[mythtv-users] HD-PVR Channel Changing Inquiry

[Jarod Wilson]

On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 9:53 AM, Larry K <lunchtimelarry at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 4:24 PM, Jarod Wilson <jarod at wilsonet.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 3:25 PM, Larry K <lunchtimelarry at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 11:22 AM, Kenneth Emerson
>> > <kenneth.emerson at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 7:50 AM, Larry K <lunchtimelarry at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> Since Comcast hosed pretty much all my unencrypted QAM (except the
>> >>> networks, of course), I just picked up an HD-PVR, another STB, and
>> >>> have been
>> >>> reading through all the materials I can find.
>> >>> On this wiki -> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Hauppauge_HD-PVR
>> >>>
>> >>> Larry:
>> >>
>> >> A lot depends on what STB Comcast gave you.
>> >
>> > I have the Motorola DCX3200 HD box.  It comes with an IR remote.
>> >
>> >>
>> >> People on this list seem to have had good luck using firewire to change
>> >> channels on STB's (as do I).  If your STB has a firewire port AND it is
>> >> enabled I'd suggest you look at 6200ch which AFAIK is included in the
>> >> mythtv
>> >> packages
>> >> (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MythTV_External_Channel_Changer)
>> >> or try mythchanger (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/majoridiot).  Personally I
>> >> use
>> >> mythchanger because it produced better debug for me to understand what
>> >> was
>> >> going on when I was attempting to record over the firewire. I since
>> >> gave up
>> >> that goal and purchased an HDPVR, as you did.
>> >
>> > I guess my question is, given my STB, should I pursue channel changing
>> > with
>> > the HD-PVR builtin IR blaster, since my STB can respond to IR commands,
>> > or
>> > should I go with a channel changing script, which I assume requires a
>> > firewire connection?
>>
>> No. Channel change scripts are just scripts you point mythtv-setup at.
>> Its pretty much completely arbitrary what you put inside them. But
>> generally speaking, you're going to put calls to another program in
>> there, such as irsend, to do IR blasting, calls to 6200ch or
>> mythchanger or whatever to send AVC commands over firewire, etc.
>>
>> > It's not clear to me if the myth - HD-PVR USB
>> > connection is just to receive content, or if that is bi-directional and
>> > can
>> > support commands to the HD-PVR as well.  For instance, the HDHR I have
>> > uses
>> > the Ethernet connection bidirectionally, both to receive channel change
>> > commands, and to dump content back on the wire for myth to pick up.
>>
>> Well, the usb connection to the hd-pvr is what's used to send
>> instructions to the zilog z8 chip on the hd-pvr, which in turn acts
>> upon those instructions to send the appropriate raw IR signals out the
>> blaster port. But you need lirc_zilog binding to the thing first.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>
> This is all making sense.  At first, I didn't make the connection that even
> for IR blasting, I need a channel change script. I had made a mental
> association of a channel change script with a wired connection like firewire
> or serial.   I think what may have helped throw me off track was the wiki
> statement that goes something like "if you don't care about channel changes,
> then set it to /bin/true".   Seems like that would never be the case for me
> or anyone else, unless there is a scenario I have not considered.
> As for firewire, that sounds like a solid, reliable way to change channels,
> but my Asus M3N78-VM MoBo doesn't have native firewire support, and I'm not
> wild about adding a firewire card right now.
> I've been using LIRC for years with my old PVR-250 to receive my remote
> control commands. It runs on /dev/lirc0.  For IR blasting, I'll need to add
> another lirc daemon, I presume.  Still trying to figure out how to spawn two
> lirc sockets, and know which one uses the lirc_i2c driver for IR receiving
> with which one uses lirc_zilog driver for blasting.    Not quite sure how I
> explicitly bind one driver to lirc0 and the other to lirc1 or whatever.

There's no particularly good way to do so, other than loading the
drivers manually (or by script) in the desired order.

> I
> keep getting the message "irsend: hardware does not support sending",
> regardless of which socket I point to with the -d switch.  Anyway, I think
> I'm pretty close now.  I've followed the wiki instructions, so I have the
> firmware, the /etc/lircd.conf changes.
> irsend LIST "" "" shows this:
> irsend: rs15-2116-vcr0081
> irsend: Hauppauge
> irsend: hauppauge_pvr
> irsend: Hauppauge_350
> irsend: blaster
> So, lirc knows about the "blaster" device.
> My system had no hardware.conf file, so I added one at /etc/lirc.

Well, hardware.conf is a debian and ubuntu thing, it gets consulted by
the debian/ubuntu lirc initscript. If you're running a different
distribution, adding that file isn't going to do a thing. Fedora has
similar-ish functionality provided by /etc/sysconfig/lirc, but has no
automagic (and utterly broken in way too many cases) secondary lircd
instance support at this time. Not sure what exactly you're running
though.

One thought: why use both lirc_i2c and lirc_zilog, why not load *only*
lirc_zilog, since its got receiver support too? Should support all of
the mentioned remotes just fine, and save the complication of running
a second lircd.

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod at wilsonet.com