Comments on: Getting all your QAM channels on Comcast with EyeTV Hybrid

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:45:18 +0000

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.

By: RK

RK — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:41:52 +0000

I sure do – looks great. Amazing to think of the number of hours I wasted on the bad stick.

Good luck.

By: Casey

Casey — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:49:06 +0000

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.

By: RK

RK — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:11:37 +0000

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.

By: RK

RK — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:50:24 +0000

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.

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:05:28 +0000

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!

By: Casey

Casey — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:15:19 +0000

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.

By: RK

RK — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:56:05 +0000

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!!

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:35:44 +0000

@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.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:33:51 +0000

@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.