[GRLUG] MythTV

[Chris Wieringa]

>> I have a PVR-500MCE and can't seem to get Myth  to make it run.
>> all i get is snow on it. It does record snow even (yeah) and will play
>> back.

The fact that you are getting snow indicates that most likely the kernel
recognizes the card, and MythTV is able to open it at least.  My guess is that
MythTV has some incorrect settings in it.  However, I will point you to
http://www.ivtvdriver.org/ for the latest kernel modules for the PVR-500MCE,
and for the suggested firmware versions.  Also, included in the download are
some tools that you might be able to use for troubleshooting your card, like
ivtv-tune and ivtvctl.

For example, tune the card to channel 3 and dump a few seconds of video to a
file (assuming your card is /dev/video0)
ivtv-tune -c 3 -d /dev/video0
cat /dev/video0 > test.mpg  (Ctrl+C after a few seconds)

You should be able to open the test.mpg file in any video player that can
playback MPEG2 files.

>> does anyone have suggestions.
> 
> Check all your settings (there are a LOT of them).
> Make sure you have all US settings (NTSC, etc.).
> Make sure you have the correct input selected on the card.

I agree -  I would get rid of all your tuner card settings and set it all back
up again.  Try running the mythtv-setup program (while your backend and
frontend are shutdown).  Pay particular attention to the tuner type, and which
input you bind your channel listings to.

>> I installed off a Knoppmyth CD from July i believe.

I personally don't like the KnoppMyth releases, I would recommend Jarod
Wilson's guide at http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/ for setting up a Fedora Core 5
install from scratch.

>> I am looking for a starting point for troubleshooting it.
>> I have a friend at work that is working over two of them and he's having
>> other issues but it seems to me that MythTV has become unstable in the
>> last few months as a product...
> 
> I'm a long time MythTV user, and I'm subscribed to the MythTV mailing
> list, and I wouldn't call it unstable now.
> 
> They recently had a major new release (0.20), and there were some bugs
> (to be expected), but the bugs seem to be relatively minor from what I
> gathered from reading the list (I haven't upgraded myself yet).

I have been running MythTV since 2003 (I believe it was the 0.12 or 0.13
release), and am on my second set of hardware.  Upon upgrading to 0.20, I
decided to reset my database to start out fresh for the first time since my
initial install.  It only took me about an hour to re-configure my tuners
(PVR-250, pcHDTV HD-3000) and get my listings, etc sorted out.  I have to say
that 0.20 is probably the most stable MythTV release that I've ever run - and
I've upgraded as each new version came out.  I would highly recommend it as an
upgrade for anyone at older versions.

Chris Wieringa