[mythtvnz] LIRC and mySKY / Pace TDS850NNZ

[Wade Maxfield]

> On 13/10/2017, at 20:17, Wade Maxfield <mythtvnz at hotblack.co.nz> wrote:
> 
> To test the card was working, I added a single new card input to MythTV Setup using the same settings as the other DVB cards (and left the others as they were).  Watch Live TV starts with one of the SkyStar cards fine (showing signal strength info when first starting) but when I try to access the new card via  Menu > Source > Switch Input it just freezes for a bit and dumps me out to the menu.  Switching to any of the other inputs works as expected.  I’ve tried switching the aerial input to each of the 4 input connectors on the card, and also tried using the cable connected to the SkyStar card (just to eliminate bad cable or wrong port).  
> 
> Myth is currently back online and can record from the SkyStars, and HDPVR so I’ve deleted this new card input, and will look at it again tomorrow.
> 

OK. I’ve sussed out where the issues were.  Using mod probe I’ve got the TBS6909 is appearing as adapters 2-9 (/dev/dvb/adapter2, etc). I’ve got an old Sharp LNB with lof 11300. 

Trying out all the different LNB settings (fixed, voltage, voltage and tone) I’ve figured out that when the sat feed is connected to input 1, Myth fails to get a signal from the card. But this works:

scan -a 2 -l 11300,11300,0 /usr/share/dvb/dvb-legacy/dvb-s/OptusD1-160.0E

and this fails:

scan -a 2 -l 11300,11300,1 /usr/share/dvb/dvb-legacy/dvb-s/OptusD1-160.0E


Connecting the sat feed to input 3, Myth can tune successfully, and this fails:
scan -a 2 -l 11300,11300,0 /usr/share/dvb/dvb-legacy/dvb-s/OptusD1-160.0E
dvbtune -f 1183000 -s 22500 -p h -m -c 2 -tone 0

while this works
scan -a 2 -l 11300,11300,1 /usr/share/dvb/dvb-legacy/dvb-s/OptusD1-160.0E
dvbtune -f 1183000 -s 22500 -p h -m -c 2 -tone 1


The user guide PDF has the inputs labelled as 0 = V/L (Vertical / Low), 1 = V/H, 2 = H/L, 3 = H/H (Horizontal/High) but I could only get a signal on Inputs 1 & 3 so I think the manual has the labels wrong and 1 is actually Horizontal/Low.  So that would suggest that Myth is always sending the 22KHz tone signal and causing the card to use the High band input.  I can work with  that, the only place that would cause an issue is with dvbstream that has no way of setting the tone and would require input 1 to be connected so I can pull guide data. But I’m keeping the SkyStar installed so I’ll run my EPG feed off that. 

So, card installed and can be setup in Myth.  The signal strength is lower on the TBS6909 than the SkyStar using the same cables, 55% vs 76-81% in Myth, or from dvbtune:

Signal strength: 36736
SNR: 39032
vs 
Signal strength: 47770
SNR: 51897

but the quick tests using Watch Live Tv seem fine.  On to the next steps…


 - Wade