[mythtv-users] External firewire and other channel changers (was Re: DCX3200 Fails in 0.24-2)

[Michael T. Dean]

On 06/15/2011 11:52 AM, Tom Flair wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 10:47 AM, wrote:
>> I'm running Fedora 12 with MythTV 0.24-2 and trying to connect a DCX-3200
>> STB.  MythTV reports it as a failed tuner.  mythbackend.log reports:
>>     FireChan(0025F2FFFE16BC63), Error: Model: 'DCX-3200' is not supported.
>> though mythtvsetup panel provides DCX-3200 as a valid cable box model.
...
> The DCX-3200 worked fine when I was on .24 and still does on master.
>
> --- libs/libmythtv/firewiredevice.cpp_orig    2010-08-20 00:03:12.000000000
> -0500
> +++ libs/libmythtv/firewiredevice.cpp    2010-09-23 20:55:29.040059905 -0500
> @@ -494,6 +494,7 @@ bool FirewireDevice::IsSTBSupported(cons
>   {
>       QString model = panel_model.toUpper();
>       return ((model == "DCH-3200") ||
> +            (model == "DCX-3200") ||
>               (model == "DCH-3416") ||
>               (model == "DCT-3412") ||
>               (model == "DCT-3416") ||

I realize that you guys were talking about the built-in firewire channel 
changer in MythTV, but thought this could be a good opportunity to 
mention that there exist several external channel changers and "priming" 
scripts for people STBs (including programs for firewire channel 
changing).  These used to be included in the contrib directory of 
MythTV's source distribution, but they didn't get much attention there.  
They have since been moved to the wiki ( 
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Category:Firewire_Priming_Scripts + 
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Category:Channel_Change_Scripts ).

While this allows users to update the scripts/programs for things like 
new IDs (as above), the wiki is not an ideal place for these programs to 
live.  Ideally, several users who depend on these channel change and 
priming programs would maintain them within a real code repository with 
real version control (and access control).

So, does anyone want to admit to using any of these--especially the 
complex, non-scripted--external channel changers and get a project set 
up to maintain them?  I imagine this would be a very low-volume project 
and most of the maintenance would be reviewing/testing and accepting 
patches to the programs (though a maintainer would have the option to 
completely refactor/redesign the programs, too).  However, I think 
having a specific project for channel change programs would be very 
useful, not only for MythTV users, but anyone else who wants to use a 
*nix box to change channels on their STB (so, anyone using any other DVR 
package)--and may actually pull in people from other DVR/TV applications 
to help with the program maintenance.

I'd be happy to help set up the initial project--including collecting 
all the old scripts and even the changes that have happened since they 
moved to the wiki, while preserving the old versioning information from 
our repo.

Act fast--those who step up first get to decide where to host the 
project (Google code, SourceForge, Github, ...), which means deciding 
which tools will be used for accessing/maintaining the code.  :)

Thanks,
Mike