[speed32219]

The tvheadend main site is pretty much a dead zone as far a info. The documentation and forum is non where near the caliber of xbmc. I'm spoiled.

ubuntu 11.10
tvheadend-pulse 2.12.99
pci hdtv tuner
Comast cable - Soon to be a cable card, but want to see how QAM worked

Below is the steps after creating access control and DVR. Next step is
Configuration
Selecting Video Card: Samsung S5H1409 QAM/8VSB Frontend
Just have Idle scanning set and saved.
Services:
0
Muxes:
124
Muxes awaiting initial scan:
122

After scan
Services:
455
Muxes:
124
Muxes awaiting initial scan:
0

Map DVB Services to channels, nothing happens. The services tap lists all the services, unmapped, but no channels ids. The multiplexers tab lists muxids and signal strengths but no listed channels.

Any advice. I also re-did and selected auto-scan with cable mid-freq with similar results.

[Drae]

Not being overly familiar with US cable this is guessing but ... are there any unencrypted channels available? I don't know if Comcast need to offer unencrypted versions of the OTA stations or not? If the channels are encrypted though, that would explain why it cannot map services.

[bablefish]

As a test you could simply type in a channel name for one of the channels in the "services" list (the column Channel name), and make sure that "Enabled" is checked for that channel. After saving it should appear in the channels list and hopefully you should be able to tune to it unless there is another problem (scrambled, bad signal, etc).

[speed32219]

Drae, yes I thought the same thing about encyrted, so I plugged the cable into the TV. The lower channels were like 480i and snowy while the upper digital were clear but some of the channels were blocking every once in a while. The TV listed the signals as week, that might be my problem although the scans show signal levels to be OK, while I do realize that means nothing.

bablefish, that is a good idea. I need to install tvheadend again, I have tired vdr using yavdr plugin. I can say that after running w_scan I can see the same channel frequencies but have similar results as far as not seeing any channels. I have also setup tvheadend with some rabbit ears I had forever and scanned using the atsc mid channel freq. selection and it found channels, tried to display them but again the signal was to weak.

I have an old radio shack tv signal amplifier, I think, although there is one on amazon for 35 that has 300+ rave reviews that handles like 5-6 channels. Also running a Pinnacle PCHDTV card (which I think is a capture card) that has no mpeg2 decoding and I am wondering if that might be the problem. I know a couple of years ago I had to patch the ubuntu kernel to get it to work. I would think that by now it should be fine, but who knows.

I have tried the same setup with VDR to build my own channel list using output of w_scan, and still no luck. But I can say that dvdscan/scan and w_scan is superior time wise to tvheadend. Tvheadend should have an option to use external channel scanners.

I am going to find or buy that amplifier, the fact the TV is telling me signal levels are low could be my whole problem. A tuner in a tv may even have a small amp built in to boost signal quality. I need to google that one.

[speed32219]

As a test you could simply type in a channel name for one of the channels in the "services" list (the column Channel name), and make sure that "Enabled" is checked for that channel. After saving it should appear in the channels list and hopefully you should be able to tune to it unless there is another problem (scrambled, bad signal, etc).

You wre right! Many of the channels are scrambled but my problem was I thought tnheadend would auto map the services to channels, so I manually mapped a number to each freq and found the channels that worked. So, I've read some more (Mainly googled) and found the tv_grab_file, signed up for zap2it, and created an xmltv file. Re-loaded tvheadend 2.12, ran the grabber from within tvheadend XML TV tab and this is the final output.

"/usr/bin/tv_grab_file: Parsing completed. XML contained 441 channels, 57978 events, 0 new events injected in EPG"

But no channels are being mapped to services, I have to go in and map manually. Is there an easier way? Also that 0 new highlighted above, is that part of the mapping process?

Here is a small snippet of the tv_grab_file.xmltv in user hts/.xmltv showing channel and program info.

Code:

<tv source-info-url="http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/" source-info-name="zap2it.com" generator-info-name="zap2xml" generator-info-url="[email protected]">
    <channel id="I74348.labs.zap2it.com">
        <display-name>1 OND</display-name>
        <display-name>1</display-name>
        <display-name>OND</display-name>
    </channel>
    <channel id="I10240.labs.zap2it.com">
        <display-name>2 HBO</display-name>
        <display-name>2</display-name>
        <display-name>HBO</display-name>
    </channel>
<programme start="20120320220000 -0400" stop="20120321020000 -0400" channel="I74348.labs.zap2it.com">
        <title lang="en">XFINITY On Demand</title>
        <episode-num system="dd_progid">SH01521526.0000</episode-num>
        <previously-shown />
    </programme>
    <programme start="20120321020000 -0400" stop="20120321060000 -0400" channel="I74348.labs.zap2it.com">
        <title lang="en">XFINITY On Demand</title>
        <episode-num system="dd_progid">SH01521526.0000</episode-num>
        <previously-shown />
    </programme>"

It seems I have everything in place, it's just not mapping channels and network names to the services under configuration tab.  

PS. I know this is the forum for the xbmc add-on whcih is working great by the way, just trying to get this 100% funtional and there is no clear step by step directions for the backend.

I do appreciate your inputs.

Found this also, it seems I'm right there but not all the way.

"Tvheadend parse the xmltv file and extracts the xmltvid from the channel part. And then you can assign a xmltvid to tvheadend channel in the configuration tab of tvheadend. Based on that link it will look at the program part of the xmltv file. In that program part there is a link to the channel in the form of the xmltvid of that channel. If that link is found then tvheadend can populate the EPG with the information in the program section."