[mythtv] DEC2000-t/scanning/channels.conf-import.pl

[gneeki]

Firstly, I'll apologise in advance for any idiot statements in this
mail: I'm a user and emphatically (sadly) not a developer.  I have a
Hauppauge DEC2000-t it being (at the time anyway), the only viable way
I could see to view UK Freeview DVB via a laptop.  Back when MythTV
0.16 (cvs20041220) was out, I managed to get it working more or less,
in the old-fashioned way (dvb-apps's dvbscan -> channels.conf ->
channels.conf-import.pl -> mysql).  Clunky and not very flexible but
it did work, and I was happy for mainly viewing, and the occasional
recording.

>From a position of ignorance I've done some reading and had a few
helpful chats on irc, and now understand that:

(a) channels.conf-import.pl is now out of date with the new table
structure in 0.16+, because mythtvsetup scanning is supposed to
work;

(b) but scanning doesn't work for the DEC2000-t, and MythTV devs
don't want to hack the code to make it work because, somewhat
understandably, the problem's seen to be in the driver.  This from the
thread in April between Nathanaiel and Taylor beginning at:

http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-dev/2005-April/035147.html

and continuing at:

http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-dev/2005-April/035177.html

I can't pretend to understand the internals of these discussions -
all I know is that as a previously happy DEC2000-t user, I seem to be
now stranded in 0.18.

When I try a scan, it usually sticks at 10%, and in the background I
can see it's "Processing transports", and listing a few Transport
IDs, then just seemingly hanging.  It's also incidentally picking the
wrong transmitter to me - this always seemed to happen with dvbscan
too, until I gave it a good hints file.  I'm not sure how this works
at all in mythtvsetup.

Even using tzap feeding into mplayer on stdin I now seem to have
problems I didn't in earlier versions - it seems to tune into the
first few channels I try, but then mplayer rigidly sticks at 0%
cache, and refuses to tune in until I reboot (card/module
removal/reinsertion doesn't seem to help).  This is the latest
dvb-kernel/apps from cvs, compiled with gcc4 (Fedora Core 4).  I
realise this points heavily back to driver issues (or me issues) and
so will probably post a similar mail to the linux-dvb list - hope
that's ok.

I can't see any progress since then though reading through these
archives: what can I do?  Is there anything I can do as a user to
help this back to a position where I might be able to use my device in
linux?  Is anyone looking at this from a MythTV or driver perspective?

If all else fails, are the original authors of
channels.conf-import.pl around, or anyone else who could hack it to
understand the new table format?  What kind of a bribe would I have
to supply!  I understand from
http://www.ethics-gradient.net/myth/mythdvb2.html ("Upgrading"
section) what kind of changes have taken place, but my perl's nearly
non-existent and not up to it.  Sadly again, the guide to doing it
there seems to rely on scanning working.

Finally, in the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions about
how I could even just *watch* TV in Linux on this thing?  Is there
anything else other than MythTV I could use, even for just viewing?
I really don't want to boot Windows.