Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

basic ota hdtv questions

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mythjoe at gmail

Dec 22, 2005, 12:02 AM

Post #1 of 6 (877 views)
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basic ota hdtv questions

I just installed an air2pc card (the version with the bcm3510) to
record atsc OTA. It coexists with an ivtv card and a bttv card, which
both record OTA. Yes, I like variety. I'm running mythtv 18.1
installed from rpms on FC4 with a 2.6.14 kernel. I'm in the US and
use zap2it.

I have some really basic questions:
* Do I need a second zap2it line-up for the ota-hdtv input?
* Some of the digital channels duplicate analog channels. Is there a
way to equate the two? E.g., I have an analog channel 7 and a digital
channel with the same programming.
* Is there a way to equate zap2it digital channels with the underscore
(e.g. 7_1) with the channels added by scanning w/o the underscore
(e.g. 71)?
* Some of the digital channel numbers duplicate analog channel
numbers, but carry different programming. E.g., I have a digital
channel 11 (identified by scanning) and an analog channel 11 that seem
to be completely unrelated. Will this cause a problem?
* I plan to transcode recorded digital programs. Will digital programs
in both 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios come out looking right given a
single set of transcode parameters? Likewise, will interlaced and
noninterlaced content get transcoded to something that looks OK.
Right now, straight off the air one of the two looks pretty cruddy
when watching live tv.

JB
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mercury.morris at gmail

Dec 22, 2005, 8:25 AM

Post #2 of 6 (839 views)
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Re: basic ota hdtv questions [In reply to]

On 12/22/05, joe byrne <mythjoe [at] gmail> wrote:
>
> I just installed an air2pc card (the version with the bcm3510) to
> record atsc OTA. It coexists with an ivtv card and a bttv card, which
> both record OTA. Yes, I like variety. I'm running mythtv 18.1
> installed from rpms on FC4 with a 2.6.14 kernel. I'm in the US and
> use zap2it.
>
> I have some really basic questions:
> * Do I need a second zap2it line-up for the ota-hdtv input?

I'll answer the "second zap2it line-up" question.

Yes, a second line-up with only digital channels is a good idea. I use a
second zipcode, not adjacent but close enough, create the zap2it lineup and
assign it to the HD3000 and HD5000 cards. MythTV is clever enough to make
the listings show separately for analog and digital channels.

One extra thing I had to do manually was to provide the XMLTVID's for the
digital channels by going into mythtv-setup -> Channel Editor and typing
them in. The XMLTVID's can be found various ways, but one easy way is to
use the website http://zap2it.com. When the listings come up, I click on

"CLICK HERE TO VIEW YOUR LOCAL DIGITAL STATIONS"

and then hold the mouse over the call letters at the left side of the
screen. The XMLTVID's will show up, either under the mouse, or at the
bottom of the screen.

--
MM

casey.dunn at gmail

Dec 22, 2005, 8:31 AM

Post #3 of 6 (840 views)
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Re: basic ota hdtv questions [In reply to]

On 12/22/05, joe byrne <mythjoe [at] gmail> wrote:
>
> I just installed an air2pc card (the version with the bcm3510) to
> record atsc OTA. It coexists with an ivtv card and a bttv card, which
> both record OTA. Yes, I like variety. I'm running mythtv 18.1
> installed from rpms on FC4 with a 2.6.14 kernel. I'm in the US and
> use zap2it.
>
> I have some really basic questions:
> * Do I need a second zap2it line-up for the ota-hdtv input?

Further down you say you've got the HDTV line up allready?

* Some of the digital channels duplicate analog channels. Is there a
> way to equate the two? E.g., I have an analog channel 7 and a digital
> channel with the same programming.

I would guess, set the HD channel to a higher priority or delete the analog
channel.

* Is there a way to equate zap2it digital channels with the underscore
> (e.g. 7_1) with the channels added by scanning w/o the underscore
> (e.g. 71)?

Set their XMLTV id's to the same number in channel setup.

* Some of the digital channel numbers duplicate analog channel
> numbers, but carry different programming. E.g., I have a digital
> channel 11 (identified by scanning) and an analog channel 11 that seem
> to be completely unrelated. Will this cause a problem?

No, myth know's the difference.

* I plan to transcode recorded digital programs. Will digital programs
> in both 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios come out looking right given a
> single set of transcode parameters?

Transcoding appears to not add an aspect ratio flag to it's output files.

Likewise, will interlaced and
> noninterlaced content get transcoded to something that looks OK.
> Right now, straight off the air one of the two looks pretty cruddy
> when watching live tv.

I have no idea, I don't use live TV.

steve at clayfish

Dec 22, 2005, 10:05 AM

Post #4 of 6 (826 views)
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Re: basic ota hdtv questions [In reply to]

----- Original Message -----
From: joe byrne [mailto:mythjoe [at] gmail]
Sent: 12/22/2005 3:02:35 AM
To: mythtv-users [at] mythtv
Subject: [mythtv-users] basic ota hdtv questions

> I just installed an air2pc card (the version with the bcm3510) to
> record atsc OTA. It coexists with an ivtv card and a bttv card, which
> both record OTA. Yes, I like variety. I'm running mythtv 18.1
> installed from rpms on FC4 with a 2.6.14 kernel. I'm in the US and
> use zap2it.

I have the same card and recently set it up on a slave backend with FC4 and atrpms according to Jarod's guide.

>
> I have some really basic questions:
> * Do I need a second zap2it line-up for the ota-hdtv input?
> * Some of the digital channels duplicate analog channels. Is there a
> way to equate the two? E.g., I have an analog channel 7 and a digital
> channel with the same programming.
> * Is there a way to equate zap2it digital channels with the underscore
> (e.g. 7_1) with the channels added by scanning w/o the underscore
> (e.g. 71)?
> * Some of the digital channel numbers duplicate analog channel
> numbers, but carry different programming. E.g., I have a digital
> channel 11 (identified by scanning) and an analog channel 11 that seem
> to be completely unrelated. Will this cause a problem?

It took me awhile to wrap my head around this problem, but this suggestion from the linuxtv list worked for me:

http://www.linuxtv.org/pipermail/linux-dvb/2005-February/000342.html

The scanned hdtv channels from mythtvsetup have the tuning information and the zap2it hdtv channels have the program guide info. I would kill the backend before doing this. After matching the scanned channels to the corresponding zap2it channels, I copied serviceid, mplexid, and atscsrcid from the scanned channel to the zap2it channel in the channel table in the database. Instead of
hiding the scanned channels as the post suggests, I just deleted them, leaving the zap2it channels (5_1, 5_2, 17_1, etc.) Be sure to set a starting channel for the card to one that exists in mythtvsetup. I also changed the type for each zap2it channel to atsc in mythtvsetup - channel settings, since I was using a cable type as the default for the global backend setting.

That should leave you with your old analog channels and hdtv channels. I find it is good to have both for the same stations, in case my air2pc card is tied up recording another show I can still record another channel in analog. Myth just treats them as separate channels and knows which card to use.

I also ran into problems on reboot with this card. For lack of a better term, it had to "warm-up" a few minutes before starting the backend service, otherwise it would fail to tune in to the start-up channel, blank out the start-up channel and fail to start again until I ran mythtvsetup and put a start-up channel again. Apparently this is a problem with these first generation air2pc cards.

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casey.dunn at gmail

Dec 22, 2005, 10:34 AM

Post #5 of 6 (831 views)
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Re: basic ota hdtv questions [In reply to]

On 12/22/05, steve [at] clayfish <steve [at] clayfish> wrote:

> I also ran into problems on reboot with this card. For lack of a better
> term, it had to "warm-up" a few minutes before starting the backend service,
> otherwise it would fail to tune in to the start-up channel, blank out the
> start-up channel and fail to start again until I ran mythtvsetup and put a
> start-up channel again. Apparently this is a problem with these first
> generation air2pc cards.
>
>
Yea, that can be a pain, doesn't happen to me on every reboot but every so
often it stops recording. Also I have to copy the firmware into
/lib/firmware/[kernel version] because it's not incuded from the packager.

mythjoe at gmail

Dec 24, 2005, 8:55 PM

Post #6 of 6 (795 views)
Permalink

Re: basic ota hdtv questions [In reply to]

Thanks for all of the input, guys. I think I'm all set.

On 12/22/05, casey dunn <casey.dunn [at] gmail> wrote:
>
>
> On 12/22/05, steve [at] clayfish <steve [at] clayfish> wrote:
>
> > I also ran into problems on reboot with this card. For lack of a better
> term, it had to "warm-up" a few minutes before starting the backend service,
> otherwise it would fail to tune in to the start-up channel, blank out the
> start-up channel and fail to start again until I ran mythtvsetup and put a
> start-up channel again. Apparently this is a problem with these first
> generation air2pc cards.

Ugh. Let's hope I don't run into this. I've noticed surfing livetv
that it occasionally gives up.

> Yea, that can be a pain, doesn't happen to me on every reboot but every so
> often it stops recording. Also I have to copy the firmware into
> /lib/firmware/[kernel version] because it's not incuded from the packager.

I don't think I encountered this problem.

JB
Thanks for all of the input.
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