump in and scream NNOOOOO!!!!! If that's a really bad idea

[richard1980]

AFAIK that's exactly how you do it.

[Jay]

I thought it just needed the card during setup? Have you tried putting the card from the primary device into the secondary device, getting ClearQAM going, and then putting the card back where it belongs?

Hopefully someone who knows better will jump in and scream NNOOOOO!!!!! If that's a really bad idea

Both cards are in the same device, thus I have to setup both cards at the same time (one of the drawbacks of MCE in my opinion). If I am mistaken or misunderstanding, feel free to correct me as I would love to have this resolved sooner rather than later.

Jay

[Crash2009]

I think the suggestion was to setup both tuners using 1 CABLEcard. In other words remove the CABLEcard from Tuner 1 and use Tuner 1's CABLEcard to setup Tuner 2. Then, put the CABLEcard back in Tuner 1.

[werds]

I think the suggestion was to setup both tuners using 1 CABLEcard. In other words remove the CABLEcard from Tuner 1 and use Tuner 1's CABLEcard to setup Tuner 2. Then, put the CABLEcard back in Tuner 1.

Not sure if it works that way - Unless there is something I am missing about the way WMC runs it's setup I don't think it allows you to go back and just "Add" tuners it treats each time you run it through as a clean slate and what is available is what is available nothing more or less. But I may be wrong

[Jay]

Since you have to setup both cards at the same time, swapping the m-card out of one tuner card into another simply will reverse the issue, which is no QAM can be found when I do the search and when I try and do the manual setup, QAM is not offered.

Sorry to be a pest, just not connecting the dots and seems like I'm chasing my tail.

Could it possibly be tied to the generation on my Ceton card, both are from initial releases (over a year old). Not sure if that influences the ability to tune QAM only?

[erkotz]

So you don't nee a CableCARd to use the InfiniTV for ClearQAM - but, all tuners of the same type for WMC need to have the same lineup - meaning either both InfiniTVs nee to have a CableCARd, or neither can have one.

[Jay]

So you don't nee a CableCARd to use the InfiniTV for ClearQAM - but, all tuners of the same type for WMC need to have the same lineup - meaning either both InfiniTVs nee to have a CableCARd, or neither can have one.

Let me challenge that erkotz, if you hook up a Hauppauge 2250 (#1) to a cable line, and Hauppauge 2250 (#2) to an antenna, I believe it would allow the tuners to act separately (i.e. one atsc and one clearQAM). I don't have 2 2250 cards to confirm, but I thought that was the case. I could be wrong however....its been known to happen.