[mythtv-users] Recording noise instead of scheduled show?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 06/02/2006 11:12 PM, John wrote:
> I have a PVR-150 connected to my DirectTV STB.  I have set the  
> channel change script to
> /bin/true and can see in the log that this is OK.  I have the preset  
> channel set to 3 but
> my tuner never gets "set" and I end up recording noise instead of the  
> signal.
>
> I have the real DirectTV channel change script for the STB but I'm  
> just taking one step
> at a time.
>
> Here is the relevant area of my log:
>
> 2006-06-02 23:00:03.150 TVRec(1): Changing from None to RecordingOnly
> 2006-06-02 23:00:04.253 ret_pid(5850) child(5850) status(0x0)
> 2006-06-02 23:00:04.258 External Tuning program exited with no error
> 2006-06-02 23:00:04.309 Started recording: Stargate SG-1 "The Powers  
> That Be": channel 1244 o
> n cardid 1, sourceid 1
> 2006-06-02 23:00:04.471 Can't enable VBI recording (2)
> vbi: Invalid argument
> 2006-06-02 23:00:05.428 Reschedule requested for id 0.
>
> What is the VBI thing?

Vertical Blanking Interval (basically, where data is carried in the 
video signal--data such as closed captions, teletext, wide screen 
signalling, etc.)  It's completely unrelated.

There have been reports that the

Preset tuner to channel
Leave this blank unless you have an external tuner that is connected to 
the tuner input of your card. If so, you will need to specify the preset 
channel for the signal (normally 3 or 4).

setting doesn't work anymore, but I haven't had the time (and, in truth, 
not much motivation) to go in and find out why since I don't use it.  
See http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/188083#188083 , 
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/dev/191506#191506 , 
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/193785#193785

If that is the case, your options include:
    a) Switch the STB to output S-Video or Composite.  This is the 
preferred option because both have noticeably better quality than 
RF-modulated output.
    b) Use a script to set the appropriate starting channel upon bootup 
using a command-line tool like ivtv-tune.

Mike