Tvheadend

IIRC, ATSC-C is in 4.1.x, not 4.0.x.

Robert,
Thanks for the reply, and happy New Year! I don't understand the significance of that...I already have the first tuner working with the same config, just with manual entries. I wasn't the 2nd tuner to use the same network type, but to scan one of the oredefined muxes instead. Are you saying I need ATSC-C in order roo do that? My understanding is that I can sweet up one network for each tuner, even in the two networks are of the same type.
Thanks,
Chuck

I don't understand the reference to ATSC-C either. But if both tuners are connected to the same antenna (which they'd have to be since there is only a single antenna input on that model HDHR) then what is the point of creating a second network? Why not just use one network for all your channels?

I would check to make sure you haven't entered a value in the "Skip Initial Bytes" field on the second tuner because that can cause a scan to fail, since the scan times out before the initial bytes count is reached. Check all the other values and make sure something didn't get changed accidentally. Or maybe try swapping the networks assigned to the tuners temporarily and see if tuner 0 can scan your muxes. Maybe someone else will have other suggestions but those are the only things I can think of.

That is an understandable question! It took me a, while to enter the mix info manual, but it was successful. Now I went to try one of the predefined ones, and not lose ask the hard work. In trying this, I ran across this issue.
I want to clarify that the scan is not falling. It's just that nothing at all is occurring...it's like it doesn't pick up the force scan when I click it, and didn't do the initial scan either.

I'll look at the other thing you mentioned about the initial bytes, but my bigger curiosity is why the scan doesn't occur.

So I attempted to back up my settings in the .hts/inputs/dvb folder, hoping to save the mux/network/service info I'd manually entered. I then deleted both networks (the one I'd manually configured successfully, and the one I was trying to configure with a predefined mux, but was unsuccessful).
I then added a new network from scratch, using the same settings I'd used successfully in the past when manually adding muxes, but selecting a predefined mux (us-cable-standard). A note: I had previously tried to configure using predefined muxes before (using United States: us-ATSC-center-frequencies-8VSB). At that time, I was able to scan, but due to having selected the wrong predefined mux type, the scan didn't really find anything. This is important, IMO, b/c at one point I was able to:
- create a network
- select predefined mux
- tie to a tuner (yes it is enabled)
- force scan

Now in attempting to 'start over' (by deleting the networks), I am unable to. When I click 'force scan', nothing happens. Nothing is in the log window, even when debug is enabled.

So now I just want to be able to force a scan on a network configured with a predefined mux.

Honestly I have never used the predefined muxes, I always add each mux (ATSC channel) manually.

Go to TVFool.com and enter your address to find channels in your area (start with the ones in green)

Note the channel numbers in the Real column. These are the channels that the stations are actually transmitting on.

Go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_television_frequencies and look up that real channel number. It will show you three frequencies for each channel, none of which is the one TVHeaend want to see. So, take the Video carrier frequency and add 2.03. For example, Channel 8 has a video carrier frequency of 181.25. 181.25+2.03=183.028. Now take that figure, remove the decimal point, and add the digits 615 at the end, so in the case of Channel 8 the number becomes 183028615. That is the frequency in Hz to enter in TVHeadend. The number should always be nine digits long and end in 028615.

So start with one channel and create a mux. Assuming you've already created one ATSC network in TVHeadend, go to Configuration, DVB inputs, Muxes and click Add. When the popup window appears, use these settings:

Enabled: (check the box)
EPG Scan: Disable (unless you want TVHeadend to try using OTA guide data, which is generally only available for 1-3 days)
Scan Status: PEND (IF YOU DON'T CHANGE THIS IT WON'T SCAN THE MUX!)
AC-3 Detection: Standard
Delivery System: ATSC
Frequency (Hz): The 9-digit number ending in 028615 that you computed for this frequency
Modulation: VSB/8

Click Save and it should scan the channel and if all goes well, after several seconds the scan status will change to OK and show the number of services that have been scanned. You can then go to the Services tab and select the services you want to enable and then click "Map Selected". In most cases you will only want to map services with low (1 digit) Service ID numbers because the ones with higher numbers (typically 4 or 5 digits) don't correspond with actual channels. Once the Channels are mapped go to Configuration, Channel/EPG, Channels and you should see your newly added channels, and on that page you can rename them, change the channel numbers (in case you want to show the virtual channel numbers rather than the physical ones) and so on. But before you do that I would just take a moment to verify that you can watch the channels in Kodi or whatever you are using as frontend software.

If you do it this way and it works, then you will have some idea how things are supposed to work and you can either add all the muxes manually (which I actually prefer so I don't have to deal with ones that can't receive any local signals) or you can try one of the preconfigured muxes again and see if you can get it to work, now that you understand how it's supposed to work.

Just as a footnote, if you enable the EPG scan you may see your HDHomeRun tuners come on at odd times, or maybe even stay on constantly, depending on how often TVHeadend looks for new guide data on the various channels. I prefer using zap2it to get guide data (I followed these instructions: 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/), so I always leave the EPG scan disabled.

@K Shea,

Thank you so much for the info here - some is stuff I did not know, and other stuff confirms some of my findings when I initially set up the mux info manually. All of it is extremely helpful. A couple of things:

1) I'm doing clearQAM cable, not OTA; my cable provider is TWC, and they use IRC. When I initially set up the mux info manually, I'd found/used the same wiki you posted. I'd found that the frequencies listed for IRC, plus the 1.75 mHz they indicate to add there for the center channel, matched the frequencies detected by my HDHR device. That led me to use the results of the HDHR scan to set up my mux manually.

2) The reason I wanted to replace the manually setup mux with a predefined one was, I was hoping that I would get channel numbers and IDs (e.g., Channel 6, WCHS) automatically, instead of having to do so manually. Also - when things change (new channel offering, changed frequency or call sign), I was hoping to just scan and pick these up. Also just wanted to get it to work from a curiosity perspective, but if I cannot get the channel numbers/IDs automatically, then I'm fine with just doing the manual mux info. If you know a way to scan the muxes I set up such that it picks up that info, that would be much appreciated!

3) EPG was next on my list, so thanks for this! FYI I did have the EPG data checked, but I never saw guide info in Kodi.

Thanks again!
Chuck

Unfortunately I have only ever done it manually because I am using an antenna to pick up my local stations, and I don't live in a major metropolitan area so there aren't that many channels to enter and scan. The only way I know to force a rescan of a mux it to set the Scan Status back to PEND. I know of no way to do it for all muxes at once and I wouldn't want to because if one happened to be off the air TVHeadend would mark it as missing (I forget the exact phrase) and that can lock out the channel. You probably would not have that issue with cable and you have a lot more channels to deal with, so I can see why you'd want to do it automatically.

I will say to be careful about using channel "point" numbers (such as 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, etc.). TVHeadend may let you do it but then you may not be able to select a group of channels and use the "Number Up" and "Number Down" buttons and have it work as you expect. Then again that might not matter for cable channels if they are only putting one channel on a frequency (which means you probably aren't getting all those secondary channels you could get with an antenna). I have never had cable service (except for a very brief period back in the 80's) and therefore I am really not able to help you too much with this. It may be that you can use the predefined mux lists but you still have to manually set each to PEND to force the scan/rescan, but I think the idea is that when a mux is first added it's supposed to do a scan and that's it. I don't know why the initial scan isn't working for you unless none of the predefined mux lists match up with the center frequencies used by your cable provider.

If you can't get an answer here you might try the Kodi TVHeadend forum (http://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=168) as sometimes people there have more actual usage experience with this software, or at at least somewhat more willing to reply to questions of this nature. But unless you have hundreds of channels you may just find it easier to create the muxes manually; you might spend a lot less time doing that than trying to figure out why they won't scan from one of the predefined lists. I wish I had a better answer for you, but I unfortunately I don't.

FYI - doing the cable the way I'm doing it (ClearQAM) is basically using cable as an antenna - so I am getting the secondary channels. I'm basically getting the same channels as I do with OTA (ATSC), but maybe one or two additional ones (more due to strength of signal vs. OTA, I suspect, than as part of a cable 'package' deal).

Regarding the channel numbers and call signs - how do you do set them up? Do you sent them up manually? Is there a way to have them pulled in from the scanning?

I appreciate the heads-up on the 'point' numbers, but I'm confused about the part of 'selecting a group and using the Number Up/Number Down' function - I expect because I've not gotten that far yet I'm not familiar with the groups and such. Are you referring to within Kodi?

I am bailing on the predefined as you suggested, it's not worth it, my 'curiosity' will just have to get over it for now

Thanks again so much!

I'm talking about in the channels tab in TVHeadEnd, where you can set or change the channel number. In the bar just above the channels there are buttons for Number Up and Number Down. If you highlight a group of channels (select one, hold the shift key and select another and all in between will highlight) and then click one of those it will move the channels numbers up or down, but if you have point numbers such as 10.1, 10.2, etc it will change the numbers after the point rather than the root number. But that may not be something you'd ever want to do.

However, what I do is I put the virtual channel number and network information in the channel name field. Let's say the channel scans in as WABC. I would edit the name to something like this:

ABC 7.1 WABC

This puts what to me is the most important information up front: I want to know which network it is first, followed by the virtual channel number, but the actual call letters aren't as important to me. If you'd prefer some other arrangement (maybe the virtual channel number or call letters first) that's fine.

I then populate the Number field with sequential numbers starting with 1 in order to put the channels in the order I want. So rather then 7.1 I'd change the channel number to, say, 21 if I wanted it to be the 21st channel in the list in Kodi. Note I still see the virtual channel number in the channel name. Then in Kodi's PVR & Live TV settings, in the general section, I make sure that "Synchronise channel groups with backend(s)" and "Use channel order from backend(s)" are both checked, and that "Use channel numbers from backends" is NOT checked. That way I can control the order that channels are displayed in, so for example I could put my major network channels at the top of the list and the channels I rarely if ever watch at the bottom.

So to reiterate, in TVHeadend what I do in the Channels tab is to use the "Number" column as the channel order number, not as the virtual channel number. And because of that, if I ever want to add or delete a channel it's handy to be able to use the buttons to open or close a gap in the existing numbering sequence. I am not saying you should do it that way; many people prefer to put actual channel numbers in the "Number" field. If I recall correctly, when I first set this up Kodi didn't understand "point" designations in channels and would only show the first one (10.1 but not 10.2, 10.3, etc.) but I believe it does now, nevertheless I still like to have control over the channel order displayed in Kodi.

So I do edit all the channel names to conform to my chosen format. Note that changes to the channel list can be done by double clicking on the field you want to change, which should change it to an editable text box. Make your change, then (this is important) click elsewhere in that frame and a small red triangle should appear in the corner of the field you changed. You can make more changes but before you refresh the page or expand it or anything, click the Save button (same bar as the Number Up/Down buttons), otherwise your changes will be lost and you get to do them over. For minor edits this is a lot easier than highlighting a channel, clicking the Edit button, and making the changes in the popup. Also, if you do ever use the Number Up/Down buttons the same thing applies, the changed items will have the red triangles next to them and you must click Save before exiting the page.