User:Steveadeff
Me
My Life
Electric Power Engineer living in Boston, MA
I can be reached for mythtv purposes at adeffs_dot_mythtv_at_gmail_dot_com.
My Myth Contributions
I don't really code, but I try to be active in bug and feature testing.
TVRage.com
This project has been moved to Google Code to make managing it easier.
TVRage.com import perl script for adding archived shows to the MythTV Watch Recordings DB or the MythVideo? database (pre-0.22).
6200changer.sh
I wrote a script for handling my DCT-6200 cable boxes connected via firewire that changes the channel and uses firewire_tester to stabilize the connection before Myth tries to record. This has, over the last two years, allowed me to not fail in recording a single show.
To use, set it up in mythtv-setup as the channel change script. Give it the GUID of the box as shown in mythtv-setup. The script takes two variables, the first being the GUID (which is why you have to specify it) and the second is the channel number (which mythtv automatically feeds it at the end of the command you give it). The script then changes the channel on that GUID and runs firewire_tester. In running firewire_tester it requires that it show the connection is stable twice. If it iterates 10 times it will automatically re-tune the channel, and after 50 attempts total it will send Myth the "failed" result, otherwise it will send Myth the "success" result.
You can change the script to use another channel changer if you require.
#!/bin/bash # GUID=`echo "$1"|sed -r "s/[A-Z]+/\L&/g"` CHANNEL=$2 NODE=`plugreport | grep $GUID | awk '{if (($1 == "Node") && ($4 == "'"0x$GUID"' ")) print $2}'` echo "Node: '$NODE'" echo "Changing to channel $CHANNEL" 6200ch -v -s -g $GUID $CHANNEL #maybe a pause is needed? sleep 4 STABILIZE="1" COUNT=0 TOTALCOUNT=0 STABLECOUNT=0 echo "Stabilizing Firewire Connection!..." #maybe an initial run followed by a verification run? #initial run firewire_tester -B -r2 -n$NODE #while [ "$STABILIZE" != "Broadcast Fix: Success (already stable)" ] while [ $STABLECOUNT -lt 2 ] do STABILIZE=`firewire_tester -B -n$NODE|grep "already stable"` if [[ "$STABILIZE" != "Broadcast Fix: Success (already stable)" ]] then echo "Not Stable! Attempt $COUNT" ((COUNT+=1)) ((TOTALCOUNT+=1)) if [ $TOTALCOUNT -gt 50 ] then echo "FAILED to Stabilize!!" exit 1 fi if [ $COUNT -gt 10 ] then 6200ch -v -s -g $GUID $CHANNEL COUNT=0 firewire_tester -B -r2 -n$NODE fi else echo $STABILIZE ((STABLECOUNT+=1)) fi done echo "Stable!" exit 0
My Systems
I've since moved on from MythTV after moving out of the 5br apartment I lived in with housemates and now use a TiVo Roamio.
Dedicated Back End
- ASRock 970DE3/U3S3 AM3+ AMD 770 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
- AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8120FRGUBOX
- Crucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model BLS2KIT4G3D1339DS1S00
- Norco RPC-810 4U Rackmount Chassis (wonderful!!)
- Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650W Power Supply
- Maxtor 7L300R0 300GB System Drive
- 6x500GB 7200RPM 8MB cache, SATA Recording Drives via Storage Groups
- Tuners
- Ceton InfiniTV 4 - Quad-tuner Card, w/ CableCard
Fileserver
- EVGA EVGA 113-YW-E115-TR - LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 730i HDMI ATX Intel Motherboard
- Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz - LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80571E5200
- 2x1GB DDR2, 2x512MB DDR
- CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
- 6x2TB SATA
- TV Rips, HDTV conversions
- Music
- Movies
Theater Room Frontend
- Antec Silver on Black Veris Fusion - 430 Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case with IR receiver
- Seagate ST3802110ACE 80GB system drive
- LG GH20NS15 SATA DVD Burner
- BIOSTAR N68PA-M2T TForce TF7050-M2 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 7050PV HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane 2.1GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor ADO4000DDBOX
- Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR800D2K2/2GR
- ASUS ENGT430/DI/1GD3(LP) GeForce GT 430 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
- AVS Gear GP-IR01BK Windows Vista Infrared MCE Black Remote Control
Frontend Theater/Stereo Equipment
- Samsung PN60F5350AFXZA - 60" 1080p Plasma
- Denon AVR-3806 - being used as a Pre/Pro
- Parasound HCA-1205A - 5x120W Amp
- Sony BDP-S390 Blu-ray Disc Player
- Belkin PureAV PF-60 Power Center, Silver
- Logitech Harmony 700 Universal Remote Control
- Pioneer SP-FS51-LR Floorstanding Speakers
- Pioneer SP-C21 Center Channel
- Pioneer SP-BS41-LR 2CH Bookshelf Loudspeakers as surrounds
Old Speakers:
- Paradigm Reference Studio(v.2) 40's, Studio CC(v.2) and Titan's for surround
Current Personal Bedroom Equipment
- Home Theater Master MX-500 Universal Remote Control
- ASUS MT276HE Black 27" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor
- Energy Take 5 Speakers, White
- Panasonic SA-XR57 A/V Receiver
- Oppo 981HD DVD/SACD/DVD-A player
Current Housemate Bedroom Equipment
- Logitech Harmony 650 Universal Remote Control
- Sony KDL32L4000 Sony 32" LCD TV
- Denon AVR-1909 Surround Receiver
- PlayStation 3
- Paradigm Atom x2, Titan x2, CC-50
Parent's Systems
I built a home Myth system for my parents, here's what they have.
Combined Backend/Frontend
- EVGA 112-CK-NF77-A1 - LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce e-7150/630i HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
- Intel Pentium E2160 Allendale 1.8GHz - LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E2160 (overclocked to 3.0GHz and counting!)
- CORSAIR XMS2 2GB - DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4
- SAMSUNG SH-S222A - DVD Writer
- ECS Silent Series NSGT220-1GQS-H GeForce GT 220
- 3xSAMSUNG EcoGreen F2 HD154UI - 1.5TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
- 1xMaxtor MaXLine III 7L300S0 - 300GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 1.5Gb/s
- 2xHauppauge HD PVR - High Definition Personal Video Recorder 1212
- 1x HDHomeRun with an HDTV Antenna
Kitchen Frontend
- Acer AspireRevo AR3700-U3002 - Nettop Intel Atom D525(1.80GHz) 2GB DDR3 250GB HDD Capacity NVIDIA ION graphics
Master Bedroom Frontend
- Acer AspireRevo AR1600-U910H - Desktop PC Intel Atom 230(1.6GHz) 1GB DDR2 160GB HDD Capacity NVIDIA ION LE
Office Frontend
Guest Bedroom Frontend
System Customizations
Frontend Auto login
For those of us that want to run mythfrontend without a window manager, here is the information the dev's don't want you to see:
disable window manager
From, http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10798400#post10798400
assuming lightdm is being used,
echo "manual" | sudo tee -a /etc/init/lightdm.override
The splash screen can cause some problems, so I would suggest you to disable it. Edit the /etc/default/grub file and replace the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet". Then generate a new Grub2 config file,
sudo update-grub
.xinitrc
When X starts it looks to the users home directory for the .xinitrc file. There are two options at this point for how to use .xinitrc, one will load a window manager, the other will not.
No Window Manager
For no windowmanager, create/edit the user's .xinitrc and add,
xset -dpms s off xsetroot -solid black mythfrontend -l /home/mythtv/mythfrontend.log #mythtv-setup #xterm
This will turn off dpms, turn the X default background color black and log to /home/mythtv/mythfrontend.log. These options can, obviously, all be changed.
Also included is an easy way to access mythtv-setup or xterm, just uncomment the appropriate line and comment out the mythfrontend line.
Note that running mythfrontend without a window manager is not a supported configuration. You may run into focus problems when trying to press buttons, enter text and generally use the system. These issues have mostly been fixed in the newer versions of MythTV and many users run this method successfully, especially with Mythbuntu
X11 Remote Keymapping (ie LIRC-less)
ir-keytable or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying about the LIRC Kernel
Control your media player using your existing remote control
MythTV: Use All Buttons of Your Remote Control - Without LIRC
Encoding
I've become somewhat of a mencoder/BASH scripting guru through my many adventures using it and writing scripts.
HR.HDTV script
I wrote this script to create my own versions of what "the scene" calls HR.HDTV encodes. These look decent on HDTV's up to about 50". Beyond that I highly recommend using x264 at 720p encodes. It may take a lot more processing to get done, but if your TV is that big you'll thank me for recommending it.
So what this script does is convert any 1080i or 720p recording to "HR.HDTV" which is basically a 960x544 resolution file with the original AC3 soundtrack. It will encode to the CD size standard of putting one hour of tv on a CD (ie 44minutes into 700MB, 22minutes into 350MB). It's also a good start to doing other conversions as the options can easily be changes to do things like encode to x264 at 1280x720(hint hint)...
You will need PerlCalc for some math in the script...
#!/bin/bash # # My script to create hr.hdtv encodes. # # This script will perform the following tasks: # 1. Analyze the original mpeg for # a. play length # b. audio size # c. frame speed (60fps/30fps) # 2. Calculate final file size (350MB or 700MB) # 3. Calculate final video size based on final file # size and audio size. # 4. Encode. # #variables overheadbytes=16 server_default=POT #Functions #Video Length Calculation function VideoSizeCalc() { audiosize=`pc $audiobitrate/1000*$totalseconds*0.1220703125/1024` echo "Audio Size in MB = $audiosize" # audiooverhead=`pc $totalseconds*1000/64` # videooverhead=`pc 23.976*$totalseconds` # totaloverhead=`pc $audiooverhead+$videooverhead` # overheadsize=`pc $totaloverhead*$overheadbytes/1024**2` # overheadsize=`echo `${overheadsize:0:4}`` # echo "(DD) Overhead = $overheadsize MB" totalseconds=`echo $totalseconds|sed -e 's/\.[0-9]*//'` # echo "(DD) Total Seconds = $totalseconds" if [ $totalseconds -lt 1800 ]; then totalsize=350 elif [ $totalseconds -lt 3600 ]; then totalsize=700 else echo "I don't know how to handle this length!" exit 1 fi echo "Total Size = $totalsize" # videosize=`pc $totalsize-$overheadsize-$audiosize` #original formula videosize=`pc $totalsize-$audiosize` # new one since overhead doesn't #really matter its so small videosize=`echo `${videosize:0:3}`` echo "Videosize = $videosize MB" } function FolderNameClean() { input=$1 input=`echo "$input" | sed -e 's/.[Aa][Vv][Ii]//'` input=`echo "$input".XviD-MythTV` folder_name=$input } #test for arguements if [[ -z "@ARGV" ]]; then echo "first arguement is the original mpg" echo "second arguement is the new folder name, will be used for filename" exit else #Reassign variables if [[ ! -e $1 ]]; then echo "no such input mpg!" exit else original_name=$1 fi folder_name=$2 FolderNameClean $2 file_name=`echo "$folder_name" | tr A-Z a-z` # display arguments echo "Original mpeg is: $original_name" echo "Folder name will be: $folder_name" echo "File name will be: $file_name" fi #Grab input file information echo "Determining total file length..." totalseconds=`mencoder $original_name -ovc copy -nosound -o /dev/null -quiet 2>&1 | awk '/^Video stream:/{print $10+$10/$12}'` echo "total seconds = $totalseconds" audiobitrate=`mplayer -vo null -ao null -frames 0 -identify "$original_name" 2>/dev/null | grep "ID_AUDIO_BITRATE" | sed -e 's/ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=0//' | grep "ID_AUDIO_BITRATE" | sed -e 's/ID_AUDIO_BITRATE=//'` echo "audio bitrate = $audiobitrate" videowidth=`mplayer -vo null -ao null -frames 0 -identify "$original_name" 2>/dev/null | grep "ID_VIDEO_WIDTH" | sed -e 's/ID_VIDEO_WIDTH=//'` videoheight=`mplayer -vo null -ao null -frames 0 -identify "$original_name" 2>/dev/null | grep "ID_VIDEO_HEIGHT" | sed -e 's/ID_VIDEO_HEIGHT=//'` videofps=`mplayer -vo null -ao null -frames 0 -identify "$original_name" 2>/dev/null | grep "ID_VIDEO_FPS" | sed -e 's/ID_VIDEO_FPS=//'` videofps=`echo `${videofps:0:2}`` echo "FPS: $videofps" aspect=`pc $videowidth/$videoheight` aspect=`echo "$aspect" | tr -s [:digit:]` echo "Aspect Ratio: $aspect" #Calculate Video size VideoSizeCalc sleep 10 videosize=`pc $videosize*1024` echo "Videosize = $videosize" if [[ -e "$original_name" ]]; then echo start `date +%H:%M`>$file_name.runtime if [[ "$videofps" -eq "59" ]]; then nice -n 17 mencoder $original_name -oac copy -ovc xvid -vf decimate=2:1000:1600:.001,scale=960:544 -ofps 24000/1001 -xvidencopts pass=1:vhq=0:me_quality=5:turbo:quant_type=mpeg:aspect=$aspect:max_bframes=0:bitrate=-$videosize -o /dev/null # nice -n 17 mencoder $original_name -oac copy -ovc xvid -vf decimate=2:1000:1600:.001,scale=960:544 -ofps 24000/1001 -xvidencopts pass=2:quant_type=mpeg:aspect=$aspect:max_bframes=0:bitrate=-$videosize -o $file_name.avi elif [[ "$videofps" -eq "29" ]]; then nice -n 17 mencoder $original_name -oac copy -ovc xvid -vf pullup,softskip,scale=960:544 -ofps 24000/1001 -xvidencopts pass=1:vhq=0:me_quality=5:turbo:quant_type=mpeg:aspect=$aspect:max_bframes=0:bitrate=-$videosize -o /dev/null # nice -n 17 mencoder $original_name -oac copy -ovc xvid -vf pullup,softskip,scale=960:544 -ofps 24000/1001 -xvidencopts pass=2:vhq=0:me_quality=5:quant_type=mpeg:aspect=$aspect:max_bframes=0:bitrate=-$videosize -o $file_name.avi fi echo stop `date +%H:%M`>>$file_name.runtime echo "Runtime" more $file_name.runtime fi exit
NeroAAC in linux
NOTE: Nero recently released a version of their encoder that is linux native, but I haven't updated my script for it since I actually rarely use it now, I've been using dbPowerAmp at work...
Recently Nero released their wonderful AAC encoder for "DOS" (command line app in windows). Since I'm a huge fan of AAC for compressed audio due to its quality I was hoping they'd release a linux version, but as it turns out their windows version was designed to work a-o-k in linux under WINE!
The only caveats I've found is that you need to have the folder where you music ready for conversion is mapped as a drive in Wine. As well, the filenames cannot have any periods in them except for the one that designates the extension (ie this.song.is.good.flac is no good but this song is good.flac is fine), which is an issue I know how to solve with a simple perl rename, but have yet to tackle in the script... Other than that, your good to go.
So what I did, is I wrote a script that will convert any format mplayer supports, as well as APE to M4A. Right now I really only have it setup for WAV, FLAC and APE though, but its pretty easy to add other formats. For mplayer supported formats look at the FLAC functions, for formats that require another decoder to get to WAV look at the APE section. This script can also recursively enter folders, so you can rip a whole lot of CD's (using cdparanoia or EAC under WINE of course!) into seperate folders and run this script from their root and it will go into each folder and convert! how handy!
This site has some great info on the encoder, as well as how to encode directly to M4A when ripping with EAC. This is a good guide to do the same in K3B.
This script has two command line options as of now. First it will allow you to delete the original after a successful encode using -e, or you can specify a specific directory with -d.
This script also has some defined options near the top, EncoderDir=~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Nero QualityLevel="0.8"
EncoderDir is obviously where your neroAACenc.exe file is, and Quality level is a numerical value for the recording quality setting. I don't like compressed audio and find that 0.8 is a good balance for my ears and my desire to keep file sizes down. This equates to about 300Kbps, which is rather large for even the MP3 format, so feel free to change this value for your needs.
For those that used the old Nero encoder with "Quality Levels", here's a quick conversion chart...
Old Presets | Quality Levels |
Tape | -q=0.0 |
Radio | -q=0.1 |
Internet | -q=0.2 |
Streaming | -q=0.3 |
Normal | -q=0.5 |
Extreme | -q=0.6 |
Audiophile | -q=0.8 |
Transcoding | -q=1.0 |
#!/bin/bash # # IFS=$'\n' EncoderDir=~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Nero QualityLevel="0.8" CURRENTDIR=`pwd` directory=$CURRENTDIR function Main() { until [ -z "$1" ] do echo "Processing parameter of: '$1'" if [ ${1:0:1} = '-' ]; then tmp=${1:1} # Strip off leading '-' . . . parameter=${tmp%%=*} # Extract name. if [ "$parameter" = "e" ]; then echo "Will erase originals upon successful encode!" opt_e=1 fi if [ "$parameter" = "d" ]; then directory=$1 echo "Directory taken from command line as: $dir ectory" fi fi shift done echo "Working directory: $directory" for dir in $( find -type d ) do cd $dir for file in $( find -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*.flac' -printf '"%f"\n'| sort ) do echo "FLAC format found! Converting \""$file"\"..." rename 's/\.{2,}//' $file file=`echo "$file"|sed 's/\.{2,}//'` basename=`echo "$file"|sed 's/\..*//'` basename=`echo "$basename"|sed 's/\"//'` RANDOM='time' TEMPFILE=/dev/shm/neroaac-$RANDOM DecodeMplayerSupported $basename.flac $TEMPFILE EncodeToAAC $basename $TEMPFILE rm -f $TEMPFILE RemoveOriginal $basename flac ls *flac done for file in $( find -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*.wav' -printf '"%f"\n'|sort ) do echo "File "$file" already in Wave format, converting to AAC..." basename=`echo "$file"|sed 's/\..*//'` basename=`echo "$basename"|sed 's/\"//'` EncodeToAAC $basename RemoveOriginal $basename wav ls *wav done for file in $( find -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*.ape' -printf '"%f"\n'|sort ) do echo "APE format found! Converting \""$file"\"..." basename=`echo "$file"|sed 's/\..*//'` basename=`echo "$basename"|sed 's/\"//'` RANDOM='time' TEMPFILE=/dev/shm/neroaac-$RANDOM DecodeAPE $basename.ape $TEMPFILE EncodeToAAC $basename $TEMPFILE rm -f $TEMPFILE RemoveOriginal $basename ape ls *ape done cd $CURRENTDIR done exit 0 } function DecodeAPE() { inputfile=$1 outputfile=$2 nice -n 17 mac $inputfile $outputfile -d } function DecodeMplayerSupported() { inputfile=$1 outputfile=$2 nice -n 17 mplayer -vc null -vo null -ao pcm:file=$outputfile:fast "$inputfile" } function EncodeToAAC() { filebase="$1" infile="$filebase".wav outfile="$filebase".m4a if [ "$2" ]; then infile="$2" fi echo "File base: $filebase" echo "TEMPFILE: $2" echo "Input File: $infile" echo "Output File: $outfile" nice -n 17 wine $EncoderDir/neroAacEnc.exe -q $QualityLevel -if "$infile" -of "$outfile" if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then echo "Encode Success!" success=1 # mv tmp.m4a "$outfile" else echo "Encode Failed!" success=0 # rm -f "tmp.m4a" # rm -f "tmp.m4a" fi } function DiscoverFormat { input=$1 } function RemoveOriginal { origfile=$1 extension=$2 if [ $opt_e -eq 1 ]; then if [ $success -eq 1 ]; then echo "Removing Original file: $origfile.$extension" rm -f $origfile.$extension else echo "Not Removing Original file!" fi fi } Main $@
Custom Schedules
Shouldn't be needed for 0.25 on
The Daily Show
program.title LIKE "%Daily Show%" AND HOUR(DATE_SUB(program.starttime, INTERVAL 2 HOUR)) > 20 AND WEEKDAY(DATE_SUB(program.starttime, INTERVAL 2 HOUR)) < 4 AND (WEEKDAY(DATE_SUB(program.starttime, INTERVAL 2 HOUR)) = 0 OR program.previouslyshown = 0)
Colbert Report
program.title LIKE "%Colbert Report%" AND (MINUTE(program.starttime) = 30 OR MINUTE(program.starttime) = 31) AND HOUR(DATE_SUB(program.starttime, INTERVAL 2 HOUR)) > 20 AND WEEKDAY(DATE_SUB(program.starttime, INTERVAL 2 HOUR)) < 4 AND (WEEKDAY(DATE_SUB(program.starttime, INTERVAL 2 HOUR)) = 0 OR program.previouslyshown = 0)