[mythtv-users] Help needed with MythTV/Comcast Digital/HD Homerun Dual Tuner

scram69 scram69 at gmail.com
Tue Sep 28 22:29:30 UTC 2010


On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 7:29 AM, bhaskins <bhaskins at chartermi.net> wrote:
> Chuck Mattern wrote:
>>
>> Greetings,
>>
>> I have some MythTV background (formerly ran 0.21 on a standalone CentOS
>> box
>> with a Hauppauge PVR-350 on Comcast SD) but have moved, married and am
>> wanting to set up a new install for my new larger family.  I am looking to
>> do a standalone backend on a VM using an HD HR dual tuner with multiple
>> front ends and one secondary backend for optical media importing.  Would
>> also be nice to have easy Windows access for my kids.  I'm a sysadmin by
>> day
>> but do not have a lot of time to spend keeping disparate repositories in
>> sync (was bitten last time by dependency conflicts between the CentOS and
>> external repository (can't remember which it was at this time)) so I'm
>> leaning toward a unified distro like mythbuntu or mythdora.
>>
>> Status: Installed Mythbuntu backend server talking to the HDHR (no OTA at
>> this time) as a VM and Mythbuntu on a dedicated PC as a frontend/secondary
>> backend.  Live TV functionality worked well.
>>
>> Challenges (I did dig through the myriad FAQs and invest quite a few hours
>> in trying to get this going):
>>
>>   - I'm having trouble with my channel selection.  I've taken multiple
>>   whacks at getting the channel listing by scanning and then syncing up
>> with
>>   the listing from SchedulesDirect but it seems to have gotten a tad more
>>   interesting with digital.  On my first pass I found that the channels
>> were
>>   out of sync with the SchedulesDirect so my program listing was useless
>> and
>>   scheduled recordings pulled the wrong channel.
>
> I  think that it was Mike that mentioned on this list that there have been
> some recent upgrades on the scanner.
> I had this same problem ( bigtime! ) a couple of months back but on a very
> recent install
> things went much better.
> This install had all of the recent updates to 10.4 and the latest .23 fixes.
> There was one issue ( can't find backend server, is it running? ) which was
> solved by
> removing mysql-common and a reinstall of mythtv.
> I would suggest that you run hdhomerun-config-gui with vlc to first find
> which channels
> that you can get.
> Watch out for those that say "no data" and the music only channels.
> It's interesting to me that I can receive some of the same channels on more
> than one multiplex.
>
> If the channels that you care about are close together, it pays to have your
> channel scan just
> go across those channels.
> I also have multirec working but it needs more investigation on my part.
>
>>  Subsequent attempts took me
>>   down the path of guessing whether we are on cable, cable-hrc or
>> cable-irc
>>   and scanning in all sorts of different channels, having to take Myth's
>>   suggestions and ending up with a mess.
>>   - Ripping the media simply returned to the menu seemingly without even
>>   trying to access the DVD drive (but that is secondary and I can get back
>> to
>>   it later)
>>
>> Confession: I was swayed by a friend's tales of SageTV and burned down my
>> installation to try it. only to learn that there is no eval license for
>> Linux ( I DO want to try before I buy) and that the Linux server does not
>> play DVDs (according to one of the SageTV forums) and I am not really open
>> to running Sage on a Windows backend so I am back with hat in hand asking
>> for some help.
>>
>> Needs:
>>
>>   - pointer to an FAQ for getting my channels imported from Comcast Digtal
>>   "World of More" in Acworth, GA (a suburb of ATL, spot checks of the
>> paper
>>   listing sent by Comcast to the SchedulesDirect listing seem to match up
>> with
>>   the Atlanta line up
>>   - pointer to an FAQ for pulling in all of the available channels and
>> none
>>   of the cruft using the HDHR
>>   - pointer to an FAQ for pulling the old recorded content off of the old
>>   MythTV and into the new backend, the hardware needs to go away
>>
>> Of course if any reader has an out right recipe for this combination that
>> would be cool beyond words and appreciated even more than the fact that
>> you
>> read this far.
>>
>> Thanks and blessings,
>> Chuck
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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>>
>
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>

As far as what will be available via your HDHR in your area, the
silicon dust website is a good resource:
http://www.silicondust.com/support/channels/
That, matched against the frequency output from the hdhr_config scan
utility, should give you the relevant information to populate the
channels table.  You can get the XMLTVID's from the Schedules Direct
website.

In the US, I would caution against investing in a HDPVR:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/05/fcc-allows-soc/
This is a very slippery slope...


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