MythTV and Comcast
News, Technical, Media ·Saturday September 5, 2009 @ 18:23 EDT (link)
Adapting MythTV to Comcast wasn't terrible; the hardest thing was having to control the set-top box that's now required. First, I had to go to Schedules Direct and update our cable package, and remove the channels we don't really get or never want to see or record from (e.g., Spanish channels), run mythtv-setup (and remove the second tuner, until we get a second set-top box), and run mythfilldatabase --refresh-all to update the program database.
The second part was more difficult: controlling the set-top box. Fortunately the Windows Media Center remote comes with a couple of IR blasters (little red lights that look like LEDs that connect to the remote receiver via long wires), so I checked the model of the set-top box (Motorola DCT700) and found a couple of lirc remote configurations to add to /etc/lircd.conf: two here (a primary and a raw one that fixes the zero problem), and a post about it. Also some information about using the MCE IR blaster from the MythTV wiki (near the end of the page).
Once that was setup, I still had a problem: I could use irsend to change channels (send both digits and the OK button using the raw codes; I eventually added the Exit button to dismiss the channel info, since MythTV has its own), and it worked fine from the computer in the other room (ssh) but not so well when using the remote (which runs the channel change script). Turns out the universal remote was interfering with the set-top box, so I blocked it in so it wouldn't see arrant pulses and all was well.
Books finished: Robert E. Lee and the Road of Honor, Robert E. Lee: Duty and Honor, Team of Rivals.DVDs finished: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Season 5, Coupling: The Complete 2nd Season.
