<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000'>> From: "Nick Morrott" <knowledgejunkie@gmail.com><br>> To: "Discussion about mythtv" <mythtv-users@mythtv.org><br>> Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2009 10:30:27 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific<br>> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Working around a lack of a IR Blaster<br>> 2009/11/22 <stefan_jones@comcast.net>:<br>> > I don't have a working IR Blaster but want to record a few select shows.<br>> ><br>> > Shouldn't this work?<br>> ><br>> > Set up Analog video tuner card.<br>> ><br>> > Configure Input Connection to set tuner to a given channel (3).<br>> ><br>> > Connect output of STB to tuner. Set the STB to the desired channel.<br>> ><br>> > Put some dummy command in the outside tuner command line.<br>> <br>> Using /bin/true is the recommended way to 'fool' MythTV into thinking<br>> channel changing was successful in this scenario.<br>> <br>> > Record anything in the appropriate time slot to make the tuner record from<br>> > the STB for the appropriate length of time.<br>> ><br>> > Now, I tried this out this afternoon. First I tried watching Live TV on the<br>> > Analog tuner. I saw the appropriate channel . . . the one that the STB was<br>> > tuned to.<br>> <br>> Expected if you have one or more tuners in the machine and (if more<br>> than 1 tuner) you configured the analog tuner's input connection<br>> _last_ in mythtv-setup. This gives the tuner the lowest recording<br>> priority (as long as you have not made any other tuner/channel/LiveTV<br>> priority changes) and will be used first for LiveTV.<br>> <br>> > Then I tried a test record. No dice. If I'm looking at the right messages,<br>> > another (digital) channel tried to tune in.<br>> <br>> This is again expected if the digital tuner(s) has a higher priority<br>> for _scheduled_ recordings. If you want to test the analog tuner for<br>> scheduled recordings, you need to tell the scheduler to prefer to use<br>> the analog tuner over other possibly higher-preference inputs. You can<br>> do this in the scheduling options for each recording rule where you<br>> want this to be the case.<br>> <br>> > Do I need to "scrub" the channels for the video source so they have no<br>> > tuning information? It seems to me that the Input Connection's channels just<br>> > need to supply a channel number . . . no tuning information that might cause<br>> > a digital tuner to try to take over.<br>> <br>> If you are using a video source that relies on using an external<br>> channel change script, you need to ensure that each channel configured<br>> on that input has a valid frequency value. In the case of controlling<br>> an STB, it is the digits you want passed to the changer script.<br>> <br>> A lack of tuning information will cause the recording to fail -<br>> another tuner will not try to take over.<br><br>Thanks, I think I've got things working.<br><br>For posterity:<br><br>* The error messages from the digital recorder in the mythfrontend console output were a red herring. I have two "ghost tuners" from a previous install. They don't show up in mythtvsetup, but their being in the DB causes errors on exit from mythtvsetup ("Tuner 8 is pointed at channel 71 which doesn't exist") and when mythfrontend starts up. I guess I'll have to use SQL to remove them.<br><br>* I changed priorities so that the analog tuner is 0, and the three digital tuners ranked 1,2 and 3. <br><br>* I removed all of the channels from the analog card's lineup that overlap with the digital card's range. (The digitals listen to the clear QAM stations on the cable signal . . . essentially the broadcast HD lineup plus SD digital versions of the low-tier cable TV channels; I added a "D" to the channel number to differentiate them. The analog tuner has its own lineup, consisting of the upper-tier cable channels that are now only viewable via the STB.)<br><br>* I wrote a little script called changechannel.sh to plug into the external tuner command line field. It writes the cable channel passed to it to a file. I'll eventually include the date as well. This will come in handy for debugging when the IR transmitter is functional.<br><br>* I was able to record two shows in a row. They look fine. The STB has a nice strong analog signal for the PVR-150 to pick up.<br><br>Thanks again.<br><br>Stefan<br></div></body></html>