[mythtv-users] HDTV reception via Cable

[Christian Burger]

------------------------------

Message: 23
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2006 17:50:33 -0500
From: "R. G. Newbury" <newbury at mandamus.org>
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] HDTV reception via Cable
To: christian.burger at abtg.net, 	Discussion about mythtv
	<mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
Message-ID: <44232639.2020701 at mandamus.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed


>Your use of the word sourceid here tells me that you are confused. 
>dvbscan is supposed to list everything it can find. You have to figure 
>out what is useable from that.


Sorry I meant service ID, not sourceid....  


>Test sequence:
>Does the card show up at /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0?  (If at /dev/video0 
>then you are loading the wrong kernel module. Make yourself a dunce cap 
>and wear it for 2 minutes in the bathroom with the lights out, as 
>punishment for not reading this list properly!.

I am listed at /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0 so no dunce cap required here.

>Run dvbscan to make a channels.conf. Copy the summary section into a 
>file and store it a ~/.azap/channels.conf

I did this but azap frequencylisthere > channels.conf

>If you can capture a channel stream using azap -r STATION to tune to the 
>station, and 'cat /dev/dvr/adapter0/dvr0 > test.mpg' gives you something 
>you can watch with mplayer  (as in mplayer test.mpg) then the hardware 
>works.

Well I did a similar but equal verification of:

Mplayer dvb://CHANNLENAME and it works as expected.

>Using  atscscan or qamscan which are floating around, or just the hard 
>way, find out which channels are unencrypted and usable. Spend even more 
>time figuring out which channels they actually are...There is no real 
>way (without the use of a set top box diagnostic) to find out that 
>[1032]:571000000:20:21:24 is really WNUT or whatever, on channel 108.

Well, I did this the hardway, manually tuning each on in my channels.conf to
see which were usable and which weren't and what they were then updated
channels.conf to reflect.

>At labs.zap2it.com you set up (or should have) a channel lineup for your 
>digital channels. You cannot really do that until you know which 
>channels you can actually get, and want to get. I'll call that your 
>'Charter Digital' lineup. You will probably have a Charter Analog lineup 
>for channels below 72 (as numbered by Charter). The channel numbers 
>above 72 mean absolutely nothing..they are just identifiers.

I kept this simple with the standard abc/nbc/cbs/etc, I have about 5
channels on my zap2it and also in my channels.conf while I iron things out.

>Once you have a lineup, make it one of your sources under mythtv-setup. 
>I will presume you already have the analog lineup as the first entry. 
>That means your Charter Digital lineup will be #2 and will therefore 
>become sourceid=2. Mythfilldatabase will run (if you run mythtv-setup in 
>a window you can move it and watch the underlying transaction going on).

Been there done that.  No analog for me as I'm really on interested in
digital.

>Now associate your HD3000 card, 'TUNER' with Charter Digital. You can 
>then see the channels listed in the channel editor section. Set the 
>transmission type to ATSC. Exit mythtv-setup. Run mythfilldatabase 
.(again) from the commandline. It will be quick.

It's an Aver  A180 but same priniciple.

>Now, open the dtv_multiplex table in mysql. You will need to enter one 
>row in the table for each frequency which is used for an active, usable 
>channel in your channels.conf. The mplexid will be autoincremented as 
>set as you do this. Therefore it is best to start with the lowest 
>frequency and work up. When done, set the sourceid for all rows as 
>sourceid=2 and the modulation as QAM_256 (or whatever Charter uses..).

I am familiar with this process also.

>Now open the channel table. Select each row by the callsign and check 
>that it matches the channum and chanid you expect. The chanid should be 
>2xxx where xxx is the Charter cable channel number. You will need to 
>poke into each channel's row, the mplexid number for the frequency, set 
>the sourceid (if not properly set) and set the serviceid equal to the 
.last number (the pid) of the line in your channels.conf for that 
>channel. The pid is the identifier of the digital stream on the 
>frequency. You may also want to play with the icons, name etc.

This is where something isn't right for me.  The pid is what is giving me
problems I think.  When I run the dvbscan -c while tuned with azap -r
CHANNEL I get a list of like 50 pid's.  I just saw someone updated the A180
wiki entry so I think I am going to scrap all my settings start from scratch
and see what happens this go round, 3rd times the charm eh?