Hi,

I'm using freevo 1.5.2 and have a few questions on
this subject.  

1. Does the plugin_external_tuner stuff still work in
this version?  I have figured out how to do video
groups to select my composite input, but I can't get
the external tuner stuff to work.  Here's my commands
(I am trying to call an external routine to change the
channel on my Sony DSS via the Sony's serial port).

 plugin_external_tuner =
plugin.activate('tv.irsend_generic',
args=('/home/tony/freevo_test', ))

VIDEO_GROUPS = [
    VideoGroup(vdev='/dev/video0',
               adev=None,
               input_type='composite',
               input_num=1,
               tuner_type='external',
               desc='Sony DSS',
               recordable=True),
] 

freevo_test is just a test script I'm currently using
until I get this to work but it never gets called.

Now, I have hacked up tvtime.py with commands to call
my dss channel changer program as follows, which
works, but I would like to get both viewing and
recording working the correct freevo way.            

# Change the channel on the dss. AJS
os.system('/opt/sbin/dss ' + str(tuner_channel))  

2.  Is the channels.py program used for changing the
channels for viewing television, recording television,
both, or neither?  I put some debugging print
statements in there and it doesn't seem to get called
for tv viewing when changing the channel.  I haven't
tried recording yet.

3.  What is the correct way to do this?  In short, I
have an external Sony DSS box hooked up with a serial
cable.  I want to be able to select the composite
input (already accomplished via video groups) and
change the channel via an external program (which I
already have that works) for both viewing and
recording. 

Thanks in Advance,

- Tony -

----------------------------------------------------
Rob Shortt wrote:

Hi,

Creating a script and / or just calling rc/irsend from
your VCR_CMD is certainly an easy way to do this but
using an 'external tuner' plugin allows full
integration into Freevo. You can both watch tv and
record from an external source, and even have only a
partial amount of your channels on that source.

I wrote two external tuner plugins, irsend_echostar
(for echostar sat receivers since they do things a bit
different) and irsend_generic (a wrapper around
rc/irsend). So in your care you would have something
like this in your local_conf.py:

plugin_external_tuner =
plugin.activate('tv.irsend_generic',
                            args=('/usr/bin/rc
SEND_ONCE sky', ))


An example VIDEO_GROUPS entry is:

VIDEO_GROUPS = [
    VideoGroup(vdev='/dev/video0',
               adev=/dev/dsp1,
               input_type='composite',
               input_num=5,
               tuner_type='external',
               desc='Sky',
               recordable=True),
]


Here you see that we want to record/view from
/dev/video0, /dev/dsp1, composite input (which is
enumerated as input 5 in the drivers for this
example), and we want to use an external tuner. When
Freevo changes the channel it checks the VideoGroup
for that chan for the tuner_type, and if it is
'external' then uses plugin_external_tuner to change
the channel.

Here's another example, using a pvr-x50 / ivtv card,
an dexternal tuner, and channel 4 passthrough on the
coax/tuner input:

VIDEO_GROUPS = [
    VideoGroup(vdev='/dev/video0',
               adev=None,
               input_type='tuner',
               input_num=4,
               tuner_norm='NTSC',
               tuner_chan='4',
               tuner_type='external',
               desc='Bell ExpressVu',
               group_type='ivtv',
               recordable=True),
]


Here we are using /dev/video0, no audio device (since
we get a complete mpeg stream), using the tuner input
which in my case is input_num=4, my norm is NTSC, and
using an external tuner. It also makes sure my card's
tuner is set to channel 4 so I can see what's comming
from my sattelite box.

Accepted VideoGroup properties are:
vdev: The video device, such as /dev/video.
adev: The audio device, such as /dev/dsp.
input_type: tuner, composite, svideo, webcam
input_num: The number of this input according to V4L
tuner_type: internal (on a v4l device), or external
(cable or sat box)
tuner_norm: NTSC, PAL, SECAM
tuner_chanlist: us-cable,
tuner_chan: If using input_type=tuner and
tuner_type=external set this to what channel it needs
to be to get the signal, usually 3 or 4.
recordable: True or False. Can you record from this
VideoGroup.
desc: A nice description for this VideoGroup.
group_type: Special variable to identify devices like
dvb or ivtv. This can be left as default, 'normal', or
set to 'ivtv' or 'dvb'.

If you only have one VideoGroup here then Freevo will
assume ALL of your TV_CHANNELS belong to that group.

If you use the tv.irsend_generic plugin you might have
to mess around with it because I can't use irsend or
rc with my transmitter and receiver. Basicly it breaks
the channel command '123' up and calls irsend
SEND_ONCE <remote_name> 1 2 3. I'm not sure if that
will send 1, 2, then 3 so some slign modification to
the setChannel method may be required.

Dave Smylie wrote:

    Well, I spoke to rob about VIDEO_GROUPS, and
looked briefly at trying to
    set those up. However, it seemed overkill for my
needs. 


It is complicated to setup, I would like to simplify
it.

-Rob


                
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