trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

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dardenus
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Re: trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

Post by dardenus »

i was able to add the HD Homerun tuners without issue and set up Schedules Direct, but can't seem to get my tuner to scan, poking around i am reading the issue may be that it is a permissions issue and that the problem is i am not using a user account 'mythtv' does that sound right? if so, is there a way around this? i have other things that run in this user account and don't want to have to set up a user account that must be logged into to be able to watch TV
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Re: trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

Post by pvr4me »

dardenus wrote:i was able to add the HD Homerun tuners without issue and set up Schedules Direct, but can't seem to get my tuner to scan, poking around i am reading the issue may be that it is a permissions issue and that the problem is i am not using a user account 'mythtv' does that sound right? if so, is there a way around this? i have other things that run in this user account and don't want to have to set up a user account that must be logged into to be able to watch TV
You have to create an account on Schedules Direct via their web site. When you've done that, you tell them your postal code and then select one or more of the available lineups.

Have you done these things?

Craig
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Re: trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

Post by dardenus »

yes sir, running on their 7 day trial currently (want to verify things work out properly before paying lol)
created a list from my zip + cable provider, was able to log in with my account in myth no problem
following setup guide here https://gameroomsolutions.com/live-tv-setup/
mainly because he is also using a HD Homerun Prime

"Now we just need to connect up this new video source you created with your tuners. Select Option 4 “Input Connections”. You should see your 3 tuners. Select the first one.
•Insert a display name, I just used HD 1, HD 2, and HD 3 for each of my tuners
•Under Video Source you should only see the new schedules direct source listed; it will be named whatever you called it, select it
•I use the quick tuning option for Live TV only
•IMPORTANT: Click “Fetch channels from listing source” not “scan for channels” •The Fetch will use the schedules direct and only get you the channels you have on that listing which is what you want
•This step could take a few min depending on how many channels you didn’t filter out in your schedules direct feed

•Select a starting channel as this is the channel devices will start at when started
•Next over, next over again and finish"

I noticed using fetch was basically instant (didn't do anything?) and I cant seem to find any list of channels

I found something similar here viewtopic.php?f=36&t=835
spoke with my brother since he knows Linux a lot more than I do, sounds like Linux has users that aren't user accounts which is where I got confused, does any of that sound like it applies to my problem since theyre both Unix OS' or is that a separate issue that's specific to Linux?
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Re: trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

Post by pvr4me »

dardenus wrote:yes sir, running on their 7 day trial currently (want to verify things work out properly before paying lol)
created a list from my zip + cable provider, was able to log in with my account in myth no problem
following setup guide here https://gameroomsolutions.com/live-tv-setup/
mainly because he is also using a HD Homerun Prime

"Now we just need to connect up this new video source you created with your tuners. Select Option 4 “Input Connections”. You should see your 3 tuners. Select the first one.
•Insert a display name, I just used HD 1, HD 2, and HD 3 for each of my tuners
•Under Video Source you should only see the new schedules direct source listed; it will be named whatever you called it, select it
•I use the quick tuning option for Live TV only
•IMPORTANT: Click “Fetch channels from listing source” not “scan for channels” •The Fetch will use the schedules direct and only get you the channels you have on that listing which is what you want
•This step could take a few min depending on how many channels you didn’t filter out in your schedules direct feed

•Select a starting channel as this is the channel devices will start at when started
•Next over, next over again and finish"

I noticed using fetch was basically instant (didn't do anything?) and I cant seem to find any list of channels
...
1) Your issue has nothing to do with user credentials in the Mac operating system. If you can't retrieve the SD lineup, then the Schedules Direct userid and/or password are not correct. If the SD lineup _does_ appear in mythtv-setup, then you just need to run mythfilldatabase. This program is normally run daily (automatically started by mythbackend) to download updated program listings and populate Myth's database. However, you want to kick it off manually after initial setup rather than wait 24 hours for it to run.

2) You never mentioned before that you have an HDHomerun Prime to use with your cable service. Which cable co are you dealing with? Most cable companies in the US apply DRM to some or all of the channels they deliver which prevents Myth from accessing them. Some apply DRM to ALL channels rendering Myth useless. Who are you using?

3) Are you sure you have the cable card activated properly? I've never done it but this step seems to trip people up regularly.

4) The blog you linked to seems mostly OK but is missing at least one critical setting wrt the Prime. You have to go into Recording Options for each tuner and:
Change Max Recordings to 1. When in CableCARD mode, the HDHomeRun is only able to record one program per tuner.
https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Silicondust_HDHomeRun_Prime

Craig
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dardenus
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Re: trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

Post by dardenus »

pvr4me wrote:
dardenus wrote:yes sir, running on their 7 day trial currently (want to verify things work out properly before paying lol)
created a list from my zip + cable provider, was able to log in with my account in myth no problem
following setup guide here https://gameroomsolutions.com/live-tv-setup/
mainly because he is also using a HD Homerun Prime

"Now we just need to connect up this new video source you created with your tuners. Select Option 4 “Input Connections”. You should see your 3 tuners. Select the first one.
•Insert a display name, I just used HD 1, HD 2, and HD 3 for each of my tuners
•Under Video Source you should only see the new schedules direct source listed; it will be named whatever you called it, select it
•I use the quick tuning option for Live TV only
•IMPORTANT: Click “Fetch channels from listing source” not “scan for channels” •The Fetch will use the schedules direct and only get you the channels you have on that listing which is what you want
•This step could take a few min depending on how many channels you didn’t filter out in your schedules direct feed

•Select a starting channel as this is the channel devices will start at when started
•Next over, next over again and finish"

I noticed using fetch was basically instant (didn't do anything?) and I cant seem to find any list of channels
...
1) Your issue has nothing to do with user credentials in the Mac operating system. If you can't retrieve the SD lineup, then the Schedules Direct userid and/or password are not correct. If the SD lineup _does_ appear in mythtv-setup, then you just need to run mythfilldatabase. This program is normally run daily (automatically started by mythbackend) to download updated program listings and populate Myth's database. However, you want to kick it off manually after initial setup rather than wait 24 hours for it to run.

2) You never mentioned before that you have an HDHomerun Prime to use with your cable service. Which cable co are you dealing with? Most cable companies in the US apply DRM to some or all of the channels they deliver which prevents Myth from accessing them. Some apply DRM to ALL channels rendering Myth useless. Who are you using?

3) Are you sure you have the cable card activated properly? I've never done it but this step seems to trip people up regularly.

4) The blog you linked to seems mostly OK but is missing at least one critical setting wrt the Prime. You have to go into Recording Options for each tuner and:
Change Max Recordings to 1. When in CableCARD mode, the HDHomeRun is only able to record one program per tuner.
https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Silicondust_HDHomeRun_Prime

Craig
1) it seems to log in and download the list from SD just fine from the prompts it gave me ( can run when I get home to get exact terminology if that helps), but I don't see anywhere that info was added, is mythfiledatabase a terminal command?
2) the HD Homerun Prime application was able to view channels just fine, 1-99 appear to be standard, 5000+ appear to be HD, tv provided by Consolidated Communications, no M card
3) no card to activate, apparently theyre not like time warner, IPTV maybe? dunno
4) I set each to 1
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Re: trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

Post by pvr4me »

dardenus wrote:1) it seems to log in and download the list from SD just fine from the prompts it gave me ( can run when I get home to get exact terminology if that helps), but I don't see anywhere that info was added, is mythfiledatabase a terminal command?
2) the HD Homerun Prime application was able to view channels just fine, 1-99 appear to be standard, 5000+ appear to be HD, tv provided by Consolidated Communications, no M card
3) no card to activate, apparently theyre not like time warner, IPTV maybe? dunno
4) I set each to 1
1) See Applicatons > MythTV > Myth_Filldatabase
2/3) Interesting. I thought cablecard was universal now in the US. If this turns into the stumbling block, you should probably ask for help on the SiliconDust support forum. They'd know better than me and they're well-familiar with Myth.

Craig
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dardenus
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Re: trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

Post by dardenus »

its working for sure sense their own app is tuning in, I thought the same thing but from what I google since its IPTV (at least that's what they say) they aren't restricted to the same requirements, but if I can tune channels without the card, who cares right? I just don't have to spend the $2/mo from what I can tell
ill try the myth_filldatabase tonight and report back
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Re: trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

Post by dardenus »

ok, ran it, took a while, where should i see a visible change?
verified video source setup shows my user id and password, logs in, and shows data direct lineup
not sure if i should have channel frequency table default or us-cable
channel editor still doesn't let me click channel scan, if i do nothing happens, if i try to use arrow keys it jumps past it

edit 1
also noticed on connect source input fetch channels from listing finishes immediately as if it didn't do anything and starting channel says 'please add channels to this source'
should i be using scan for channels even though the link i posted earlier mentioned not to?

edit 2
ok so i re-added the tuners and re did the source inputs because why not, fetch still acts instant but now edit channels shows i can scan, so thats cool, any specific modulation i should be using or trial and error?
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Re: trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

Post by pvr4me »

dardenus wrote:ok, ran it, took a while, where should i see a visible change?
verified video source setup shows my user id and password, logs in, and shows data direct lineup
not sure if i should have channel frequency table default or us-cable
channel editor still doesn't let me click channel scan, if i do nothing happens, if i try to use arrow keys it jumps past it

edit 1
also noticed on connect source input fetch channels from listing finishes immediately as if it didn't do anything and starting channel says 'please add channels to this source'
should i be using scan for channels even though the link i posted earlier mentioned not to?

edit 2
ok so i re-added the tuners and re did the source inputs because why not, fetch still acts instant but now edit channels shows i can scan, so thats cool, any specific modulation i should be using or trial and error?
NO scan. As the docs say, no scan is needed; the channel information was loaded by MFD. Assuming you have the other setup steps done, you should be able to start mythbackend now. If you can see it running in Activity Monitor, then start up mythfrontend and see if you can define a recording rule (probably for something currently in progress). Then play it!

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Re: trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

Post by dardenus »

well, I'm afraid it shows no backend running in activity monitor and the frontend complained saying it couldn't see the backend and requested i check the IP, i did change the local backend to the computers network IP as well as the master back end, no change, i saw the front end was expecting port 3306 so i changed the master back end to match and now that error is gone, but i still show in start/stop mythbackend is not running, trying to watch TV shows all tuners busy

side note for switching the IP from 127.0.0.1
I do plan to use a raspberry pi 3 as a remote front end in the future after i get things working, the message on the same computer about not being able to see the backend disappeared after changing to my network IP and adjusting the port number so I assume this was not a bad thing, i can easily revert these changes if you disagree
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Re: trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

Post by pvr4me »

dardenus wrote:well, I'm afraid it shows no backend running in activity monitor and the frontend complained saying it couldn't see the backend and requested i check the IP, i did change the local backend to the computers network IP as well as the master back end, no change, i saw the front end was expecting port 3306 so i changed the master back end to match and now that error is gone, but i still show in start/stop mythbackend is not running, trying to watch TV shows all tuners busy

side note for switching the IP from 127.0.0.1
I do plan to use a raspberry pi 3 as a remote front end in the future after i get things working, the message on the same computer about not being able to see the backend disappeared after changing to my network IP and adjusting the port number so I assume this was not a bad thing, i can easily revert these changes if you disagree
As mentioned above, each Myth program creates a log in '/opt/dvr/var/log/mythtv.28' every time they are started. Please post the most recent log for mythbackend.

"i did change the local backend to the computers network IP as well as the master back end"
If you want remote frontends to be able to connect to the backend, the backend must have a static IP address. Most routers have a function to always assign the same IP address to a particular MAC address. You'll have to look up the documentation for your particular router.

"i saw the front end was expecting port 3306 so i changed the master back end to match"
What made you change these in the first place? As delivered, everything defaults to 3306 so there was no need to touch anything. Please try harder to follow the documented steps rather than creating even more problems.

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dardenus
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Re: trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

Post by dardenus »

I will post a log when I get home

computer is already on a static IP so that should be fine

I changed the port number in attempts to troubleshoot my own problem. I changed the port number under the assumption that the front end port must have a port number that matches the backend to communicate properly, using the default 3306 resulted in the front end informing me in a notification on the top right of the screen that it isn't connecting to the back end and to check the IP address, changing this value to match what the front end was expecting seems to have resolved this issue as I have not gotten this warning in the top right corner any longer. The front end defaulted to expecting 3306, the local backend defaulted to 6544, and the master backend defaulted to 6543, I will change it back if you feel that the defaults were correct but I am confused why you wouldn't want matching port numbers.

thanks again for how much time and effort you have put into my series of problems, I am trying hard to understand but this has been hard for me to grasp
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Re: trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

Post by dardenus »

I moved the port number back to its default, rebooted, ran myth setup to create a new log (can make one for front end as well if you like?) copied it to the desktop, and attached
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mythtv-setup.20170405234449.1223.log
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Re: trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

Post by pvr4me »

dardenus wrote:I moved the port number back to its default, rebooted, ran myth setup to create a new log (can make one for front end as well if you like?) copied it to the desktop, and attached
To repeat, please post the most recent log for mythbackend.

BTW, mythfrontend _cannot_ run without mythbackend running. There is no reason to try to start the FE when you know the BE isn't up.

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Re: trying to get mythtv-core.28 up and running, help!

Post by dardenus »

i don't think i understand, i have files for mythfilldatabase, mythfrontend, and mythtv-setup, none say mythbackend
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