Setting up mythtv with DVB-C
by burdy on Mar.23, 2009, under Linux, Mythtv
After reading trough the (dvb) forum at tweakers.net:
Part1: http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/1096768/0
Part2: http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/1244075//
Part3: http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/1311573//
and the DVB-C info page at the mythtv wiki: http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-C_PCI_Cards
Mainly due to the comments on the KNC one: “works out-of-the-box with MythTV-0.21″ I decided to choose this one. So I ordered this card and some additional hardware for showing the encrypted dvb-c channels also:
The KNC DVB card was recognized immediately by the kernel.
I decided to see if my dvb card could tune to some free channels:
According to info presented on a frequencyschema at www.rekam.nl I tried to build a list of channels:
# echo “C 163000000 6875000 NONE QAM64″ > .czap/rekam-dvb.conf
Using scan en czap from the dvb-utils package:
# ./scan -5 rekam-dvb.conf > .czap/channels-rekam.conf
# grep -ri RTL .czap/channels.conf-dvbc-rekam
RTL 8:490000000:INVERSION_AUTO:6875000:FEC_NONE:QAM_64:112:113:302
RTL television:147000000:INVERSION_AUTO:6875000:FEC_NONE:QAM_64:144:145:604
./czap -c channels-rekam.conf “RTL 8″
14 RTL 8:490000000:INVERSION_AUTO:6875000:FEC_NONE:QAM_64:112:113:302
14 RTL 8: f 490000000, s 6875000, i 2, fec 0, qam 3, v 0×70, a 0×71
..
..
# cat /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0 | mplayer -
A couple of seconds later I was presented with a crystal clear video quality. Now that I knew that my dvb setup worked I decided to test my CAIW smartcard with the the Alphacrypt CAM. Then I inserted the CAM into the CI. The kernel recognized the insertion of the CAM:
budget-av: cam inserted A
dvb_ca adapter 0: DVB CAM detected and initialised successfully
According to channeltuning info presented on www.caiway.nl I tried to build a list of channels for my region:
# echo “C 538000000 6900000 NONE QAM64″ > .czap/caiw-dvb.conf
# ./scan -5 caiw-dvb.conf > .czap/channels-caiw.conf
When I tried to tune into a channel it was not possible to show the stream with mplayer.
Then I decided to import the channel.conf into mythtv in mythtv-setup first.
-> Goto “Videosources” and create new videosource
-> Goto “Input connections” and map the newly created source to the DVB card
-> Press the “Search Channels” button and select as “Searchtype” the option to import the
channels.conf file.
Then I tuned into these channels with mythfrontend.
Now watching my first recorded show on Discovery channel, Ultimate survival with Bear Grylls. (my favourite)
To fill the EPG I use a script tv_grab_py maintained by Paul de Bruin (click here)
To manually fill EPG data for sourceid 5 (caiway was given sourceid 5 in the database):
mythfilldatabase –sourceid 5 -v xmltv
Some useful links:
http://dtv.wateringen.net/linux.html
http://www.ethics-gradient.net/myth/mythdvb.html
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/mpeg_decoders.html
October 23rd, 2009 on 22:52
[...] what I hear this should all work and other people have used similar [...]
December 28th, 2009 on 22:40
Thanks for this howto! I’m about to follow your steps. One question: can you also view HD channels with this setup?
December 29th, 2009 on 09:26
It would be no problem to view any channel, as long you have access to them. This according to your subscription with your TV provider (using smartcard)
January 1st, 2010 on 22:49
The card is working for me too! MythTV found two tunners on the card
I had to find the proper kernel module (budget-av) and the tools are slightly different with Gentoo but the result is what I was looking for.
I can watch the HD channels in the basic subscription from Caiway,
Here is how I keep the EGP up-to-date:
$ tv_grab_nl_py –output nl.xml ; mythfilldatabase –update –file 2 nl.xml
January 19th, 2010 on 14:31
Thanks for writing this down, it’s good to hear that this is possible. I want to build a HTPC using MythTV (and possibly XMBC or Boxee as the front-end) which will allow my dad to easily watch TV (and not commercials). We’re also connected via CaiWAY.
I’d be interested in seeing the full specs for your machine so I can rebuild it as I’m a bit worried about getting stuck with hardware comparability issues. My current laptop for example runs like dog poo (it’s ThinkPad X61 by the way), think +/- 10 FPS when running Tux Racer.
I also saw on the MythTV.nl Forums that you were selling your Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250? If you still have that I’d be interested in buying it from you if it’s good enough for the purposes indicated above. What made you switch to the PVR-500?
Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks again!
January 23rd, 2010 on 17:00
Well, running mythtv doesn’t mean you need state of the art hardware. I used to run a diskless frontend on a Celeron 1000Mhz without any problem. If you want to view 1080p video like blue-ray on your machine you will need decent hardware. I think a P4 as CPU and a proper GeForce NVIDIA will do the trick. I have no experience with 1080p at this moment.
My server has a 3G P4, 1 GB of RAM using two RAID arrays as storage, which gives me roughly a storage capacity of 3 TB in total. I sold my old analog PVR-250′s. I still have one PVR-500. I will use this card until Caiway stops transmitting the analog signal. The reason for switching to a PVR-500 is easy. It has two onboard tuners, also saving me an additional pci slot.