[mythtv-users] Difficulty getting HDHomeRun setup
William Munson
william_munson at bellsouth.net
Sat Jun 2 13:07:11 UTC 2007
Bob Diss wrote:
> Hi. A recent post suggests that channel scanning for
> the HDHomeRun should be just fine in 0.20.1.
> Unfortunately (for me), I seem to have an environment
> where that is not so.
>
> I am running the MythTV suite from the ATrpms. My
> installed release is tagged 0.20.1-157.fc5, which
> corresponds to svn revision 13460. I have been
> attempting to setup my newly-acquired HDHR according
> to the instructions as listed in the MythTV wiki.
>
> When I perform the step to scan for channels (with teh
> parameters Full Scan / Cable (or any) / QAM-256 and
> -64) / Period / Delete), the process flashes a status
> dialog quickly by, then ends with a "Scanning" result
> window with nothing in it. The only log message I see
> from mythtv-setup is the following:
>
The only thing I see is that you set it to delete which will delete any
existing scans. Try minimal updates and turn on the quick tune feature.
Unfortunately it appears that channel scanning for QAM channels is
still broken. Its still broken in SVN as of last night too. There is
some work being done on a replacement scan tool however nothing has been
checked into the SVN branch created for that effort so I cannot report
any progress. Right now setting up channels is a labor intensive manual
process that starts with a channel scan to pull in the basic info on
which transports are used and to populate the channels table with
(mostly useless) info.
Since there have been many requests for me to post my procedure for
fixing the data I will detail what I ended up doing. You may want to use
different tools to arrive at the same results.
I tend to use windows tools as I have windows boxes on the network and
my linux boxes are dedicated usage. I set up myphpadmin on my myth box
to allow me to directly edit the mythconverg database. This allows me to
edit the tables from a nice web interface.
Start by using the windows/mac scan tool and go thru all the channels
reported by the tool and write down the qam channel and transport
frequency and subtransport number for each channel you want myth to be
able to tune. Write down the callsign of each one that includes that
info and any you can figure out from watching the channel with vlc. Dont
bother with music channels as myth will not tune them.
Next go to www.zap2it.com and bring up the channel listing for your
area. When you hover the mouse over the channel name or logo (left most
column) the bottom of the browser window will have a longish string that
identifies the channel in their database. Look for stnNum= and write
down the number that follows, this is the xmltvid for the channel. Also
note the exact channel name. The scan tool will report the channel as
something like WJXX-DT and zap2it will use something like WJXXDT. You
will need that info too.
Now comes the "fun" part. Edit your channel table as follows:
chanid - Unique number for each channel in database - normally set by
myth but can be changed if you add a new channel to database
channum - The on-screen channel number used to tune the channel. Can be
whatever you want as long as its unique.
freqid - This is the QAM channel number reported by the scan tool.
sourceid - The source number associated with the HDHR.
callsign - The channel callsign in the zap2it format. Very important!!
name - Can be whatever you want but normally should be the same as callsign.
icon - Leave blank, will be filled in by master-icon.pl.
finetune - Leave at current setting.
videofilters - Leave at current setting.
xmltvid - xmltvid from zap2it
recpriority - Leave at current setting.
contrast - Leave at current setting.
brightness - Leave at current setting.
colour - Leave at current setting.
hue - Leave at current setting
tvformat - Set to ATSC.
commfree - Leave at current setting
visible - Make sure its set to 1.
outputfilters - Leave at current setting.
useonairguide - Make sure its set to 0.
mplexid - This is the multiplex number from the dtv_multiplex table that
matches the channel frequency reported by the scan tool.
serviceid - This is the subchannel reported by the scan tool.
atscsrcid - Should be NULL.
tmoffset - Leave at current setting.
atsc_major_chan - Set to 0. This is not used in quick tune mode.
atsc_minor_chan - Set to 0. This is not used in quick tune mode.
last_record - Leave at current setting.
default_authority - Leave at current setting.
commmethod - Leave at current setting.
Generally myth finds lots of "garbage" channels so delete any that you
no longer need.
Once you have everything set you can run mythfilldatabase to populate
the program info. Be sure to use a different lineup at zap2it from your
other inputs as any channel not used in the channels table will be
deleted from your lineup. This will cause missing channels in a shared
lineup. In my case I use a basic cable and digital cable lineup under
the same login but you can also set up two logins under different user
names and myth will be happy. You can check your channels before you
fill the database if you want but it helps to have a show description to
verify you have the correct xmltvid set for the channel.
Once done you may find that some channels do not tune. I have found this
is usually caused by a incorrect mplexid. Try setting it one higher or
lower and try the channel again.
There you have my manual-matic way of setting up the database. Good
luck, feel free to ask questions if you get stuck.
Bill
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