06.20.07

rawr

Posted in life, mythtv at 6:06 pm by microwave_safe

So, I impulsivly bought a mini exercise trampoline. It was on clearance for 20$ and I wasn’t sure if the other ones would fit in my car. This one requires some assembly. It’s elastic straps instead of springs. I have to basically fold it in half and open it like a clam and “snap” it together. It’s really not working like that. I’m sure it was returned because someone couldn’t get it together. There is a lot of tension in it. I’m not giving up. The directions call for 3 people to assemble it, so we’ll see.

On another grr note, Datadirect and Zap2It are discontinuing their tv guide service. This means unless an alternative is found, my mythtv guide will stop working in September. grr.. *sigh* that’s life

05.05.07

Mythweb

Posted in mythtv at 4:19 pm by microwave_safe

So, I’m loving my mythtv setup. I decided it would be awesome to run mythweb on it, so I can schedule from my browser and also allow Dan to schedule and view while he is away. I finally got my apache settings correct (I think). The only problem I keep having is it will lose connection after an hour or so. This is not good for a webserver. I think it is because I’m using an rt61 based wireless card. I’ve decided to buy a (hopefully) better wireless card to remedy this situation and make it useful as a webserver. If it keeps dropping with the new card, I’m not sure what the problem is.

04.22.07

MythTv rocks

Posted in mythtv at 11:39 am by microwave_safe

Sorry for the delay, I’ve been busy and not in the mood to type (since that is what i do all day at work).

Well, i got mythtv working. I installed gentoo, had to fight with the kernel modules to get my capture card working. Even though I2C doesn’t seem important at the time, it is needed for bus and capture card support. Got my Digital audio out through the optical going to the receiver so i now can listen to Dolby digital from my shows. I had to change some ALSA settings, i can’t remember which ones. Got the remote setup. I bought a StreamZap. I had to put the config file in the .mythtv/lircrc file of my mythuser. Took me forever to find this out.. but it works now. Some of the keymappings are off, b/c the programs share keys. I may fix it sometime. I’ve also been trying to get the video to go from DVI to HDMI on my tv and look nice. The TV can’t seem to handle 1920×1080. It wants to go to 1920×540. It will also show 1290×720, but with the vga cable i get 1392×768, which looks better than the DVI, so i guess i will live for the moment. Plus I get lots of overscan with the DVI.

Overall everything works well. It commercial skips. A couple channels have overscan and it tears sometimes, but i think it is stable enough to use now.

04.07.07

mythtv woes

Posted in linux, mythtv at 10:20 pm by microwave_safe

So, I decided to get an RT61 based wireless card for my mythbox. I don’t want to be constantly tripping over wires. The only thing is I need to build the kernel module for it. Knoppmyth doesn’t come with the sources. I finally was able to download the sources after hunting the forums. I compiled the module and tried to load it. It wouldn’t load, something about not being the correct type of modules or the sources or something. I also want to get my SPDIF out working.

So ends my Knoppmyth trials. It’s a very good distro and many things work right out the box. I want something I can control and I love portage. If I can’t get gentoo working nicely easily, I’ll try something else. This is going to be a 2 month project to get it all working correctly and nicely.

04.01.07

MythTv and cable

Posted in mythtv at 5:16 pm by microwave_safe

I hooked up my cable to my mythtv box. After some fiddling, i was able to get select channels. I could see the HD OTA channels comcast Baltimore City has, plus a few others. i think i was using QAM-256 HCR high. I think i need to get the low part of HCR to see the others. At this moment, i think i’ll just stick with the HD OTA from my antenna.

I bought a wireless card and sound card with SPDIF out. Once i get these installed, I’m sure my experience will be better.

MythTv Setup

Posted in mythtv at 11:48 am by admin

My tuner card came yesterday for my mythtv box. I bought the pchdtv HD-5500. It is made specifically for linux, so i have high hopes. I’m a fan of supporting companies who support linux. I installed a gigabit card and a new hard drive in the box while adding the capture card.

I’m using Knoppmyth. The setup was a breeze. Just make sure it detects your hard drive first as hda and not the cdrom drives. After some struggle, i got it plugged into my tv and receiving broadcasts. I ran mythtv-setup when it was not connected to the antenna, so i had to figure out how to do that again.

I then realized I need to get a sound card with SPDIF out to go to my receiver. Right now I’m not getting any sound out of it. I’m also not getting the highest quality of picture. I need to get a DVI to HDMI plug and try it on my tv. Currently I’m just using VGA.

I think I’m going to try to split my signal from both the antenna and the cable into a switch on the card, or just buy a new card for cable. My cable isn’t the best quality, so I’m not sure yet. I’m not even sure it will pick up on my cable. I want to watch tv and record, so I think having the line split, one to the tv and one to the box, to the tv, will be the easiest route. So I need to buy some coax and splitters also.

We are going to rewire the apartment with cat6, but where the box would sit is inconvenient, so i also need to buy a wireless card. I put in the gigabit card for nothing…oh well..

Once I play with it more and get the guide set up and configured, I’ll have more details. right now it lags when the guide is on. I need to learn the key mappings as well.

03.29.07

Electronic Lust

Posted in linux, mythtv at 6:49 pm by admin

I received a nice raise at work this year, so we decided to buy some electronics we did not really need immediately. We decided we needed a new router, since our current one is 4+ years old. Dan bought a nice Gigabit wireless N router. I decided since we are getting gigabit, we should do it all the way and get some Cat6. I ordered 1000ft of purple Cat6 with tips and crimper. Last I checked the cat6 was on backorder. What sucks is that my ethernet cord broke when we got the new router, so I really need the cable.

We also decided, since we have a nice box just sitting around, to make a mythtv PVR out of it. I ordered a linux compatible capture card from pchdtv. It hasn’t arrived yet. I bought a DVI to DVI cable, but it seems my tv only has a VGA and HDMI port, so I’m not sure what I am going to do there. I’m unsure of how to get sound out of it. I ordered a remote, it came today. I’m also unsure about the digital cable. Once i get the card, I’ll can start playing and figure this stuff out. I’m going to use Knoppmyth since it seems like the least painful method. I’ll keep updating as things progress.