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[tzr916]

I have set up OTA channels with the new SiliconDust ATSC 3 tuner, but still run cable card tuners. That gives me some duplicate (local) channels. For example:
KCRA is CH3 via OTA, and CH703 via cable card
KXTV is CH10 via OTA, and CH710 via cable card
etc.

Being direct from the broadcaster, the OTA channels are full resolution & bitrate, and thus have a very clear picture. Currently, it seems the tuner streams the full 20Mbps channel to the PC no matter which "subchannel" is actually accessed. Meanwhile, the cable card channels are down-rezzed to 720p converted to MGEG4, and the picture is not as clear. These channels only stream at about 4Mbps to the PC.

Recording aside... when watching Live tv, the only time I can really see the picture quality difference is on the Server because it's got a high end GPU connected to a newer and larger 4k tv. On the Clients, it's almost impossible to see the difference because they are a smaller 1080p screen with low end graphics machine. And I really don't have any desire to pump that much network traffic around to the Clients. So basically I want to have two guides:
-"Server guide" = OTA channels plus (non-local) cable channels
and
-"Client guide" = ALL the cable channels minus the OTA channels

I got the "Server guide" by setting the cable card local channels as Favorites, and excluded them from the guide (see screenshot). But I don't know how to get the "Client guide"? Maybe there's a way to setup another Favorite channel "list"? or?

Thanks in advance

[Yaobing]

So you want all ATSC channels plus "true cable channels" (not cable channels for local stations) to be on server, but all cable channels (including cable channels for local stations), but not ATSC channels on the clients?

[tzr916]

Correct. Two guides:
Server guide = OTA channels and cable channels (but not the locals rebroadcast by cable co)
Client guide = all cable channels (including locals rebroadcast by cable co) but not OTA channels

NOTE: I fully understand that both guides will be visible in theaterview on Server and Clients, but I will always know which guide to choose, and I can actually temporarily hide the Server Guide on the clients until the client restarts.

[Yaobing]

You can do this:

Add "OTA" to Keywords tag of all ATSC channels.  You have to do this in a smartlist for TV channels since Manage TV Channels tool does not provide that capability.

For client you can use this rule:

Code: [Select]

-[=TVInfo(ChannelKeywords)&DataType=[list]]=[OTA]
EDIT:  My earlier post got messed up by forum auto-correction.  I keep forgetting that I need to put the expression inside a code tag.

The above rule is the same as one you used to exclude "Favorite", except that this one excludes "OTA".

[tzr916]

Thank you. I am struggling with the smartlist setup. I created a smartlist, in the Rule I choose "Channels" and "is" and "KCRA 3", but it automatically split that up into two Rules. I guess I don't use the Modify Results area. But then it doesn't find/list anything in the smartlist. If I can get it to find the channel, how do I tag it?

EDIT: Never mind, I found the tv channel option in Rules, and added to Keywords, all sorted now, thanks.

[Yaobing]

Not sure exactly how you did it.  In the future if you need to create a "TV Channels" smartlist that will include all channels here is what you can do:

1. Right-click Playlist > Smartlist, and choose "Add Smartlist...   F9".  Name it "TV Channels".
2. Add one rule: "Media Type" is "TV".

That is it!  This will include all of your TV channels.  You can then select the ones you want to edit and do tag editing on them.

If  you want to create a list of ATSC channels only, not include OpenCable channels, you just add a second rule: "TV Tuner Input Type" is "ATSC".

These lists behave like most media view lists, with columns of fields that you can choose to display or not to display.

[tzr916]

Ended up using:
Rule = Tv Tuner Input Type - is - ATSC
Then tagged Keyword with OTA

Last thought, perhaps in the future there will be some way for MC to send only the subchannel's data stream to the PC, rather than the entire 19Mbps bandwidth.

[Yaobing]

Last thought, perhaps in the future there will be some way for MC to send only the subchannel's data stream to the PC, rather than the entire 19Mbps bandwidth.

That is in Microsoft's bda architecture.  There is actually one advantage of this practice although we have not taken advantage of it yet.  Some time in the future I will tackle the issue of recording shows on multiple subchannels using the same tuner.  It is feasible at least for recordings in TS format.

[tzr916]

I guess recording on different subchannels at the same time might be useful for someone. Personally I don't have any use for subchannels whatsoever, and wish they had never come about. All they do for me is reduce the quality of the picture on the Main HD channel.

I wonder how the HDHR Win10 App is able to work around Microsoft's bda architecture to only send data from the utilized subchannel to the PC?

[Yaobing]

I guess HDHR does not use bda for Windows 10 App.

You can try DMS channels (but currently we do not support recording yet).  DMS channels stream directly from the tuner, probably pull only the requested channel data.

[tzr916]

That is in Microsoft's bda architecture.

Hmm I'm confused. According to Silicondust, BDA and this device's driver can utilize PID's to filter just the data from the subchannel that's being requested for use.

https://forum.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=365353#p365353

[Yaobing]

Thanks for the info.

I was not aware of that capability.  When I am bored I may take a look into it.  It will not be a high priority task though since we are working on streaming channels.  Once the support on DMS channels is complete, you can switch to using that.