South Africa MUG

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Revision as of 03:25, 29 April 2007 by Lukes790 (talk | contribs) (Members)

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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

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 WinTV-PVR 150 MCE

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 uses the ivtv module.

Version 4.5 and above of ivtv is required for the 150 MCE card. Installation instructions for Fedora Core: http://www.ivtvdriver.org/index.php/Howto:Fedora

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 29  # Tune to eTV

Start playback:

mplayer -vo xvidix /dev/video

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!

The following IR Transmitters should work:

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.


Media Center Cases

Some of the 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