[mythtv-users] [SOLVED-ish] Thinking of moving on from MythTV ... I found the main problem, but still have 292e woes

Damian myth at surr.co.uk
Thu Apr 20 08:59:40 UTC 2017


On 03/01/2017 21:02, Simon Hobson wrote:
> Mike Perkins <mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk> wrote:
>
>> Oops. I'm usually more precise than that, but I automatically assume that if the mux is T2 then all
>> the channels are going to be HD.
> That hasn't been the case for a while - it looks like there is a policy now to pushing more and more new stuff onto T2 muxes. Also, as of this month, part of the licensing terms for putting the Freeview icon on kit is that it can tune T2 muxes - a few years late IMO, but better late than never !
>
>> The situation might get worse in future - I understand that some of the spectrum is going to be stolen for 4G phones. I haven't delved any deeper, I have enough going on here as it is.
> Indeed, that is the plan. AIUI they are intending to sell off 700MHz and up, leaving TV with just the 600-700MHz spectrum. In Winter Hill land, we've already moved down the spectrum - we used to use ch 62-68 up in the 800M band, now we're down in the 700M band (ch49-59 except for com7&8 on c31&37), and it looks like they have plans to move us down to use C22-48 in a few years time. 800MHz up is already given over to 4G mobile services.
>
> Apart from com7&8, we could use a group C/D or E aerial, when we move (YET again) it'll be a group K
>
> All courtesy of https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Winter_Hill
>
> There's a not very prominent link there to https://ukfree.tv/article/1107051897/More_Freeview_capacity_COM7_COM8_and_COM9_in_the_6 which has some interesting nuggets, including in the comments.
>
>
> But thinking back to the OPs question, the only system I can think of that even comes close (in the UK) is the Sky Q system. Thats if you don't mind a closed proprietary system that you can only rent, using a service you have to subscribe to, using only features that Sky think you should have, and with recordings you can't access if you stop paying.
> For good measure, they use PowerLine for networking http://www.ban-plt.org.uk/

Quick update on this.

I solved my MyhtTV problems last night! :-)

It turns out that my 4 way TV amplifier had died. I didn't even consider 
that to be the route cause of the problems as it was one of the most 
recent additions that the TV aerial guys installed a couple of years ago.

After hours of trying different things last night (after first testing 
that a simple aerial to computer connection DID work, using an entirely 
different computer which runs windows) I took the amplifier/splitter out 
of the equation and suddenly everything was fine.

I've ordered a new splitter, which should be here tomorrow. Then I'll 
have both USB tuners in play again.

So, no need to leave MythTV after all. My frustrations were due to a 
hardware problem that wasn't even part of the computer system.

One thing that is frustrating, but I'm just going to live with it, is 
the realisation that the HD tuner I bought a year or two ago just 
doesn't work on Linux. Maybe it would work with some tinkering and 
manually installing drivers, but we don't value TV content to the same 
extent as we do film content, so we'll just live with the SD resolution 
that my two SD USB tuners provide.

The HD tuner in question is a PCTV TripleStick (292e). I've read that it 
should work, but it simply doesn't. In Windows, when testing last night, 
everything worked straight away after installation. All channels were 
found and were instantly viewable.
In MythTV, the card seems to be found and can be selected, but a channel 
scan provides nothing. 0% signal throughout the entire process.

If anyone knows of a quick and simple fix for this HD tuner, please let 
me know. If not, it's just going in a draw. I don't want to risk 
breaking a functioning system by doing things that I don't understand.

Thanks for everyone's advice,
Damian


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