[mythtv-users] Configuring IR transmitter for changing channels

[Nick]

On 11/10/05, Tomas Roos <tomas.roos at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello.
>
> Since I use my Digital Terrestrial receiver to recieve television I
> only use the composite or S-video input (not the tuner) on my PVR-150
> card to record programs (which by the way works excellent).

Identical to users having digital satellite or cable and using a
direct input on the PVR to record.

> Now I wish to have tabloids etc in MythTV to be able to choose a
> program for recording. I want MythTV to trigger an external program to
> send an IR signal to my receiver and change the channel

I think you mean you want listings for all channels available on the
DVB-T box and want to be able to select which programs to record using
the guide?

> How I send IR signals I already know, it is quite easy with lirc or
> similar programs but do I have to have several channels configured in
> my MythTV to be able to use tabloids or how does it work? Is there a
> howto on this subject? Has anyone else done this before?

Create a video source (called DigitalTerrestrial for example). Add all
of the channels you want to be able to record from to this source (and
configure your channel listings retrieval method)). Then assign this
source to the composite or S-Video input on the PVR card in Input
Connections.

In a channel's setup, the freqid field is the value that you want
MythTV to pass to the channel changer script. Add your remote
control's listing to /etc/lircd.conf to enable your transmitter to
emulate the DVB-T STB's own remote, and you should be up and running.

On my system I use a combination of DVB-T cards, tuners, and direct
inputs from digital cable boxes, and I think this combination covers
most likely config scenarios.

When configuring my system to be able to record from and control a
digital cable box (using S-Video in, and a serial IR blaster), I added
all of the channels available into MythTV, configured them with the
same channel numbers as the cable guide, and then assigned the channel
change script to the S-Video input on the PVR card as the 'external
command'. The script is:

#!/bin/sh
REMOTE_NAME=DI4001N
for digit in $(echo $1 | sed -e 's/./& /g'); do
  /usr/local/bin/irsend SEND_ONCE $REMOTE_NAME $digit
  sleep 0.5
done


Simple to set up and hasn't failed yet!

Nick