[mythtv-users] Stepper Directed HDTV Antenna

Joseph Fry joe at thefrys.com
Wed Feb 9 00:59:56 UTC 2011


On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 4:27 PM, Raymond Wagner <raymond at wagnerrp.com>wrote:

> On 1/26/2011 16:06, Simon Hobson wrote:
>
>> Erik Hovland wrote:
>>
>>> http://hackaday.com/2011/01/26/stepper-directed-hdtv-antenna/
>>>
>>> The last sentence in the paragraph throws down the gauntlet:
>>> What we would like to see is this antenna attached to a HTPC,
>>> and some kind of script to automatically direct the antenna
>>> for the best possible signal for the current channel.
>>>
>>
>> I couldn't quite make out what they are doing here. Are they a) moving the
>> antenna to use different transmitters for different channels, or b) moving
>> it about to get the best signal from a specific transmitter.
>>
>
> This is for the former.  You have stations in multiple directions, and you
> want to record off all of them.  This cannot be done reliably without
> altering the code.  You would need the backend to support channel changing
> scripts for digital tuners, to get the rotor in place before trying to tune.
>  You probably could do something with the system event scripts, having
> mythbackend call a script on recording start, but you're likely to run into
> timing issues.
>
>
This reminds me of something I thought about a long while back.  What about
a "script" tuner type.  I can't imagine it would be that hard to create
another tuner type that would simply allow you to specify a script to run
whenever that tuner was used.  This script tuner would be supplied with a
variety of variables whenever it was called, most importantly: target path,
target filename, channel, and end time or duration.

Once mythtv kicks off the script it can either just ignore it and assume its
doing it's thing.  Optionally the script could notify mythtv of status
changes (started, in progress, complete, failed)... but it's really not
necessary.  The worst thing that would happen is that the frontend would say
that the recording could not be found.

The only limitation I can think of would be that it should be blocked from
being used to "watch tv" and any automatic jobs (unless status changes are
reported and handled) as there is no way to know how long it may take the
recording to appear.

I can imagine using something like this to control devices that Mythtv
hasn't implemented yet, to record and transcode a file on a remote machine
before copying it to the backend, to control satellite and antenna
positioning systems, or any number of situations that we cannot predict.

Essentially it would provide a way to relieve the pressure on the developers
to support a particular device or function, especially those that will never
be supported (think legal concerns like copying from a hacked device or
satellite decryption).  If the users want it, someone will develop a script
to tune it and the Mythtv developers' hands are clean.
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