Make sure when you get a serial cable that it's the "passthru" type --all wires go straight thru. I didn't try it with a mouse extension cable or something like that but I think it probably wouldn't work, since all the wires are not used on a mouse and to save manufacturing cost are probably not included in these types of cables.

There is a program included with the myth distribution (use the source luke...) called "channel",
the source is in a folder called contrib/dct-channel.

The channel source is pre-configured to use com1/3f8. Rather than edit the source I set my serial port to com1/3f8 and compiled the program:

cd contrib/dct-channel
make

cp channel /usr/local/bin/
chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/channel

In mythtv-setup:

under 4. Input connections

set "External channel change command:" to: /usr/local/bin/channel -v
(I tried it without the -v and it didn't work...)

set "Preset tuner to channel:" 3
(you want your tv card to be on channel three now cause all your channel changing happens on the settopbox)

I set "Starting channel:" to nothing it seems to default to 3

If you need to talk to tech support at your cable company to ask them to enable the serial port it's probably best if you just tell them you have a tivo and you want to hook it up to your settopbox.

which distrabution are you using.. i serached for channel and found :


topher@Singularity:~$ locate channel
/etc/skel/.mythtv/themecache/blue.1024.768/gg-rs-channel.png
/home/mythtv/.mythtv/channels
/home/mythtv/.mythtv/themecache/blue.1024.768/gg-rs-channel.png
/home/topher/.mythtv/themecache/blue.1024.768/gg-rs-channel.png
/root/.mythtv/channels
/usr/include/glib-2.0/glib/giochannel.h
/usr/include/linux/ppp_channel.h
/usr/share/mythtv/mythweb/channel_detail.php
/usr/share/mythtv/mythweb/includes/channels.php
/usr/share/mythtv/mythweb/settings_channels.php
/usr/share/mythtv/mythweb/themes/compact/channel_detail.php
/usr/share/mythtv/mythweb/themes/Default/channel_detail.php
/usr/share/mythtv/mythweb/themes/Default/settings_channels.php
/usr/share/mythtv/mythweb/themes/wap/channel_detail.php
/usr/share/mythtv/themes/default/gg-rs-channel.png
/usr/share/mythtv/themes/oldosd/channelinfo.png
/usr/share/mythtv/themes/sleek/gg-rs-channel.png
/usr/share/mythtv/themes/visor/gg-rs-channel.png
/usr/share/xmltv/tv_grab_de_tvtoday/channel_ids
/usr/share/xmltv/tv_grab_it/channel_ids
/usr/share/xmltv/tv_grab_nl/channels
/usr/share/xmltv/tv_grab_uk_rt/channel_ids
/usr/src/kernel-headers-2.4.25-chw/include/asm-mips/pci_channel.h
/usr/src/kernel-headers-2.4.25-chw/include/asm-mips64/pci_channel.h
/usr/src/kernel-headers-2.4.25-chw/include/linux/ppp_channel.h

is one of these what you need?

i want to change the channels on a Motorola cable box. through IR or serial I dont care. There seems to be little info on this .. or i could be using the wrong words agin. I have searched for LIRC which seems to be involved but my config file only deals with the input portion. I have also searched for motorola and change_channel.sh And the change channel isnt even in my computer. Is it part of a package that i need to install or expand. Help!

it's in the contrib folder of the mythtv source
you have to dl that from mythtv.org

it's not installed on knoppmyth

Sure it's installed in KnoppMyth! It's in:

/usr/src/r4v4_src/mythtv-0.15/src

That directory contains all the source files for MythTV 0.15, you just need to extract them (tar xfj filename.tar.bz2).

In fact, ALL the source code can be found within /usr/src including kernel source and every other extra package that KnoppMyth adds on top of Knoppix. It tends to come in real handy when modifying or recompiling certain things.

I knew I had a reason for including those...

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

thax for the tip. i found it and put it in there .. but i dont believe my serial port is on. so i hooked up a IRblaster to it. would this code work for that as well ... any help would be appreciated