Another PVR update!

Well it's been a little over two months since I posted anything, so why not another update on the status of all my computers? That seems like a good way to step back into blogging.

About three months ago, I blogged as I was working on setting up all my various computers in my new apartment. In particular I was working on reconfiguring my MythPVR box, which has become our main source of digital entertainment. Everything was more or less working with OpenSUSE 11.1 with KDE, except for a few console workarounds (like having to watch DVD's with vlc, and buying a new sound card for 5.1 sound support). We could watch and record many digital signals in the Toronto and Buffalo regions. We were free from our slavery to our programming schedule masters!

But I got tired of having to adapt solutions to fit the OpenSUSE OS any time there was a problem. The internet has a wealth of information for Ubuntu mythtv installations, and although OpenSUSE support is out there, Ubuntu seems to be the distro of choice for this particular application. So this past weekend, I started into a fresh install.

Right off the bat, I can say Ubuntu 9.04 boots faster than my old install. I had the same issues with my wireless card not having native firmware, my Nvidia graphics card not having a native driver, and my Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950Q analog/digital tuner not having native support from the OS. A driver is provided for the tuner (au0828), but in my case it wouldn't tune any channels, and has no support for the analog tuner.

After a few internet searches, I settled on the video4linux v4l-dvb drivers, which provide support for both the digital and analog tuners. An initial scan of the analog band yielded a few weak results (as expected), and the digital scan picked up all the channels I had on the OpenSUSE install, plus a few I'd never seen before! I was excited to try it out, and ignored my houseguests to try out watching tv.

No go. The tuner wouldn't start.

The console revealed that the driver was trying to load a different version of the firmware for the tuner. I downloaded it and tried again.

No go. Mythtv wouldn't write to the recordings directory. Easy fix - I changed the permissions on the recordings directory to allow the mythtv group write access. (Mythtv runs as user mythtv, which is a member of the mythtv group.)

Again, no go. Although I wasn't able to determine what the problem really was, there were a few error messages related to the video codec of the analog stream on the console. I left it and went out with my friends, and came back to the problem last night. As a workaround, I disabled the analog tuner - I'm only really interested in watching digital TV anyway. And then ...

Success! The tuner started and the on-screen display indicated it was trying to tune channel 9-1, which is the local CTV affiliate. It wouldn't lock (not unusual on this channel) but a quick skip down to channel 5-1 brought up CBC's beautiful 1080i feed of the Rick Mercer Report! It was skipping, which can be due to a weak or intermittent signal (common in our treed area) but it looked to me more like the skipping associated with a misconfigured video driver unable to keep up with the feed. And with a 1080i feed, which requires somewhat more processing power than the usual 720p feeds in this area, that seemed more likely to me.

As a test, I worked on installing XvMC drivers for my video card, which supposedly allows the video card to offload some processing onto the main processor (as I understand it). I haven't had a chance to test out this configuration, since Tay woke up from her nap and I didn't want to subject her to me fiddling with minor settings in the OS. So we watched some converted-to-divx recordings of The Big Bang Theory for a while until we both fell asleep. Sheldon's Doppler effect costume is still one of our favourites :)

We'll see how some late-night recordings look this evening, if the weather prevents us from going outside!

Here are the local broadcasted digital channels we're able to watch with a very poorly designed antenna, near the lake, near ground level and surrounded by low buildings and high trees:

• 2-1 WGRZ (NBC Buffalo), 2-2 NBC Sports, 2-3 Retro TV Network
• 4-1 WIVB (CBS Buffalo)
• 5-1 CBLT (CBC Toronto)
• 7-1 WKBW (ABC Buffalo)
• 9-1 CFTO (CTV Toronto)
• 17-1 WNED (PBS Buffalo), 17-2 (WNED-SD), 17-3 PBS ThinkBright
  
• 23-1 WNLO (The CW Buffalo)
• 24-1 CBLFT (Radio-Canada)
• 26-1 WNYB (TCT Jamestown)
  
• 29-1 WUTV (FOX Buffalo), 29-2 (WUTV-SD)
• 41-1 CIII (Global Toronto)
• 44-1 CJMT (OMNI2)
• 49-1 WNYO (My TV Buffalo), 49-2 (WNYO-SD)
• 57-1 CITY (City TV Toronto)
• 64-1 CFMT (OMNI1)
• 66-1 CKXT (Sun TV)

Strangely, I seem to pick up the US stations much more reliably than the Toronto ones. I credit Lake Ontario, but I'm sure it would help if I could rotate my antenna. Eventually I will get around to building a better one.

I am in computer hell

While waiting for more operating system reinstalls, I decided to chronicle what's going on in the blog, on the one computer (out of 4-ish) that is still working acceptably well. Acceptable, in this case, means able to connect to the internet. Although at various times this morning it's also meant "recognizes the DVD-ROM", "can set host name", and "can access the hard disk without requiring a hard reset". It's been a long morning so far.

Here's where I'm at. Last night, my mythbuntu box deteriorated to the point where I couldn't play a sound file without getting occasional memory errors. So right after watching Family Guy, I started installing openSUSE back on it, using the network install. I had used openSUSE originally for the PVR setup and it was reasonably stable. I decided to try with GNOME this time.

Big mistake.

On the very first boot, as I tried to figure out the interface and find the network settings, right after entering the root password for the setup applet, first system freeze. Not even seemingly precipitated by anything. So reboot, set up the network, fantastic. Try downloading some upgrades. Fail, DNS error, can't find host. Fantastic!

Now, I've found that every time I've done a linux install on any of my computers, it seems to come alive and have a personality and attitude all its own. This case is no different. For some reason, it will save my hostname and IP address with the wired connection but not the wireless. I don't particularly want to have my laptop sitting on top of the tower all the time to get a network connection, so this is no good. So, at the moment, I am reinstalling with KDE4, since that worked for me before and I should be able to get it to work again. Right?

We'll see.

As for the laptop, Windows decided somewhat randomly that it doesn't have a DVD drive. I know it's there, I took it apart myself, and I can see the little yellow light on it every time I turn the computer on, and I was watching movies LAST NIGHT. WTF?! So this might come down to a reinstall as well. It's about due, I've had WinXP on it for almost five weeks without major system problems.

What about the others? The one that works is slow as molasses most of the time, owing to Windows and background processes and all that. Maybe also due for a reinstall. And the fourth needs a new power supply, which I have, but I'm not getting into that right now.

Really I just want to watch TV and play movies and listen to music. I know there's gotta be some kind of magic combo so that I can turn the computer on and have it work without having to open a terminal, restart processes, load drivers, or do ritual sacrifice.

Ahh, looks like I'm being prompted for something. Back to work....