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comcast dta remedial help

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mysmartev at gmail

Jul 31, 2010, 9:06 PM

Post #1 of 7 (355 views)
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comcast dta remedial help

Hi Folks,

I am trying to setup my lovely comcast DTA's with my PVR500 and I must
overlooking something obvious. It is a DCI1011COM and is working fine on a
regular TV. The PVR500 is also able to see the few channels that still
work. However I can not get anything other than static on Myth from the DTA
when I connect it and try to configure myth. I know I will need to get an
IR signal to change the channels, but I can't even see anything yet.

Can anyone help with a detailed procedure as to what to do with the grabber,
channel lineup, etc...? I thought it would have been as simple as set the
"preset tuner to channel" 3 and then I could use the remote for the DTA to
change channels as the first step in getting this working.

I love my Mythtv, but oh man is it a time sucking abyss every so often.

Thanks.

Nathan.

mythtv at derdev

Aug 1, 2010, 4:29 AM

Post #2 of 7 (333 views)
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Re: comcast dta remedial help [In reply to]

On Sat, 31 Jul 2010 23:06:58 -0500, Nathan S <mysmartev [at] gmail> wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> I am trying to setup my lovely comcast DTA's with my PVR500 and I must
> overlooking something obvious. It is a DCI1011COM and is working fine
on a
> regular TV. The PVR500 is also able to see the few channels that still
> work. However I can not get anything other than static on Myth from the
> DTA
> when I connect it and try to configure myth. I know I will need to get
an
> IR signal to change the channels, but I can't even see anything yet.
>
> Can anyone help with a detailed procedure as to what to do with the
> grabber,
> channel lineup, etc...? I thought it would have been as simple as set
the
> "preset tuner to channel" 3 and then I could use the remote for the DTA
to
> change channels as the first step in getting this working.
>
> I love my Mythtv, but oh man is it a time sucking abyss every so often.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Nathan.

Hi,

So if you're using the coax patch cable from the DTA to the PVR 500, then
you'll only be able to get one DTA/channel source working. There was
recently a thread here about trying to use demuxers or some sort of device
to combine the signals from two DTAs onto one input line - that's out of my
league, please check the archives in the last 3 weeks.

I *think* you need to specify a valid channel change script, whether you
use it or not (noting that you want to use your remote to settle in).

When I was trying to validate my similar kit, I used 'vlc' to watch the
/dev/video0 stream, just to convince myself that the DTA signal was being
properly rendered. Once I saw that /dev/video0 was providing content, it
was only moderately challenging to get lineups working.

Can you confirm good picture on /dev/video0 (or whatever device number
you know to be your PVR 500)

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wepprop at gmail

Aug 1, 2010, 5:54 AM

Post #3 of 7 (331 views)
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Re: comcast dta remedial help [In reply to]

If you're trying to run two DTA's into a PVR-500, this thread
describes a method for doing so:

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/419001#419001

This article may also be useful in a general way:

http://regx.dgswa.com/html/node/134

You must use whatever lineup provides you with the channel numbers
that the DTA expects. So, if TCM (to pick a channel) used to be on
analog channel 39, but now you have to enter channel '256' into the
DTA remote to get TCM, then you need the lineup that has TCM on
channel 256. It's probably something like 'Comcast Digital Cable' or
the like. You will, of course, have to edit out the channels that you
do not get.
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wepprop at gmail

Aug 1, 2010, 7:03 AM

Post #4 of 7 (326 views)
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Re: comcast dta remedial help [In reply to]

Oh, looking ahead, if your DTA has a jack for a remote IR receiver,
it's possible to connect your IR blaster output to the DTA IR receiver
using an optoisolator or something similar in between as a buffer.
See this thread for a discussion of using optoisolators:

http://forums.tivo.com/pe/action/forums/displaythread?postID=10435840&ie=x#e10435840

or this thread for a discussion of using a MOSFET transistor:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=430994

The latter has a link to a circuit diagram detailed in the thread:

http://grayeng.net/TiVotoComcast.htm

You might have to check to see if the latter circuit works with your
device. The optoisolator circuit should work with an device, I should
think.
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huffcslists at gmail

Aug 1, 2010, 9:23 AM

Post #5 of 7 (326 views)
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Re: comcast dta remedial help [In reply to]

Have bought one of the channel 4 combiners myself and testing the
combined output fed into a tv looks like it's working. Now I'm
working on getting the IR control set up -- having trouble with
software for IguanaIR ATM. In the meantime, built one of the FET
transistor blaster to receiver IR eliminator cables, but won't know if
I got it right until I can blast something.

Craig.
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Aug 1, 2010, 5:54 PM

Post #6 of 7 (314 views)
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Re: comcast dta remedial help [In reply to]

Clarification: Meant to say that I'm not seeing any interference
between the DTA feeding on channel 3 through the "antenna" input of
the channel 4 combiner to the TV and the other DTA feeding on channel
4 to the TV ;-)

Craig.
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eric at lisaneric

Aug 2, 2010, 6:36 AM

Post #7 of 7 (284 views)
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Re: comcast dta remedial help [In reply to]

On Sun, Aug 1, 2010 at 12:06 AM, Nathan S <mysmartev [at] gmail> wrote:
> Can anyone help with a detailed procedure as to what to do with the grabber,
> channel lineup, etc...? I thought it would have been as simple as set the
> "preset tuner to channel" 3 and then I could use the remote for the DTA to
> change channels as the first step in getting this working.
>
> I love my Mythtv, but oh man is it a time sucking abyss every so often.

The other posts on this thread don't seem to be offering any helpful
information for your actual problem.
You don't need to worry about hooking up IR, or using two DTAs until
you get at least one working.

I'd recommend that you start by making sure that the hardware is
working without involving MythTV at all first. Follow the trouble
shooting guidelines here:

http://ivtvdriver.org/index.php/Troubleshooting

After using ivtv-tune and ivtvctl to select the right input and
channel for your DTA, you should be able to just do cat /dev/video0 |
mplayer and see the output of the DTA. If not, there's not much point
in worrying about Myth.

Eric
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