Using two tuners

[Hans2004]

I love my Sundtek MediaTV. It works very well with MythTV and scanning for channels is easy and fast, both with DVBC and analog television.

Is it possible to use two MediaTV sticks, so one can record on one channel and watch on another at the same time? If so, how do I specify with mediaclient which stick I put in a certain mode?

For example if I want to put one stick in DVBT mode and another one on the same machine in DVBC mode. How do I specify with the mediaclient command which stick I want to put that mode into?

[Sundtek]

Hi,

using 2 Sticks is possible yes.

you can create a batch file and use a simple configuration option of the driver

/etc/sundtek.conf

device_attach=/usr/bin/mythtvrestarter.sh

/usr/bin/mythtvrestarter.sh

#!/bin/bash
sleep 3 # just wait a few seconds until some other application which gets triggered by udev is done accessing analog TV
if [ "$1" = "0" ]; then
 /opt/bin/mediaclient -DDVBC -d /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0
fi
if [ "$1" = "1" ]; then
 /opt/bin/mediaclient -DDVBT -d /dev/dvb/adapter1/frontend0
fi
/etc/init.d/mythtv restart

actually this will cause mythtv to restart twice, but since you have 2 devices you could just put it into the second "if" check. Please note the $1 parameter does not refer to the adapterid, it refers to the deviceid which is retrieved by /opt/bin/mediaclient -e

the device_attach parameter will be called when the device is fully available to the system

[Hans2004]

Thank you for the fast reply. That solved both my questions.

[Benny]

Hi there,

I'm sorry to raise an old thread but I'm having a problem using 2 tuners.
The system I have is ubuntu with tvheadend and using xbmc.

I use the script in this post: http://support.sundtek.com/index.php/topic,800.0.html

But when I start xbmc it seems only one tuner is available. I cannot watch one channel and record on another. Both tuners are set for dvb-c.

Mediaclient -e lists the following:

benny@XBMCLive:~$ mediaclient -e
**** List of Media Hardware Devices ****
device 0: [ Sundtek MediaTV Pro]  DVB-C, DVB-T, ANALOG-TV, FM-RADIO, REMOTE-CONTROL, OSS-AUDIO, RDS
  [SERIAL]:
     ID: 02043952
  [DVB-C]:
     FRONTEND: /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0
     DVR: /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0
     DMX: /dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0
  [DVB-T]:
     FRONTEND: /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0
     DVR: /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0
     DMX: /dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0
  [ANALOG-TV]:
     VIDEO0: /dev/video0
     VBI0: /dev/vbi0
  [FM-RADIO]:
     RADIO0: /dev/radio0
     RDS: /dev/rds0
  [REMOTECONTROL]:
     INPUT0: /dev/mediainput0
  [OSS]:
     OSS0: /dev/dsp0

device 1: [ Sundtek MediaTV Pro]  DVB-C, DVB-T, ANALOG-TV, FM-RADIO, REMOTE-CONTROL, OSS-AUDIO, RDS
  [SERIAL]:
     ID: 02043971
  [DVB-C]:
     FRONTEND: /dev/dvb/adapter1/frontend0
     DVR: /dev/dvb/adapter1/dvr0
     DMX: /dev/dvb/adapter1/demux0
  [DVB-T]:
     FRONTEND: /dev/dvb/adapter1/frontend0
     DVR: /dev/dvb/adapter1/dvr0
     DMX: /dev/dvb/adapter1/demux0
  [ANALOG-TV]:
     VIDEO0: /dev/video1
     VBI0: /dev/vbi1
  [FM-RADIO]:
     RADIO0: /dev/radio1
     RDS: /dev/rds1
  [REMOTECONTROL]:
     INPUT0: /dev/mediainput1
  [OSS]:
     OSS0: /dev/dsp1

Anyone got any tips for how to proceed?

[Sundtek]

Did you check if tvheadend is using both tuners?

/opt/bin/mediaclient --lc # list clients

[Benny]

Hi,

Looks like it:

benny@XBMCLive:/opt/bin$ mediaclient --lc #list clients
**** List of Media Clients ****
/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0:
  1601 ... tvheadend
/dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0:
  1601 ... tvheadend
/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0:
  1601 ... tvheadend (0000)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0001)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0010)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0011)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0012)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0300)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0104)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0108)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0101)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0122)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0106)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0105)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0107)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0196)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0193)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0194)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0195)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0197)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0152)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0151)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0153)
/dev/video0:
  No client connected
/dev/vbi0:
  No client connected
/dev/radio0:
  No client connected
/dev/rds0:
  No client connected
/dev/mediainput0:
  No client connected
/dev/dsp0:
  No client connected
/dev/dvb/adapter1/frontend0:
  1601 ... tvheadend
/dev/dvb/adapter1/dvr0:
  1601 ... tvheadend
/dev/dvb/adapter1/demux0:
  1601 ... tvheadend (0000)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0001)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0010)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0011)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0012)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0122)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0107)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0106)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0133)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0104)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0105)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0101)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0152)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0153)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0154)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0155)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0146)
  1601 ... tvheadend (0300)
/dev/video1:
  No client connected
/dev/vbi1:
  No client connected
/dev/radio1:
  No client connected
/dev/rds1:
  No client connected
/dev/mediainput1:
  No client connected
/dev/dsp1:
  No client connected

[Sundtek]

According to that output tvheadend sees 2 tuners, so the problem might be somewhere in xbmc not between the tuner and tvheadend it seems.

I have a small problem understanding your problem, does it only happen sometimes or always?

[Benny]

Hi,

Thanks for you response.
I'll try to describe it better.

I have 2 tuners.
in XBMC when I try to record something and then switch channel, I get the message that the tuner is already in use.

This means even though there are 2 tuners only 1 of them is available.
And from what I can see, tvheadend finds both tuners. When scanning muxes I've done it on both tuners, so it seems that both of them are atleast working.

I'm guessing it's probably an issue with tvheadend not beeing able to select the second tuner when I watch 2 different channels.

Guess I'm stuck with one tuner for the time beeing.
Oh and thanks for your help, much appreciated.

I'll be looking out for XBMC and tvheadend updates. I'm guessing it's an issue there that has to be solved.

[Sundtek]

You might check what tvheadend is doing with both tuners, following commands will show up the signal statistics and frequency parameters

/opt/bin/mediaclient --readsignal=0 -d /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0

and on another terminal:

/opt/bin/mediaclient --readsignal=0 -d /dev/dvb/adapter1/frontend0

(abort with ctrl-c since 0 means endless reading)

if both tuners show up the same frequency then there's something wrong with tvheadend, since the second tuner should only be used with another frequency.