Quite recently I was tinkering around with new update Ubuntu 12.10 trying to get my Hauppauge HD-PVR (Gaming Edition) to work with MythTV, had hell of a time trying to configure it properly so I could record some gameplay footage with it. Getting the first initial setup did seem a little easy at first, but not until after I discovered I had to install some additional packages to get it all to work properly. Following the guide on getting and setting up MythTV from http://parker1.co.uk/mythtv_ubuntu.php, before discovering a different and more easy to follow guide in a video from YouTube user called UbuntuHelpGuy. Fantastic guides I should recommend following if you’re needing help or stuck with something that you’re trying to do.
So if you follow as instructed from this video you should be able to get setup with your Hauppauge HD-PVR recording device with no problems. –– I would highly recommend installing MythBuntu repo packages, that is one vital thing you need to do to make sure this works. http://www.mythbuntu.org/auto-builds
Once you’ve downloaded it, it should open up the Ubuntu Software Center and begin installing, it may ask for your password to install, and get a little dialogue for confirming you wish to accept and install agreement stuff.
After you’ve installed the repo packages, and other additional stuff from the Ubuntu Software Center as well as MythTV itself, you then run MythTV Backend to begin the initial setup as follows in the above video shown.
Step 1:
Make sure you’ve got your Hauppauge HD-PVR plugged into the computer then open up MythTV Backend then select Capture Cards, select New Capture Card from the menu list, then for Card type, select H.264 encoder card (HD-PVR), it should then in the next box say /dev/videoN where the N is, is the number it’s assigned, for example; /dev/video0 or /dev/video1. The probed info should say Hauppauge HD PVR [hdpvr] if you’ve got it plugged in. For Audio input it should automatically have selected RCA Back, and the tuning timeout set at 12500 ms, make sure you hit Finish to save it.
Step 2:
Go back to the main menu by hitting Esc button then select Video Sources then select (new video source), you can name your video source whatever you want, so for example; HDPVR or Hauppauge HD-PVR, whatever you want to name it. For the Listings Grabber make sure you select it as No Grabber. Leave Channel frequency table at it’s default and click Finish to save it, then return to the main menu again by hitten Esc.
Step 3:
Select Channel Editor from the menu, then select (Add New Channel), so again for Channel Name you can name it whatever you want, ie; Hauppauge HD-PVR so you know and remember what the channel is called. Next assign a channel number that you wish, it can be any number, so assign it 1 if that’s the number you want it. Name the callsign, ie; HDPVR. Make sure the checkbox Visible is checked. Next the Video Source, select from the list, it should already automatically select the one you created earlier. From here you can select the TV format type, ie; PAL, NTSC, NTSC-JP, etc… doesn’t really matter which leave it on Default if you’re fine as it is. For the Commercial Detection Method select All Available Methods. Click Next then Next again, the next page here you can adjust the TV video source settings like Finetune (kHz), Contrast, Brightness, Color, Hue, These settings are usually best left at their default state, but you can come back later if wish to change it to suit what you’d like, so just hit Finish for now, and you’ve created your channel for your Hauppauge HDPVR, then hit Esc to go back to the main menu.
Step 4:
Now it’s time for Input Connections, here you’ll see 3 things that says. Component, S-Video and Composite, what you want to select is Component. The display name you can name it whatever as an optional thing, ie; HDPVR. Make sure the Video Source is selected on from the menu list says HDPVR or from whatever you named it before in the previous steps. In the External channel change command text box make sure you type in /bin/true, then put Starting Channel to the number you created earlier if it’s not already selected. Now press Next then Finish and you’ve completed this step. You can now exit MythTV Backend by pressing Esc to go back to the main menu then again to quit.
When you close MythTV Backend it’ll ask you for your password, then it’ll ask if you wish to run Mythfilldatabase, just select No. Next you may have to logout and log back in again for the changes to take immediate effect, I’d recommend doing it as an optional thing, but do it anyway just to be sure. Next open up MythTV Frontend. Once opened up go down and select Watch TV, it should then bring you to live screen video feed that your Hauppauge HD-PVR is connected to like your game console for example. To begin recording something just press the R key on your keyboard, and if you wish to stop recording, just hit R key again.
With all that you’ll be able to replay video by going back to the main menu and selecting Watch Recordings. Another thing is if you have Media Server turned on, on your console like PS3 for example, you can playback the recordings on your PS3 as Ubuntu will broadcast it’s media server for MythTV to any computer that’s capable of receiving on your home network.
tearfulwolfstudios 