[mythtv-users] Bounty: Capturing from a PVR-350 card.

Eivind ekj at vestdata.no
Tue Dec 21 08:38:59 UTC 2004


Hello !

I have run into a problem when trying to construct a PVR using mythtv. 

I have the following hardware:

* Via Epia M10000 board with 1Ghz Nemiah and HW-accelerated mpeg-out.
* Hauppage Wintv PVR-350 tv-tuner card. 

I am aware that this gives me *two* hardware-accelerated tv-out channels, 
one true the onboard graphics of the Via-mainboard, and one trough the 
PVR-350. For now I'm using the output of the mainboard, trough no 
preference of my own but simply because it appeared the simplest to get 
working. Output works perfectly.

The problem is recording.

I have been following Jarods guide, and I'm running under Fedora Core 3 
(allthough this is also simply because the guide suggested it, solutions 
using other distros or other versions are more than welcome)

Installation went smoothly, same for addition of atrpms, installation and 
configuration of mythtv and dependencies.

ivtv also appears to work ok, attached is the relevant part of my messages 
after doing "modprobe ivtv".

The problem is that when I do cat /dev/video0 > test_capture.mpg I *do* get 
a valid mpeg-stream with the dimensions I specified (I'm in Germany and 
use PAL, so I selected the native PAL resolution to capture at), but the 
stream is nearly completely black. (there's a few grey dots dancing, but 
nowhere near what I'd normally call "snow")

The guide says that in general, capturing snow means you're recording fine, 
but the tuner is not set for any existing channel, and capturing black 
means you are capturing fine, but probably from a non-connected input. 
(there's multiple inputs for external video-feeds on the card)

Problem is, I tested with all available inputs (0 to 9 on my card), and all 
available frequencies in the "PAL-Europe-West" frequency-table, and the 
stream stayed stubbornly black. 

So basically -- what do I do now ? Or, if that isn't answerable, what extra 
information should I provide so that the question becomes answerable ?

Oh yeah, and the bounty ? I'll pay €50 to whomever helps me so that the 
problem becomes solved. I realise that's not "payment" for this kind of 
technical support -- it ain't supposed to be. Far more a small carrot to 
show that I do appreciate the time people on this list take to answer 
questions (even dumb ones !)

Sincerely,
		Eivind Kjørstad


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