[mythtv-users] HD-PVR Channel Changing Inquiry

[Larry K]

On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 10:10 PM, Jarod Wilson <jarod at wilsonet.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 9:53 AM, Larry K <lunchtimelarry at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 4:24 PM, Jarod Wilson <jarod at wilsonet.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 3:25 PM, Larry K <lunchtimelarry at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> > On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 11:22 AM, Kenneth Emerson
> >> > <kenneth.emerson at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 7:50 AM, Larry K <lunchtimelarry at gmail.com>
> >> >> wrote:
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Since Comcast hosed pretty much all my unencrypted QAM (except the
> >> >>> networks, of course), I just picked up an HD-PVR, another STB, and
> >> >>> have been
> >> >>> reading through all the materials I can find.
> >> >>> On this wiki -> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Hauppauge_HD-PVR
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Larry:
> >> >>
> >> >> A lot depends on what STB Comcast gave you.
> >> >
> >> > I have the Motorola DCX3200 HD box.  It comes with an IR remote.
> >> >
> >> >>
> >> >> People on this list seem to have had good luck using firewire to
> change
> >> >> channels on STB's (as do I).  If your STB has a firewire port AND it
> is
> >> >> enabled I'd suggest you look at 6200ch which AFAIK is included in the
> >> >> mythtv
> >> >> packages
> >> >> (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MythTV_External_Channel_Changer)
> >> >> or try mythchanger (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/majoridiot).  Personally
> I
> >> >> use
> >> >> mythchanger because it produced better debug for me to understand
> what
> >> >> was
> >> >> going on when I was attempting to record over the firewire. I since
> >> >> gave up
> >> >> that goal and purchased an HDPVR, as you did.
> >> >
> >> > I guess my question is, given my STB, should I pursue channel changing
> >> > with
> >> > the HD-PVR builtin IR blaster, since my STB can respond to IR
> commands,
> >> > or
> >> > should I go with a channel changing script, which I assume requires a
> >> > firewire connection?
> >>
> >> No. Channel change scripts are just scripts you point mythtv-setup at.
> >> Its pretty much completely arbitrary what you put inside them. But
> >> generally speaking, you're going to put calls to another program in
> >> there, such as irsend, to do IR blasting, calls to 6200ch or
> >> mythchanger or whatever to send AVC commands over firewire, etc.
> >>
> >> > It's not clear to me if the myth - HD-PVR USB
> >> > connection is just to receive content, or if that is bi-directional
> and
> >> > can
> >> > support commands to the HD-PVR as well.  For instance, the HDHR I have
> >> > uses
> >> > the Ethernet connection bidirectionally, both to receive channel
> change
> >> > commands, and to dump content back on the wire for myth to pick up.
> >>
> >> Well, the usb connection to the hd-pvr is what's used to send
> >> instructions to the zilog z8 chip on the hd-pvr, which in turn acts
> >> upon those instructions to send the appropriate raw IR signals out the
> >> blaster port. But you need lirc_zilog binding to the thing first.
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >
> > This is all making sense.  At first, I didn't make the connection that
> even
> > for IR blasting, I need a channel change script. I had made a mental
> > association of a channel change script with a wired connection like
> firewire
> > or serial.   I think what may have helped throw me off track was the wiki
> > statement that goes something like "if you don't care about channel
> changes,
> > then set it to /bin/true".   Seems like that would never be the case for
> me
> > or anyone else, unless there is a scenario I have not considered.
> > As for firewire, that sounds like a solid, reliable way to change
> channels,
> > but my Asus M3N78-VM MoBo doesn't have native firewire support, and I'm
> not
> > wild about adding a firewire card right now.
> > I've been using LIRC for years with my old PVR-250 to receive my remote
> > control commands. It runs on /dev/lirc0.  For IR blasting, I'll need to
> add
> > another lirc daemon, I presume.  Still trying to figure out how to spawn
> two
> > lirc sockets, and know which one uses the lirc_i2c driver for IR
> receiving
> > with which one uses lirc_zilog driver for blasting.    Not quite sure how
> I
> > explicitly bind one driver to lirc0 and the other to lirc1 or whatever.
>
> There's no particularly good way to do so, other than loading the
> drivers manually (or by script) in the desired order.
>
> > I
> > keep getting the message "irsend: hardware does not support sending",
> > regardless of which socket I point to with the -d switch.  Anyway, I
> think
> > I'm pretty close now.  I've followed the wiki instructions, so I have the
> > firmware, the /etc/lircd.conf changes.
> > irsend LIST "" "" shows this:
> > irsend: rs15-2116-vcr0081
> > irsend: Hauppauge
> > irsend: hauppauge_pvr
> > irsend: Hauppauge_350
> > irsend: blaster
> > So, lirc knows about the "blaster" device.
> > My system had no hardware.conf file, so I added one at /etc/lirc.
>
> Well, hardware.conf is a debian and ubuntu thing, it gets consulted by
> the debian/ubuntu lirc initscript. If you're running a different
> distribution, adding that file isn't going to do a thing. Fedora has
> similar-ish functionality provided by /etc/sysconfig/lirc, but has no
> automagic (and utterly broken in way too many cases) secondary lircd
> instance support at this time. Not sure what exactly you're running
> though.
>
> Jarod, I'm running FC12:

2.6.32.14-127.fc12.i686 #1 SMP Fri May 28 05:04:10 UTC 2010 i686 athlon i386
GNU/Linux


> One thought: why use both lirc_i2c and lirc_zilog, why not load *only*
> lirc_zilog, since its got receiver support too? Should support all of
> the mentioned remotes just fine, and save the complication of running
> a second lircd.
>

Good to know.  I've been running lirc_i2c for years, and didn't realize that
lirc_zilog alone is enough.  I just figured one lircd instance for IR in,
and another for IR out.  I'll ditch lirc_i2c and see what I can get with one
lircd instance.  BTW, when I modprobe lirc_zilog debug=1, I think I am
supposed to see something like this, as was pasted by another user
somewhere:

lirc_zilog: ivtv i2c driver #0: no devices found
lirc_zilog: chip found with RX and TX
lirc_dev: lirc_register_driver: sample_rate: 0
firmware: requesting haup-ir-blaster.bin
lirc_zilog: firmware of size 258140 loaded
lirc_zilog: 654 codesets loaded
lirc_zilog: Zilog/Hauppauge IR blaster: firmware version 2.1.0

>
But I don't anything near that verbose.   All I get is this:

lirc_zilog: Zilog/Hauppauge IR driver initializing
lirc_zilog: initialization complete

Makes me wonder if something is amiss since I see no mention of the firmware
in my debug messages.

Thanks for the reply.  Your help is much appreciated. :)
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