[mythtv-users] Recording from STB that requests channel access pins

[Michael T. Dean]

On 01/13/2016 06:07 PM, Mike Perkins wrote:
> On 13/01/16 20:13, Michael T. Dean wrote:
>> On 01/13/2016 10:41 AM, Eric Sharkey wrote:
>>> On Wed, Jan 13, 2016 at 3:37 AM, Mark Perkins wrote:
>>>> Sorry to be vague, but at the time they were not relevant to me. 
>>>> But haven't there
>>>> been channel change scripts discussed that do something similar to 
>>>> overcome the
>>>> power toggle issue where the STB has an on/off toggle remote code?
>>> I don't think you could do this in the channel change script. The
>>> problem is the delay.
>>>
>>> For powering on the STB, it's simple.  If your recording starts 30
>>> seconds before the program, it's no problem for the script to power on
>>> the STB *now* and return successfully, allowing MythTV to start the
>>> recording.  For the case of the pin entry, 30 seconds before the
>>> program there's no pin entry screen to detect.  The channel change
>>> script would need to wait for it before returning, but not all
>>> programs have a pin requirement, so it might end up waiting for
>>> something that never comes.
>>
>> The channel change script simply needs to spawn a child process to do 
>> the monitoring (and pin
>> entry), then return an exit code for MythTV indicating the status of 
>> the channel change.  So,
>> technically, you can't do it in the channel change script, but you 
>> could (probably should) do it
>> with a script called by the channel change script (using System 
>> Events--really the only other hook
>> indicating start of recording--would add much more complexity than 
>> just using channel change
>> scripts, and probably more latency and such, and may not be much help 
>> for Live TV, and ...).
>>
>> Or, really, if I were doing it, I'd use a normal channel change 
>> script for sending button presses to
>> the STB, but and create a script/program/... to monitor for whether a 
>> PIN is required and--if
>> so--send the PIN using the normal channel change script, and have a 
>> 3rd script that simply
>> orchestrates the calling of the scripts and set this 3rd script as 
>> the MythTV channel change script.
>>
>> Though the whole PIN entry at whenever the STB decides is completely 
>> broken--to the point that the
>> provider really /should/ allow a way to disable it.  (And I'd search 
>> high and low--even wade through
>> cable company customer support to try to get a different STB--for a 
>> way to disable it, even if doing
>> so requires going into some service/maintenance interface that my 
>> cable company may not want to tell
>> me about).
>>
> The suggested procedure might fail, if you have two programs scheduled 
> on the same channel and the second one requires a PIN. In that case, 
> there might be no channel change script invoked at all, since myth 
> knows the tuner is already on the correct channel.

Every recording involves a channel change--we never assume that things 
are as we left them (because lots of people like to mess with things).  
TTBOMK, only Live TV will sit on the same channel through a program change.

Mike