sa4250_ch_guid : an improved SA4250 channel changer for multiple STBs

[bcorsello@…]

My Myth setup includes two SA4250HD STBs, which I control using Firewire. I've been using MajorIdiot?'s sa4250_ch channel changing program, but found it didn't handle multiple STBs well, so I modified it a bit.

My new setup has a shell wrapper, sa4250_ch_guid, and a modified version of Major's channel changer, sa4250_ch.

Invoke sa4250_ch_guid with the GUID of the box you want to control and the channel as parameters. You don't need the whole GUID, just enough of it to be a unique search key (there is no checking of this so make sure you have it right).

sa4250_ch_guid determines the node number of the STB with the given GUID and passes that as a parameter to sa4250_ch. This is necessary because node numbers often seem to change at unpredictable times.

[bcorsello@…]

sa4250_ch_guid -- wrapper for sa4250_ch

[bcorsello@…]

sa4250_ch -- change channel on SA4250 STB by Firewire

[robertm]

Ref #2059, #7671, #5215. We have a plethora of SA firewire control tickets, with as many different approaches. After some discussion, the preference is that the changes be made to the existing changer rather than add one for each model of firewire box under the sun. So, throwing down the guantlet, let's get everyone working on one ticket with the following criterion:

1) Updates need to modify the existing SA3250 channel changer. 2) All existing boxes must continue to be supported. 3) Would prefer to have the changer tested with all common variants of the box (SA3250, SA4200, SA4250, etc) 4) Enhanced functionality is fine, but not at the expense of existing functionality.

If you feel you can meet these criterion, please reopen your ticket with an attached patch. If it occurs early enough in the development cycle, we can get it out there and work out the kinks.

[sphery]

Script moved to http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/sa4250_ch_guid . Bradley, please feel free to edit the page--it basically contains your description from above, so it could use some cleanup. Furthermore, since it now lives in a wiki, you can be much more descriptive about how the script is used (even showing examples, describing how to configure it in mythtv-setup) and how users should compile the script, etc. Thanks.

Note, also, that my placing the script in the wiki does not mean it's accepted or supported by MythTV project. Any script in the wiki could be deleted at any time if the page falls into disrepair or the code bitrots or ...