Tvheadend

ATSC = OTA Channels -- ie those from an antenna
You want a QAM mux.
See http://kodi.wiki/view/Tvheadend

Are you certain that they are available as ClearQAM?

Brian/Robert,
Thank you for taking the time to read to and respond to my post - it is very much appreciated!

@Brian C:
I tried (or tought I tried) a QAM mux:

I tried using United States us-cable-Standard-frequencies (I can't read the rest b/c it runs off the display - can't anyone fix this?) - but this got me nowhere.

I'm thinking that is a QAM mux, is that right?

@ Robert Cameron:
I think they are ClearQAM, because of what I said in the original post about the HDHR scanning and finding channels, and me being able to watch them through the HDHR plugin (and through the browser). Does that not mean that they are ClearQAM? Or is there a more definitive way to tell? In general I thought any channel you get directly through cable (no box/card) that is unscrambled was ClearQAM. Is that not correct?

Thanks again to both of you, I'm looking forward to any other info or resources you might be able to provide.

Well, I suppose that you could try connecting it directly to a TV that has a Digital Cable/ClearQAM tuner and see if it scans any channels.

I'm running a test on one of my Prime's without its CableCARD across different spans of frequencies. I'm able to scan muxes and see services, but I'm unable to tune any of them. I'm not certain if this is due to the Prime having an OCUR tuner and needing a virtual channel rather than frequency/program, but I'm not certain.

I just did a scan of all of the different pre-defined muxes. The only muxes I got any services discovered on was for the HRC frequencies.

I was unable to see if it worked, because nearly all of my channels are encrypted; the unencrypted ones didn't seem to work for me (there were only maybe a dozen) so I'm not sure they really had any data.

Are you sure your channels are unencrypted? (Also, remember, since this is cable, you want an ATSC-C network, for cable.)

@Robert - When my HDHR scanned the channels, I got the results as indicated in my original post (nearly 50 channels, with a dozen or so HD). Is that effectively the same thing as using the tuner in my TV and scanning?

What is the best way to determine if my channels are encrypted or not? Again - my tuner (HDHR) has scanned and found channels that I can watch (through browser or through Kodi plugin) - but I am unsuccessful in getting the same results with the same tuner via tvheadend. Here are the mfg specs for the tuner:
2 tuners
8-VSB (ATSC over-the-air digital TV)
QAM64/256 (unencrypted digital cable TV)

That leads me to believe that the channels I am getting through the tuner (again, using channels/frequencies that were found by the tuner firmware/software itself, and watching via Kodi plugin) are unencrypted. It also leads me to believe that either the HDHR is just using a different mux (or whatever its equivalent is) than tvheadend, and I just need to figure out what that is. I'm not sure if my cable provided (Time Warner) uses HRC or IRC, or what effect that has on this.

Lastly - you mention ATSC-C - where do I pick/select/set that in the configuration?
Thanks again!

Chuck Torrens wrote:

@Robert - When my HDHR scanned the channels, I got the results as indicated in my original post (nearly 50 channels, with a dozen or so HD). Is that effectively the same thing as using the tuner in my TV and scanning?

What is the best way to determine if my channels are encrypted or not? Again - my tuner (HDHR) has scanned and found channels that I can watch (through browser or through Kodi plugin) - but I am unsuccessful in getting the same results with the same tuner via tvheadend. Here are the mfg specs for the tuner:
2 tuners
8-VSB (ATSC over-the-air digital TV)
QAM64/256 (unencrypted digital cable TV)

That leads me to believe that the channels I am getting through the tuner (again, using channels/frequencies that were found by the tuner firmware/software itself, and watching via Kodi plugin) are unencrypted. It also leads me to believe that either the HDHR is just using a different mux (or whatever its equivalent is) than tvheadend, and I just need to figure out what that is. I'm not sure if my cable provided (Time Warner) uses HRC or IRC, or what effect that has on this.

Lastly - you mention ATSC-C - where do I pick/select/set that in the configuration?
Thanks again!

When you initially create a new network in Tvheadend, you are asked to choose the type of network you are creating. For the channels coming from TWC, you will create a network of type ATSC-C. For the channels that are coming over-the-air, you would create a separate network of type ATSC-T.

There is a difference between encrypted and copy-protected. The HDHomeRun View plugin for Kodi can play encrypted channels, but it cannot play copy-protected channels. You can see whether a service (channel) is encrypted or not by checking the status of the "Encrypted" column on the Services tab: if the box is checked in the Encrypted column, then your tuner will not be able to tune that service/channel.

As far as the channel scan, I suppose I mis-read your original post. However, when you do the channel scan in TVH it should be done under a separate network than your ATSC OTA channels, since it will use a different set of predefined muxes.

Robert,

Sorry for taking a long to reply - I've been out of town unexpectedly and haven't been able to put your ideas and suggestions to use until today.

Thanks for the info - it's very helpful, especially the encrypted vs. copy-protected. Regarding the network type ,I am thinking you are correct. One thing though - you say I need to create a network of ATSC-C. However I only see the following options: IPTV, ATSC, and the 3 DVB types (-S, -C, and -T). How can I create the type of network you're talking about? Lastly, where can I get info on which of the predefined muxes I should use? As mentioned in the original post, I can't even read the full description of the muxes b/c there is no horizontal scroll to read the entire thing.

Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving.

It may be that ATSC-C as a network type (and breaking up ATSC into ATSC-T and ATSC-T) is a change for 4.1. As far as which pre-defined muxes you can use, I can't really help you there: that is totally dependent upon your provider.

I have no experience with ClearQAM, but I will just note that if you create an ATSC network you do not have to select any of the pre-defined muxes, Just don't select anything in that dropdown, then try creating each mux manually, selecting the ATSC network with no pre-defined mux, and then for the mux settings use ATSC delivery system, and you can try QAM/AUTO or QAM/256 for the modulation type (if one doesn't work, try the other). The trickiest part will be setting the frequency, which is in Hz (not kHz or mHz). Post #6 in the thread at https://forum.libreelec.tv/thread-1333.html gives the ATSC center frequencies for over-the-air channels but what they would be for ClearQAM channels could vary depending on the cable provider. If I recall correctly, there are maybe two or three popular channel numbering schemes for cable TV and each uses different frequencies. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_television_frequencies and scroll down to "Cable Television" for a discussion.

I don't remember offhand if the HDHomeRun software will show you the center frequencies of the channels it's able to receive, but if so I would create muxes based on those frequencies. If if doesn't show the center frequency, you may have to add or subtract some fixed amount.

Note if you have already created muxes, you could try editing them and changing the modulation setting to see if that makes any difference in your ability to scan channels.

Can you run a channel scan on the HDHR device itself while connected to the cable feed? If you have a newer model, you can get this from: http://${IPADDRESS_OF_HDHR}/lineup.html, and if you need to use the command line client, it should be: hdhomerun_config ${DEVICEID_OF_HDHR} scan /tuner0.

Hi, I'm new to tvheadend and I am trying to get it setup with a HDHomeRun prime with no cable card (set to digital cable). I am struggling to find the correct mux for US ClearQAM so I think I am in the same boat and would be interested in any advice/solutions.

You can try adding it as an ATSC-C network, and using the US-HRC frequencies as your predefined mux list to scan. However, if the services are "encrypted" (which is different from DRM or copy-protection), then I doubt you can add them.

Have you attempted to run a channel scan from the Prime's web interface? And if so, does it report any found channels? (The channel numbers will probably be all wrong because the CableCARD stores the channel mapping information, but it should still discover tunable programs.)

So I upgraded to the unstable release of Tvheadend and got it to work as an automatic IPTV network. Thanks for the help!

@K Shea - thank you very much for this info and these references! Together with the suggestions provided by @Robert (using hdhomerun_config to a log and grabbing the freqs of the found channels there), I think I am on my way! I will post back the results of my work on this when I get a chance to do it.

Many thanks - stay tuned for the update!

Matt P wrote:

So I upgraded to the unstable release of Tvheadend and got it to work as an automatic IPTV network. Thanks for the help!

matt poland - how did you get the unstable release of tvhd? What version is that? Did you actually get it to work with your cable?

@Chuck:

For the scans where you see a program number followed by a name, those are mixes you can tune. So for example, the first one with stations is 77100000, which is the frequency of the mix in hertz (or 771MHz), so you use that as the mux. Then when you scan it, it ought to find those 6 services. 765MHz also should be added as a mux, and after scanning you ought to have 9 services total on those 2 muxes.

@Robert - Thanks! You were quick on the response, I see you responded to my post before I edited it (I'd figured out part of the output). This is great info to have. I think this will get me where I need to be with this! As mentioned, I'll post here with my results so you guys will know, and in case it will be helpful to others.

@Robert, @K Shea -
Thanks so much to both of you and the others - i was able to get muxes set up and scanned, and I tested a couple - works great! I still need to get the user-friendly channel IDs/call signs etc. set up, and DVR, but I have a GREAT start thanks to you all!

As promised I'm documenting what I did and will post here or other appropriate thread so others can benefit from your advice and suggestions, and my experiences.

Thanks again!

Glad to have helped. When you get ready to set up the DVR, this article may prove helpful. It's intended for people receiving satellite TV but it was still very helpful to me, and most of the article would be applicable to your setup as well.

https://freetoairamerica.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/some-hints-for-getting-free-to-air-satellite-channels-into-the-electronic-program-guide-in-kodi-or-xbmc-or-another-frontend/