[mythtv-users] Sweet! PC HD3000 QAM_256 working, now about importing those channels?

Fri Sep 16 23:36:31 UTC 2005

--- Dennis Lou <dlou99 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Brian McEntire <brian.mcentire at gmail.com>
> >I'd heard rumors that PC HD3000 cards could 
> >receive clear QAM. I can 
> >confirm. Mine is working well. I had to grab the 
> >latest dvb-apps 
> 
> Cool.
> 
> >It found many more but most are probably
> >the encrypted QAM variety. After testing 
> >them by tuning with azap and then cat'ing and 
> >mplaying the (below), 
> 
> There's an easier way.  If your mplayer is
> compiled with dvb, you can put channels.conf
> in your ~/.mplayer directory and do:
> mplayer dvb://<channelname>
> 
> >I found the four I expected to be clear QAM
> >and threw out the rest.
> >NBC:561000000:QAM_256:16:17:1
> >ABC:561000000:QAM_256:144:145:3
> >CBS:567000000:QAM_256:16:17:1
> >FOX:567000000:QAM_256:144:145:3
> 
> Those look like broadcast channels. Your cable
> operator should transmit the PSIP data for them
> so that you shouldn't have to rename them to 
> something more user friendly.  If there's no
> PSIP data, then something is wrong.
> 
> >Now the question... Has anyone figured out how 
> >to import these channels into 
> >MythTV? I'm running 0.18.1. Inside of mythtv-setup,
> 
> >the only channel scan 
> >setup options seem to be ATSC or Cable. I tried 
> >cable but it doesn't find 
> >these channels even though the newer versions 
> >of dvb-apps find channels 
> >while scanning. (Not too suprising.)
> 
> If there's PSIP data, you shouldn't have to.
> mythtvsetup should pick them up automagically.
> 
> >I see there is a manual way to add channels, and 
> >since I only have 4, that 
> >would be fine, but is there a way to find out 
> >the zap2it XMLTV ID? 
> 
> Go to labs.zap2it.com, add those channels to
> your lineup and do a mythfilldatabase.  It
> should show up in your channel table where you
> can go poke for it.  In the past, I bypassed
> xmltvid and went to mythweb->settings->channels 
> and set the freqid to zap2it's cable channel number
> but I don't know if it still works the latest svn
> code.
> 
> Also, you never know what you'll find unencrypted.
> Attached is a script I wrote that does the scan for
> me.
> On my system, it takes about 12 mins to scan the
> frequencies and another 20 or so to capture
> streams and test all the pids.
> 
> -Dennis
> 
> 
> 		
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If your provider is not kind enough to send the PSIP
info you will have to add the channels manually to the
database.

I'll try to explain how using you channels.conf as an
example.  The database tables that need to be modified
are channel and dtv_multiplex.  dtv_multiplex should
be populated by the channel scan and the channel table
you will need to modify yourself.  Below is an example
of how you would setup your NBC (assuming
ch#707)channel in Myth.

1.) go to zap2it and build your listing for your local
HD broadcast channels.
2.) assign that listing to your dvb 3k in mythtvsetup
3.) go into the channel editor (still in mythtvsetup)
select your new listing and do a scan (select type
"cable")

The scan will take some time.  Mostly likely you won't
really get anything useful, but what this will do it
populate the dtv_multiplex table in your db.  You will
need this later on.

4.) exit mythtvsetup and run mythfilldatabase.  This
will now provide you with your xmltvids to callsign
mappings.

At this point you still will not be able to tune
anything yet so don't try.

5.) ***Important***  stop mythbackend.
6.) edit your channels.conf and remove your PSIP
values.  You don't need them for Myth. So your file
will look like this.

NBC:561000000:QAM_256:0:0
ABC:561000000:QAM_256:0:0
CBS:567000000:QAM_256:0:0
FOX:567000000:QAM_256:0:0

7.) go ahead and fire up azap and tune a channel.
	$ azap -r NBC
8.) in a second terminial run dvbscan -c
	$ dvbscan -c

What you need is the serviceid.  This is the number in
the [000#] at the far left.  Your provider will most
likely be using the same frequency for multiple
channels.  So you may have more then one service per
freq.  In this example your serviceid for NBC would be
2.

Example:
dumping lists (1 services)
[0002]                   (0x0002) 00: PCR == V   V
0x0010 A 0x0011 (eng)

Now stop your dvbscan and azap tune.

9.) log into your database.
	$mysql -u root -p mythconverg

To tune the 3k you will need to find the mplexid for
you known frequency.

10.) finding the mplexid
	mysql> select mplexid from dtv_multiplex where
frequency = '561000000';
+---------+
| mplexid |
+---------+
|      25 |
+---------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)

Write down the mplexid value.  For example sake we
will say it was 25.

11.) Now you are ready to setup the channel.  You have
the freqency (561000000),mplexid(25),and the
serviceid(2).  Assuming that you now have a channel
707 from the previous mythfilldatabase above.

	mysql> update channel set freqid="561000000" where
channum=707;
	mysql> update channel set mplexid="25" where
channum=707;
	mysql> update channel set serviceid="2" where
channum=707;

You may want to do a quick check to make sure all
looks good.

	mysql> select * from channel where channum=707;
	mysql> quit

12.) Start mythbackend

13.) Start up the frontend and test.

-- A couple of things I ran across later with the 3k. 
By default the 3k will be set to record in PS mode.  I
had wierd fastforward and rewind problems.  In
mythtvsetup under capture cards-->dvb-->Advanced
settings I selected the "Use TS instead of PS" option
and the ffw and rew problems went away.

Also stopping the backend is only really needed to do
the azap tune.  So while your there you may just want
to run the scan for serviceids for your 4 channels so
you only have to do it once.

I hope this helps.  I just went through this about a
week ago and it was not easy to find all of the info. 
Alot for trial and error.  Let me know how it works
out for you...

-jason

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