[mythtv-users] firewire

[Ian Forde]

Replying to my own post...

On Wed, 2004-11-24 at 17:06 -0800, Ian Forde wrote:
> Anyhoo, now I've got HD programming coming through on TV.  Here are what
> the steps should be:
> 
> 1. Make sure you've got HDTV coming through the cable box.

Done.

> 2. Attempt the technique at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-
> vb/showthread.php?postid=3303967#post3303967 to capture a HDTV stream.

Done.  I had to rip out the libavc1394 rpm forcefully and rebuild it
from CVS.  Don't forget to do a 'ldconfig' when you're done.  Then I
downloaded the modified ddr1394 and changed the detection string to that
of the output from romtest.  (See the post linked to above for details.)

After that, I was able to do a 'ddr1394 --directory=/tmp/hdtest' and a
'dvcont record' (you may need to do a 'dvcont dev #' before the 'record'
bit, with # meaning the firewire port number reported from 'romtest'.)

I wasn't able to capture Showtime HD, but on a lark, I figured I'd
change to channel 2 and test it.

Lo and behold, I got 2 minutes of 'Friends', which I watched with
mplayer.  (I knew it was SD because mplayer reported the resolution at
720x480 and my P3-750 laptop was able to play it!)

I would have loved it if I didn't hate that show so much. ;)

So capturing SD over Firewire works.

> 3. If successful, see if those features are in the mainline libavc1394
> and ddr1394 code.  If they're not in the standard code, work towards
> getting them in.

That's yet another problem.  Once I can get HD captured, the code will
need to modified to auto-detect cable boxes and submitted.  I'm not a
coder anymore, but I can probably kludge a very improper hack. ;)

> Then Linux will "officially" (or as officially as what counts for it
> these days) support video over firewire.
> 
> Then, and only then, when the code is mainline, will you see more people
> trying it out for captures, and eventually, someone will feel the need
> to scratch the itch to get it working within Myth.
> 
> </opinion>
> 
> I'm at step 2 now.  And I'm having some problems.  Then again, I've only
> spent 20 minutes on it so far and I'm getting hungry. ;)  I'll probably
> try again over the weekend...

And I still haven't eaten.  HD can wait for now... ;)

	-I