HVR-1600 Dual Tuner does not work right

[RhythmDoctor]

I have BTV 4.6 working on my system, which has the following tuners:

Hauppauge HVR-950 (two of them)
Hauppauge HVR-1600 (one)

The HVR-900s are hybrid tuners - I can tune analog NTSC or digital ATSC with each of them, but only one at a time for each tuner.

The HVR-1600 is a true dual tuner - with proper software support, I should be able to use both the NTSC and ATSC tuners at the same time. BTV 4.6 documentation says it now supports this feature of the HVR-1600 for NTSC/ATSC (but not for QAM, obviously).

As as test, I attempted to record four shows simultaneously - one analog show (which should use the HVR-1600, because it is the top priority tuner for NTSC) and three digital shows (which should use the HVR-900 first, since they are the top priority digital tuners, then use the HVR-1600 for the third show).

Unfortunately, when I went to set this up, I got a conflict message - it would not record 3 digital + 1 analog show simultaneously.

I am wondering why this does not work up to the specs of BTV 4.6. These tuners were originally installed under BTV 4.5, and then the upgrade for 4.6 was layered on top of the 4.5 install. Do I need to uninstall and reinstall the HVR-1600 source in order to take advantage of this new feature of BTV 4.6?

[tscales]

Did you run through setup for all FOUR tuners? You have to setup both sides of the 1600 separately.

Oh, and yes, delete it and rerun setup.

[RhythmDoctor]

Originally Posted by tscales

Did you run through setup for all FOUR tuners?

Actually, it is SIX tuners - one NTSC and one ATSC for each physical tuner.

I deleted out the NTSC and ATSC sources for the HVR-1600, then reinstalled them using setup. I re-ran my test to record 3 digital shows + 1 analog show simultaneously, and I did NOT get a conflict, so it now appears that BTV is seeing the HVR-1600 as two separate tuners. Thanks for the help.

Unfortunately, every solution seems to create a new problem. This time I noticed that my signal strength is much weaker than before on all three digital tuners - down to 92% (vs. a normal signal of 99-100%) on every digital channel. So I'll have to go up into the attic tomorrow and try to figure out what has gone wrong with my antenna/amplifier setup. Clearly this was not "created" by the software change I made, but I discovered it as a result.

I guess the one thing that has changed since last time is that I am now running BTV 4.6, whereas previous install was BTV 4.5. Does BTV 4.6 have a "higher standard" for signal strength? i.e., is it calibrated differently so that a 99% signal on BTV 4.5 now comes up as a 92% signal on BTV 4.6?

[Deuce911]

If I remember correctly in 4.6 the HVR-1600 allows you to record 2 shows at once, when you upgrade you do have to delete the Tuner and re-add both of them.

Also in 4.6 they changed the way they calculate the HD signal strength, so I would be cautious about changing your antenna just yet. My signals are from 93-98 and they play and record fine. I would not use BTV to adjust your antenna cause it would take forever, try and find another utility if possible, not sure if the VBox one will work with the HVR's.

Mike

[RhythmDoctor]

Originally Posted by Deuce911

...Also in 4.6 they changed the way they calculate the HD signal strength, so I would be cautious about changing your antenna just yet. My signals are from 93-98 and they play and record fine. I would not use BTV to adjust your antenna cause it would take forever, try and find another utility if possible, not sure if the VBox one will work with the HVR's.

Mike

Thanks, that's just hte type of information I was looking for. I'll lay off the antenna adjustment. SS might want to change their threshold for auto-selecting TV stations, though. 92% results in the channel NOT being selected. If I hadn't overridden this by manually selecting, the setup program would have ended up selecting NO channels. If their new algorithm gets a lower power reading, they should lower the threshold for auto-selecting the channels.

FYI, I have a ProBrand set-top digital tuner that has a great display of signal strength and signal-to-noise, so I typically use that for adjusting the antenna. S/N is just as important as raw strength.

Anyone with further suggestions about BTV's signal strength should post it in the new thread that I created:

Signal strength weaker on BTV 4.6 than it was on 4.5?