noproblem

How I built my mythtv box.

I had a few small issues building my box and had to follow serveral guides so I have put this together in the hope that someone will find it and it will be useful

Hardware

Asus Motherboard
Intel QuadCore Q8300
4GB DDR2 Ram
2 x 500GB WestenDigital HardDisks
Adaptec 1220SA Raid card
Nvidea 8300 PCIe Graphic card

This is not the quitest machine ever, I am thinking of finding a quiter PSU at somepoint in the future.

TV Tuner Cards

Hauppauge HVR 1200 PCI-e
Hauppauge TD-500 PCI (Dual Tuner)
Peak DVB-T Dual Tuner PCI 221544AGPK also known as Kworld DVB-T PC160-2T

Installing

I choose Mythbuntu - no realy reason but i needed to choose one Distro!
I was unable to use mythbuntu 9.10 as it didn't find any of my Drives. either using onboard sata or on the Raid card.
So I installed mythbuntu 9.04 then did a update to 9.10 before i did any other myth setups.

I also installed the restricted drivers for Nvidea cards

From most of my reading most things seem to need the lasted video4linux drivers installing. No idea if my system needs them or not so I installed them anyway!

http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/How_to_Obtain%2C_Build_and_Install_V4L-DVB_Device_Drivers

sudo apt-get install mercurial linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential
hg clone http://linuxtv.org/hg/v4l-dvb
cd v4l-dvb
make
sudo make install



Tuner Cards

Hauppauge HVR-1200 card doesn't work out of the box.
A run of dmesg show the following error:-

tda10048 firmware_upload: upload failed.

This is an easy card to get to work:-

http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-HVR-1700

sudo apt-get install unzip
wget http://steventoth.net/linux/hvr1700/HVR-12x0-14x0-17x0_1_25_25271_WHQL.zip
wget http://steventoth.net/linux/hvr1700/extract.sh
wget http://steventoth.net/linux/hvr1700/readme.txt
less readme.txt
/bin/sh extract.sh
sudo cp v4l-cx23885-enc.fw /lib/firmware
sudo cp v4l-cx23885-avcore-01.fw /lib/firmware
sudo cp dvb-fe-tda10048-1.0.fw /lib/firmware

Reboot!

There are verious reports of the Hauppauge TD-500 (Hauppauge T-500) working depending on the version

I could never get this card to work on my previous box HP DX2200 running mythbuntu 9.04. This box has since died so this could have either been a problem with mythbuntu 9.04 or my motherboard!

Both other cards worked stright away.



Configuring MythTV.

By far the best guide on the Internet is from Garry Parker

Only a few things I did differentally:-

I have never been able to get mythtv setup to find any TV channels, so create a channel.conf file and use that
http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Dvbscan

the guide refers to the wrong file locations for my system so this is the command i used:- (change uk-EmleyMoor to the transmitter you recive from)

scan -u /usr/share/dvb/dvb-t/uk-EmleyMoor > channels.conf

The only thing to make sure is the the card is not configured in myth or that mythbackend is not running otherwise the scan command will find no channels.


XMLTV Scheduling for the UK

2 Useful guides here:-
http://parker1.co.uk/mythtv_id.php
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Uk_xmltv

It also usful to note that the Radio Times XMLTV grabber doesn't use channel numbers so there is a bit of work needed to match everything up!

I didn't not use the mythtv-setup to run the grabber, mainly becuase I could only see half of the window it opened!

tv_grab_uk_rt --list-channels
~/.xmltv/tv_grab_uk_rt.conf

1. In mythtv-setup, add a Video Source Setup using the menu option 3 - choose UK Radio Times as the grabber script - do not run configure - name this any source you like, but remember the name exactly - you'll need in later on
2. exit mythtv-setup but DO NOT run mythfilldatabase on exit
3. Run the grabber script by executing the following:

tv_grab_uk_rt --configure
Select output format - default recommended
Select cache directory - default recommended
Enable title processing? - default recommended
Postcode - enter the first part of your postcode to get localised listings
Choose platform - Sky/Virgin/Freeview/etc.
Choose channels - you can answer yes/no/none/all - answer yes to process one at a time, however, if you want to select the majority, choose "all" then manually edit the file after the script finishes to remove the ones you don't want. NOTE: as at 06/11/09, the Community Channel causes errors in later processing if selected - i choose "all" then remove the Community Channel by manual edit after script has run.
You should see a list of channel titles scroll by, then a return to the prompt

cp ~/.xmltv/tv_grab_uk_rt.conf ~/.mythtv/Test.xmltv

For my years I have wanted to build my own MyTV box.

Finally I have done it and it works.

I got a comptable card for my birthday last year and tried to get it to work (and failed) with mythbuntu 9.04. I found a few other cards about and tried them and had it half working.

Since mythbuntu 9.10 is out I've tried again and it all works. All the cards work and work well.

To follow is a post on how i got all my cards to work becuase I figure other people my be trying to make it work too!

Having now seen the Beta of Windows 7, and it looks realy good, lets hope it stays that way!

I was at a CISCO bootcamp yesterday and the Trainer told us about RFC 1149. I realy think we should use connections that follow this standard. I think it would solve a lot of our comuncations problems!

Read the whole RFC here; RFC 1149

One day last week Lesa went shopping (no surprises there) and when I got home she wanted to show me her latest time saving gadget that everyone should have which we have so how or other not already got. She started to tell me about, like this.....

"I know I don't wear tights but I thought it would be really useful...."

and the proceeded to produce a from a shopping bag a Tight Ladderer Repairer.

I which to point out that in the last 6 days it not been used.

For those people who don't have a tight ladderer repairer other methods of repairing tights involve:-

1. Buy some new ones!
2. Nail varnish I am told stops ladders growing
3. Permanent marker pen that matches the colour of your tights could also be used to colour in where the ladders are so its not noticeable.

I am a big fan of BBC Radio 4 and I enjoy listing to several programs on it and my car radio stays tuned to BBC Radio 4. However do to one reason and another I miss programs I enjoy. I always intend to investigate the BBC Podcast service and embrace this new technology that has passed me by over the last few years. So that when I am out and about I can listen to my favorite programs in the car at a time that suits me

As for the last few years I have carried around a device that will also function as a MP3 player, I've yet to use it as one! I know everyone always think's I am realy good with these devices but I am realy not.

With some help (or not as the case might be) from George and Charlie I have downloaded this weeks Friday night Comedy as an MP3's from the BBC Radio 4 podcast site and now the next step is to put them onto my phone and then with a bit of wiring (the bit I am good at) I should be able to listen to them in the car.

I'm also sure that I can download them automatically so I don't miss one! That's my next challenge but I think its best if I do that on my laptop!

Watch this space for a progress (or lack of) report.......

Last week I was at the Microsoft TechNet Road Show. Here are a couple of things about Windows Mobile 6 which I think are very useful and things I had not yet found. No dobut all my readers will either fall into 2 groups, 1. Those who have no idea what I am on about and hence do not care, or 2. Those who think these are realy cool and have already found them out!

1. Hot keys for Messaging
Press and hold the H key and the following list of hotkey are displayed. This is saving so much of my time in clicking though menus

H - Lost Shortcuts
A - Reply All
R - Reply
K - Mark Read/Unread
F - Flag
M - Move
O - Forward
D - Deletes
L - Download Message
S - Send/Receive


2. Server Search
I already reley on Windows Search in Outlook to find info that I know is in my e-mails. Server Search allows me to search my mailbox even though I only keep 10 days of e-mails on my phone. Unforntally when Jason tryed to demo it at the road show it didn't work, however I can confirm that it does work and its fantastic.

Server search is found:-
Menu -> Tools -> Search Server

I think a bit of training for George and Charlie might be in order.......

New Trick

This is fantastic.

http://www.b3ta.com/links/Mirror_prank

How often do you realy want to do this?

http://www.eyegas.com/cubiclefreakout/