[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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