Improvements
With R5A22 you should no longer need XMLTV/the internet to get program listings since R5A22 is clever enough to grab them from the air instead. This also means you no longer need to fiddle with Video Sources in mythtv-setup. If you cannot get over the air tv guide [UK and Sweden only at the moment I think], or don't want to for some reason, then refer back to the relevant parts of this R5A16 guide:

http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... 6007#36007

Stage 1 - Setting Up The Tuner
Stage 2 - Setup Remote Control

Stage 1 - Setting Up The Tuner

First of all make sure you have a decent aerial plugged into the Tv card. A strong signal is required for digital terrestial so hopefully your aerial is on the roof and set up correctly. Use this website to check what channels you can expect to receive in your area.

http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/coverage.html

I have heard a theory that if you scan for some channels at a time that they're not being broadcast (i.e. BBC3 and BBC4) then they will not be picked up. Can we confirm/deny this anyone?

1. Configure Tv Card In MythTv Setup

You will configure the tv card at the end of the Knoppmyth installation. However if you are configuring it later you can get back by running:



2. Select ‘General’ settings and make the following changes:

(Example for PAL UK)

Set ‘TV Mode’ to ‘PAL’
Set ‘VBI Format’ to ‘PAL Teletext’
Set ‘Channel Frequency Table’ to ‘europe-west’

3. Select ‘Capture Cards’.

Select ‘New Capture Card’”
Go up to ‘Card Type’ and change it to ‘Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB).

If the card is not detected then switch to a console window (CTRL ALT F3).



Now you need to know the name of your local transmitter. For example mine is ‘Winter Hill’ in Lancashire. Check on these websites if unsure:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/transmit ... ndex.shtml, or
http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/transmitters.html



Make sure that this file has a large block of data saved in it. You will notice that each frequency carries approximately 5-10 channels. My region found 6 different transports in total. You can check this link to see what channels you should expect in your areas:

http://www.freeview.co.uk/whatson/index.html



You should now see that the Nova-T is detected. If you see the ‘device busy’ error on this screen you must kill the backend in order to scan for channels. Note that you will lose access to the Nova-T card every time you reboot. To solve, simply kill the backend every time this happens.

4. Select ‘Video Sources’

Select ‘New Video Source’
For ‘Video Source Name’ type ‘RadioTimesUK’
For ‘XMLTV Listings Grabber’ select ‘UK-Alternative’.

When you click ‘Finish’ it will now appear to get stuck at 50%. This is because the UK XMLTV Grabber doesn’t run in the frontend yet. Consequently you need to press ‘Alt+Tab’ to see the terminal window. Don’t waste your time adding the channels manually here, however you do need to add at least one channel so just type ‘FIVE’, press ENTER and then press ‘.’ to finish. This will create the following file:

/home/mythtv/.mythtv/RadioTimesUK.xmltv


5. Select ‘Input Connections’

Select ‘DVB’
For the ‘Video Source’ select RadioTimesUK
Change the default channel number to 1 (if you prefer)

6. Select ‘Channel Editor’

There are 2 ways to set up the transports:

Option A: Import the 'channels.conf' file

Select 'Channel Editor'
Select 'Advanced'
Go up and change scan type to 'import channels.conf file'
Specify the path to the channels.conf file; this should be:



Select 'Next'

Note: For me this method is not working satisfactorily yet...

- it adds all of the unavailable SKY channels,
- it sets 4 digit channel numbers, and
- it doesn't default to use OTA program guide

I suspect the solution is to create the channels.conf file in a way that organises it in a mythtv-setup compatible format.

Option B: Manually Configure the Transports

You will need to refer back to the channels.conf file. Either get a pen and paper out or open up the file and keep switching to and from a console.

I think that these values are always the same (for UK).

Bandwidth: 8MHz
Inversion: AUTO
Trans: 2K
Hierachy: none
Guard Interval: 1_32

The following values vary for each transport. Make sure you get these right or you might get 'choppy' viewing on certain channels. The first FEC value in the .conf file is the LP and the second FEC value is the HP.

Frequency: e.g. 7512666015
Constellation: e.g. QAM_16
LP: e.g. FEC_2_3
HP: e.g. FEC 1_2

Select ‘Scan for Channels’
Change the ‘Scan Type’ to ‘Scan Existing Transports’ and then select ‘Next’

You should hopefully see it scanning for channels and adding them to the list. Select one of the channels and make sure that it has set them to use OTA (grab tv guide data from the air).

Reboot
Select ‘Watch Tv’ and hope for the best.

Note: The tv guide data will slowly download from the air over 10 mins so don't be disheartened if it isn't there straight away. You may also notice slight decrease in performance as it downloads.

Stage 2 - Setup Remote Control

You may have noticed that the Hauppage remote works but with limited functionality (i.e. the BACK button amongst others doesn't work!). To solve:

Option A: Fresh Install of Lirc



Select Driver configuration, Other, Linux input layer (/dev/input/eventX)

Save & Exit



Now to identify which event number your IR port on the Tv card is assigned to:



Press the back key on the remote and see if it displays any gibberish. If not, try again changing it to event1, event 2 or event3

If none of these work then you might have too many input devices plugged in. If so, you need to create an event 4,5, or 6.



To get it to work automatically on bootup add this to the bottom of the file, then save & exit. You need to change X to the event number that worked for you in the previous step.



Finally you need to replace the following files:


You will find samples to replace them with on this guide:
http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6089

Your Remote Control should now be setup. One final tip: I recommend putting a mirror behind your mythbox to reflect the signal off. This means you can hide the clumsy IR sensor behind the mythbox where it will be out of sight.

Option B: Reconfigure Lirc

Nermander reckons there is an easier way but I struggle to interpret Swede/English:

http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6089

Diagnostics
I get 'choppy' viewing performance

Check the settings for each transport. If you left settings on AUTO rather than the values in the .conf file this can cause choppy viewing.

Make sure you are using a decent aerial, digital tv requires a strong signal.... mutilated coat hangers will not suffice.

Error messages


Useful Links

http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/u ... /ukdvb.php
http://www.linuxtv.org/
http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5827&

Looks like i know what im gonna be spending my weekend on!

Park, do you prefer the ota listings to the xmltv ones? If so, why? I've never tried them b4, not wanting to break something that was already working lol.

/me starts doing a proper backup now

Ha - I was struggling to update my kernal as I don't have an internet connection to my Myth TV box.. and now this release comes along. And you update your guide. Even better.
Nice one!

afaik the ota listings only cover 1 week ? Not entirely sure tho...
I *suspect* the xmltv listings may also be more detailed but thats just a hunch!

OTA vs XMLTV

- my wireless connection to the router/internet is dodgy
- OTA sets everything up automatically without any messing about.
- I used to have blank or incorrect tv guide on some channels using XMLTV.
- Forget about setting up 40+ XMLTV ID's
- Forget about setting up that RadioTimesUK.xmltv file
- Forget about running mythfilldatabase

Real freeview set-top boxes grab it from the air so why should we be downloading it from the internet I ask? I haven't considered whether the tv guide content is actually any different though.

On a different note...
Found a much better OSD here aswell for anyone who doesn't like the current one - mine always had text overflowing.

http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... ht=isthmus

I might give the OTA ones a try sometime then Only just got my box back up to speed after my upgrade so not gonna mess around with it just yet!

Some things seem to have changed in R5A22 with my remote, half the keys didn't work! I have updated my mini-guide with a new lircd.conf and a few other bits.

http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... 5119#35119

I'm having some problems following this guide.
When I enter "cd /usr/local/dvb/dvb-t/" I get an error report saying it doesn't exist.
If I try each folder I get as far as "cd /usr/local/dvb/". I'm missing the dvb-t bit. This is a folder, right?
I really don't know anywhere nearly enough Linux code to create this folder and surely 'dvbscan' needs to be in this folder to progress.
Any suggestions.
Thanks

The folder you're looking for is /usr/local/share/dvb/dvb-t

Anyone else had this problem? I've seen it on R5A16 and R5A22.

Great guide btw, I've done a bit of reading to set my MythBox up and your guide just put everything in place and helped me understand it all a bit better. Thank you!

yeh, my bad, I wrote the location down wrong, duly amended

phew, I'll get this sorted in no time.
Cheers for a prompt reply.
Glad asking the obvious question helped more than just me!

as for the remote...

It worked for me with a clean install of R5A22 and following the instructions.
Maybe some links got broken when you did an update.

At one point the BACK button stopped working and LEFT became BACK... but it mysteriously fixed itself again.

I can see from your new guide now how Nermander was explaining to do it... without installing lirc.... looks a bit easier. Nice work.

Sorry, asking dumb questions again. (Perhaps I should start my own thread... 'The Idiot asks...'
Anyway, after getting into the correct folder, I've moved on somewhat but not to completion. Unfortunately I've run into some problems with the next line of code:

dvbscan uk-CrystalPalace ¦ tee channels.conf

'dvbscan' works perfectly, I get a long list of successfully scanned channels.
'tee channels.conf' doesn't though.

All I get a permission denied message, before the channel scan commences.

I'm assuming the 'tee channels.conf' is to save the scanned information to the 'channels.conf' file.
I've followed the Mythsetup through, typed my rootpassword in, when first loading MythTV and after pressing Ctrl-Alt-F3 my user name and password. What am I missing?

Thanks once again....

no such thing as a dumb question...

Looks like you may have mistyped the command, you need to use the pipe symbol which is | and not ¦.

This can be found in all sorts of places because Knoppmyth detects UK keyboards as US keyboards in consoles.

If not, then try logging in as root when you do CTRL ALT F3 rather than as a user.

P.S. If you feel as though you are struggling with Linux in general then you may find this useful:

http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=LinuxTips

Guess what, I realised about logging on as 'Root' about an hour after my last post.

Now have MythTV working after a fashion. Sounds good, vision is there, as is the listings grabbed from air after a fashion. I think the problem lies in my processor speed (only a Athlon 1.4 atm) but I'm also getting some artifacts on some stations and the occasional loss of picture if i try rapid changes of channel. I might have to reinstall the transports as I auto detected them!

This could all be due to processor limitations though I'm begining to wonder if i'm seeing the chipset VIA problem: I'm using an Asus A7V880 which has a VIA chipset.

Thanks for the tip on the Linux commands and the pipe symbol. Have to work out where that one is.

I recently bought 2 Nova-t PCI's stuck one in my XP box, and one in my FC4 box. Windows one worked, and linux one didn't. I tried about 5 dif kernels, have made menuconfig till I was blue in the face. Then I swapped the cards round. Linux now works, and Windows doesn't go figure! One dead card, one working one, and just my luck to stick the dead one in the linux machine first and spend two weeks trying to get the biatch working!

Top Tip - If a Nova-T keeps saying "tunning failed" whilst using dvbscan and you've got a recent kernel with all the v4l and dvb modules loaded. Try the card in Windows. I did, now I'm hopefully on my way to getting a replacement from Hauppauge! Anyone any experience with their UK returns process?

HTH and Thanks,

Steve