[mythtv-users] Tuner card label - patch in progress but assistance requested

[match at ece.utah.edu]

On 1 Nov 2005 at 18:58, Joel W. Goldwein, MD wrote:

> I am working on a patch that will allow a user to "label" each tuner card
> such that in the backed status box the card number can be accompanied by a
> user-defined label.  I have the database conversion and backend status
> presentation part down, but need some help with the label entry part
> (performed in MythTV-Setup) and perhaps an OSD component (i.e. - instead of
> "1: Tuner" would say "1 [PVR-500-A]: Tuner").

I'm not sure it matters after MythTV is set up. Once it's running, who cares which tuner 
card records which show? Or, if you do care, you arrange it by setting up priorities. But 
setup is another matter. In my main box I have a PVR-250, a PVR-250 MCE, and an 
HD3000. 

So, during setup there are tuners 1, 2 and 3, but which is which? You need to know, 
and it's not obvious, and at the beginning it depends upon the order that MythTV finds 
them, and that is determined by which card slots get which tuners installed. I installed 
mine in the order that caused easy access to the antenna connections.

Then there's IVTV. It labeled my 2 Hauppauge cards 1 and 2, but it turned out that 
MythTV wanted to call them 2 and 3, with the HD3000 being 1. Very confusing. The 
only way I ws able to sort this out (I thought) was to make a test recording on each card 
before the HD3000 was set up. I got viewable picture on 2 and 3, but digital pixilation 
only on 1. So, the order was HD3000 as 1, and the two Hauppauge cards as 2 and 3, 
right? Still can't tell from this which is the PVR-250 and which is the PVR-250 MCE, but 
that didn't matter for my box because the both work equally well.

Not so fast, bucko! This was still not correct. Setting up the backend, the two 
Hauppauge cards had magically become 1 and 2 again, and the HD3000 is 32! 

32! Where did that come from? I had to go back and change the entries for the cards, 
and all my efforts to figure out which was which was a waste of time, and my careful 
notes were worthless, because in the end I just deduced that 32 was the HD3000 (since 
I had never seen that number before) and guessed. (the avialable choices presented to 
me helped)

And no documentation I was able to find gave any direction.

I thought about chaning the order of the cards to cause them be numbered more 
consistantly during the install, but I could only do it after the install was complete and 
running, and once it was complete and running, why do it over? 
> 
> The question is - are there others interested in this feature/enhancement,
> and is there someone interested in helping me with the "patch"?

I'm interested, but don't have the time to help right now, beyond maybe being a test 
subject the next time I upgrade.
 
Marvin