Difference between revisions of "Using MythTV with AFN"
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* I'm working on being able to control two of the same model receiver using a single IR blaster. More to come. | * I'm working on being able to control two of the same model receiver using a single IR blaster. More to come. | ||
* The guide information provided by AFN as published by Schedules Direct does not follow European daylight savings changes. You may need to specify an offset other than 'auto' in the backend general configuration. (For example I need to set it to +0100 during fall and winter otherwise the guide information will be off by one hour. The system clock handled the change correctly, but setting MythTV to use AUTO during the fall offsets the guide information by one hour.) | * The guide information provided by AFN as published by Schedules Direct does not follow European daylight savings changes. You may need to specify an offset other than 'auto' in the backend general configuration. (For example I need to set it to +0100 during fall and winter otherwise the guide information will be off by one hour. The system clock handled the change correctly, but setting MythTV to use AUTO during the fall offsets the guide information by one hour.) | ||
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+ | --[[User:Redxine|Redxine]] 21:17, 5 November 2011 (UTC) | ||
[[Category:HOWTO]] | [[Category:HOWTO]] | ||
[[Category:Do_It_Yourself]] | [[Category:Do_It_Yourself]] |
Latest revision as of 21:17, 5 November 2011
AFN, or American Forces Network, is the name of the television and radio service provided by the American Armed Forces for its entertainment and command internal information networks worldwide. AFN programming is provided at zero cost for those who serve, and is usually provided over ATSC cable within military installations and base housing. However, for those living off-base and scattered installations too small to provide base housing, the service is provided over satellite signals using the PowerVu conditional access system, meaning the only way to watch AFN programs is with a PowerVu receiver. This guide focuses on using such receiver with MythTV.
Contents
Overview
While the Scientific Atlanta (now Cisco) PowerVu receivers will work with DVB-S signals, AFN is broadcasted over the PowerVu conditional access system, and requires the receiver's TID and UA to be registered. Therefore, the only way to get these working with MythTV is by use of an analogue input card and control with an IR blaster (While some models such as the D9834 do have ethernet and RS232 connections, the newer D9835 and later Cisco models do not. As such, this guide will focus on the use of an IR blaster to control the decoder). Another interesting challenge in lack of feature with these decoders, particularly the two D9835's that I had the misfortune of working with is that the only way to change channels on the remote is the channel up/down button, or through the less-than simple menu - typing the channel number produces no response from the receiver, and no apparent menu option can enable it.
Requirements
- A working MythTV frontend/backend combo (Mythbuntu 11.10 was used in my example)
- An analogue capture card (Bt878 or similar) with line-in audio (or alternatively input from an ALSA sound card)
- A subscription to Schedules Direct (for AFN guide)
- A LIRC compatible IR-blaster. I built a serial adapter for this this.
Configuring LIRC
In Debian-based distros, LIRC is configured using dpkg. If you need to reconfigure it after installing, run sudo dpkg-reconfigure lirc. Select the appropriate receiver and transmitter driver for your IR hardware. If using the serial IR blaster, select Serial Port (UART) : Scientific Atlanta Cable box or any of the Serial Port (UART) entries and /dev/ttyS0 as the device.
Now we need to add the decoder IR codes by editing lircd.conf (/etc/lirc/lircd.conf for most distros). Append this to your lircd.conf:
begin remote name PowerVu bits 22 flags SPACE_ENC|CONST_LENGTH eps 30 aeps 100 header 3351 3237 one 813 2404 zero 813 730 ptrail 771 gap 97655 toggle_bit_mask 0x0 begin codes KEY_POWER 0x37C107 KEY_SLEEP 0x37211B KEY_FAVORITES 0x37F101 KEY_1 0x36113D KEY_2 0x37111D KEY_3 0x36912D KEY_4 0x37910D KEY_5 0x365135 KEY_6 0x375115 KEY_7 0x36D125 KEY_8 0x37D105 KEY_9 0x363139 KEY_0 0x373119 KEY_MENU 0x36A12B KEY_EPG 0x36C127 KEY_INFO 0x36213B KEY_CHANNELUP 0x377111 KEY_CHANNELDOWN 0x36F121 KEY_LAST 0x36E123 KEY_UP 0x36812F KEY_RIGHT 0x364137 KEY_DOWN 0x37A10B KEY_LEFT 0x37810F KEY_SELECT 0x366133 KEY_NEXT 0x37011F KEY_PREVIOUS 0x36013F KEY_BACK 0x37810F KEY_PAUSE 0x374117 KEY_FORWARD 0x364137 KEY_MUTE 0x36892E KEY_VOLUMEDOWN 0x37091E KEY_VOLUMEUP 0x36093E end codes end remote
Restart LIRC after making this change:
sudo service lirc restart
To test the configuration connect and position your IR blaster, and run:
irsend -d /dev/lircd1 send_once PowerVu KEY_POWER
Channel changing scripts
To handle channel changing I've written a python script which handles channel changing in a sensible way with the limitations noted above. Also because of some #Problems encountered with the front end in Mythbuntu 11.10, I use the forking feature in bash to initiate a work around script (resetTv.sh). So channel changing is handled by two scripts. (If you don't experience the audio problem after changing channels, you can replace the bash script with just the python code). I saved these scripts in my home folder to simplify editing. The script will also need write access to a state file which I keep in the same directory (run touch channel-state; chmod 666 channel-state). Change the paths accordingly.
change-channel.py:
#!/usr/bin/env python import os import sys from time import sleep if len(sys.argv) != 2: print "Not enough arguments" exit() channel = str(sys.argv[1]).zfill(5) os.system('touch /home/mythbox/scripts/channel-state') f = open('/home/mythbox/scripts/channel-state', 'r') state = f.readline() f.close() if state == : #set a default if file is blank state = '5'.zfill(5) print "State: %s" % str(state) print "Channel: %s" % str(channel) if state == channel: print "[change-channel]: Nothing to do, exiting...." exit(0) #do nothing, no need to tune #write channel to state file f = open('/home/mythbox/scripts/channel-state', 'w') f.write(channel) f.close() print '[change-channel]: Changing to channel %s' % channel def send(code): command = '/usr/bin/irsend -d /dev/lircd1 send_once PowerVu' sleepTime = 0.3 print '[change-channel]: send(%s)' % code os.system('%s %s' % (command, code)) sleep(sleepTime) send('KEY_MENU') send('KEY_DOWN') send('KEY_SELECT') for i in channel: send('KEY_%s' % i) send('KEY_SELECT') send('KEY_1') send('KEY_SELECT') print "[change-channel]: Done." #tell calling script to fork resetTv.sh exit(127)
change-channel:
#!/bin/bash debug=$( /home/mythbox/scripts/change-channel.py $1 ) status=$? echo -e $debug if [ $status -ne 0 ]; then echo "resetting TV..." #optional: used to create a notification for the user. Must run as the same user the front end #uses to run libnotify. Add 'mythtv ALL = NOPASSWD: ALL' in /etc/sudoers to make this work. #sudo su -c '/usr/bin/notify-send -i gtk-info -u critical -t 14000 "Please wait...." "Changing channel"' mythbox /home/mythbox/scripts/resetTv.sh & fi exit 0
resetTv.sh:
#!/bin/bash sleep 10 #wait for the frontend to settle. /bin/nc localhost 6546 <<EOS key escape jump livetv EOS
Set the change-channel bash script as the channel change script in mythbackend.
Problems encountered
- For my setup, the audio on the frontend would always stop for some reason after changing channels. Perhaps it's just my card or particular setup, but the only sure-fire method of fixing this was exiting live-tv and pulling it back up. To accomplish this, I use a script that forks in the background after the channel-changing script is called and instructs the frontend to reset using Myth's network control provision. You must enable this for the work around to function.
- The AFN schedule data is available from Schedules Direct. It is available in the line up after keying in any US zipcode.
- I'm working on being able to control two of the same model receiver using a single IR blaster. More to come.
- The guide information provided by AFN as published by Schedules Direct does not follow European daylight savings changes. You may need to specify an offset other than 'auto' in the backend general configuration. (For example I need to set it to +0100 during fall and winter otherwise the guide information will be off by one hour. The system clock handled the change correctly, but setting MythTV to use AUTO during the fall offsets the guide information by one hour.)
--Redxine 21:17, 5 November 2011 (UTC)