[mythtv-users] Issues recording

[Roger Heflin]

Harry Devine wrote:
> Roger Heflin wrote:
>> Harry Devine wrote:
>>> Everyone,
>>>
>>> I've asked bits and pieces of this question in prior posts with 
>>> little to no response, so this is my "every so often try again" 
>>> post.  I have a Myth box running FC6 and SVN from 11/19/07 via 
>>> ATRPMs.  I have a pcHD5500 card in it, along with Firewire connected 
>>> to my Motorola DCT-3412 STB.  I have Comcast in Southern New Jersey 
>>> (just outside of Atlantic City).
>>>
>>> Now, when I scan for channels, I get 50 OTA channels (local ABC in 
>>> standard broadcast as well HD, etc.).  I have approximately 300 
>>> channels that show up as UNKNOWN#???? (i.e UNKNOWN117#3).  I 
>>> understand completely about how the streams are being sent, but I can 
>>> never tune them at all.  I can only tune the OTA channels.
>>>
>>> What perplexes me on this is that if I take the main cable in my 
>>> house and plug it into my cable-ready TV, I can tune channels 2-99 
>>> just fine.  I would expect the same thing to happen on my pcHD5500 
>>> card, at least on the analog portion.  So I began to think that I 
>>> must have some sort of configuration/setup issue.
>>>
>>> So I went through mythtv-setup again tonight and jotted down what I 
>>> thought would be the relevant settings, hoping one of you gurus would 
>>> spot something (obvious to you) that I may have overlooked.  I went 
>>> with Myth so I could record programs, and currently cannot.  I can 
>>> listen to music, watch videos, see pictures, listen to Sirius 
>>> Satellite Radio, but the main function I wanted was to record 
>>> programs and this part is severely lacking.
>>>
>>> Option 1, under General, screen 2:
>>>     TV Format:   NTSC
>>>     VBI Format:   None
>>>     Channel Frequency Table: us-cable
>>>
>>> Option 2: Capture Cards
>>>     Card shows up as DVB DTV capture card (v3.x)
>>>     Frontend ID: DViCO v2 or Air2PC v3 or pcHD5500 Subtype: ATSC
>>>     Analog options:           Video Device: /dev/video0
>>>           Probed Info:   pcHD5500 HDTV [cx8800]
>>>           VBI Device:   /dev/vbi
>>>           Audio Device:   /dev/dsp
>>>           Audio sampling rate limit:   48000
>>>           Default Input:   Television
>>>
>>> Option 3: Video Sources
>>>        I have 1 SchedulesDirect lineup defined which has all channels 
>>> given by Comcast, based on my zip code.  I called this Video source 
>>> 'CableDigital'
>>>        Frequency Table:   us-cable
>>>
>>> Option 4: Input Connections
>>>        [DVB:0] -> CableDigital
>>>        [V4L: /dev/video0] -> CableDigital
>>>        [Firewire] -> CableDigital
>>>
>>> Sorry for the long post, but I'm really stumped as to why, as I feel, 
>>> something so basic, that it seems like everyone on this list has 
>>> working, doesn't work for me.  Do I just live in a bad area?  Does 
>>> Comcast just screw me over so I HAVE to use their DVR (which I have, 
>>> BTW, but they keep raising the price on me)?  Most of the programs 
>>> that I want to record are on what I call "basic" cable (channels 
>>> 2->99).  I don't even care about recording things in HD at the 
>>> moment.  Someday, sure, but not currently.
>>>
>>> Thank you very much for any help.  Let me know if I can provide any 
>>> further information.
>>> Harry
>>
>> Harry,
>>
>> Can the channels in the lineup CableDigital be found on DVB:0, V4L and
>> the firewire?    /dev/video0 should be the analog channels, DVB:0 should
>> be the digital ATSC channels and I don't know what the firewire is in
>> your setup.
>>
>> I have different lineup's (and channel lists) for my digital channels and
>> my analog channels, I believe (I could be wrong) that if you use the same
>> lineup for both it thinks that it can find all of the channels on a given
>> input that it cannot actually find all of the channels on, and things 
>> won't
>> work correctly.   bcast is the broadcast analog lineup, and bcast-hdtv is
>> my broadcast digital lineup.
>>
>> Mine looks like this:
>> tuner1 (/dev/video0) -> bcast   (PVR150)
>> tuner2 (/dev/video2) -> bcast    (PVR150)
>> DVB:0 -> bcast-hdtv (HD5500)
>>
>> Given that I have to older analog cards I did not bother defining the
>> analog part of the HD5500 to be bcast, but I would expect you to have
>> to separate the channels.
>>
>> Also, life with DVB gets easier with later kernels, what kernel do you
>> have on the FC6 box?   My mythbackend is running FC7 right now with a
>> 2.6.23 variant, starting at maybe .21/.22 all of the proper drivers
>> are built in correctly.
>>
>>                             Roger
>>
>>
>>                               Roger
>>
> Thanks for the reply.  I guess I'll answer the last question first:  
> uname -a shows 2.6.20-1.2944.fc6 for my kernel.  If upgrading to a newer 
> distro would help, like F8, then I'd do that.  As for the lineups, are 
> you recommending something like this?:
> 
>       CableBroadcast = my "analog" channels (2-99)
>       CableDigital = my "OTA" channels (HDTV channels, etc.)
> 
> I always wondered if having only 1 lineup was going to cause problems.  
> Sounds like that might be the case.  Could the fact that I have my TV 
> format set to NTSC and the subtype on the analog portion of the pcHD500 
> card set to ATSC be causing some of this too?
> 
> Thanks,
> Harry
> 
> 

I though it was supposed to be able to work that way ie with NTSC on analog,
and ATSC on DVB.   Just you aren't going to be able to record on both at the
same time.

I would suggest trying to setup two different listing so that the correct
channels are in the correct place, I seem to remember before I did mine that
way it would attempt to tune analog's on the digital card, and digital channels
on the analog card and did not work very well.

I know a number of people use 2 lineups for exactly this reason.

                                 Roger