[mythtv-users] Slightly OT: XM or Sirius Recording

Ross Martin mythtv at ross.interwrx.com
Fri Dec 2 01:11:31 EST 2005


Robert Denier wrote:

>Has anyone seen an elegant solution to work with Satellite Radio?  In
>the ideal case, myth basically does everything needed, except obviously
>you don't need to record video and you have to get the programming from
>some where.
>
>  
>
There is an elegant piece of hardware out there for this.

The hardware is an adapter board that modifies a Sirius car radio for
control over a serial port.  Not only can you tell the radio what channel
to go to, but you can also get information from the radio about what's
currently playing, and even have the radio inform you proactively as the
show changes on every radio channel (not just the channel you're
currently listening to).  This might be nice for automatically adding the
show name to mp3's, if you just want to record whatever's on, or for
having the radio switch to shows you like as they come on.

In addition, the hardware supplies an optical digital out, which may lead
to higher audio quality.  I'd like to try this, but unfortunately I'm 
having
trouble getting a cost-effective toslink optical digital input working with
linux....

I've been working on a linux driver, and nearly have it to a releasable 
state. 
The guy who makes the adapter board, MitchJS, is nice but a dos-weanie,
so he can give protocol help but no linux driver. 

I haven't yet settled on a front end to schedule recordings.  I tried 
mythtv
about a year ago (or was it two?), and had a so-so experience with its
reliability.  Things have progressed, so I'm thinking about maybe trying
mythtv again as the front end to this radio so I can set up some 
recordings. 
Alternately, I may just record from a cron job (nearly 100% reliable!) and
just use mythtv to play them (or download to an IPod).

You can find more information on the hardware from this web site: 

http://www.rush2112.net/

>For one channel, which is likely what I'd get it for, mostly, I figure
>you would want a command like
>
>arecord <showname> <duration in seconds>
>
>with the result being
>
>showname-date.mp3 
>
>at your desired bit rate.
>
>Hopefully this combined with a series of cron jobs and you would be
>done...
>
>  
>
If all you really want is one channel, you don't really need to control 
the radio
at all.  Just tune it to the channel you want, plug its audio output 
into the
computer, and record when you feel like it.

I've got to wonder what single channel you're trying to record, that is 
on both
Sirius and XM, and so important to you that you'd buy a radio, pay $13 a 
month
for it, and go to some trouble to set up recording on a mythtv box...

>At any rate, I just thought I'd see if this kind of problem has already
>been solved by someone.
>
>One of the reasons I want to get XM is, while an internet audio stream
>is possible, it is low quality, and I forget to turn the stream off a
>lot.  Basically it eats away at the amount I'm allowed to download with
>satellite internet, so I figure $14.00 a month or whatever is worth it,
>hopefully.  (I also hope to use it in my car.)
>
>-Robert
>
>  
>
Modifying the car radio for use with a computer makes it no longer work as
a car radio.  However, if you have a car computer (the hobby of 
MitchJS), you
could plug it into that and use it in your car.  There are some non-mythtv,
non-linux interfaces for car computers that look reasonably nice, and also
allow you to plug in your IPod, GPS, etc.

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