Author Topic: Anyone using MythTV outside the USA?  (Read 2595 times)

esev

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Anyone using MythTV outside the USA?
« on: October 19, 2010, 04:33:22 pm »
Like a lot of folks here using LinuxMCE I am living outside the USA and need to perform some manual setup of MythTV to get it working properly.  As you've probably already discovered, LinuxMCE tries to manage your TV capture cards within MythTV.  If you're like me, you first noticed this when LinuxMCE erases any changes you make to the capture cards within mythtv-setup.  The current solution for this is to select the "Dont Auto Configure" option on your MythTV Plug-in device.

This solution has a few problems.
  • If the capture cards are detected in a different order on your next boot (i.e. /dev/video0 becomes /dev/video1), LinuxMCE will no longer update MythTV with these settings
  • If new capture cards are added to your system, they are not automatically available in MythTV
  • If you create a new Media Director after selecting "Dont Auto Configure", mythfrontend dies after one minute

I'd like to make this better.  I think I can make a few changes to the MythTV Plugin such that you won't need to select "Dont Auto Configure" any more when making modifications directly inside mythtv-setup.  But before I do that, I need your help.  If you've had to enable the "Dont Auto Configure" option, could you describe why you needed to do that and how you've configured MythTV for your setup?

I'm specifically looking for information about how you defined your Video Sources and Input Connections and if you had to make any changes to the capture cards.  Also, were there any other reasons for selecting the "Dont Auto Configure" option beyond issues with Input Connections?

Thanks in advance for your input!
Eric
Eric Severance
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bongowongo

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Re: Anyone using MythTV outside the USA?
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2010, 04:39:33 pm »
My card is auto detected in my Core.
I log onto webadmin, and delete it, at media directors.
If linuxmce asks again to auto add it, I say, no never, do not ask.
Then I go into computing -> mythtv-setup.
I delete all entries, also linuxmce-default.
I add the card, and make all my manual entries, safe and wait for mythTV to do all it's stuff.
Then I reboot and check if everything works.
This is the only thing that works for me because I have no clue what linuxmce-default is doing, and I cannot make head or tails out of the manuals, I just do not get it.

esev

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Re: Anyone using MythTV outside the USA?
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2010, 05:21:33 pm »
Thank you very much for your reply.  I hadn't considered deleting the capture cards from LinuxMCE.  That would get around the mythfrontend dies after one minute issue.  Clever!

This is the only thing that works for me because I have no clue what linuxmce-default is doing, and I cannot make head or tails out of the manuals, I just do not get it.

You've hit on the issue exactly. :)  LMCE-Default is tricky.  It disappears if you add a second video source and it causes problems if you assign it to an input.  It's one of the parts of the MythTV Plugin that I'm aiming to fix and to make easier for all of us who have had to develop our own workarounds.

My plan is to tame the MythTV Plugin a bit and add a MythTV configuration page inside the Advanced->Configuration menu in the admin website.  From this page you'll have more fine-grained control over what LinuxMCE is doing with MythTV.  I'm hoping to take the feedback from this forum topic and use that to solve the specific issues people have been developing workarounds for.  So thanks much for your input!

Eric
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bongowongo

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Re: Anyone using MythTV outside the USA?
« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2010, 09:04:49 pm »
Not related at all, but from a user perspective it is.
I have problems with alsa 0.23 and Hauppauge 4000 and Pinnacle 310i.
Alsa gives problems, I have worked out a "work around", but is of course not user friendly.
Could you reproduce or give an insight if you have one?
http://svn.linuxmce.org/trac.cgi/ticket/756

P.S.
if you are going to digg in....in install I give my locale, that is The Netherlands.
Why is then default in mythTV NTSC? Would be nice if that would be PAL-BG :), just hinting eh.........