[mythtv-users] Can't figure out s-video IN capturing with PVR-350

[Daniel Arfsten]

I am very terribly lost. My main objective is to be able to record ALL 
channels provided by my Time Warner Cable SA3250HD cable box. I first tried 
firewire but when I tried to change the channel to a channel I wanted to 
record, it just went back to the same station so I am guessing TWC has put 
5c encryption or blocked the firewire from working with video recording? So, 
I would still like to use firewire for channel changing as I have read it's 
more stable than ir-blaster. I will hook up s-video from cable box to 
s-video IN  on the PVR-350 that I own, and rca plugs for audio to the audio 
in on the pvr-350. I will just use the speakers connected to my pc to listen 
to the audio from the recordings, is this ok? I will not really be using my 
computer for watching live tv, mainly for scheduling recordings and that's 
it. Although I have a XFX GF 6200 with dual head, vga out going to 17 flat 
panel and the dvi out going to a 17" widescreen hdtv using a dvi to vga 
adapter. I don't care that the sound will output thru my computer speakers.

What do I chose in the capture card section? MPEG-2 encoder or the V4L 
thingyl? How can I test whether video is coming thru the s-video IN for the 
PVR-350? I have all these inputs in /dev/video*
crw-rw---- 1 root video 81,  0 2007-09-04 22:42 /dev/video0
crw-rw---- 1 root video 81, 16 2007-09-04 22:42 /dev/video16
crw-rw---- 1 root video 81, 24 2007-09-04 22:42 /dev/video24
crw-rw---- 1 root video 81, 32 2007-09-04 22:42 /dev/video32
crw-rw---- 1 root video 81, 48 2007-09-04 22:42 /dev/video48
I tried doing cat /dev/video32 > foo.mpg but when  i played it back with 
mplayer, it was just a bunch of garbled colored mess? What am I doing 
wrong??? I have googled for over 2 horus total reading Gossamer Threads 
(Mythtv Archives) and haven't found a specific how-to for setting up s-video 
capturing in mythtv. Also, I am trying to use this sa3250hd extrenal channel 
change script here, will this work?
http://bentonroberts.com/personal/media-server/code/sa3250ch-BR.c/view

Here is the output from mplayer foo.mpg

mplayer foo.mpg
MPlayer 2:1.0~rc1-0ubuntu9.1 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU          4300  @ 1.80GHz (Family: 6, Model: 15, 
Stepping: 2)
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
Can't open joystick device /dev/input/js0: No such file or directory
Can't init input joystick
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote 
control.

Playing foo.mpg.
RAWDV file format detected.
VIDEO:  [DVSD]  720x480  24bpp  29.970 fps    0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
open: No such file or directory
[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid
open: No such file or directory
[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid
[VO_TDFXFB] This driver only supports the 3Dfx Banshee, Voodoo3 and Voodoo 
5.
[VO_3DFX] Unable to open /dev/3dfx.
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [dshow] DirectShow video codecs
Decoder supports the following YUV formats: YUY2 UYVY
Decoder is capable of YUV output (flags 0x9)
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Packed YUY2)
[PP] Using codec's postprocessing, max q = 4.
VDec: using Packed YUY2 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
VO: [xv] 720x480 => 720x480 Packed YUY2
Selected video codec: [qdv] vfm: dshow (Sony Digital Video (DV))
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Forced audio codec: mad
Opening audio decoder: [libdv] Raw DV Audio Decoder
Unknown/missing audio format -> no sound
ADecoder init failed :(
Opening audio decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg/libavcodec audio decoders
Cannot find codec 'dvaudio' in libavcodec...
ADecoder init failed :(
ADecoder init failed :(
Cannot find codec for audio format 0x56444152.
Read DOCS/HTML/en/codecs.html!
Audio: no sound
Starting playback...
V:  14.5 436/436  9%  0%  0.0% 0 0
Exiting... (Quit)


I CAN get the normal "tuner" to work just fine on the pvr-350 but this 
doesn't allow me to record HBO and other channels that the pvr-350 CAN'T 
tune so I am trying the s-video route. I also don't even really care if I 
try to record an HDTV channel but it downscales it thru the s-video port and 
than the pvr-350 card should be able to capture it as an analog signal, at 
least I'll be able to record the HD channels that I can't get thru my 
pvr-350 tuner.

Daniel