South Africa MUG
Contents
ZAMUG
Created this page to gauge interest, as well as to have some info specifc to running MythTV in South Africa
Members
- Chris Picton - WinFast2000
- Frank - Fedora Core 5 + Hauppauge PVR 150
- Dave Jones - Ubuntu Feisty + WinTV-PVR350 (lirc fixed after a leetle hack)
- Luke Sibisi - Fedora Core 6 + Hauppauge PVR-150 + PixelView GeForce FX 5200 with TV-Out
- Roelof Burger - Gentoo + Hauppauge PVR-150
- Mitton Pienaar - Debian Etch + Gigabyte GT-PTV-AF-RH
- Hans vd Merwe - OpenSUSE 10.3 + Hauppauge PVR-150
- Louis Pieterse - Ubuntu 9.04 + Hauppauge PVR-150
- Velouria - Ubuntu 10.04 + Hauppauge PVR-350 (no longer used) + Technotrend S2-3200 DVB-S2 + Mystique SaTiX-SE (KNC ONE TV-Station DVB-S)
TV Tuner/ Capture Cards
The follwoing cards are reported to be working well in SA:
Leadtek Winfast2000XP RM
The Leadtek Winfast2000XP RM can be sourced from Corex, Rectron. Uses bttv module, with the following in modules.conf:
options bttv tuner=24 card=34 above bttv ir_kbd_gpio
The following kernel patch is needed to get the remote working properly under kernel 2.6.11
--- linux/drivers/media/video/ir-kbd-gpio.c.orig 2005-04-01 14:27:08.000000000 +0200 +++ linux/drivers/media/video/ir-kbd-gpio.c 2005-04-01 15:32:18.000000000 +0200 @@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ [ 12 ] = KEY_CHANNELUP, [ 16 ] = KEY_CHANNELDOWN, [ 3 ] = KEY_ZOOM, // fullscreen - [ 31 ] = KEY_SUBTITLE, // closed caption/teletext +// [ 31 ] = KEY_SUBTITLE, // closed caption/teletext [ 32 ] = KEY_SLEEP, // [ 41 ] = boss key [ 20 ] = KEY_MUTE, @@ -155,8 +155,30 @@ [ 36 ] = KEY_NEXT, // [ 37 ] = time shifting [ 38 ] = KEY_STOP, - [ 39 ] = KEY_RECORD + [ 39 ] = KEY_RECORD, // [ 40 ] = snapshot + + [ 17 ] = KEY_BACKSPACE, // Revert + [ 22 ] = KEY_MODE, // Display + [ 27 ] = KEY_AUDIO, // Audio + [ 31 ] = KEY_TEXT, // Teletext/CC + [ 37 ] = KEY_UNKNOWN, // Time Shift + [ 40 ] = KEY_UNKNOWN, // Snapshot + [ 41 ] = KEY_UNKNOWN, // Boss Key + [ 42 ] = KEY_UNKNOWN, // PIP + [ 47 ] = KEY_MENU, // Menu + [ 48 ] = KEY_ESC, // Cancel + [ 49 ] = KEY_DIRECTORY, // TV Guide + [ 50 ] = KEY_SUBTITLE, // Subtitles + [ 51 ] = KEY_LANGUAGE, // Language + [ 52 ] = KEY_REWIND, // Rewind + [ 53 ] = KEY_FASTFORWARD, // Fastforward + [ 54 ] = KEY_TV, // TV + [ 55 ] = KEY_RADIO, // FM + [ 56 ] = KEY_DVD, // DVD + + + }; static IR_KEYTAB_TYPE ir_codes_pixelview[IR_KEYTAB_SIZE] = { @@ -389,7 +411,7 @@ case BTTV_WINFAST2000: ir_codes = winfast_codes; - ir->mask_keycode = 0x1f8; + ir->mask_keycode = 0x8f8; break; case BTTV_MAGICTVIEW061: case BTTV_MAGICTVIEW063:
HAUPPAUGE PVR Cards
For a description and comparison of the various Hauppauge PVR 150/250/350/500 etc. cards, please visit the LinuxTV.org wiki.
The HAUPPAUGE WinTV-PVR 150 MCE can be sourced from megastore.co.za and various other on-line shops. The main advantage of this card is that it does hardware MPEG encoding (host CPU doesn't have to do it). It is supported by the ivtv kernel module.
The HAUPPAUGE WinTV-PVR 350 offers the above features, and in addition has an FM Radio tuner and an hardware decoder for TV-out. It is also supported by the ivtv kernel module.
For more info about, please visit the IVTV wiki. Installation instructions are available for the major distributions here.
Some useful commands to see if your card is working:
Scan available TV stations:
scantv -n PAL-I -f southafrica -o stations.txt
Tune in to a channel:
ivtv-tune -t southafrica -c 48 # Tune to eTV (CTN) ivtv-tune -t southafrica -c 29 # Tune to eTV (JNB)
Start playback:
mplayer -vo xvidix /dev/video0
Gigabyte GT-PTV-AF-RH
The Gigabyte GT-PTV-AF-RH is very common.
It uses the saa7134.ko with card=81 and saa7134-alsa.ko kernel modules.
saa7134-alsa.ko creates the device /dev/dsp1, which is the sound device to be used in MythTV.
Satellite Cards (DVB-S and DVB-S2)
Technotrend S2-3200 with CI
The standard kernel (2.6.32-22 Ubuntu 10.04) comes with out the box support for this DVB-S2 card. However, there are some tricks required to get the CAM working. DSTV encrypts the broadcast streams with the IRDETO encryption technique. IRDETO CAMs and the Technotrend S2-3200 are available online at DVBShop.
The trick to getting the CAM to work is to unload the budget_ci kernel module:
sudo modprobe -r budget_ci
Slide the CAM out of the CI, and then reload the budget_ci kernel module:
sudo modprobe budget_ci
Give it a few seconds, and then slide the CAM back into the CI. Run dmesg and look for something like:
budget_ci: CI interface initialised
followed by:
dvb_ca adapter 0: DVB CAM detected and initialised successfully
For additional help, it can be quite useful to turn on kernel debugging for the modules used by this card. Add the following to /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf:
options dvb-core cam_debug=1 debug=1 options budget-core debug=1
and look for something like:
DVB CAM validated successfully
Once you have your card and CAM working, head off to mythtv-setup and setup you DVB-S card.
TV Out
You need a video card that supports TV-out. South Africa uses the PAL-I TV output format. This section decribes configuration settings for South Africa:
ATI Video Card
Download and install the ATI proprietary X.org driver and libraries (non-free). Typical commands:
aticonfig --query-monitor
aticonfig --initial=dual-head --tvs VIDEO --tvf PAL-I --dtop clone
aticonfig --force-monitor=crt1,tv
GeForce Video Card
GeForce6600LE (Cheaper version of Geforce6600/6600GT)
So far I'm using the VGA with my LCD TV so it looks and works like a giant Laptop screen, albeit very very well.
The card does run hot though, and the VGA cooler I bought to correct that is a bit noisy and appears to generating slight signal interference .
On Ubuntu Feisty the drivers are well supported, under the restricted repositories. Really easy.
LIRC
(Infrared modules so your remote can control Mythtv)
[Please note that apparently the lirc code has been fixed so the steps here are unnecessary - but I'm a pessimist so I'm leaving this section in) There is a bug in lirc in that it will not compile against kernels over 2.6.18 because a *conf.h file has been renamed and so make fails w.r.t. the "missing file".
Here is a sample of the error message:
ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid."; \ echo " include/linux/autoconf.h or include/config/auto.conf are missing."; \ echo " Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel src to fix it."; \ echo;
The solution is to create the empty autoconf.h and auto.conf files in the correct locations.
Know though that it's simple to fix and after that make compiles perfectly.
For me the file is created thusly:
$ touch /usr/src//linux/include/linux/autoconf.h $ touch /usr/src//linux/include/config/auto.conf
IR Transmitters
An Infrared Transmitter/ Blaster would be needed if you want MythTV to change your M-NET/ DSTV channels. However, I don't know if one can buy these in South Africa. You will probably need to order one from overseas. If you now of a local dealer, please update this page!
South African Supplier of Infrared Transmitter/Receiver
I am manufacturing and producing a custom Transmitter/Receiver that can be plugged into the serial port on a Mythtv Platform. I am making these devices available to the wider South African Mythtv users so that we no longer have to import the devices if we want to control Mythtv via remotes or use Mythtv to change the DSTV channels. The tranceiver can be viewed at http://www.bsinnovations.co.za. --Tiplady 08:03, 28 February 2008 (UTC)
The following IR Transmitters should work:
- IRBlaster (+- US$15) - http://irblaster.info/
- High-Power LIRC Transmitter/Receiver (+- US$30) - http://iguanaworks.net/ir/
Here is the lirc codes needed to simulate the black Multichoice remote: http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes/multichoice/DSD910
Note to users with a dualview or PVR: there is currently no config file to simulate the blue remote. If someone can help recording it, please update this page!
Typical configuration:
# cp /usr/share/lirc-remotes/multichoice/DSD910 /etc/lircd.conf
# grep '^[^ #]' /etc/sysconfig/lircd DRIVER=default HWMOD=lirc_serial DEVICE=/dev/lirc/0 COM_PORT=/dev/ttyS0 DRIVER_OPTS="irq=4 io=0x3f8 type=0"
# /etc/init.d/lircd start
# irsend SEND_ONCE Multichoice_DSD910 3 # irsend SEND_ONCE Multichoice_DSD910 progup # irsend SEND_ONCE Multichoice_DSD910 voldn
VFD Display
Some Media Center Cases has a buitd-in VFD or vacuum fluorescent display. Unless you install special drivers, you wil not be able to use the VFD on linux.
- Linux drivers for the Soundgraph iMON USB IR/VFD devices can be downloaded from http://venky.ws/projects/imon/
Media Center Cases
Some of the cases:
- Asus M2NPV-VM GeForce 6150 Motherboard + Antec Fusion Media Center Chassis
- Thermaltake Mozart and Bach cases
Electronic Program Guides
There are two ways to get XMLtv data (program schedules) for MythTV. You can either download it from flash.za.org, or use the XMLTV grabber plugin:
Download
Regularly download the XML schedule file from flash.za.org. Example commands:
wget http://download.flash.za.org/schedule/ZA-XMLTV.xml.gz gunzip ZA-XMLTV.xml.gz mythfilldatabase --file 1 -1 ZA-XMLTV.xml
Alternately download the XML schedule file from savage.org.za/xmltv. Example commands:
wget http://savage.org.za/zaxmltv/xmltv.zip unzip xmltv.zip mythfilldatabase --file 1 -1 xmltv.xml
XMLtv grabber
There is also a tv_grab_za in the latest distribution of XMLTV. This can be obtained from SourceForge.
This grabber attempts to categorise movies and other types of shows.
Last time I've checked the grabber wasn't working properly. Check its current status at here.
canned Searches
If you are using the savage.org.za/xmltv schedule above, most of the canned searches won't work.
They can be adjusted by editing the file /etc/mythtv/mythweb-canned_searches.conf.php
e.g.
t('Movies') => 'category like "Movies/%"',
Note the function t() in this file: it refers to translations of the argument, which must be defined in your choice of a file in /usr/share/mythtv/mythweb/modules/_shared/lang.
canned Search Categories
Documentaries/Biography Documentaries/History Documentaries/Nature & Wildlife Documentaries/Other Documentaries/Science & Technology General Entertainment/Celebrity General Entertainment/Comedy General Entertainment/Drama General Entertainment/Game Shows General Entertainment/Kids/teens General Entertainment/Other General Entertainment/Reality General Entertainment/Sci-Fi Lifestyle/Fashion Lifestyle/Food Lifestyle/Magazine Lifestyle/Religion Lifestyle/Talkshow Lifestyle/Travel Movies/Adult Movies/Animation Movies/Comedy Movies/Drama Movies/Fantasy Movies/Horror Movies/Kids/Teens Movies/Musical Movies/Other Movies/Romance Movies/Sci-Fi Movies/Thriller Movies/True-Life Movies/Western Music News/Commerce series Sport/Adventure Sport Sport/American Sport/Athletics Sport/Basketball Sport/Boxing Sport/Card Games Sport/Cricket Sport/Cycling Sport/Cycling show Sport/Darts Sport/Equestrian Sport/Extreme Sports Sport/Fishing Sport/Football Sport/Golf Sport/Gymnastics Sport/Horseracing show Sport/Motorsport Sport/Motorsport show Sport/News Sport/Other Sport/Paddling Sport/Road Running Sport/Rugby Sport/Rugby show Sport/Sailing Sport/Soccer Sport/Soccer show Sport/SuperSport Sport/Surfing Sport/Swimming Sport/Talk show Sport/Tennis Sport/Triathlon Sport/Variety Sport Sport/Watersport Sport/Watersports Sport/Wheels Sport/Wrestling Sport/Yachting