I bought this tuner card ( Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Dual TV Tuner / Encoder 1229 PCI-Express x1 Interface - OEM ) to put in my new atom based backend. It doesn't seem to be as solid as a recorder as my Das Original Air2PC cards… BUT… we'll try again.

1. Fresh install of Mythbuntu 10.04 LTS wiping out the original.
   • Chose the primary backend
   • Enabled ALL services: SAMBA, NFS, SSH, Mythtv
2. Update the packages to the latest and reboot
3. Install some programs I cannot live without:
   1. jed:

       sudo apt-get install jed 

1. Set the IP address to be static (help found here): modify /etc/network/interfaces to reflect the local IP
   1. remove the network manager stuff

      aptitude remove network-manager

   2. remove the DHCP client:

      sudo apt-get remove dhcp-client

   3. set our IP address to what you want:

      # The primary network interface                                                 
      auto eth0                                                                       
      iface eth0 inet static                                                          
              address xx.xx.xx.xx
              netmask 255.255.255.0                                                   
              network xx.xx.xx.xx                                                   
              broadcast xx.xx.xx.255                                               
              gateway xx.xx.xx.1                                                   
              # dns-* options are implemented by the resolvconf package, if installed 
              dns-nameservers xx.xx.xx.xx                            
              dns-search some.domain.com

Prep:

sudo apt-get install unzip

wget http://www.steventoth.net/linux/hvr22xx/22xxdrv_27086.zip
wget http://www.steventoth.net/linux/hvr22xx/HVR-12x0-14x0-17x0_1_25_25271_WHQL.zip
wget http://www.steventoth.net/linux/hvr22xx/extract.sh
chmod 755 extract.sh
sh extract.sh
# THIS FW I had to find by googling:
wget http://steventoth.net/linux/hvr22xx/firmwares/4038864/v4l-saa7164-1.0.3-3.fw
# END mods
sudo cp *fw /lib/firmware
sudo apt-get install mercurial libncurses5-dev
hg clone http://kernellabs.com/hg/saa7164-stable/
cd saa7164-stable
make CONFIG_DVB_FIREDTV:=n
sudo make install
sudo reboot

• General
  • [Page 1] IP Address to xx.xx.xx.xx
  • [Page 1] Master backend IP address to same xx.xx.xx.xx
  • [Last Page] Automatically run mythfilldatabase
• Capture Cards
  • New Capture Card → DVB 0
  • New Capture Care → DVB 1
• Video Source
  • New Video Source
    • Video Source name: Local ATSC
    • Username:
    • Password:
    • PRESS Retrieve lineups and pull up our zip code channels
• Input Connections
  • Connect each tuner to the video source
    • Scan for channels

1. Installed Mythbuntu from CD making this computer just a “front end”
2. Enabled SSH
3. Left DHCP as I have my daemon giving out the proper IP based on MAC address

1. Modified theme to the one I LIKE!
2. Modified ALSA mixer so that audio SPDIF is output
   1. Load up the mixer as root

      sudo alsamixer

   2. Modify the line: Item: S/PDIF Output [Off] with the 'M' key
   3. Save your configuration with:

      sudo alsactl store 0

3. Modified the Audio output to use S/PDIF:
   1. Utilities / Setup → Setup → General → Page 4
      1. Speaker Configuration from Stereo to 5.1
      2. Upmix: Best
      3. Audio Processing Capabilities: Check both Dolby Digital AND DTS
4. Set our VIDEO output to VDPAU:
   1. Utilities / Setup → TV Settings → Playback → Page 3/8
   2. Current Video Playback Profile:VDPAU High Quality

I added the following lines to my lirc configuration: ~/.lirc/mythtv

### added by david rabine (dlr) 2009.12.28 ###

# I added the following - dlr 2008/10/18
# Skip forward (10 min default)
begin
    remote = Streamzap_PC_Remote
    prog = mythtv
    button = >>
    repeat = 0
    config = PgDown
    delay = 0
end

begin
    remote = Streamzap_PC_Remote
    prog = mythtv
    button = <<
    repeat = 0
    config = PgUp
    delay = 0
end

# Seek to previous commercial cut point
begin
    remote = Streamzap_PC_Remote
    prog = mythtv
    button = YELLOW
    repeat = 0
    config = Q
end

# Seek to next commercial cut point
begin
    remote = Streamzap_PC_Remote
    prog = mythtv
    button = BLUE
    repeat = 0
    config = Z
end

1. The images were “tearing” with some High Definition content, found http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/VDPAU this page. Not sure why disabling the composite output on the card fixes this, but it does.

   sudo nvidia-xconfig --no-composite