User talk:JeffSimpson

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Hey Jeff

I'm having some issues with directv.pl. I can sit in a terminal and run ./directv.pl off, on ,change channels and it works great. I go into mythtv-setup and add /home/mythtv/directv.pl to external command blah blah under input sources. Finish up and then run mythfrontend. Go to change channels.. nothing... nada. exit No errors listed during the use of mythfrontend.

Now I try to use ./directv.pl off,on, change channels.. it doesn't work anymore. I copy the fild to a new name.. such as directvbackup.pl Give it rights using chmod 755 to the file so it can be executed. Now magically the file works.. until I put it under mythtv-setup again and then it doesn't?!?! Is this a user rights issue? Only after I call on the script does it stop working.

Unfortunately, you didn't leave any contact info, so I can only hope that you found answers either on the mailinglist or that you'll check back here for help. Chances are, the problem lies not in the permissions of the script, but the permissions of your serial port. You need to give the user that will be running directv.pl permission to read/write the serial port device, through whatever method your distribution allows. I added the mythtv user to the "tty" group, and made my ttyS0 device group +rw.
- JeffSimpson 13:40, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Problems with DirecTV 12-300

Hello.

I've been following the advice found here on the Wiki and elsewhere, trying to get my DirecTV box to work with MythTV. I've had partial success.

I found a script called directv3.pl, recommended by others for this box. I added /usr/local/bin/directv3.pl to the external change command, as directed, but when watching TV, the channel change does nothing useful. MythTV seems to think that it is changing the channel and I see "External Tuning program exited with no error", but the set-top box remains on the same channel.

Here's what's odd: from the command line, if I execute "directv3.pl 25", the set-top box does change to channel 25.

I'm flummoxed. Any ideas? Many thanks. Phiwum 19:44, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Most likely it's a permissions issue with the serial port. Try running the script from the commandline as the myth user and see if that works. If not, you'll need to change permissions on that device. JeffSimpson 19:47, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
It is definitely not that. While myth is running, I can change channel from the commandline. (I did have a permissions issue at first, but I fixed it, changing the serial port to 0666.) Thanks.Phiwum 20:22, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
Do you see any errors in the mythbackend log? If it works from the commandline as the same user mythbackend runs as, it should work from mythbackend. You can try editing the script to show more information or turn debug mode on (I don't remember offhand what the parameter is, probably "vebose" or "debug") JeffSimpson 20:31, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
I found the verbose variable and set it. Here's what I see in the mythbackend log when I start a program and try to change the channel. I see nothing suspicious except a buffer error:

2007-12-14 15:54:21.960 TVRec(1): Changing from None to WatchingLiveTV

Looks like you have 2-way communications with the STB and it is responding favorably. Not sure what the problem is, all signs point to proper operation, but the TV isn't changing channels.

2007-12-14 15:54:22.001 TVRec(1): HW Tuner: 1->1

Initializing Serial Port... done!

SEND: 0xFA [ú] 0xA5 [¥] 0x0 [] 0x1 [] 0xE5 [å] RECV: 0xF0[START PKT] 0xF2[GOT EXTENDED] 0xF4[END PKT]

SEND: 0xFA [ú] 0xA5 [¥] 0x0 [] 0x1 [] 0xE5 [å] RECV: 0xF0[START PKT] 0xF2[GOT EXTENDED] 0xF4[END PKT]

SEND: 0xFA [ú] 0xA5 [¥] 0x0 [] 0x1 [] 0xE2 [â] RECV: 0xF0[START PKT] 0xF2[GOT EXTENDED] 0xF4[END PKT]

SEND: 0xFA [ú] 0xA5 [¥] 0x0 [] 0x1 [] 0xE5 [å] RECV: 0xF0[START PKT] 0xF2[GOT EXTENDED] 0xF4[END PKT]

SEND: 0xFA [ú] 0xA5 [¥] 0x0 [] 0x1 [] 0xE0 [à] RECV: 0xF0[START PKT] 0xF2[GOT EXTENDED] 0xF4[END PKT]

SEND: 0xFA [ú] 0xA5 [¥] 0x0 [] 0x1 [] 0xA0 [ ] RECV: 0xF0[START PKT] 0xF2[GOT EXTENDED] 0xF4[END PKT]

2007-12-14 15:54:23.055 ret_pid(4076) child(4076) status(0x0)

2007-12-14 15:54:23.055 External Tuning program exited with no error

strange error flushing buffer ...

Initializing Serial Port... done!

SEND: 0xFA [ú] 0xA5 [¥] 0x0 [] 0x1 [] 0xE6 [æ] RECV: 0xF0[START PKT] 0xF2[GOT EXTENDED] 0xF4[END PKT]

SEND: 0xFA [ú] 0xA5 [¥] 0x0 [] 0x1 [] 0xE7 [ç] RECV: 0xF0[START PKT] 0xF2[GOT EXTENDED] 0xF4[END PKT]

SEND: 0xFA [ú] 0xA5 [¥] 0x0 [] 0x1 [] 0xE2 [â] RECV: 0xF0[START PKT] 0xF2[GOT EXTENDED] 0xF4[END PKT]

SEND: 0xFA [ú] 0xA5 [¥] 0x0 [] 0x1 [] 0xE5 [å] RECV: 0xF0[START PKT] 0xF2[GOT EXTENDED] 0xF4[END PKT]

SEND: 0xFA [ú] 0xA5 [¥] 0x0 [] 0x1 [] 0xE0 [à] RECV: 0xF0[START PKT] 0xF2[GOT EXTENDED] 0xF4[END PKT]

SEND: 0xFA [ú] 0xA5 [¥] 0x0 [] 0x1 [] 0xA0 [ ] RECV: 0xF0[START PKT] 0xF2[GOT EXTENDED] 0xF4[END PKT]

2007-12-14 15:54:33.196 ret_pid(4088) child(4088) status(0x0) 2007-12-14 15:54:33.197 External Tuning program exited with no error

After several experiments, it seems that the buffer error occurs only on occasion and I imagine it has to do with the buffer used to save the show to disk, not the buffer used to send info to the set-top box. Just a guess. Phiwum 21:00, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Further hint: I changed the script to print out ARGV[0]. It is a nonsense value (six digits or so). Evidently the problem is with mythtv (which I compiled from source myself). But how to fix it? Phiwum 21:11, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like your channel list is screwed up. I'd recommend going into setup and deleting all your sources and re-creating them. Or at least going into the channel editor to see what it's doing.
Yes, that must be it. I just got DirecTV and so my channels must be all screwy. Just now I tried deleting the channels and scanning, but it doesn't seem to be working. It adopted every channel from 2 to 83. Do I need to change the channel frequency table? What to? Sorry, I'm clueless. Until yesterday, I used Myth with a pair of rabbit ears. It was a touch simpler. Phiwum 21:25, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
What are you using as your schedule source? You'll probably want to get your channel listing from there rather than scanning (scanning would take forever for anything that uses external channel changing - plus dtv has like > 1000 channel numbers, mostly unused
Aaahh! That does it! Thanks very, very much. Phiwum 22:27, 14 December 2007 (UTC)