[mythtv-users] Solutions to tuning issues

[Michael T. Dean]

On 02/24/2006 11:03 PM, Kichigai Mentat wrote:
> I'm having trouble tuning some channels. I've been trying to fine-tune 
> a lot of them, but with at least 70 channels, it's quite a tedious and 
> annoying task. I'm looking into possible solutions. At the moment, I'm 
> using analog cable connected to a PVR-150.

Sounds like your cable company is using HRC and you're not.  In Myth you 
can specify the frequency table to use for tuning.  Try us-ntsc-hrc (or, 
if not in the US/not using NTSC, choose an appropriate frequency table).

> At the moment, the most logical option is to get a digital cable box 
> (we have a digital cable service for the other two TVs in the house), 
> and just connect it to the PVR-150 through S-Video, and using either 
> the IR-Blaster in the PVR-150, a serial IR-blaster, or a direct serial 
> connection, to work the digital cable box.

That's one (rather brute force) approach...

> But I rather dislike working with LIRC. It's always rubbed me the 
> wrong way. and I've always considered the possibility of getting a 
> High-Def cable box, and using the FireWire port on it to record the 
> data. But I'm using an XBox as a Front-End, and we only have Standard 
> Definition televisions. The back-end is a low powered Celeron 650 MHz 
> with 256 MB of RAM. Is there a way to have a high-def cable box scale 
> down to something like 480p, that the XBox could be able to play this 
> back?

You could auto-transcode after recording.  Then, 4-16 hours after 
recording a 1-hour TV show (depending on hardware), you could watch it.  
(In other words, you don't want to do this.)

> Or am I just better off messing with LIRC and learning the lingo?

Yep.  Learning is always good.

> However, I'd be willing to settle for letting MythTV just simply do 
> automatic fine-tuning adjustments, like a cable-ready TV sets do. I've 
> heard this system is available, but I've been as yet unable to find 
> it. I'm running KnoppMyth R5A30.

I don't think there's any way to do this.  You're probably confusing 
analog fine-tuning with digital TV channel scanning or something...

Mike