[mythtv-users] video capture card list for MythTV

Ray Olszewski ray at comarre.com
Mon Jul 7 08:43:04 EDT 2003


Thanks for all the feedback, Ben. I'll keep this message, and any followup 
you post in response to my comments below, until I find out if Robert (or 
Isaac) plans to use this material as part of Myth documentation. If yes, 
I'll use your, and anyone else's, comments to update it. If no ... well, I 
have no way of making this available independently of Myth, so in that case 
it will probably die as an usupported idea.

One general comment: As I say below in a number of spots, I do not have 
personal knowledge of most of these cards. (In fact, I've only used 3 
different vidcap cards, all in their NTSC versions.) Often, I cannot add 
information you suggest simply because I do not have it. But if the people 
who do have it were to post it here, in the form of more detailed reports, 
I could certainly compile it and thereby improve future versions of this 
draft document.

At 08:44 AM 7/7/2003 +0200, Ben Bucksch wrote:
>Ray Olszewski wrote:
>
>>Posting this to the list, per Martin's request.
>
>Thanks for compiling it. I wonder, if there any other such lists on the 
>net? This is not MythTV-specific and maybe you can join efforts.

It is at least in part Myth specific. Before Myth supported IVTV, the 
availability of a driver for the cards would not have mattered to Myth. 
Other drivers than bttv and ivtv exist, but I do not know whether Myth will 
work with them *except insofar as there have been reports here on this list).

I don't know if there are any other lists or not, though I didn't find any 
when I looked (aside from obvious ones, like the CARDLIST in the btv docs). 
Personally, I think Myth *needs* more, not fewer, Myth-specific docs; we 
need to stop telling newcomers to go elsewhere for basic information.

>Please list PAL vs. NTSC, if possible. The tuner is often what makes the 
>difference between "working" and "not supported".

I rely on the information that is reported here on the list. Reports tend 
to be sketchy in many ways -- an earlier draft had a lot more "Audio: no 
information" entries, for example, that were filled in when people 
commented on that draft (often the people who had posted the earlier, 
vaguer messages).  Perhaps this will happen again with NTSC and PAL?

>Maybe it would be helpful to list mono/stereo as well. Many cards are 
>actually still mono, and manufacturers do not tell customers so. They 
>often mislead them by saying that it's stereo, while only the radio part 
>is stereo. Also, vendors have sometimes wrong information (e.g. the 
>Pinnacle PCTV ist listed as stereo at one big online store here, although 
>the manufacturer confirmed that it's mono only - I had to actually call 
>the hotline to find that out!).

Same comment as above.

Note that my draft does not mention a "Pinnacle PCTV" card -- though it 
does include a "Pinnacle PCTV Rave" and a "Pinnacle PCTV Pro". I mention 
this because it is the kind of problem I run into again and again when I 
try to compile info from reports on this list. I cannot add your correction 
because I do not know which entry you are correcting.

>>Hauppauge Win PVR 350. Video capture works using the IVTV kernel 
>>driver.  Audio is part of the combined MPEG-2 stream provided through the 
>>IVTV driver, so no separate audio driver or connection is needed. .
>
>You may want to make a statement about the hardware decoding / tv out on 
>this card.

Do you mean a comment that TV-out doesn't work (yet) with Myth? Since I 
don't actually have one of these cards, I don't know what comment to make.

>>Hauppauge WinTV-Nexus-s. This card does not yet work with MythTV, but 
>>Isaac reports (on June 25): "Almost.  It's being worked on.  Help 
>>coding/testing would be appreciated". Audio: no information.
>
>This is a DVB-S card. Isaac's comment would makes sense in that case, 
>because DVB support in MythTV is rudimentary, but recording/playback is 
>reported to work (I don't know about this card, though). If you want to 
>list DVB cards, I think you should list them separately (same for analog 
>hardware encoders, BTW).

Again, I only know what shows up on this list, and all of the information 
you write above is news to me. Perhaps you can draft an actual insert? Or, 
better, perhaps someone who actually has and uses one of these cards can 
draft one?

>>Pinnacle PCTV Pro. Video capture works using the bttv kernel driver. 
>>Audio requires using a jumper to a sound card; btaudio does NOT work.
>
>PAL version did not work as of Autumn 2002, despite being listed in the 
>kernel'S CARDLIST as supported ("slipstreaming", as you call it).

Is this your own experience? If yes, I'll add it to the next draft as 
known. If no, then I'll still add it but as "reported".

>Note that the non-Pro version is mono.

I have no entry for a "non-Pro" version. Does this refer to the "Rave" 
version I mentioned? Or to some version for which I have no report at all?

>>Terracom Cinergy 400. Video capture works using the SAA7134 driver. 
>>Audio: no information.
>
>s/Terracom/Terratec/

Are you certain? This is yet another card I have no familiarity with, and 
the name "terracom" is what the report on this list used.

>Audio works (digital audio, no sound card required), after some pain 
>getting it to work (see my post on that subject, basically had to use 
>oss=1 module parameter). I have intermittend problems (the backend says 
>something about composite and no tuner, usually, the first channel change 
>has no audio, it's OK afterwards), but I don't know the cause, might not 
>be the card at all.
>
>Because of the new, integrated SAA7134 chip, it provides stereo sound 
>*and* is relatively cheap. Might be a good buy.

I infer that this is a report from your own experience. Based on that, I 
will add it to the next version of the draft.



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