[mythtv-users] HD-PVR Channel Changing Inquiry

Larry K lunchtimelarry at gmail.com
Sun Jul 18 13:53:29 UTC 2010


On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 4:24 PM, Jarod Wilson <jarod at wilsonet.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 3:25 PM, Larry K <lunchtimelarry at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 11:22 AM, Kenneth Emerson
> > <kenneth.emerson at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 7:50 AM, Larry K <lunchtimelarry at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Since Comcast hosed pretty much all my unencrypted QAM (except the
> >>> networks, of course), I just picked up an HD-PVR, another STB, and have
> been
> >>> reading through all the materials I can find.
> >>> On this wiki -> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Hauppauge_HD-PVR
> >>>
> >>> Larry:
> >>
> >> A lot depends on what STB Comcast gave you.
> >
> > I have the Motorola DCX3200 HD box.  It comes with an IR remote.
> >
> >>
> >> People on this list seem to have had good luck using firewire to change
> >> channels on STB's (as do I).  If your STB has a firewire port AND it is
> >> enabled I'd suggest you look at 6200ch which AFAIK is included in the
> mythtv
> >> packages (
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MythTV_External_Channel_Changer)
> >> or try mythchanger (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/majoridiot).  Personally I
> use
> >> mythchanger because it produced better debug for me to understand what
> was
> >> going on when I was attempting to record over the firewire. I since gave
> up
> >> that goal and purchased an HDPVR, as you did.
> >
> > I guess my question is, given my STB, should I pursue channel changing
> with
> > the HD-PVR builtin IR blaster, since my STB can respond to IR commands,
> or
> > should I go with a channel changing script, which I assume requires a
> > firewire connection?
>
> No. Channel change scripts are just scripts you point mythtv-setup at.
> Its pretty much completely arbitrary what you put inside them. But
> generally speaking, you're going to put calls to another program in
> there, such as irsend, to do IR blasting, calls to 6200ch or
> mythchanger or whatever to send AVC commands over firewire, etc.
>
> > It's not clear to me if the myth - HD-PVR USB
> > connection is just to receive content, or if that is bi-directional and
> can
> > support commands to the HD-PVR as well.  For instance, the HDHR I have
> uses
> > the Ethernet connection bidirectionally, both to receive channel change
> > commands, and to dump content back on the wire for myth to pick up.
>
> Well, the usb connection to the hd-pvr is what's used to send
> instructions to the zilog z8 chip on the hd-pvr, which in turn acts
> upon those instructions to send the appropriate raw IR signals out the
> blaster port. But you need lirc_zilog binding to the thing first.
>
>
> --
> Jarod Wilson
> jarod at wilsonet.com
> _______________________________________________
>

This is all making sense.  At first, I didn't make the connection that even
for IR blasting, I need a channel change script. I had made a mental
association of a channel change script with a wired connection like firewire
or serial.   I think what may have helped throw me off track was the wiki
statement that goes something like "if you don't care about channel changes,
then set it to /bin/true".   Seems like that would never be the case for me
or anyone else, unless there is a scenario I have not considered.

As for firewire, that sounds like a solid, reliable way to change channels,
but my Asus M3N78-VM MoBo doesn't have native firewire support, and I'm not
wild about adding a firewire card right now.

I've been using LIRC for years with my old PVR-250 to receive my remote
control commands. It runs on /dev/lirc0.  For IR blasting, I'll need to add
another lirc daemon, I presume.  Still trying to figure out how to spawn two
lirc sockets, and know which one uses the lirc_i2c driver for IR receiving
with which one uses lirc_zilog driver for blasting.    Not quite sure how I
explicitly bind one driver to lirc0 and the other to lirc1 or whatever.  I
keep getting the message "irsend: hardware does not support sending",
regardless of which socket I point to with the -d switch.  Anyway, I think
I'm pretty close now.  I've followed the wiki instructions, so I have the
firmware, the /etc/lircd.conf changes.

irsend LIST "" "" shows this:

irsend: rs15-2116-vcr0081
irsend: Hauppauge
irsend: hauppauge_pvr
irsend: Hauppauge_350
irsend: blaster

So, lirc knows about the "blaster" device.

My system had no hardware.conf file, so I added one at /etc/lirc.  I am
pointing this config to lirc1 since I am already using lirc0:

more /etc/lirc/hardware.conf
#Chosen IR Transmitter
TRANSMITTER="HD-PVR"
TRANSMITTER_MODULES="lirc_dev lirc_zilog"
TRANSMITTER_DRIVER=""
TRANSMITTER_DEVICE="/dev/lirc1"
TRANSMITTER_SOCKET=""
TRANSMITTER_LIRCD_CONF=""
TRANSMITTER_LIRCD_ARGS=""

Can anyone offer up their lirc configuration, where there are two daemons,
one for receiving and one for blasting to the PVR?
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