[mythtv-users] Comcast OnDemand on Multiple STBs

David Shay david at shay.net
Sun Nov 11 12:54:23 UTC 2007


On 9/29/07, Paul Onley <onley at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
>
> >>> Have the channel change script write some status information to a file
> >> > and use it to determine which capture card is watching what?>
> >> Basically, the point is that the external channel change command knows>
> >> which capture card/input is being used, so, don't throw that
> information
> >> > away. Put it somewhere you can find it... Specific implementation>
> >> instructions would require knowledge of exactly what your plan is for>
> >> figure out (once you start going down the right path ;).> MikeI'm not
> >> following you. If the channel change script was to write to astatus
> >> file it would reside on the backend. How would the frontendgo about
> >> reading this file? Further more since all OnDemand programingis on
> >> Channel 1 if two frontends were to watch OnDemand at the sametime the
> >> status file would show 2 STBs watching channel 1.The exact plan is to
> >> be able to send left, right, up, down and selectto the correct STB.
> >> Since I am already controlling 4 STBs in exactlythe way you suggest I
> >> don't see where I am not on the right path.I have 1 master backend
> >> server which has 5 tuners and 4 STBs. In theconfiguration of each tuner
> >> that is connected to a STB there is aplace to enter a command to
> >> control an external tuner. I have addedcode to the DCT2000
> >> channel_change executable to accept a commandline argument for the port
> >> to send the information to and in eachtuner configuration I have
> >> entered "/usr/local/channel_change x"where x is the serial port that
> >> the STB is connected to. This isEXACTLY how this is supposed to be done
> >> as well as how you recom>mendI do it, so up to this point we should be
> >> in FULL agreement. Now,I have 5 remote frontends, one in the living
> >> room, one in the kidsplayroom, one in my bedroom, one in the boys
> >> bedroom and one in thegirls bedroom. If the kids are watching OnDemand
> >> in the playroomhow should I go about sending the left, right, up, down,
> >> and selectinteractive codes to the STB that they are watching?I can
> >> only see 2 scenarios that would work.1) Modify Myth so that you can
> >> send things other than channelnumbers out through the external tuner
> >> command.2) Somehow have the frontend that you are watching interogate
> >> the backend to see what STB it is connected to.As I undersand I can
> >> query the database to get thisinformation. I do not yet know how to do
> >> this butit appears I will have to learn.Somehow send the codes to the
> >> STB which is connected to thebackend.At this point the frontend knows
> >> which STB it needsto send the codes to but I am not sure how to goabout
> >> calling a program on the backend. I wouldimagine that a daemon would
> >> have to be createdto listen for requests from the frontends andforward
> >> the codes to the STBsIf you think I am on the wrong path then please
> >> tell me where I'mgoing wrong.
> >> _______________________________________________mythtv-users mailing
> list
> >> mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
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> >
> >
> > If you only have one frontend doing VOD, I can see how it might be
> > possible, by grepping index.html for "Live" or "VOD" which you get with
> > "wget backend:6544". ( I assume an encoder recording channel 1 would
> > display channel info as VOD)
> > Once you figure out which encoder is doing live TV VOD , then you know
> > whichSTB is connected to your frontend. You can then use ssh to remote
> > execute acommand.
> >
> > I dont know how else you can figure out which frontend is connected to
> > whichSTB if you have more than one STB doing VOD.
>
> > Alternatively, if you just need one VOD active at any time, then perhaps
> > youcan eliminate this channel from the three STB's so that when you
> > selectchannel 1 on any frontend, you are immediately connected to a
> > known STB.
> > Another thing you might do is to have a slightly different lineup for
> > eachtuners. For example, tuner 1 only has channel 99, tuner 2 only has
> > channel100. That way you can select a specific tuner (hence a specific
> > STB) bychanging to the unique channel, then channel change to 1 after
> > that.
> > I'm really just rambling these ideas. I dont know if they will work.
> > Hope it helps
>
> I had thought about only having channel 1 in 1 lineup but with 3 kids that
> like the OnDemand programing that would lead to fights over who gets to
> watch. The idea of using a dummy channel so that each frontend knew which
> STB it was using is interesting, I hadn't thought of that. The only issue
> there is that if that tuner is in use that frontend will not be able to
> watch OnDemand. What I am really hoping is that this will generate some
> interest and maybe the programers can create a hook to send these other
> codes through the existing mechanisms. I have seen several threads on
> sending interactive codes to OnDemand programing and with the
> proliferation
> of ingteractive digital content I can only see the need for this feature
> growing. What would  be really great is if there was a script that could
> run on the frontend machine to send a code through the external tuner
> command. Then all the user would have to do is call the script with the
> code from the lircrc config file, this would allow the user to very
> easily map any key on the remote to the STB with one simple line in a
> config file.
>
> I think what I'm going to end up doing for now is reading the database
> and finding out which STB is being used and sending the code from outside
> Myth. My brother is very good with MySQL and we can write a daemon that
> will run on the backend and listen for requests from the frontends to send
> codes to the STBs. The frontend will have to identify itself by host name
> and specify the key it wants sent. I have found a table in mythconverge
> that lists which frontend is connected to which tuner and the daemon can
> take that information and send the code to the correct STB. This will work
> for me but since everyone has different hostnames for their machines and
> different names for their tuners it will be a very unique solution that
> will require modification for each implementation.
>
> Thanks for the input Chris, the dummy channel is a good idea, I may use
> that until we can workout the details on the database/daemon path.


Reading the database is not really the right approach - querying the backend
via the protocol would be.

Even that is not necessary for this piece of information -- it is available
via the status port on 6544.  In this case, you can get quite a bit of info
from the XML status on http://my.myth.ip:6544/xml   You get a list of
encoders, and if one is recording, you will see what program, callsign, and
channel it is tuned to.
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