Getting all your QAM channels on Comcast with EyeTV Hybrid
Posted on : 29-01-2009 | By : Andy | In : uncategorized
Tags: channel scan, channels, comcast, eyetv, hd, missing stations, qam
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For Christmas I got an elgato EyeTV Hybrid, and I was excited. I was excited about recording shows (and movies) in HD. I was excited to get rid of the old low-definition DVD recorder. I was excited to have those crisp, clear, free HD networks that were on my TV finally on my computer. But when I plugged it in…? Nothing HD. Not sure why, some people blame it on Comcast messing with PSIP and virtual channels tables, but it just could be a not-sensitive-enough channel scanner. My TV was picking up some HD networks though, so I knew they were there, and I was determined to find them.
It took me a month to get all my HD channels to show up, but I finally did. If you want to know how, read on. If you just want the shortcut I found at the end…skip to the bottom.
- Use the EyeTV Channel Scan. Didn’t work. Found some SD digital QAM channels, but not the HD ones I wanted.
- Search SiliconDust’s Website for available channel listings. Found the channels I should have. Went to EyeTV, used their “manually add digital channel…” feature to try and add those channels (using the drop-down menu). Didn’t work.
- Install Ubuntu and MythTV under Boot Camp. Hack in some 950q drivers, then use the MythTV channel scanner. Didn’t work.
- Install dvb-utils and scan. Found some channels! Now we’re getting somewhere, but all I’ve got is a list of freqs in a channels.conf file that EyeTV won’t touch.
- Consider ditching EyeTV and just using MythTV. Can’t get MythTV to work right in VirtualBox, and I’m not ready to give up OS X completely, so scratch that idea.
- Manually enter the freqs from channels.conf file into EyeTV. Success! But some are still missing… come to the “oh, duh” realization.
The Trick
Hopefully, EyeTV found at least one QAM channel on its scan. You’re just going to mathematize from that.
- Tune to an existent QAM channel, noting its “channel number” as indicated by EyeTV.
- Right-click on your channel listing in EyeTV, and select “Manually add digital channel…”
- Add (or subtract) 6,000.3 kHz to the frequency it shows to get the frequency for the next channel.
- Hit “Add”
- Rinse and repeat until you’ve tried every channel.
- You should have them all: if you force the tuner to jump in the right increments, it will take more attention when trying these channels and should find the missing ones.
- Hint: by checking the SiliconDust Website for your zip code, you can find the “Major” channels it’s supposed to be on, and multiply it out so you don’t have to try EVERY channel. For instance, if your channel 103 is on 667783 kHz, and you’re supposed to have a channel 115 multiplex, take 115-103 = 12 and multiply by 6,000.3 = 72,003.6. Add that to 667,783 and you enter that number (739786 kHz) to get your channel 115 stations.
Enjoy your new, complete QAM listings! Now, if you want, stream your EyeTV channels over your network with CyTV!
Hi there-
I just bought an EyeTV Hybrid and came accross the same problem.
I am being dense for sure, but I wasn’t sure what you meant by the following [Right-click on your channel listing in EyeTV, and select “Manually add digital channel…” ]
I could not figure out where to right click. Is there any way you can dumb that down a bit? I know what right clicking is and how to do it, but I don’t know which channel list you mean. I am running a Mac as well, so it may be a bit different.
Thanks in advance,
Bill
Bill,
No problem–Macs have “right-click” without a right mouse button. If you have a multitouch trackpad with tapping for click enabled, tapping with two fingers is equivalent to a right-click. You can also hold down the Ctrl key when you click with any mouse or trackpad for a “right-click”.
Like I said, I know how to right click, it was the where of it. I found it. I had to go to File | Built In Guide.
Thanks for the article, this would have made me crazy. Its strange – the HD channels come in crystal clear, but the analog channels are fuzzy. I will replace my cable and see if that does it. I invested in a better splitter, but that wasn’t it.
Thanks again!
oh, whoops totally missed that. glad the post helped out: i’ve had fuzzy channels that were caused by a faulty splitter, but sometimes it takes a call to your cable company to boost your cable signal a bit. half the time they don’t know what you’re talking about (“what do you mean, analog?”), but last time i asked comcast sent a tech out who fixed the problem. (for me, it was a splitter)
I replaced the cable and now have crystal clear analog channels and some of the HD channels. Still can’t get a couple of the hd channels that I want though – notably ESPN and my local Fox Sports affiliate. Some HD channels that it finds it shows as either unavailable or encrypted. I figure the encrypted ones are premium channels, but not sure about the ones that say “unavailable.”
Unfortunately, you probably won’t be able to get ESPN or your Fox Sports channel with an EyeTV tuner, since they’re encrypted–you’d need a Cable Card tuner to grab those channels, and then you’d have to pay for an HD package. The “Unavailable” channels are likely On-Demand channels, which show up in QAM when someone orders them: if someone on your local cable loop orders an on-demand program, you’d be able to pick it up on one of those stations, complete with all the pausing and rewinding they choose to do!
I’m in melbourne Australia and Am only picking up one channel (SBS) and it’s variations. And I’m getting it loud and clear. I’m using an elgato Diversity. Belo is a list of the melbourne channel frequencies. Could you explain how your fix relates to these?
Name Frequency Bandwidth Program Video Audio Action
7 HD Digital 177500 7 1332 833 835-AC3
ABC 226500 7 561 512 660-AC3
ABC HDTV 226500 7 560 2314 2315-AC3
ABC2 226500 7 562 2307 2308-MPG
Nine 191625 7 1072 519 721-AC3
Nine Digital HD 191625 7 1073 512 650-AC3
SBS 536625 7 785 161 81-MPG
SBS HD 536625 7 784 102 103-MPG
SBS NEWS 536625 7 786 162 83-MPG
Seven 177500 7 1328 769 770-MPG
TEN 219500 7 1589 512 651-AC3
TEN HD 219500 7 1592 514 672-AC3
Ben,
sorry, I have no idea how australian frequencies and formats work. you may be able to find the difference between two consecutive channels (eg 8 & 9) and multiply it out to find other “missing” channels.
Ok. I get your point. When I click I get mannual add channel.
However I get mannually add analog channel and I want digital. My 250 Plus just seems to pick up analog not digital tv. Any ideas?
Sony LCD TV picks up a couple/three dozen digital channels, including maybe 10HD with Comcast coax plugged directly to TV (no box at all).
Same coax pulled from TV and plugged to EyeTV Hybrid. After exhaustive scan, EyeTV can’t pick up most of the channels the Sony LCD can.
Would have tried your trick, but I don’t think the Freq being displayed in the EyeTV channels list is correct. They all display at even thousands (e.g. 111,000 117,000 255000 etc.
Does it “round off” the frequency it displays? For example, 98.248 98.3 98.804 all show 111,000kHz.
Using the channel list from the link you provide, those are good channel numbers and match what my sony picks up. When I try to manually add from the drop down list of channels and frequencies, it does not work.
How are you able to see the actual frequency, as opposed to the rounded off?
Any chance you can share some of the frequencies you have found for comcast?
For example,
Andy, thanks for the posts. I am not having any luck with your method. I am on Comcast in Atlanta (zip 30318). My Sony HDTV picks up 4 or 5 times the QAM broadcasts that my Elgato Hybrid picks up. Once in EyeTV, I only receive about 4 QAM network stations and NBC doesn’t pick up at all (it worked perfectly on my Sony when cable was connected directly to it).
I am wondering if I’m doing something incorrectly. I right click, click add Digital Channel, tune to a frequency, and when I have full bars click add. I get a One Moment Please box, then a Digital QAM 1/1 popup. My tuner, which has been in the blue no signal state then tunes back to an analog station. The frequency that I tried to add does not display in my channel list.
Any ideas? The silicondust sight for my area is http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lineup_web/US:30318%255C#lineup_617575. As you can see, I should have a ton of channels available to me. I can only view about 11.
@Casey
Odd. Can you send me TWO (exactish) frequencies of working multiplexes you get? (Tune to a working QAM station, then right-click to add a Digital Station and copy that freq)
The only things I can think of off the top of my head would be one of the following:
1) The connection to your EyeTV is bad. Try using the exact same cable from your TV. Do the analog channels show up fuzzy? You might be losing too much power–digital stations are either on or off–so if your power drops too low your TV’s tuner might be more sensitive and grab channels the EyeTV can’t get.
2) The channels that you used to see have been encrypted or moved by Comcast (however, I’m guessing that you have tested the Sony TV at the same time the EyeTV device failed, which would rule that out)
3) Your EyeTV is defective (? not likely if it gets 4 channels)
4) SiliconDust will sometimes show some OnDemand channels if whoever submitted the stations was on an branch with someone viewing an OnDemand movie at the time. Some of the SiliconDust stations not showing up could be due to that.
@RK
It shouldn’t be rounding as far as I know.
Tune to a QAM station that you do get. Then, right-click on that channel itself in the channel list and select Add Digital Channel–it should pop up with the current frequency in the box. Add/subtract from there.
If this still doesn’t work, let me know and I’ll post some freqs (not at that machine at the moment). I can’t remember if the sample freqs I posted were legit or just made up.
@Dave
Sounds like you might not have told it to do digital during your initial setup. Try running your channel setup again, and select digital and see what happens.
Like Casey, I am also in ATL on Comcast (30022) and I think we have the exact same problem. I literally unplug the coax from my Sony which at that moment I am able to watch the channels listed in Silicon Dust. On the Sony, I get about 40 total including digital versions of analog channels, HD channels, ESPN, etc).
I plug the same exact cable to the eyetv, and exhaustive auto discover (selecting digital).
I get 17 QAM channels, but unfortunately not several of the HD (do get some), missing NBC and some other networks, etc.
As an example, EyeTv lists 98.3, 98.248, and 98.804. They all 111MHz in the frequency column on the EYETv Programs Window. When I tune to and then right click I right click any of those three channels and select Manually Add Digital Channel, they all display 111000kHz. This is the same frequency shown for 98 in the drop down list to the right of kHz in the Add QAM Multiplex dialog box.
As an example on the Sony, I get 9 QAM channels ranging from 103.102 to 103.112 which agree with those listed in Silicon Dust. EyeTv does not get any of those 9 in that 103 range.
So, using your trick:
103-98=5
5*6000.3kHz = 30001.5kHz
111000kHz + 30001.5 = 141001.5kHz
When I punch that in, it shows a very strong signal. When I click Add, the AutoTune window pops up, “one moment please” for a sec, then displays Digital Cable (clear QAM) (1/1) and what looks like a full progress bar. The popup closes after ~10 secs and then I am back to looking at my list of channels, which does not include any new channels.
As an observation, 141000 kHz corresponds to 17 in the channel drop down menu in the Add box. According to Silicon, there are no channels in the 17 range.
Sorry for the long post! Any help is appreciated. The wife is getting very skeptical!!
RK — we are in exactly the same boat. Wife and have moved out of our house for the next 5 months for a renovation. We’re “roughing” it with no access to our DirecTV HD DVR’s and stuck with Comcast until we move back in. She too is not very happy. I have a Sony 42″ LCD TV and it picked up many QAM channels (all local network HD’s plus maybe 30 or 40 digitals like FoodTV, History, Discovery, etc.). My EyeTV rounds the frequencies just like yours does.
Andy, 111000khz is a QAM frequency I get for channel 98. All of my working QAM frequencies are rounded to the thousand increment in EyeTV. I am using the exact same cable run that was plugged into my Sony LCD, so that doesn’t seem like the issue. The signal is amplified using a powered Comcast signal booster. All the channels still work fine on the TV so I know Comcast hasn’t (yet) encrypted them. Again, all is fine on the TV, but only get a few QAM channels on the Elgato. Let me know if I can provide any other info to help troubleshoot. I’m happy to send screen shots if you think that will help. Thanks again.
Fascinating.
As you may have noticed, with QAM the channel numberings don’t necessarily have to correspond directly to channel numbers–the cable company can basically choose which frequency gets which channel, and then send it along the feed somehow so your tv knows where to look.
What surprises me most is that you’re showing a very strong signal and then it’s not picking anything up–but looking at my QAM channels, those frequencies seem VERY low.
Here’s the frequencies my multiplexes are on: if they don’t work for you, and just trying random multiples of 6000.3 doesn’t work, I’m out of ideas.
247750
667783
679784
727790
733786
751800
853792
Good luck!
Thanks very much for your replies. I will give those freq’s a try.
Do you happen to know of any other software which I might use with the EyeTV hybrid which might help me scan and ID frequencies?
The frustrating thing is that I know the channels exist, as they are picked up no problem on my Sony. I am wondering of the channel and frequency flags sent over the wire by Comcast are confusing the EyeTV software.
I actually went to the Apple store and bought another hybrid to see if it gave any different results – nope.
Stop the press!
The auto scan using the new EyeTv I swapped out just completed. It picked up ~50 QAM channels. I looks like all the ones listed on Silicon Dust.
Woo Hoo!
Casey-
Not sure if you are still in your return period, but I would try a new stick. The first one I tried came from the Apple store at Northpoint and the 2nd came from Buy.com (much cheaper). Going to return the one to the Apple store tonight.
Thanks for the comments. Will try a new stick and see if that works. RK — do you get HD NBC? For me that’s the litmus test to see if this really is a deeper issue other than just a defective product.
I sure do – looks great. Amazing to think of the number of hours I wasted on the bad stick.
Good luck.
dang, i wonder if mine isn’t defective in the tuning department as well. oh well, at least i did eventually get it to work ok.