[mythtv-users] Help selecting firewire cable?
William Munson
w.munson at comcast.net
Fri Feb 8 11:14:15 UTC 2008
Tom Greer wrote:
> On Feb 7, 2008 3:10 AM, William Munson <w.munson at comcast.net
> <mailto:w.munson at comcast.net>> wrote:
>
> I recently got a DCT6416 III cable box and want to connect it to
> my myth
> box which has a built in firewire port however I am confused by the
> various pin options. The DCT has a pair of plugs labeled IEEE 1394
> which
> I understand are 6 pin and on the back of my pc there is a plug that
> looks like a stretched letter D. Is this a 4 pin plug?
>
> Also I know the DCT6416 III is a dvr box, my local comcast store
> is out
> of the basic HD settop boxes at the moment. I am hoping that I will
> still be able to control the box with the firewire code in SVN. Has
> anyone had any luck with this box?
>
> TIA,
> Bill
>
>
> Bill,
>
> I have successfully recorded off a DCT-6416 via firewire. It works
> exactly the same as a DCT-6200 box. I'n not sure about the type of
> firewire cable (it's been a long time); but I know the ones I'm using
> have the same connector on both ends. I think they are 4 pin - but
> I'm not sure.
>
> Initially I started by renting two DVRs from my cable company. I was
> frustrated at the lack of features (especially the inability to view
> recordings made on a different box - which resulting in physically
> swapping boxes between rooms in order to watch recordings).
>
> That led me to search and find MythTV. My wife loved the cable DVR.
> My first attempt to covert her was going well, until I took a business
> trip and the firewire connection stopped working on day 1. That set
> the migration back six months. I had to keep a DCT-6416 in the
> bedroom as a fallback for a number of months.
>
> Now she loves Myth and boasts about it to all of her friends.
>
> I WAF (wife acceptance factor) is important to you, then I would
> recommend that you implement a couple of key features.
>
> 1. Program one of your buttons to kill and restart mythfrontend.
> This allows a quick "reboot" of the frontend application if
> anything goes wrong. I modified Jared Wilson's
> mythpowerbutton.sh script <http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/tips.php>
> (which turns mythfrontend on and off) for this purpose.
> 2. Use monit to monitor mythbackend and, if it dies, to
> automatically restart the backend process. See the wiki
> <http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Status_Monitoring_How_To>for
> details.
> 3. For whatever reason, the DCT-6xxx boxes stop responding to
> firewire commands. They seem to work best when you keep them
> "primed". So I have a cron script that runs every 30 minutes
> that checks to see whether the box is busy, and if not, then
> primes the box using firewire_tester. See this thread
> <http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/engine?do=post_view_flat;post=277073;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;list=mythtv>
> for details.
> 4. Be sure to install openssh server and to open a hole in your
> firewall to permit you to ssh in when you are away from home -
> just in case you need to.
> 5. Last but not least, make sure that everything is rock solid
> stable before "moving it to production". And only upgrade when
> there is a good reason to do so (that includes upgrading the OS
> or other applications).
>
> I'm sure others may have tips to improve the WAF.
>
> Good luck.
>
> Tom
Thats great to know. I took a closer look at the connectors and both
ends are 6 pin. I am planning on stopping at the local computer retailer
and picking up a cable after work tonight so hopefully I will have
capture working later this weekend. I am lucky enough not to need to
keep a WAF in mind but your tips sound right on and I already have some
of them implemented. I monit the backend and mysql but will implement
your priming script once I get things working.
Bill
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