Topics

1

Users / DCERouter Issue: TV Tuner Channel Control

« on: March 11, 2018, 10:21:09 pm »

Hi. I have put my pipe routing issue on hold for a while and am now trying to get the embedded tuner device on my LG TV to work with my Microsoft MCE remote.

Things generally work. The LMCE controls power over RS232, the AVR switches inputs correctly, and the TV is switched to the digital tuner over RS232. I am using the internal speakers for sound. I can change volume and the number buttons work for tuning. However, I cannot get the channel +/- buttons to respond.

I don't think the device template is the problem. The SendKey function that is used works fine for some functions, just not the channel buttons. The device template is #2126. Also sending the command <$ "ka 01 00\r"$> directly to serial port also works flawlessly. That rules out the serial connection.

The best I can tell, the router is recieving the command from the USBIRT device but is not forwarding it on to the television. Please see the snippet below from DCERouter.log:

Code: [Select]


08      03/11/18 16:56:26.570           Received Message from 136 (^[[36;1mUSB UIRT 0038 / Living Room/Family Room^[[0m) to 155 (^[[36;1mTuner - Digital - L\
iveTV/Tuner / Living Room/Family Room^[[0m), type 1 id 90 Command:^[[35;1mVol Down^[[0m, retry none, parameters: <0xa7ca9b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:26.570             Parameter 41(StreamID): 1007 <0xa7ca9b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:26.570           Forwarding 90 Command:^[[35;1mVol Down^[[0m up pipe to 154 (^[[36;1mLG RS232 (newer models)^[[0m) <0xb60e6b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:26.650           Received Message from 136 (^[[36;1mUSB UIRT 0038 / Living Room/Family Room^[[0m) to 10 (^[[36;1mMedia Plug-in / Livi\
ng Room/Family Room^[[0m), type 1 id 90 Command:^[[35;1mVol Down^[[0m, retry none, parameters: <0x96c87b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:26.651           Received Message from 136 (^[[36;1mUSB UIRT 0038 / Living Room/Family Room^[[0m) to 155 (^[[36;1mTuner - Digital - L\
iveTV/Tuner / Living Room/Family Room^[[0m), type 1 id 90 Command:^[[35;1mVol Down^[[0m, retry none, parameters: <0xa7ca9b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:26.651             Parameter 41(StreamID): 1007 <0xa7ca9b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:26.651           Forwarding 90 Command:^[[35;1mVol Down^[[0m up pipe to 154 (^[[36;1mLG RS232 (newer models)^[[0m) <0xb60e6b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:26.762           Received Message from 136 (^[[36;1mUSB UIRT 0038 / Living Room/Family Room^[[0m) to 10 (^[[36;1mMedia Plug-in / Livi\
ng Room/Family Room^[[0m), type 1 id 90 Command:^[[35;1mVol Down^[[0m, retry none, parameters: <0x96c87b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:26.763           Received Message from 136 (^[[36;1mUSB UIRT 0038 / Living Room/Family Room^[[0m) to 155 (^[[36;1mTuner - Digital - L\
iveTV/Tuner / Living Room/Family Room^[[0m), type 1 id 90 Command:^[[35;1mVol Down^[[0m, retry none, parameters: <0xa7ca9b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:26.763             Parameter 41(StreamID): 1007 <0xa7ca9b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:26.763           Forwarding 90 Command:^[[35;1mVol Down^[[0m up pipe to 154 (^[[36;1mLG RS232 (newer models)^[[0m) <0xb60e6b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:28.773           Received Message from 136 (^[[36;1mUSB UIRT 0038 / Living Room/Family Room^[[0m) to 10 (^[[36;1mMedia Plug-in / Livi\
ng Room/Family Room^[[0m), type 1 id 65 Command:^[[35;1mJump Position In Playlist^[[0m, retry none, parameters: <0x96c87b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:28.773             Parameter 5(Value To Assign): +1 <0x96c87b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:28.773           Received Message from 136 (^[[36;1mUSB UIRT 0038 / Living Room/Family Room^[[0m) to 155 (^[[36;1mTuner - Digital - L\
iveTV/Tuner / Living Room/Family Room^[[0m), type 1 id 63 Command:^[[35;1mSkip Fwd - Channel/Track Greater^[[0m, retry none, parameters: <0xa7ca9b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:28.774             Parameter 5(Value To Assign): +1 <0xa7ca9b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:28.774             Parameter 41(StreamID): 1007 <0xa7ca9b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:29.551           Received Message from 136 (^[[36;1mUSB UIRT 0038 / Living Room/Family Room^[[0m) to 10 (^[[36;1mMedia Plug-in / Livi\
ng Room/Family Room^[[0m), type 1 id 65 Command:^[[35;1mJump Position In Playlist^[[0m, retry none, parameters: <0x96c87b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:29.551             Parameter 5(Value To Assign): +1 <0x96c87b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:29.552           Received Message from 136 (^[[36;1mUSB UIRT 0038 / Living Room/Family Room^[[0m) to 155 (^[[36;1mTuner - Digital - L\
iveTV/Tuner / Living Room/Family Room^[[0m), type 1 id 63 Command:^[[35;1mSkip Fwd - Channel/Track Greater^[[0m, retry none, parameters: <0xa7ca9b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:29.552             Parameter 5(Value To Assign): +1 <0xa7ca9b40>
08      03/11/18 16:56:29.552             Parameter 41(StreamID): 1007 <0xa7ca9b40>

In the log, you can see the router recieving the volume commands and forwarding them to the TV. After that, you can see that it is also seeing the channel + commands but is not forwarding them. At least that is how I interepret the log.

Am I correct? Suggestions please.

Thanks,

CDM

2

Installation issues / AV Pipe Settings for Embedded TV Tuner

« on: March 02, 2018, 01:09:21 am »

 I finally got rid of my CRT television and bought an LG LCD TV with RS232 Control. Serial control is working and I can reliably turn it on and off when using media scenarios that come from the media director.

I am trying to enable LiveTV using the embedded tuner as input. The problem is that I can't seem to get the pipes right. The Audio pipe from the tuner is routed to the TV input of the Denon receiver and the video output of the tuner is routed to the Digital Tuner input of the TV. See the attached image

When I switch to the LiveTV scenario. LMCE switches the TV to its embedded tuner input but then switches back immediately to the HDMI input coming from my AVR.

As always, any advice would be appreciated...

CDM

3

Installation issues / Mythtv Channel Icons

« on: February 14, 2018, 02:45:24 am »

From my post this evening on IRC:

Hi...is there any advice on how to download and install icons for mythtv. I ran mythtv-setup as user mythic but no luck. I have also tried copying icons to the channels directory for users root, mythtv and the one in /etc/mythtv. icons are owned as mythtv:mythtv, the same user that runs mythbackend. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Thanks,

CDM

4

Users / Current Z-Wave Controllers

« on: March 21, 2017, 08:11:48 pm »

Is Z-Wave still the way to go for control of lighting, climate, and security devices? If yes, what is the currently recommended controller? A lot of the ones in the wiki seem difficult to find. There are a number of MiCasaVerde Vera-lite controllers on ebay, and this is referenced in the Wiki in the Dianemo entry but the device template referenced (2060) does not exist on my system. Aeon Labs does not appear in the manufaturer drop down. What are people using?

Thanks,

CDM

5

Installation issues / PnP Install Broken for Phoenix USB Solo Mic

« on: February 24, 2017, 05:35:20 pm »

Today I tried adding a Phoenix USB Solo microphone to my new diskless MD but it has not been detected. Further, the installation is also not working on my hybrid/core, though it has previously under 14.04. I think the problem is as follows:

Code: [Select]

root@moon82:/usr/pluto/bin# cat SoundCards_Setup_PhoenixUSB.sh
#!/bin/sh

##
## Setup Script for the Phoenix Solo USB microphone && Duet USB speaker/microphone.
##
## TODO: Store volume values in Device's DD
##

## MDs AudioSettings parameter isn't used at all. This is a
## completely separate device from the main sound in an MD.

CARDID=$(aplay -l | grep Phnx | awk '{ print $2 }' | cut -d':' -f1)

amixer -c "$CARDID" sset "PCM",0 50 >/dev/null
amixer -c "$CARDID" sset "Speaker",0 44 >/dev/null
amixer -c "$CARDID" sset "Mic",0 50 >/dev/null

root@moon82:/usr/pluto/bin#

The script looks for a soundcard with "Phnx" in the description that is returned by aplay. However, the card returns "AK4571" as shown below.

Code: [Select]

root@moon82:/usr/pluto/bin# aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 1: ALC888 Digital [ALC888 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: AK4571 [AK4571], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
root@moon82:/usr/pluto/bin#

Should I just modify the script to trigger on "AK4571?" Have I found a bug? How could the value returned by the card have changed? I thought that this was in the firmware of the usb device. This mic has worked for me previously.

Comments welcome.

CDM

6

Installation issues / Video Card Recommendations?

« on: February 15, 2017, 03:05:38 pm »

I am still working on getting my new diskless MD to work at 1080i with my Sony CRT TV. In an earlier post I reported that the install would not complete with an older nVidia Geforce 7300 card, apparently because of incompatibility with current drivers. I am also having difficulty with my onboard Intel graphics, which I believe to be specific to my MB. I would like to try a new nVidia card. Before I purchase, I thought it would be good to get a recommendation from the community. I know a lot of compatibility information used to be in the wiki but it is hard to discern what is current.

My options are:

GeForce 8400
GeForce GT 710
GeForce 210

All are low end cards, costing about $30 before rebates, $15 to $20 after.

The most important thing for me to be able to set the video mode to 1080i using xorg.conf, overriding EDID information, as I have with my core that uses Intel graphics. I tried an ATI card yesterday but this does not seem possible with the proprietary driver that is installed by default. I did try to create my own EDID file, using info from another monitor, as advised in various forms, without success. At this point I just want something that is known to work.

Is anyone setting video modes using xorg.conf with one of the cards listed above? Otherwise what are recommendations?

Thanks,

CDM

7

Installation issues / Diskless Client MythTV Setup

« on: February 12, 2017, 07:11:48 pm »

Upon starting MythTV on my new diskless client, I was taken to the language setup screen but could not seem to escape from this configuration step without hitting cancel. There was no way to watch TV or recordings with MythTV.

Doing some research, I followed the instructions here:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/347967/mythtv-cannot-connect-to-database

They required me to enter the IP address of the core in some configuration files and to manually copy the database password from the core to the relevant files for the diskless MD.

All is good now but I think that this should have happened automatically, as part of the install, as it has with historical versions of LMCE.

Should I submit a ticket for this?

CDM

8

Installation issues / Installing Diskless MDs

« on: February 10, 2017, 06:38:22 pm »

I am running a single 1404 hybrid, which I installed over the Internet. I now want to install a diskless MD. Previously, in 810, I needed to run the following prior to connecting the MD to the network:

Code: [Select]

/usr/pluto/bin/Diskless_CreateTBZ.sh

Is this still the case? Does running it hurt anything if the system is already configured to boot diskless clients?

Thanks,

CDM

9

Users / Need Advice for Diskless MD running UI2

« on: December 14, 2016, 01:50:31 am »

I am getting ready to expand my 1404 system and need advice for a new diskless MD that I hope to boot from my 1404 hybrid core.

My old system used old SFF desktop machines with Intel x86 processors and they worked without fuss, at the expense of a larger machine with more power consumption and a bit of noise.  I could go this way again but other options may have developed in the intervening years.

The primary goal is for a fully functional MD, running UI2, with good performance and support for all LMCE functions: cameras, telecom, MythTV, etc. If I can achieve this in a smaller, cheaper package, without fuss, great. If not, I'd rather take the conservative route to the goal.

Rpi systems don't seem like an option in terms of UI2 and other functions. What about Intel ATOM systems? AMD? Others?

Please provide advice and experiences here.

I'm sorry for the post, there are patches of info in the wiki and forums but it is hard to discern what the current recommendations are.

Thanks,

CDM

10

Installation issues / Preferred Backup Method & MythTV

« on: September 15, 2016, 03:50:55 am »

This past weekend I did a restore of my LMCE installation from a system disc image previously captured using Clonezilla. Everything worked fine except that I had to set the backend IP addresses in mythtv-setup. Where 192.168.80.1 was used, I changed it to 127.0.0.1. Though the external IP had not changed, the install was broken and this fixed it in terms of allowing for viewing of live TV.

The "Don't Auto Configure" box is checked in the WebAdmin screen for the MythTV plugin.

Is this related to the restoration? Is Clonezilla a recommended way to backup and restore?

Otherwise, mythtv seems to break periodically, after weeks or days. Is this normal?

11

Installation issues / No Audio for .mov files

« on: September 06, 2016, 12:51:26 am »

Hi, I have just restored an archive of movie files that worked previously on my old 810 system. Video is fine for all but some of the .mov files don't have audio. I suspect that some codecs associated with QuickTime are missing. Are there any suggestions?

CDM

12

Installation issues / 14.04 Installation - More Minor Issues

« on: August 26, 2016, 12:58:01 am »

My 14.04 Installation has proven to be very usable in spite of some persistent minor issues. In each case I have reviewed the wiki as well as explored the installation in order to troubleshoot. I hope that I am not posting too much; my intention is to ask the community only were I am unable to flush out solutions on my own. I completely accept that LMCE is a project rather than a product, and that figuring things out is part of the fun. Solutions and clues equally welcome in response to my questions.

My current issues are as follows:

1. Mythfrontend does not save settings. I have changed a few things in the front end, in particular the scaling of the video image as negative percents. These parameters are not saved, even when I exit the frontend setup gracefully.

2. Cannot install a Logitech Quickcam. There is a wiki page for this here:

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Logitech_QuickCam_Sphere

I followed the instructions, substituting "**PWC Camera Drivers" for "PWC Camera Drivers" in the instructions. Only the ** version appeared in the dropdown when building the device template. The motion wrapper seems to work fine: I get a grey square with some text overlayed when I choose the camera in the Security scenario. The LED on the camera does not illuminate, as it did when I have this same camera connected to my old 810 installation. I think this means that the camera driver is not working.

3. The system has still not discovered my Denon 2307 receiver over RS-232. The discovery script does not seem to be running. How can I initiate it? As indicated by Phenigma in an earlier post, there is a question about the syntax in the discovery script, assuming that I can get the script to run again.

Thanks,

CDM

13

Installation issues / Does the WebDT 366 work with 1404?

« on: August 14, 2016, 03:55:11 pm »

I have a WebDT 366 loaded with the webpad orbiter image, previously associated with my old 810 system. It has not been used in years. I have revived it but it is not seen by my new 1404 installation. Following the instructions on the wiki, I have updated the wireless settings but still no luck. Questions are:

1. Should this work?
2. Is there an updated version of the image that should work?
3. Following the link on the wiki, the image is no longer posted. Is it still available?
4. What are suggested next steps?

Currently, the pad is charged, boots the old image without errors and stops with the LMCE splash screen and an X Windows cursor that responds to the touch pad.

Thanks,

CDM

14

Installation issues / Zoom & Aspect Controls In Xine Not Working

« on: August 12, 2016, 03:14:41 am »

When playing a video and selecting the Zoom & Aspect button, the UI correctly shows the options but they are not responsive when selected. I am thinking that this could be a bug.

CDM

15

Installation issues / Video Quality & Sound with Intel Drivers

« on: August 08, 2016, 12:41:09 am »

I have just gotten my new 14.04 installation to drive my Sony CRT television at 1080i but still have a few issues.

LMCE is working fine. I ran the AVWizard to resize the UI and specified sound over HDMI. The UI comes up and seems just as it should.

I think I have problems at a few levels:

1. Video Content is Dark: Is there a gamma or brightness adjustment in Xine, Xwindows, or perhaps in the Intel driver? I just need to brighten things up a bit. Cranking the brightness on the TV adds detail to the dark areas but washes out the brighter ones.

2. Video Tearing: Tearing is apparent when the video content changes quickly. I expect this is a driver issue, though I specified the intel driver in my xorg.conf. I will try switching back to the "fbdev" driver. Does anyone know the difference? Any other ideas? My old system, with the GeForce 6200 looked way better.

3. Horizontal Distortion: There is a slight horizontal wiggle in the CRT scan that happens when bright content transitions through a few lines of video. One possibility is that I may need to tweak my modeline. I used the ATSC timings as a start but there seem to be many variations for 1080i. Another possibility is that my attempt to pass sound over HDMI is somehow screwing up the video.

4. Sound Not Working: Sound is not coming over HDMI. Just a loud static. Sound works great on the HDMI output of my cable box and I run it into the TV exactly the same way. I said "yes" to DTS in the AVWizard. Any links or tips on this?

Once again, any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,

CDM