[mythtv] Generic interface for getting video in to mythbackend

[Isaac Force]

I originally sent a message to the mythtv-users list asking if any sort 
of generic interface for getting video data in to mythbackend existed 
and didn't receive a response, so I believe that posting here would be 
the next logical step.

I have a Perl script that I wrote to 'tune' IPTV video streams and do 
something with the data that I would like to have interface with Myth. 
Simplistically, in IPTV land a TV channel = a multicast group, and to 
watch the channel all it involves is joining that group and listening to 
the data. However, my abilities with C++ don't go much farther beyond 
Hello World, so I don't believe I'd be able to tackle adding multicast 
as a tuner option in Myth.

In my mind the ideal option would be a custom/dummy tuner in Myth that 
would execute a command and listen to its STDOUT for the video data. The 
script could listen on STDIN for simple commands from Myth such as 
channel change, clean up and exit, etc. This would not only be 
advantageous for me, but for anybody else whose skills in C++ are 
lacking, or even somebody who wants to rapidly prototype a new type of 
tuner that they would eventually like to roll in to Myth.

Does anything remotely similar to this exist today and I've just missed 
it? Or can anybody think of a way this could be added with my mere 
mortal skills? ;-) (Or better yet, anybody feel like this would be a 
good enough of an idea to possibly tackle it?)

-Isaac Force