[PLUG] Running MythTV Backend Setup on Mythbuntu

John Jason Jordan johnxj at comcast.net
Fri Nov 8 00:32:58 UTC 2013


On Wed, 06 Nov 2013 21:36:06 -0800
Dick Steffens <dick at dicksteffens.com> dijo:

>On 11/06/2013 04:41 PM, John Jason Jordan wrote:
>> I wonder if the hdhomerun-config utility keeps a list of channels
>> that it found the last time the user did a scan. If so, and if the
>> list also includes the information necessary to connect to each
>> channel, it should be simple enough to present the user with a GUI
>> list of the channels, each with a Play button, and setting it up so
>> that clicking on a button sends that stream to VLC, while
>> terminating any previous streams that VLC was playing, or launching
>> VLC if it was not already running.

>Here's a start. Mr. Google responded with these to the following foo:
>
>hdhomerun command line linux
>
>http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/hdhomerun_development.pdf
>http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/hdhomerun_tech.pdf
>
>Plus several others that look promising.
>
>What's needed next is an understanding of how to program for a GUI.
>I've been taking pokes at it -- I wouldn't call what I've done so far
>a stab. But each time I find something I run into issues getting it to
>work. What would be nice is a start to finish, with pictures, of hello
>world in a GUI for Ubuntu 12.04 running with gnome-session-fallback.
>I've got a couple of Python programs I'd like to make work in this
>environment, too. If I can figure out what GUI development tools to
>use, and get them working, I could take a stab (instead of a poke) at
>scripting a TV to VLC widget. I think the command line options for the
>HDHomeRun should be able to be sent from a GUI widget.

The first URL above gets me a PDF for the model that you have, but I
have the Prime. The second one got me a PDF with interesting
information about controlling the HDHomeRun from the command line. Most
interesting was the part about streaming to VLC on pages 8 and 9.
Unfortunately, I must have a different version of VLC than they used to
create the instructions.

Nevertheless, it occurred to me even before reading the above PDFs that
VLC has a fully configurable playlist function. All I need to do is
create a playlist item for each channel, where clicking on the playlist
entry makes VLC get the stream for that particular channel. If I can
succeed in doing that then there is no need for a bash script or GUI
program at all. I can do everything I want just with VLC.

Unfortunately, so far I have failed to figure out how to define the
stream for a given channel in a way that VLC can understand. The PDF
says "Run VLC: File, Open Network Stream. Select UDP/RTP. Specify port
5000," but when I open File > Network Stream I have no option to select
UDP/RTP or to specify a port. But if I go to View > Playlist I do have
the option to specify UDP<legacy>, although after going through the
screens various times I failed to get it working.

By the way, using my HDHomeRUN device ID 103D39F1, the command:

hdhomerun_config scan 103D39F1 /tuner0 ~/channels.txt

Produces a text file with the channels. Again, I fail to understand all
of the text file. Here is an example from it:

SCANNING: 683000000 (us-bcast:49)
LOCK: 8vsb (ss=60 snq=59 seq=100)
TSID: 0x0E1B
PROGRAM 3: 17.2 KWVT DT
PROGRAM 4: 27.2 RetroTV
PROGRAM 5: 37.2 Azteca

And so on for all the channels. 

I'm not giving up. I think it's possible to make a playlist in VLC,
it's just going to take more poking around before I figure it out.



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