[mythtv-users] Problem with selecting channels on a composite input to an HVR-1300

George Poulson george.poulson at gmail.com
Sun Sep 19 16:51:01 UTC 2010


Hi everyone,

I have a fully working system of two frontend MythTV boxes and single
backend using a Hauppauge Nova DVB-S2 card .. all works fine - live tv,
recording, playback .. no problems at all.

I'd now like to be able to record some programmes from 'pay' channels which
we receive via a subscription service on a separate DVB-S receiver, and to
(hopefully!) achieve this I have added a Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1300 card that
I had lying around to the backend, and this is detected correctly by the
kernel on boot.

I have connected the composite video output from the external receiver to
the input of the HVR-1300 and if I run 'tvtime' on the backend I can select
it ("tvtime -d /dev/video1") and watch it with no problems, but my problem
is how to configure the input to this card in Myth. I may at some point also
like to also use the DVB-T input on this card, but for now I don't have a
good enough antenna, so that can wait.

I have read countless howtos and FAQs and set up the card as best I can, but
I can't work out how to associate any new channels with the card. Ultimately
I will probably use something like the 'dusky control'  to change channels
on the external receiver, but for now I'd be happy to be able to change
channels manually and just be able to watch/record the input in Myth.

The card is identified as [V4L:/dev/video1] , Analogue V4L Capture Card,
with the default input set to 'Composite1'. I use 'Radio Times XML' as my
[only] video source and have my current DVB-S channels from the Nova card
correctly linked to these schedules, and for now I also have the HVR-1300
linked to this ('Input Connections : [V4L:/dev/video1] (Composite) ->
RadioTimes XML') but I cannot figure out how to add some new channels in the
channel editor such that when I select them Myth knows that a particular
chanel is to be found on the external Composite input and not on the DVB-S2
card. I have left the 'External channel change command' box blank, though
ultimately I will have an entry in here to change channel on the external
sat box; I also have no clue what to enter into the 'Preset tuner to
channel' or 'Starting channel' boxes. I have also tried scanning for
channels in the 'Connect source to input' screen, but I get a whole list of
unidentified channels which when I try to select one from the front end, the
screen goes blank (black) for a while and then the error message
"Irrecoverable recorder error" and the backend log shows:

   2010-09-19 17:25:39.403 TVRec(5): HW Tuner: 5->5
   2010-09-19 17:25:39.601 DVBChan(5:/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0) Error:
SetChannelByString(9999): Failed to initialize multiplex options
   2010-09-19 17:25:39.609 TVRec(5) Error: Failed to set channel to 9999.
Reverting to kState_None

This tells me that Myth is trying to tune to this channel (which I have set
up using 'Create new channel' as Channel 9999) on Tuner 5
(/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0 - my internal DVB-S2 card) and not on the
HVR-1300's composite input. In mythweb my DVB-S2 input appears as Encoder 5
and the second input as Encoder 11 ((as a complete aside, these numbers seem
to increment every time I remove and re-add a card - is there any way to
reset them to (say) 1 and 2?))

So: How do I tell Myth that certain channels (which I will probably want to
set up manually rather than scanning for) are on the external composite
input to the HVR-1300, and that to tune this specific channel I will need to
use a comand or script run outside of Myth to send a command to the external
receiver to tune to (say) Animal Planet on channel '525', whereas other
channels are already set up and working on the internal DVB-S2 card?

I can see where I define the command to run to change the channel; I just
can't see where to associate certain channels with certain input cards.

Sorry if this turns out to be a 'dumb' question, but I've been battling with
this for the whole weekend :-s

George
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20100919/0c8151f3/attachment.htm>


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list