[mythtv-users] announce: script for locating QAM channels

[Mike]

Brian Wood wrote:
> Interesting, and I'll give it a try.
>
> You say you have "signal strength" problems. "Unwatchably choppy"  
> might describe what I have seen when using the azap/mplayer method on  
> the 288 streams that atscscan found on my system.
>
> But the BER shows zero on all of these channels, so I don't think it  
> is a signal strength problem.
>
> What did your system show for BER ?? I wonder if you are having the  
> same problem I am. If I just run azap it shows "FE has lock" on every  
> line, but when I run mplayer to try and watch a stream I then see  
> many lines without the lock message, although a lot of them have it  
> also.
>
> Why would watching the stream affect the lock (if it really is). I  
> get a lot of breakup when using -nosound, and it gets even worse if I  
> try and use sound as well. I also get "too many packets in the   
> buffer" messages from mplayer.
>
> So I've had no real luck with QAM, with sumptoms similar to yours,  
> but I really don't think it is a signal strength problem.
>
> I have only one OTA atsc signal here, so if I can't get QAM signals I  
> have a pretty expensive off-air demod, especially since my TV has a  
> built-in atsc tuner.
>
> But I'll play with your script and see where it leads me, thanks.

Just curious, but what motherboard do you have? (more specifically, what 
south bridge chipset) I had a problem that sounds very similar to yours 
where my tuner would lock on and off of the channel when I did anything 
more than capture the stream. (like use mplayer to view it at the same 
time, or listen to music on the soundcard at the same time)

-Mike