[mythtv-users] Digital Cable Box, MythTV, and Serial Cables Oh My!

Warren Pattison wjp3 at mindspring.com
Thu Dec 11 04:06:33 EST 2003


Hello,

Ok, it's 3:00 in the AM, and I'm excited.  After three weeks of waiting and troubleshooting, I just got the basic features of MythTV setup and running!  Faulty hardware had to be returned, and I had to conquer the TV OUT issue.  (For those struggling with TV OUT on NVidia, search the forums for "ConnectedMonitor" and nvidia driver bug.  Your card may require that option to read ",TV".  Very frustrating!)

Anyway, I've got what I hope is a simple question.

I've got MythTV working on Live TV pausing/starting/etc.  But to test that, the hardware setup was as follows:  [Cable TV Wall Outlet] -> [PVR-250/MythBox] -> [TV Out (Composite)] -> [TV].  With this setup, I'm able to view...a channel.  Channel 3 to be exact.  Notice the cable box isn't in play there.

My next hurdle is to change channels.  I have a Motorola Cable Box, model DCT2224, and I snagged the dct-channel-1.5.tar.gz to allow me to control the channel changing via the serial/data port on the back of the box.  (Thanks Jim!)  Compile, install.  I can execute 'channel -v' with no problem, and it returns the current channel I am on.  Nifty!

So, my question is:  How do I hook all of this up?  Am I correct in thinking that I will be able to view all channels via MythTV, including the digital cable channels, if I have the cable box in the chain of hardware?

I tried this setup, but I only get snow when I watch TV via Myth:  [Cable TV Wall Outlet] -> [Motorola DCT2224] -> [PVR-250/MythBox] -> [TV Out (Composite)] -> [TV].  The serial cable is connected to the MythBox and the DCT2224, and via command line it's tested and working.  I have inserted the path to the binary in the MythTVSetup for my Input Connections.  That part should be fine and dandy.

I think I'm missing something easy here.

If I need to supply more information, I can.  I was thinking of drawing an ascii pic of the setup, but it's late.

Thanks,

Warren Pattison
wjp3 at wjp3.com

"In a world of compromise, some don't."
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20031211/9e668ba0/attachment.html


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list