[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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