[mythtv] New user review, DVB lockups and enhancement requests

[Andrew G. Wilson]

Hi - I've been playing with mythtv on an EPIA M-10k box for a month or so now, 
and I've got a few issues maybe someone can help me with. Mostly I've been using 
it for live TV.

I'm running 2.6.1 and I have a DVB-T card. With the HW Mpg decoder on the EPIA 
enabled, it runs at 40% CPU. This is really nice because under windows, it was 
at 100% and skipping. Way to go!


BUT. Here's where I'm having difficulties. Before I start going into the code, 
maybe someone can help.

- Manual channel input is a pain. Is anyone looking at integrating with the DVB 
scan utility? Shouldn't be too hard, surely? If nobody else will, I'll have a go 
at this if I have time. This would be a big win for the UK where freeview is 
starting to take off.

- backend and frontend lockups. I've seen several different lockups in 0.14, 
doing various things like switching from X to console, tuning to a misconfigured 
channel, tuning to a channel with different resolution (UK Ch5). I've checked 
out the source and will try to reproduce these and suggest fixes.

- Some of my keys are not working! On live TV, 'W' changes aspect OK, and 'P' 
pauses OK. -> and <- work, but I can't change channels with up and down. This is 
the one that's really bugging me.

- If tuned to a channel with lots of errors, the backend gets too busy to accept 
any request to change to a good channel. Restarting it doesn't help, because it 
always tunes to the last channel it was on. Is there any way to force the 
backend to tune to a specific channel on startup? Where is this info stored in 
the database?

- I'm an experience programmer, but I've never done a lot with databases. I 
could learn sql, but I'd rather spend my time more usefully - are there any good 
gui tools to look at/modify the database?



Also, as a new user I'd like to suggest a few enhancements.

- Use the mouse in the dialogs if it's available! I have a small IR keyboard 
with a built-in trackball which is just great! But I can't use it in myth, and 
the whole left-right-up-down thing is confusing as hell. Tab/Shift-tab 
navigation would be nice to have, then it's at least consistent with other apps.

- In MythMusic, I see there is an album art visualisation. Is there any way to 
use this so that I can see the albums during selection? I want to be able to 
switch on the screen, hit a button that goes to 'select music' and be able to 
scroll through my album covers.

- Is there any way to record live TV as you are watching it? I couldn't figure 
this out at all.

- It's hard to remember what keys do what when you're a newbie! Is there any way 
to pop up a help on active keys using the OSD? I've still not figured out how to 
change the volume ;-)