[mythtv-users] MythTV UK scripts + PVR350 + FF and RW

[mythtv at mattn.com]

Hi,

I've been running MythTV for quite a few months now with a PVR350 and am
really happy with it.

I'm in the UK and have it hooked up to my Sky digibox using www.bleb.org
for the channel data (most of the channels I watch are on there) and use a
red-eye serial (www.redremote.co.uk) to change channels on the Sky box
(this works better than on the NTL box I used to have although the NTL box
still worked OK).

I use -

Mandrake 10.0 on a Shuttle SK41G
IVTV driver 2.0 rc3b (http://205.209.168.201/~ckennedy/ivtv/)
PVR 350 firmware pvr_1.18.21.22168_inf.zip
(http://ivtv.writeme.ch/tiki-index.php?page=FirmwareVersions&highlight=firmware)

I've just figured out how to watch DVD rips through the PVR350 (this took
a while!). I was always OK with the video but didn't get any audio. This
was because the audio was in AC3 format and not mp2 so now I
re-encode the DVD rip (vob file) using the command -

ffmpeg -i $1.vob -vcodec mpeg2video -b 2500 -acodec mp2 -ab 192 -map 0.0
-map 0.1 $1.mpeg

where $1 is the name of the vob file. You can play around with the quality
by changing -b and -ab settings.

The -map tells it which audio track to use and may need changing depending
on the DVD.

Maybe my bleb script would of use to someone else too ?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
echo "-Remove old data.xml file if it exists..."
rm -f /tmp/data.xml >nul
rm -f /tmp/raw.xml >nul
rm -f /tmp/log.tmp >nul
echo "-Download updated listings from www.bleb.org..."
wget -q -O /tmp/tvdata.zip

"http://www.bleb.org/tv/data/listings?days=0..6&format=xmltv&channels=bbc1,bbc2,itv1,ch4,five,bravo,discovery,e4,men_and_motors,paramount,paramount2,scifi,sky_one,sky_one_mix,uk_gold,sky_movies1,sky_movies2,sky_movies3,sky_movies4,sky_movies5,sky_movies6,sky_movies7,sky_movies8,sky_movies9,uktv_documentary&file=zip"
>nul
echo "-Uncompress.."
cd /tmp
unzip /tmp/tvdata.zip >nul
echo "-Update MythTV.."
mythfilldatabase --file 1 -1 /tmp/data.xml >nul
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe it's not pretty but it works OK! You need to have the channels setup
in the mythconverg database first. I'm not sure of an automated way to do
this since as far as I know the mythfilldatabase uk sites (including RT)
don't work anymore.

I also create mpeg links to my nuv files on a samba share so that I can
play the files over my LAN.

The script gets the program name out of the database and uses that to
create the link.

This is the script to do that -

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash
rm -f /home/video/mpeg-links/*
x=1
y=1
for FILE in `ls /home/video/*.nuv`
do

part1=`echo $FILE | cut -d/ -f4 - | cut -d_ -f1 -`
part2=`echo $FILE | cut -d/ -f4 - | cut -d_ -f2 -`
part3=`echo $FILE | cut -d/ -f4 - | cut -d_ -f3 - | cut -d. -f1 -`

filename[$x]=$FILE
outfile[$x]=$part3

string="select title, subtitle, starttime from recorded where
chanid=$part1 and starttime=$part2 and endtime=$part3"
title[$x]=`mysql mythconverg -e "$string" --skip-column-names -B -si`
files[$x]=$FILE
program_title=`echo ${title[$x]} | sed 's/ /_/g' | sed 's/:/_/g'`
ln -s $FILE /home/video/mpeg-links/$program_title.mpeg
let x=x+1
done
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I do have one question -

How does everyone else find the skip FF & RW with the PVR350. I find it
not very good. Jumping forward, say 60 seconds at a time, works OK but FF
& RW is very juddery especially compared to Sky+.
Anyone else got it working OK?

Hope this lot helps someone else - any questions just ask!
Thanks to everyone else for all the usefull stuff posted here.

Matt