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[jhoak]

New user and first post.  

OS = Windows 7 Ultimate (32 bit)
MC Version = 16.0.121
Hd Homerun vesion = latestest software & firmware version.

MC sees the tuners but when I tell it to do a channel scan it finds nothing. The HD Homerun app finds 60+ channels. Windows MC finds the same 60+ channels.

Edit to add: MC is set to run as administrator.

It's bound to be something that I have overlooked in the MC setup.

Any ideas where to start looking?

THANX!

[Yaobing]

Network security issue?

Make sure your firewall settings allow MC network traffic.

[jhoak]

Adding inbound and outbound rules to the Windows firewall solved the problem.

Thank you!!! 

[Jonathan DA]

jhoak,

Can you share what rules you added?  I'm having the same problem.

Thanks,

Jonathan

[jhoak]

Get to the firewall settings. How you do this is depends on what version of Windows you're running. I'm on Windows 7 and all I had to do was type "firewall" in the search box. Windows XP has the firewall settings in the Control Panel. I'm not sure about Vista though.

Once in the firewall settings add a new rule that points to the location of the program file and set it to allow all traffic. In my case the program file was located at C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 16\Media Center 16.exe

In Windows 7 (and Vista too I think) this needs to be done twice. Once for inbound traffic and once for outbound traffic.

If you need more detailed instructions do a Google search on "Windows firewall rules" and you should be able to locate very detailed step-by-step instructions.

[gtgray]

I got the HD Homerun working by setting Medic Center 16 to  both  Public and Private. I had already set the HD Homerun executables to both public and private

[gtgray]

I got the HD Homerun working by setting Medic Center 16 to  both  Public and Private. I had already set the HD Homerun executables to both public and private

Oh this has been one major nightmare. I have it working on one box, it did work, on another but it would not play several stations that work fine in HD Qucik TV, and Windows Media Center. I have reinstalled MC16, HD HomeRun etc. Everyone keeps talking about turning off the global setting for time shifting. Where is that setting. In tools Options - TV, I can see where you can set Time Shifting to a minium 1 hour.

Somehow doing an uninstall does not clear the regsitry settings as the half completed program guide and the channel list remain.

I need serious help with this, Football season is almost up on us and ATSC via madvr is the way I want to watch. The image is so much nicer than WMC... but WMC works straight forwardly with the HD Homerun. My new build after going through the TV setup a half dozen times is working or it was earlier today.

Help... btw the box giving me all trouble has an Intel SSD in it, I don't want TV stuff being written to it. I changed the path to magnetic drive..

[Yaobing]

Everyone keeps talking about turning off the global setting for time shifting. Where is that setting. In tools Options - TV, I can see where you can set Time Shifting to a minium 1 hour.

The option "Start digital television in time-shifting mode" has been recently removed.  It is really not necessary and causes more problems.  Now the closest option to it is to run a TV channel (even if it fails), try right-clicking and choose TV Options > Cancel Time-shifting.

Do you get any error messages?  If it works on one machine but not on another, check video playback options (i.e. whether you use Red October etc.).

Somehow doing an uninstall does not clear the regsitry settings as the half completed program guide and the channel list remain.

Channels and programs are in MC's database and thus will survive reinstallation.  Try rescanning TV channels.

[eapool]

I have the HDHomerun working on multiple computers.  I have a couple minor issues periodically, but overall it works well.  Can you describe the problem you are having, maybe I can help?

Here is the problem that I see sometimes - we will tune to a channel and the screen will just be black.  Usually, we can change to another channel using the OSD and it will start working.

The second issue we see is that sometimes, the channel will be paused, if we press play everything plays fine.

I am only viewing over the air channels, but I will help if I can.

Alex

[gtgray]

The option "Start digital television in time-shifting mode" has been recently removed.  It is really not necessary and causes more problems.  Now the closest option to it is to run a TV channel (even if it fails), try right-clicking and choose TV Options > Cancel Time-shifting.

Do you get any error messages?  If it works on one machine but not on another, check video playback options (i.e. whether you use Red October etc.).

Channels and programs are in MC's database and thus will survive reinstallation.  Try rescanning TV channels.

I have rescanned till I am blue in the face. It always finds the channles.

First I get the message Playing : 2.1 HD KPRC or whatever channel
Next" Waiting
After a good while a black screen then
Time Out waiting for writer to start
Possible cause no signal or faulty device.
Then it goes to a black screen, you can change channel and the sequence repeats.

Works fine in WMC, works fine HD Quick Play.

It worked fine for a short while after futzing around with traffic rules.. Then the local PBS stations stopped working, and then others, each time I would get the above sequence, removed, reinstalled, rescanned several times. EPG only gets to 33 of about 60 channels. None of the playback anymore.

I have an SSD in this box and I changed the recording folder to my magnetic drive, but this was after the first bunch of channels went away. The HD Homerun is working fine on my other box. It is not Red October, Red Otctober played fine. There is something corrupted in the database and I have no way to clear. What is the point of choosing to clear registry entries in an uninstall-reinstall if it doesn't do that.

It is only the lovely playback in Red Octorber that makes me bother.

The box it is working on is an i3 2100, Win 7 32 bit, 4 gig ram, Nvidia 545 and a 2 TB green seagate drive.

The box it worked on briefly is an i3 530, Win 7 32 bit, 4 gig ram, Nvidia 545 an intel 120gb SSD and a 1.5 TB hitachi green driver

[eapool]

I used to see the same thing as you describe.  I would get the waiting message and then timeout waiting for timer to start.  When I saw this happen, it was right after Microsoft pushed out an fairly major update.  I am trying to remember what I did to fix it.  I believe it was the firewall again.  I know you have tried messing with the traffic rules, but can you try disabling the firewall and see if it works.  This will at least allow us to rule out the firewall. 

Alex

[gtgray]

One step forward from 4 steps back. I disabled the MS Firewall and the same small group of channels started working. I went in and re-ticked allow on MC16 and all the HD Homerun apps.

Channel 2 NBC and its sub channels worked for a bit then stopped. Channel 8 (local PBS) did not work and has not since the first time I got the HD Homerun going on this box. 11 CBS and its subchannels work. 13 ABC and its sub channels work.

The guide shows no information for the channels that don't work. I see no method to clear the guide. When you reload it, it runs to 33 of 63 and hangs there for a long, long time. I left the room for an hour or so and came back and it said it was updated.

Now all these channels and program guide are properly populated and work on the i3 Sandy Bridge box.

Is there anyway to reset or zero the database? I have to believe there is something corrupted in the database on this particular box. I have two more PCs I can install MC16 on if necessary.

From what I can see the default EPG just goes out and gets the program information from the station feed, if it can't see the station it can't populate the EPG. What is weird is that some of the valid but not playing channels have signal strengths of like 98 or 100 percent. Even weirder is that channels just stop working.

The non working Channel 8 PBS channel and its subs show a signal strength of 64% on the i3 Clarksdale. On the i3 Sandy Bridge where PBS plays fine as do all channels that are actually broadcasting programming is showing a 100 % signal.

I have two HD Homerun dual tuner units. I can swap around to whichever tuner I choose and the results are the same.

[eapool]

Ok, just to be sure I understand what you are seeing.  If you disable MSFirewall, a small group of channels started working.  After that you re-ticked to allow MC16 and HD Homerun apps.  Everything (except Channel worked fine and then stopped working.  When it stopped working, did you get the 'Time Out waiting to start error' or did you just get the black screen?

As to the issue with the program guide, I wont be much help.  I had a little trouble getting my program guide set up, but once I set it up it has been fine.  I use one box as a server and it pushes the guide out to all the other boxes, so I only had to set it up on one machine.  I know I had to rerun the program guide quite a few times to get it setup right.  Whenever I reran my guide setup, it would clear the old info.  I do not know if there is a why to explicitly clear the old, but rerunning the setup should do it.  Also, I am using the xmltv to populate my guide and I am not using the station feed.

The PBS channel is odd, it should have the same signal strength on both boxes (obviously).  Have you checked the HD website?  I think I saw a post there regarding different signal strength from the same tuner.

One other thought - and this is a stretch - each tuner seems to only be able to communicate with one box at a time.  That is to say, if you are watching tuner 1 on box 1 and tuner 2 on box 2, box 3 will not be able to acquire the tuner.  The reason I bring this up - I found that unless I specifically hit the 'stop' button before I turn off the tv, that box is 'using' one of my tuners even though it is off.

Alex

[gtgray]

This is a complete mess at this point. First I have a total of 4 hd homerun tuners.. two boxes. No issues with tuners being in use. Today before I did anything I loaded the latest release. While it plays all other video greate and plays TV fine on the Sandy Bridge on the Clarksdale the channels it will play are completely scrambled, don't sync, hashed whatever is the right word. I noticed looking at the filters that LAV CUVID wasn't in the list. So I supsect madvr somehow is using internal decoders...


I tried deleting the channel list and rescan found all the channels as always. Tried clearing the program guide. It runs for a short while, the first channels it populates in the guide are the PBS channels with TBA only. Next it runs for a little while and the get the MC16 has stopped responding. My experience with MC16 from both boxes is that MC16 will put up the not responding dialog if the neighbor's dog barks. I am running the channel scan again on the Clarksdale. The Clarksdale does have the Ceton in it.. perhaps that is causing MC's TV setup which is at best still mostly in the oven to be crazy.

Another thing that is weird and it happend on both the Sandy Bridge and the Clarksdale or at least when the Clarksdale will play channel 2.x, the picture is extremely magenta. Even men look like they are wearing purple lipstick. This is unique to the NBC affiliate. Doesn't happen in WMC, or HD QuickTV, on MC16 TV.

I am going to check and see if the EPG has hung MC 16 for the fourth time this morning.

[gtgray]

So after the 4th attempt the channel scan completeed without an MC has stopped responding. No channels appear to do anything.

This is way beyong frustrating.. the lack of input from the JRiver guys on this at this point is puzzling

[gtgray]

I felt that somehow the EPG was the root of the problem. Really channels should tune and play regardless of the state of EPG.

What I did was give up on the defualt EPG. I downloaded mc2xml and ran it. This created an EPG that was fully populated for the PBS channels and other holes in the listings. I was sure it would now work, but no, only a few channels worked. Then I deleted the channel listing yet again and did a new channel scan. This worked, I finally have all the channels playing correctly.

Now this weird thing with NBC and color problems, the morning and daytime programming is extremely magenta on both the Sandy Bridge and the Clarksdale, this is not the case with the same contern in WMC and HD Quick TV, so it is something in the Network stream that the Red October filter stack is reacting to. I assume it is in LAV CUVID or madVR. I notice the local news broadcast on NBC this afternoon has proper color.

I have seen the excessive magenta content on NBC 2.1 since I first had TV going in MC16.

[Yaobing]

I am sorry you are experiencing such problems.  Usually when you can play some channels but not some other channels, it is the strength of signal that usually causes it.  But then you said the same channels played fine in other programs.  I am stumped.  It can also be, as others have suggested here, that at the particular moment your tuner device is being used by other programs, but that would not depend on which channel you tried to play.

EPG should not be a problem.  How do you start playing a channel?  By double-clicking a channel entry?  By selecting a program from EPG and click "Watch" button?  If it is the latter, try the former and see if there is a difference.

Over-the-air EPG is not entirely reliable because it depends on how good the signals are.  Therefore we recommend using mc2xml.  Make sure you assign xml channel IDs to correct channels.

TV channels and EPG data are in the library, and thus will survive reinstallation.  To erase channels, go to Standard TV View and click TV Options... button, and select Edit Channel List...  On the dialog window there is a "Delete All Channels" button.  To clear EPG, use TV Options... > Load Program Guide wizard and select the last entry on the first page.

Color problem probably is related to video decoder.  Which decoder is in use when you play a TV channel (right-click in video window and select "DirectShow filters").

[Yaobing]

I have seen the excessive magenta content on NBC 2.1 since I first had TV going in MC16.

While video is playing, use Up or Down key (on keyboard or remote control) to cycle through on screen display menu until you see color control entries, especially "Hue".  Use Left or Right key to adjust.

[gtgray]

I appreciate the input on the color. I know how to manage color. I have a meter, Chromapure and Iscan Duo, you don't adjust color for a single channel. Anyway, color is the least of my problems.

My channels 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 - 8.1, 8.2 8.3 have stopped playing again. I can delete the channels rescan, reload the EPG either the default on or the mc2xml, it does not matter they don't want to play at all again. The signal strength on these channels jumps around from 80-100 and then sometimes 0. This is not the case as they play fine on the Sandy Bridge and show 100 percent. To eliminate some weird interaction with HD Homerun being network based I installed a Hauppage 1250... still the same. All these tuners work fine everywhere but in MC16 on the Clarksdale. The work fine in WMC on the Clarksdale and the work fine at least the HD Homerun tuners work fine in HD Quick TV.. what is this error message with the writer failed to start or whatever it is? I have spend 20 hours screwing with this at least. The fact that I am sometimes able to reset things and get it to work for a little while is making me crazy.

Last night I watched PBS 8.2 for two hours no channel change. I decided to change to NBC 2.1 got the error. Went to standard view and the program guide was completely gone nothing there. I deleted the channels, rescanned the channels, refreshed mc2xml and got a populated program guide. Still 2.x and 8.x would not play.. There are many others that don't play either. Probably 25 percent give the error with the writer.

[Yaobing]

The "time out waiting for writer..." message means there is no video data written to disk which is available for playback.  It happens if there is not enough signal, or the tuner device is faulty, or the program failed to write data to disk.  Are you running the program with administrator privileges?  The fact that it works sometime or with some channel may suggest it is a disk writing problem.  Do you have enough disk space?  When you get that error message, try right-click and find TV Options > Cancel time-shifting on the menu.  If you can cancel time-shifting, does it make a difference?

The problem you are experiencing is very uncommon.

[gtgray]

The "time out waiting for writer..." message means there is no video data written to disk which is available for playback.  It happens if there is not enough signal, or the tuner device is faulty, or the program failed to write data to disk.  Are you running the program with administrator privileges?  The fact that it works sometime or with some channel may suggest it is a disk writing problem.  Do you have enough disk space?  When you get that error message, try right-click and find TV Options > Cancel time-shifting on the menu.  If you can cancel time-shifting, does it make a difference?

The problem you are experiencing is very uncommon.

The only account on the box is an adminstrator. The cancel time shifting option as a global setting is apparently gone in past days. Now I have mentioned over and over this box has an SSD. I changed the options in TV to a path on D: driver. My OS is on the SSD, the C: drive. If I chose to cancel time shifting from inside Theater View it makes no difference.

On the Sandy Bridge I actually saw channels play right through this error message. I literally was able to channel up through each channel and would get the writer error but it would play. I thought that was pretty weird but it never did that again. . other than the color issues the Sandy Bridge is fine.

On the Clarksdale I don't know where it is trying to write. It should be trying to write to D:\Videos\JRiver\TV Recording\   

But in fact how would I know if it is in fact  writing to the SSD and not the magnet drive D: ?

Also why did you remove the Cancel Time Shifting from the global menu. If we could turn it off there we might know what is happening, sadly there is a minimum 1 hour setting. I will go look at the availab space on the SSD and report back. Keep in mind this is always happening with the first channels in the channels listing and the guide. Although it will error out it with others. Drive C: the OS SSD drive has 83 GB free out of 111, The D: drive had some 750 GB free.

[gtgray]

I have looked at signal strength. Take  NBC 2.1 around 50% on the Clarksdale where it is failing to playback. Using the same tuner verified on the Sandy Bridge the signal for the same channel is 100% and of course it plays back.

Also if I turn off time shifting by right clicking in TV Options it makes no difference. Don't get the failure to start writer message but it never plays back any video.

I hate like heck to pull the Ceton out of this box as that feed HD cable through out my house. i can't see where to go with this.
 

I am going to install MC on another box and see what it does. My wifes i3 is sitting over here with a GT 430 in it.

[JimH]

I hate like heck to pull the Ceton out of this box as that feed HD cable through out my house. i can't see where to go with this.
 

It might be worth testing.  The card installation may disable something MC needs.

We're talking with Ceton, BTW.  No idea yet where it will lead.

[gtgray]

It might be worth testing.  The card installation may disable something MC needs.

We're talking with Ceton, BTW.  No idea yet where it will lead.

Good Luck with that, that could change everyone's ball game completely.


A new data point. I setup TV on another Clarksdale. no SSD, just a signle platter drive Win 7, so no physical tuners installed. It behaves much like the Clarksdale with the Ceton. It is showing the lower signal levels on the flaky channels. The same channels, from the same tuners that show up as 100 percent on the Sandy Bridge.

Keep in mind all 3 of the i3 boxes play WMC and HD Quick TV perfectly with these same channels, the WMC signal quality utility pegs the meter on all the 3 boxes. These all have intel boards, with intel nics. The only thing we really have is they are two different gen boards and chipets. Now the Sandy Bridge software build was about 10 days ago. Brand new box. The Clarksdale with the Ceton is one I built, the other Clarkdsale is a Gateway.

I think I can move some pieces around and jack the antenna signal up. It will mean taking the Ceton down for a bit. 

Asuming that JR MC needs more signal than these other more shall we say polished TV apps, why on god's green earth would the Sandy Bridge be the exception and interpret the signal similarly to WMC and HD Quick TV. The HD Homerun is a network tuner and IP based. 

I added several dBs of gain, did not seem to make much if any difference. As I saw last night the Gateway-Clarksdale will play PBS 8.1 and with the jacked up signal shows 98-100 percent signal. On the NBC channel 2.1 it shows 53-58 precent signal and won't play 2.1.

The Clarksdale with the Ceton will not play either chanel. It shows about 50 percent signal on 2.1 and 58 percent on PBS 8.1

The Sandy Bridge plays  2.1 with a 100 percent signal strength
PBS 8.1 on the Sandy Bridge is plays with a 100 percent signal strength


All the Nics are on board factory intels.

The Nic in the Sandy Bridge is an intel 82579V

The Nic in the Gateway Clarksdale is an intel 82578DC
The Nic is the Ceton Clarksdale is also an intel 82578DC

So any thoughts about what is happening here?

I have just about exhausted what I can check, mix and match.

[Yaobing]

50% signal strength is weak.  That explains why you keep getting "Timed out waiting for writer to start..." message.  This is really puzzling.  If other applications get the signal, MC should get the same.  For example, on my computer, located quite far from TV signal towers, I can receive just about the same set of channels in MC as in WMC.  If MC can not get a channel, WMC can not either.  But I do not use HD Homerun.

So I think this is still a HD Homerun specific problem.  Is there anything in HD Homerun that will let you specify which application gets signal?  I vaguely remember that HD Homerun had to add our application to their list.

[Yaobing]

Forgive me if I missed it from your previous posts, but are both of your HDHomerun devices on the same computer or on different computers?  Are they connected to the same antenna?

[gtgray]

Forgive me if I missed it from your previous posts, but are both of your HDHomerun devices on the same computer or on different computers?  Are they connected to the same antenna?

Pleas Yao, READ what I have posted over and over again.

You are not getting it at all,

The channel strentgth for the same tuner as reported in MC 16 is bogus. 3 different PCs all take the same stream and output and get different results. 

On both the Clarksdales in MC 16 one gets a 50 percent signal the other gets a 100 percent signal on the same channel. On that same the Sandy Bridge gets a 100 percent signal.

In HD Quick Play all these PC and all these channelsy play perfect, in Windows Media Center Signal Strength  they are pegged at five green bars and play perfect. This is a MC 16 issue!

Clarksdale 1 Gateway Channel 2.1 = Signal 50-58 percent no play. 8.1  signal += 100 percent plays fine

Clarksdale 2 Home built with Ceton Channel 2.1 signal =58 percent no play. Channel 8.1 = 100 percent plays fine


Sandy Bridge both of these channels are at 100 percent signal and both play perfect.

Yes the tuners are HD Homeruns, though a Hauppage 1250 installed internally in the Home built Clarksdale also would not play 2.1 or 8.1 with similar signal numbers. It played fine in WMC. Removed it as it blocks air flow around the Ceton.

Think about it, how can two pcs sitting in the same room attached to the same tuner via ethernet one via the same switch and same router, one gets 50 percent signal and won't play, the other gets 100 percent and plays. They are on the same router same swtich using the same HD Hromerun versions, the same MC version, the same OS patched to the same level.

The signal is not different, it is not being recognized properly in MC 16 somehow.

I will install MC16  on a 4th PC and will probably get yet another set of varied set of results.
the HD Homerun is an ip device. I am not running multiple pcs at one time when I test so I am not getting device contention. I am using the exact same specific hd homerun tuner id each test to avoid any variable although the behavior is the same with all 4 of the tuner ids.


I can not belive that I can repeat this over and over  again and it is clear you are not understanding it at all.

I am really trying to hard to make it clear. I have dozens of hours in this now.

[JimH]

Yaobing,
Please order one of the devices.  It worked great for me on my first PC, but when I tried to use it on the second one, there were problems.  I'm not sure whose problems they are, but the device is good enough and popular enough that we should have one.

Thanks,

Jim

[gtgray]

I just installed MC16 on my Dell Notebook... These same two probalematic channels from same tuner plays perfectly. So that is two PCs play perfect.. The nic in notebook is intel state of the art stuff.  100 percent signal stength on the same channel on the notebook just like on the Sandy Bridge.

What is even weirder is that on the Clarksdale box it has worked fine twice before, then stopped working. Hopefully you can find something.. because I don't know what else to do.

[cncb]

Did you check the "Main Application" setting in the HDHomerun setup on the problematic PC like Yaobing asked?  Both PCs have "drivers" which can be different versions and can be setup differently.  I have used the HDHomerun on a Clarksdale PC with MC16 with no problems.

[jmone]

I too have a HDHomeRun (DVB-T) that works perfectly, let me know if there is anything you want me to check or try.  FYI the only two things I have ever noticed is:
1) Don't have different versions of the HDHomeRun SW of different PC's .  When doing an update from Silicon Dust, run it on all the PC's
2) Open Up the Firewall SW to let MC through (I wish the HDHomeRun SW would add MC but it does not).

Thanks it!  Great device IMO.

[Yaobing]

Pleas Yao, READ what I have posted over and over again.

Let me ask for your forgiveness one more time.

[gtgray]

Did you check the "Main Application" setting in the HDHomerun setup on the problematic PC like Yaobing asked?  Both PCs have "drivers" which can be different versions and can be setup differently.  I have used the HDHomerun on a Clarksdale PC with MC16 with no problems.

All of the machines, all four are running the latest software from Silicon Dust. One of the Clarksdales has actually worked appraently correctly twice than reverted back.

I have been running the Dell i3 -380m notebook on these troublesome stations for the last several hours. That is unit4.

It seems to make no difference what so ever whether the main application is set to JRvier or Window Media Center. The notebook is set to windows and is working perfectly, the other 3 are set to JRiver.

[gtgray]

Let me ask for your forgiveness one more time.

No you are making me feel bad. Ineve was a developer but I did support myself for many years. I was a support manager for Compaq/HP at first and second levels, then I spent 7 years as the Desktop Product Service Manger. I was there 14 years.

It is easy to get stuck on either side of a support conversation where communication is not happening no matter how much is written.. Yao I know you are super busy. But I was providing aa wealth of troubleshooting information, trying to anticipate your questions before hand so you could begin to understand the problem with the least effort on your part.

When you started to focus on signal strength after all my posts should have made it obvious that is was a not simple signal strength problem, clearly the conversation was off track. I needed to be more clear and concise I guess.

Your respsonse is natural but I was trying to make clear that at the PC the HD Homerun is virtual and if it produces a high quality stream at one PC in the same Homegroup/subnet in fact on the same switch and not another it is not a signal quality issue no matter what the signal strength the MC 16 OSD tells us.

I know how to do troubleshooting, and I know how to be a good dance partner at doing collaborative troubleshooting. I was involved with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Fortune 100 escalations to HP's Pengineering team. My second level guys could not send anything into 3rd level (Desktop Product Engineering )unless the case had been reviewed by me and was vetted thoroughly. The way we worked is we interfaced with the clients, duplicated their issue captured sample units and hand delivered it to engineering who made the bios patches, board revs or whatever ECNs were necessary. We owned the case until resolution, which sometimes took months.

I have no way of knowing if the issue belongs to JRiver or Silicon Dust. What I can say is that the Silicon Dust software is very,very mature and I have the latest SiliconDust stuff on each of these these boxes. In fact the HD Homerun firmware and software versions are only some days old.

 The HD Homerun ATSC tuner at the PC this is strictly a software impelementation and if you are getting 100 percent signal strenght on one or more units than it is not a source problem. Now it could be nic related, timing related, bios related... but if the HD Homerun can play perfectly on all 4 boxes in HD Quick TV and WMC as well as play perfectly in JR MC on two of the boxes.. it is not a signal problem... when these channels play they are rock solid no pixelation, no stuttering, they just work or they don't work.

Both boxes that don't work are intel system boards with the same nic and probabvly the same chipset. I do know they are running different bioses. one of these Clarksdales was built with a retail box H55C mainboard patched to all the latest firmware and software.

 The Gateway Clarksdale is running current nic and video drivers, I have no idea about the MEI drivers. chipset drivers or the bios. It is the wife's machine and I don't mess with it except when it doesn't work.

 For testing and to relieve your concerns about signal strength I placed a very high quality motorola 15 dB drop amp in line. It of course made no difference because it was never actually a signal issue.

If I get time over the next days I have an E3300 box that is not in production. It just needs a GPU put back in it to bring it online. It has a Gigabyte board... I am going to bet it also plays the HD Homerun perfectly in JRiver... there is something with these Clarksdales. possibly with the nics configurations most likely that is creating a timing problem for MC 16. Not for WMC, they are completely robust with HD Homeruns in WMC on all 4 boxes.

I even have an Atom that I can test with...

[Yaobing]

Thanks for being patient.

My previous responses were only meant to cover all grounds.

Now I did find a problem, which I do not know whether to blame MC or SiliconDust.  The good news is that it can be solved in MC.  I hope what you experienced was attributable to the same problem.  

When I installed the device on my network and ran software installation on one machine, the result was pretty good.  All my channel groups can be watched, with better results than from my other device (an internal device).   Only one channel group was not too good, but it is bad with other devices and with WMC too.

When I installed the software/driver on a new laptop this morning, the result was also pretty good, except one channel group (in addition to that same group that is poor on the other computer).  This is a group that I expected to work because the signal is very good on the other machine.  But on the laptop I can not show any video at all - the same symptom as you had seen.  What is the difference between this new laptop and the old desktop?  The difference was that I had to scan for channels on the laptop while the desktop already had channels scanned with previous internal tuner device.  This prompted me to examine the channel data.  There it was, the bad channel group had its physical channel value wrong - it should have been 44, but it got 43!  So there is something bad in scanning, where the driver would give out a wrong value.

The solution is to go to MC's "TV Options..." button and choose "Edit Channel List...".  On the resulting window, click the channel that you suspect is bad, and check its attributes.  For ATSC TV check Major Channel, minor channel, and physical channel.  If you suspect any value is wrong, verify it with another computer where it works.  You can click "Edit Channel" button to edit those values.

[jmone]

Yaobing, I've found the devs at HDHomeRun pretty good for an initial issue we had getting it to work with MC (the combined filter).  If you contact them I'm sure they would be helpful.  If so I'd also ask that during the HDHomeRun install you can select MC as the main playback device but it does not add MC to the firewall (which it should IMO - else MC's install should do this).

[gtgray]

Your solution was right on track. A whole bunch of stations had the actual station off by 1 chanel.

I believe this is an MC 16 issue because I had the same trouble druing my troubleshooting with an internal device (hauppage hvr-1250).

Now I will be the first to admit I have been openly critical of the HD Homeruns for their relatively insensitive tuners. They are very stable but they need a boatload of signal to stay happy. A Tivo HD which is just middling in terms of tuner performance puts the HD Homeruns to sham.

 An Avermedia Duet for example is a much more powerful tuner, ufortunately I can't share that in the way I can the Homeruns. I have on single ATSC antenna tap coming into the house and with Motorola BDA amps I can split it out well enough for the HD Homeruns. There is not enough signal off the antenna at 30 miles with lots of tree that I can run coax all over and get adequate signal in each room. If I was just using a single HTPC I would like have an Avermedia Duet in it. The other issue for me is that I have a Ceton in my main HTPC and the Cetons are very heat sensitive. An Avermedia will over heat a Ceton if they are close in case.

I will probably move the Ceton to a dedicated host where I might eventually have a second and then revisit how I configure ATSC tuners. In that scenario I could run an Avermedia Duet in the main HTPC and use on Dual tuner HD Homerun shared over the network for the viewing locations. Where possible I try to watch ATSC directly over the air rather than relayed through my cable provider. It is much cleaner. Red October with MadVR and Lav CUVID makes it look great.


HD Homeruns work quite robustly given enough signal and the ability to share them across the network makes them a perennial favorite with the AVS Forum crowd. I own a couple, my borther owns a couple. To SiliconDust's credit, they continutally update their drivers and they will work an issue to resoluion.

These products have been in the market for a long time and they continue to udate firmware and driver and apps.. the latest software is from earlier this month. I doubt there cable tuners will be what they should be when they first release, but these guys are dogged, in the end their network cable tuner will be great tuners.

[Yaobing]

I made a change in MC that fixes the issue (or hopefully we will not have this issue any more).  With some devices the correct value for physical channel number comes slowly.  We have to make sure we do not query this value too early during scan process.

Thanks for your thoughtful inputs.

[gtgray]

Yaobing,

I want to say thank you for working my issue to resolution. I know I can be cranky... but I have been reccomending JRiver like crazy. I am the one who really got people talking in a big way about MC over on the big forum and I know that had to increase mind share if not sales direcly. I am sure that it at least led to a dectectable increase in trial downloads.

Solving this issue increases my committement to to JRiver...

Again, thanks.

[gtgray]

I just wanted to add that this is a real fix. On one of Clarksdale boxes I followed the instructions to edit the channel list which solved the problem, clearly a work around. The second Clarksdale was fixed by rescaning with the latest rev 16.0.149, which properly idenitified the channels. Clearly it was a timing issue.

Kudos to Yaobing, well done.