H7.AC Cable Reception No Signal.

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supwiddiss
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H7.AC Cable Reception No Signal.

Post by supwiddiss » Wed Jan 02, 2019 12:07 am

Another H7.AC owner, a Tek customer asked me if my 3rd tuner worked to grab itc cable channels.
I get ~70 using an HDHOMERUN and my Sony big screen. No problem. 256-QAM.

I plugged my cable into the MBC1237 (ATSC) top port and setup the tuner.
Did a scan for ATSC Cable TV - 256-QAM. Nothing.

Then I did a signal finder check. Nothing.

Then I looked at the atsc.xml in openATV 6.2. Frequencies didn't cover what the HDHOMERUN showed.

I read the tutorial here. Mentioned openPLI. I looked at the atsc.xml in it. Exact same file as openATV.

Lots of copy/pasting and crap but I managed to stick all of the freqs. in the xml and tried it again.
Frequencies scanned but no channels. Signal finder shows nothing for any freqs.

So what gives? Some of you guys are Linux heads. Is there a tuner module ipk in pli that atv dosen't have?

I hate openPLI and it's messed up way of mapping the remote buttons. Anyone know of a fix?

Let's not let the moss grow on this one. Please help!

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Re: H7.AC Cable Reception No Signal.

Post by tvroadmin » Wed Jan 02, 2019 3:54 am

I think only the 8VSB part of the tuner for atsc is working. QAM (for cable) needs proper driver or is disabled?

You can try this: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-955Q USB tuner

From within openatv plugins, download the driver for this tuner. It should work for both 8VSB and QAM.

QAM is used by digital cable companies. I doubt you will find any FTA channels, although it is possible.

What is more interesting is that people are confirming that OpenATV6.3 now has driver support for Skywalker 1. If you have one of these units, it can decode FTA legacy digicipher. Many people have been using very expensive DSR decoders for these channels. But legacy digicipher is slowly going away in favor of the DVB-S2 standard.
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supwiddiss
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Re: H7.AC Cable Reception No Signal.

Post by supwiddiss » Wed Jan 02, 2019 1:07 pm

Thanks for the reply.
I've looked. There dosen's seem to be a specific driver for the tuner. And in opkg list-installed to try to find what may be responsible for the driver that's running it. I do see hints for the Si1269D DVB-S2 sat tuner. The openatv image looks like the driver may be built into a kernel module.
That has hints of MSB1237 when opened in notepad++.

Being a "chinabox" VU+ clone I can understand not so much support. I'm probably going to try openpli (like the tutorial hints). And see if the tuner springs to life. I have no terrestrial signals I could hoist an antenna up to see I could snag any.
OpenPLI sucks. I tried it briefly some time ago before I thought of trying the 3rd tuner (bought the H7 for sat).

As for the Happague tuner, It would be even more cool to just find a plugin tuner and yank out the internal one to swap.
Just not sure which one would work, or plugin that works with drivers. Why not go that route?

Thing is. If you are in direct contact with Tek and you guys are under each others wing. What does he think?
There's nothing really special about cable 256-QAM. As I described I get around 70 ITC with the others requiring a small roku decoder box.
And of course just seeing if the H7 3rd tuner works at all to get the itc channels (it should as advertised) is my intention.
It's sort of a "perk" here with the broadband package. Just to be clear. The HDHR tuner and tuner in my SONY TV do get the ITC channels perfectly.

Any ideas?

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Re: H7.AC Cable Reception No Signal.

Post by StevenD1971 » Wed Jan 02, 2019 3:43 pm

My Hauppauge 950Q says it does clear Qam digital tv Qam64-Qam256.You can find that model used on ebay cheaper than the 955Q.I don't have cable tv in my area, so can't see if works.
Openpli can be setup to work just like openatv. Just have to go through menus and change settings and might have to download some extra plugins. I like the ATSC EPG better with Openatv because I can set it for 12 hour time. Openpli is only 24 hour time for the epg.

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Re: H7.AC Cable Reception No Signal.

Post by supwiddiss » Wed Jan 02, 2019 4:16 pm

Thanks Steven. It's little things like this that makes a person wonder about service after the sale.
I guess I just don't have any tuners that haven't handled my channel reception on cable to make me even think that this box wouldn't also.

We'll see how tek responds because I emailed him about this.
That's where other devices with built in blindscan excel. Again, I'm not so concerned with cable or OTA reception on this box. But I do have adequate electronics experience that tells me code not explored by the mfgr to be able to do a voltage/frequency sweep (VFO) and log them is a bummer to find out months after the purchase.

I like the H7. Well, I think I do. I would have plopped the cash for a VU+ if I thought it was a better performer.
Ebay has the dongle tuner for 50-100 bucks. Plugin tuners are out there for VU+ receivers for less. Would one of those work in my box?
I guess I violated my warranty when I installed a HDD in my box. The PC board layout looks the same as other 'clone boxes'.

Plus where dolby digital sings on my other devices to my home theater, the H7 lacks. Little thing like that you find out.

I hope I've been polite enough but to the point.

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