[mythtv-users] Re: MythTV + ARS + AntennaWeb = MythRotor?

[potuncle at enjoyingeugene.com]

I found the conversation below very interesting because I have had the
idea in my head for a while to put a rotor on my directional antenna and
somehow make MythTV control the rotor to point the antenna in the optimal
direction for whatever station we are recording or watching.

With my MythTV box I already have plenty of stuff to watch, so I have no
need for cable or sattelite at this time. I can get about 12 local
channels with nice crisp images if I can rotate my antenna. Otherwise, I
can leave it pointed in one direction and still get most of those 12, but
many of those don't look very good.

So, yes I'd be very interesting in doing what I can to get MythTV to
control a rotor.

Jason

On Thu, 9 Sep 2004 22:28:04 -0400, Nathan Schiffer
<edgeofepsilon at gmail.com> wrote:
> It occured to me that this could be the makings of a great MythTV
> addon. I looked for rotor controllers online, and found one called
> ARS (Antenna Rotator System, http://www.ea4tx.com/products/ars.htm ).
> They're currently working on making drivers for Linux, but it's still
> in beta (they're seeking testers).
>
> So the question is - is anyone interested in making an addon that
> would query AntennaWeb (it would only have to be once, the user could
> even do it), then stores the locations and rotates the antenna when
> the channel is changed? The frontend wouldn't be much, a manual rotor
> screen would be nice, and some sort of indicator on the HUD to say
> that it is tracking to a station. And if the extension would
> automatically adjust the position based on the signal strength, that
> would just be the cat's meow. You have to admit, it would certainly
> be something unique that only MythTV would have.

There's one minor hiccup in this. With an antenna, or basic cable
setup you can split the incoming feed across multiple cards and record
more than one thing at a time. If Myth were to rotate an antenna, you
could potentialy lose channels. Either folks would need to limit
their antenna to one card, risk recording static, or a LOT of work
would have to go into the scheduler of Myth so that it could take
antenna orientation into account.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that it's a lot more complex than
it seems on the surface.




edgeofepsilon at gmail

Sep 10, 2004, 4:12 PM

Post #3 of 3 (29 views)
Re: MythTV + ARS + AntennaWeb = MythRotor? Remove Highlighting [In reply to]
Great idea - you could call the extension "MythDirection."



On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:02:27 -0400, Donavan Stanley
<geckofiend at gmail.com> wrote:
> There's one minor hiccup in this. With an antenna, or basic cable
> setup you can split the incoming feed across multiple cards and record
> more than one thing at a time.

Basic cable obviously has no problems, and if you have an antenna
plugged in you should be used to signal noise.

> If Myth were to rotate an antenna, you
> could potentialy lose channels. Either folks would need to limit
> their antenna to one card, risk recording static, or a LOT of work
> would have to go into the scheduler of Myth so that it could take
> antenna orientation into account.

It knows which channel it's going to record, point the antenna there.
If there's a conflict, have a default direction. Say, what direction
the antenna was pointing to begin with. You can't get worst results
than you did before.

> I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that it's a lot more complex than
> it seems on the surface.

That's exactly the purpose of this post - to determine feasibility. I
hope someone picks up this idea. I've noticed there hasn't been many
new extensions lately.