[mythtv-users] MythTV + ARS + AntennaWeb = MythRotor?

Donavan Stanley GeckoFiend at gmail.com
Fri Sep 10 09:02:27 EDT 2004


On Thu, 9 Sep 2004 22:28:04 -0400, Nathan Schiffer
<edgeofepsilon at gmail.com> wrote:
> It occured to me that this could be the makings of a great MythTV
> addon.  I looked for rotor controllers online, and found one called
> ARS (Antenna Rotator System, http://www.ea4tx.com/products/ars.htm ).
> They're currently working on making drivers for Linux, but it's still
> in beta (they're seeking testers).
> 
> So the question is - is anyone interested in making an addon that
> would query AntennaWeb (it would only have to be once, the user could
> even do it), then stores the locations and rotates the antenna when
> the channel is changed?  The frontend wouldn't be much, a manual rotor
> screen would be nice, and some sort of indicator on the HUD to say
> that it is tracking to a station.  And if the extension would
> automatically adjust the position based on the signal strength, that
> would just be the cat's meow.  You have to admit, it would certainly
> be something unique that only MythTV would have.

There's one minor hiccup in this.  With an antenna, or basic cable
setup you can split the incoming feed across multiple cards and record
more than one thing at a time.  If Myth were to rotate an antenna, you
could potentialy lose channels.  Either folks would need to limit
their antenna to one card, risk recording static, or a LOT of work
would have to go into the scheduler of Myth so that it could take
antenna orientation into account.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that it's a lot more complex than
it seems on the surface.


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list