MythTV Freesat

Introduction
This page contains my notes on setting up MythTV with DVB-S/S2 Freesat in the UK. This is my second MythTV server, which follows on from the page MythTV_Paully.

My initial impressions are "this is not a walk in the park, and a lot harder than standard DVB-T".


 * Installation Medium: Mythbuntu 9.10 CD
 * Installation Date: Thursday 24 December 2009
 * MythTV Version: 0.22.20091023-1

Package: mythtv Versions: 0.22.0+fixes22594-0ubuntu1
 * 1) apt-cache showpkg mythtv

MythTV Version  : 22594 MythTV Branch   : branches/release-0-22-fixes Network Protocol : 50 Library API     : 0.22.20091023-1 QT Version      : 4.5.2
 * 1) mythfrontend --version

Setup
All these notes relate to my setup...
 * Mythbuntu 9.10
 * MythTV 0.22
 * NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 185.18.36  Fri Aug 14 17:35:21 PDT 2009
 * Asus M4A785TD-M EVO Motherboard
 * Asus BIOS Version 0807 (09/04/09)
 * ATI Radeon HD 4200 Graphics (onboard)
 * NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS (G72) 512Mb (PCI-E)
 * Hauppauge Nova-HD-S2 PCI TV Card (Hauppauge WinTV-HVR4000(Lite) DVB-S/S2 [card=69,autodetected])

Problems From The Start

 * Buzzing sound all the time (still unresolved)
 * TV card not scanning (firmware fix for this below)

Hauppauge Nova-HD-S2 Firmware Bug Fix
sudo apt-get install unzip wget http://www.wintvcd.co.uk/drivers/88x_2_124_27191_1_WHQL.zip unzip -jo 88x_2_124_27191_1_WHQL.zip Driver88/hcw88bda.sys sudo dd if=hcw88bda.sys of=/lib/firmware/dvb-fe-cx24116-1.26.90.0.fw skip=105768 bs=1 count=32674 sudo mv /lib/firmware/dvb-fe-cx24116.fw /root/ sudo ln -s /lib/firmware/dvb-fe-cx24116-1.26.90.0.fw /lib/firmware/dvb-fe-cx24116.fw sudo reboot

ATI (Onboard GFX) Double Picture Bug Fix
You need to change your playback profiles to use the one field filter or no filter.

In myth, Utilities/Setup -> Setup -> TV Settings -> Playback

Hit Next a couple of times until you get to the Playback profiles screen

Edit each applicable profile, press Next on the screen that appears initially, and set the Primary de-interlacer to either none or one field. Set the Fallback de-interlacer to none. Remember to hit finish when done.

There are also per-channel settings you can stuff around with in mythtv-setup, but that’s probably not necessary.

Delete It All
OK, delete all your cards and connections, start from scratch - because MythTV locks the card and you cannot test it...

Testing The FreeSat Card
scan -x 0 /usr/share/dvb/dvb-s/Astra.28.2E | tee channels.conf mkdir ~/.mplayer cp channels.conf ~/.mplayer mplayer dvb://"CBeebies"

What NOT To Do
OK, despite reading about doing the above and then importing the channels.conf file, this did not work for me - and came back with nonsense about 'conflicting channels' etc.

What To Do
Follow the normal procedure...


 * General
 * Capture Card
 * Video Source
 * Input Connections

When you come to Scan For Channels, MythTV will default to the "Tuned Scan." You will need the transponder frequencies, polarities, and symbol rates for each transponder you wish to scan. A good source is Lyngsat. Note: Lyngsat transponders and symbol rates are in Megahertz, and Myth expects them to be in KiloHertz. Multiple each value by 1000. A Transponder on Lyngsat listed as "11715 R" and "SR 20000" would be a frequency of 11715000, Right Circular Polarity, and Symbol Rate of 20000000. Leave FEC and Inversion on auto and press next. Myth will attempt to scan given the setup you have created.

Here are the settings which worked for me...

http://www.lyngsat.com/astra2d.html

10773 H and SR-FEC 22000 = x 1000 =


 * Frequency: 10773000 (10773)
 * Polarity: Horizontal (H)
 * Symbol Rate: 22000000 (22000)

Channel Numbers
Log into MythWeb at http://your.ip.address/mythweb/settings/tv/channels and manually change the channels using these web pages for reference:-

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/satellite/freesatfromskyepg/

http://www.wildsat.com/

Hauppauge Nova-HD-S2 Remote Control
Oh my god, I cannot quite believe it, but instead of the days it took to get the Nova-T-500 working, this took minutes!

First, check the kernel log for the following output:-

input: cx88 IR (Hauppauge WinTV-HVR400 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.4/0000:04:05.0/input/input5

Second, edit the LIRC hardware configuration file:-

sudo nano /etc/lirc/hardware.conf ... REMOTE="Hauppauge DVB-s card (ver. 2.1)" REMOTE_MODULES="lirc_dev" REMOTE_DRIVER="devinput" REMOTE_DEVICE="/dev/input/event5" REMOTE_SOCKET="" REMOTE_LIRCD_CONF="hauppauge/lircd.conf.hauppauge" REMOTE_LIRCD_ARGS=""

Third, start the lirc daemon:-

sudo /etc/init.d/lircd start

UPDATE: ReInstallation - Mythbuntu 10.10
It has been a year now since installing and it is time for an upgrade. A lot of changes have happened and I will benefit from better software. It also means I can control the MythTV box with my Palm Pre :-)


 * Installation Medium: Mythbuntu 10.10 64-bit CD
 * Installation Date: Wednesday 29 December 2010
 * MythTV Version: 0.24.????

Details

 * Mythbuntu 10.10
 * MythTV 0.24
 * NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 260.19.06  Mon Sep 13 17:35:21 PDT 2010
 * Asus M4A785TD-M EVO Motherboard
 * Asus BIOS Version 2104 (08/13/10)
 * ATI Radeon HD 4200 Graphics (onboard)
 * NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS (G72) 512Mb (PCI-E)
 * Hauppauge Nova-HD-S2 PCI TV Card (Hauppauge WinTV-HVR4000(Lite) DVB-S/S2 [card=69,autodetected])

Plan Of Action

 * 1) Update the BIOS
 * 2) Partition hard disk drive properly (advanced format sector 64)
 * 3) Install 10.10
 * 4) Clean out the rubbish
 * 5) Update software
 * 6) Put stuff back