hi,

i have installed R5E50 on a system with:
p3 - 500 Mhz,
386 Mb ram
260 Gb harddisk
4 Mb AGP-videocard ( 8 Mb card didn't work either)
cd-rw drive
thin ethernet connection to the world by a LAN and a (Freesco) router box
backend and frontend on the same machine
videocard connects to CRT monitor
Technisat Skystar 2 tv dvb-s card, directly (and alone) connected to an universal LNB (LNB works well when connected to a standalone satreceiver)
LNB looks to astra 19.2 east satellite (and can see it)

after installing 'automatic install', i made the third partition (first, swap and third present) smaller until the whole 'disk' used is below 130 Gb.
-as it could be the bios on the mobo is not handling the big disk correctly-
i used a live-cd with gparted.

after installing with all values to default, only some values individually set, the machine seems to record to /myth/tv
(i have changed permissions to /myth/tv with chmod 777 (without resulting better working though)).

when i use 'watch tv' , i see the harddisk led flashing indicating something happens..
BUT
when i look after stopping that, in /myth/tv, there is a ***.mpg file made, but with size ZERO....

when i schedule a recording in the appropriate menu, the recording seems to get done,
but when i after that try to display the recording, i get the message 'file cannot be found' for that recording....
(probably while it is a ZERO -big file)

with the system: receiving internet radio works well,
with the system: looking at web tv works (is displayed in a pip-screen), but works.

i think the dvb-s card works though, while in the setup process of KM the scanning of the satellite channels works well........

anyone of the KnoppMyth Help Team who can tell me what is wrong on my setup (before i will get hospitalised in a mental clinic.....)

KnoppMyth: **nice** piece of work, but on the point of manual(s) some has to be done yet

hope on some help despite the last opinion

zero-length files indicate that nothing was recorded, but it tried. i.e. no signal, or poor signal. I can get this if I unplug my antenna and try to record something.
Just because the channel scan found something doesn't mean that you have enough signal to record. Also, make sure that your card is set to watch a channel that you actually GET. Don't let it start at channel 3 if you don't get 3, for example.

BTW, KM is very nice, but don't expect it to do things like divide your hard disk so that your ancient mobo can handle it.
--
Chris

## hi Chris,
thank you very much for your answer!

to start with the last: i didn't or intended to blame KM for having problems with the harddisk size...
actually i thought the mainboard's bios could have those problems and as the bios cannot be updated (no usable updates available) i 'decreased' the hd's size..

on the 'no signal' or 'poor signal' theme:
this sounds very strange to me...
i have the cable from my LNB coming into the room, when i connect it to the satreceiver on my desk i can see the chosen program on the tv attached to the receiver...
when i pull the cable off the receiver and plug it into the connector of the Technisat card (it has onely one connector) in the computer standing on my desk too (so: cable length and other factors are unchanged) it gives a 'no recording' problem (the theme of my posting)
which could be due to 'no signal' or 'weak signal'.....
due to what is actually happening i doubt if this will be the case..

on the 'watch the right channel' theme:
in the setup process i can let KM scan for channels.
i do a 'full scan' and must give in a frequency and a symbol rate and a polarity.
for frequency i give 12110000
for symbol rate 27500000
for polarity: H
the scan gives a series of broadcasts sending on that frequency (about 10 i think)
the scanning process numbers them, beginning with 28201 ARD.
when i am setting 'schedule recordings' this same channel is preset, and i believe i am trying to record a program on that broadcast. (ARD broadcasts the whole day, so definitely on the moment i want to record).
but the result is as i described: a zero-size 'file'.

so to say it nicely: 'i am quite puzzled'

rob
NL

You still could have it set wrong. Did the card come with any generic Linux "watch TV on this card" program? And does that work?

Look for posts (here or other forums) where people have used that card with other software - maybe Xine can talk to it? Once the card is working, Myth should have no trouble recording.
Also, see if recordings work. Sometimes it's easier than live TV.

## no, the os-requirements on the box are:
win2000 prof/server, winxp home/prof, win server 2003
no other os-es there.

but, i did read on the internet these cards would work in Linux too..

as i don't have the required win-versions, i cannot test the card under windhoos...

rob

Right. So go and find where people are discussing this, and see if there's another program that you can use to watch TV, or if you can configure Xine to watch TV with it. AS A DIAGNOSTIC. This will tell you whether your card actually works or not in Linux.

What kind of tuner did you select when installed the card in mythtv-setup during KnoppMyth's installation process? You may not have set up the card correctly.

You may want to look at this:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/m ... vnz/253672

hi,
could you please look on

members . lycos . nl / driepoot99 / knoppmyth

it's a record of my KM setup.

Bild11.jpg <> Bild18.jpg are the card setup, i don't meet a 'tuner' there...

maybe you can detect where my fault is in...

thx,
rob

I also have a Technisat Skystar2 DVB card that I'm trying to get to work.

I have done a similar setup and test as knopprob with the Mythtv graphic setup screens and not been able to scan any satellites or transponders.

I just looked at knopprob's photos and he got an LNB setup window in his Mythtv setup that I didn't get. I wonder if this is under the DISEQC button? I'm not using any DISEQC switches so I never went there.
This new info have given me some new things to try - SWEET!

I can tell you that I have been able to scan for satellite channels if I use the command line "scan" command, but I can't get Mythtv to scan anything.

I have then used the "import channels from file" function and imported my /home/mythtv/channels.conf file into the channel list. That seemed to work because the channels appeared in the list. When I go back into Mythtv, I can tune to those channels but no signal comes up.

So, for me, the command line "scan" command works to talk to the card, but Mythtv's interface doesn't talk.

thornsoft, how do you configure xine to watch tv channels? Is this done by the graphic user interface or by the command line. If done, by command line, could you post some example command lines?

Good luck to all of us!

_________________
KnoppMyth R5.5, Asus A8N-VM CSM (nvidia 6150 onboard video), AMD Athlon 64 dual-core 4200+, two 1GB sticks DDR 400, HD-3000 HDTV card, PVR-150 card, Iguanaworks RS-232 IR receiver/transmitter, Pioneer DVR-110 DVD burner

Sorry, I meant capture card, not tuner...

## hi,
as my picture sequence doesn't let anything out: picture 14-16 show the choosing of the LNB. in picture 14 you can see the diseqc button activated, and that was what i did.
(think i did read about this in the net, many installs before (ending in nowhere land) i had missed this possibility too...}

picture 24 is the start of the actual scan procedure (for a given frequency, is mentioned in my posting before in this thread)
frequency, symbol rate and polarity to give in in picture 25; my values (NOT shown in the picture) are for Astra 19.2 East, visible in western(?) europe...
you may need to give other frequencies...
i have found these (and symbol rate) should consist of 8 digits, you probably have to give trailing zero's to get a number of eight.

picture 26 is the actual scan, you can see signal strength which should be sufficient (is not better when i scan with my standalone sat-receiver instead of my KM-box).



## i would go the diseqc way....
am very interested what you get and what your possibilities are after that, as from your hardware list, i conclude hardware is not the problem on your setup, so there must be an other cause...

stay tuned!

For my Mythtv graphic tuner card setup, I selected the generic DVB card (just as knopprob did) and the Myth does see a DVB card at dvb0 (VP310 DVB-S subtype).

From the feedback you've all provided in this thread, I think I'm on the right track. The DiSEqC button is my next stop - and then on to LNB configuration!

Eric

_________________
KnoppMyth R5.5, Asus A8N-VM CSM (nvidia 6150 onboard video), AMD Athlon 64 dual-core 4200+, two 1GB sticks DDR 400, HD-3000 HDTV card, PVR-150 card, Iguanaworks RS-232 IR receiver/transmitter, Pioneer DVR-110 DVD burner

## hi Eric,

don't build up our stress too much!
tell us what you got with your new information....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we want to use KM too....

rob

new things discovered...

a little down from KM's hesistation to work, i downloaded an Ubuntu 6.10 live cd iso image.
brought it on a cd, booted with that cd on my low end box, and after startup of Ubuntu
afterinstalled Kaffeine (internet connection needed).
after that i started Kaffeine, did some minor settings of Kaffeine and could with that program switch to dvb-s.
astra 19.2 was one of the selectable satellites, after a channel scan for fta + tv + radio,
i could compose a personal channel list.

and PRESTO !

this very moment a broadcast of that list (Vox) is running on my lowend machine...
it is not full screen , and there are dropouts and there is no sound, but the Skystar 2 tv pci works....

will try to find the sound too.

wonder if the dropouts are originating from the low-end specs (P3 500 Mhz, 386 Mb) of the machine...

hope this helps others too

rob
NL

I've got the Techinisat card working in KM R5E50. I can Watch TV and record programs to the hard drive.

The key to getting Mythtv to connect with the Technisat DVB-S card and LNB is a hidden LNB configuration screen! The biggest problem with the arrangement of the LNB screen is that it is hidden behind a button for DiSEqC. In my case, I don't have any DiSEqC switches in my system, so there was no sense in looking at the DiSEqC button. Anyone familiar with satellite reception would not expect to find an LNB configuration connected with DiSEqC controls. So, that LNB configuration screen should be pulled out from behind the DiSEqC button and given it's own button in the setup.

After I configured the LNB for "Universal (Europe)" I was able to connect to the Technisat card and LNB. My LNB is a Fortec Star linear LNB. These are very common among the satellite enthusiasts in both Europe and the USA, so don't let the "Europe" name in the Mythtv setup fool you. This is what you want for a "standard" linear LNB.

Even after getting the LNB set correctly. I found that Mythtv setup still would not scan satellite transponders. They only way I could get Mythtv to scan satellite frequencies was if I manually created a satellite transponder file, used the command line "scan" program to create a channels.conf. After the channels.conf file was created, I could feed it in by the Import channels.conf mechanism (in the Scan Type screen). After the channels were loaded into Mythtv, I could use the Watch TV button and look at each of the satellite channels.

I plan to edit the KnoppMyth wiki article on DVB and precisely document what I did. One of the biggest downfalls of Linux is poor documentation. I will do my part to fix this problem!

Look for the heading "DVB in USA".
http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=DVBHowTo

_________________
KnoppMyth R5.5, Asus A8N-VM CSM (nvidia 6150 onboard video), AMD Athlon 64 dual-core 4200+, two 1GB sticks DDR 400, HD-3000 HDTV card, PVR-150 card, Iguanaworks RS-232 IR receiver/transmitter, Pioneer DVR-110 DVD burner