[mythtv-users] Recording from STB that requests channel access pins

[Mike Perkins]

On 13/01/16 20:13, Michael T. Dean wrote:
> On 01/13/2016 10:41 AM, Eric Sharkey wrote:
>> On Wed, Jan 13, 2016 at 3:37 AM, Mark Perkins wrote:
>>> Sorry to be vague, but at the time they were not relevant to me. But haven't there
>>> been channel change scripts discussed that do something similar to overcome the
>>> power toggle issue where the STB has an on/off toggle remote code?
>> I don't think you could do this in the channel change script.  The
>> problem is the delay.
>>
>> For powering on the STB, it's simple.  If your recording starts 30
>> seconds before the program, it's no problem for the script to power on
>> the STB *now* and return successfully, allowing MythTV to start the
>> recording.  For the case of the pin entry, 30 seconds before the
>> program there's no pin entry screen to detect.  The channel change
>> script would need to wait for it before returning, but not all
>> programs have a pin requirement, so it might end up waiting for
>> something that never comes.
>
> The channel change script simply needs to spawn a child process to do the monitoring (and pin
> entry), then return an exit code for MythTV indicating the status of the channel change.  So,
> technically, you can't do it in the channel change script, but you could (probably should) do it
> with a script called by the channel change script (using System Events--really the only other hook
> indicating start of recording--would add much more complexity than just using channel change
> scripts, and probably more latency and such, and may not be much help for Live TV, and ...).
>
> Or, really, if I were doing it, I'd use a normal channel change script for sending button presses to
> the STB, but and create a script/program/... to monitor for whether a PIN is required and--if
> so--send the PIN using the normal channel change script, and have a 3rd script that simply
> orchestrates the calling of the scripts and set this 3rd script as the MythTV channel change script.
>
> Though the whole PIN entry at whenever the STB decides is completely broken--to the point that the
> provider really /should/ allow a way to disable it.  (And I'd search high and low--even wade through
> cable company customer support to try to get a different STB--for a way to disable it, even if doing
> so requires going into some service/maintenance interface that my cable company may not want to tell
> me about).
>
The suggested procedure might fail, if you have two programs scheduled on the same channel and the 
second one requires a PIN. In that case, there might be no channel change script invoked at all, 
since myth knows the tuner is already on the correct channel.

-- 

Mike Perkins