[mythtv-users] RE: HD, AverTV, & WinTV 250 sale

[Ray Olszewski]

At 12:56 PM 5/26/2003 -0700, Vince Busam wrote:
>Couple of point I found out the hard way.
>
>1.  160GB disk NOT supported by my BIOS (137GB max supported) and Maxtor does
>not provide Linux support.  So I'm jumping through hoops to get the drive to
>work, even using only 137GB of the drive.  (Still working on this.)

What is the nature of your problem? The Linux kernel does not rely on BIOS 
support of large drives. I run a couple of 180GBs here and a 250GB, 
including at least one Maxtor, with no problems; even though my BIOS 
doesn't see these drives properly, Linux sees them just fine at their full 
sizes. (You do need an up-to-date version of fdisk to partition them 
properly, though.)

You have to jump through hoops with Windows and these drives ... the 
Maxtors I've bought came with special IDE-pci cards and Windows-specific 
patch disks ... but for once Linux is ahead of the curve.

Getting these drive to boot the kernel properly may be tricky, though ... I 
haven't tried that yet ... my hda drives are all still "small" (128 GB or 
less) ... you might try the trick from the old days of making a small boot 
partition that holds the kernel image on tracks near the beginning of the 
drive.

>2.  The Aver TV card I got has the Conexant chip (Fusion 878A), which (if I
>recall correctly) previous posts and the MythTV install guide say is not well
>supported under Linux.

This is not quite correct. The 878A is, as you might guess from the number, 
a bt878 chip. What you remember seeing is a report that Hauppauge is using 
a new Conexant chip (the CX21881) that is not *yet* supported at all (not 
"not well") under Linux ... though there is a project under way to support 
this chip.

I've had uneven results here with cheap AverTV cards, but not based on the 
chipset. The older rev uses a SONY daughterboard, and it is subject to 
periodic problems with the bttv module; the newer rev, which just has a 
couple of capacitors where the daughterboard was, works quite reliably for 
me, with Myth and with other capture applications.