[mythtv-users] M179 vs. PVR-250. was: ivtv firmware 2.02 or 1.9 ?

[Jarod Wilson]

On Mar 25, 2004, at 02:58, Jeff wrote:

> Wednesday, March 24, 2004, 3:11:48 AM, Jarod C. Wilson wrote:
>
>> On Mar 20, 2004, at 13:41, Bruce Smith wrote:
>
>>>> And the firmware isn't what needs patching to support the M179, it 
>>>> is
>>>> the ivtv driver itself. And yes, the latest packages on ATrpms do 
>>>> have
>>>> the M179 patch applied. I use them myself with both my M179 cards, 
>>>> no
>>>> problem.
>>>
>>> I'm looking to buy a 2nd card (my first is a PVR-250), and I'm 
>>> debating
>>> about getting a M179 off ebay, or another PVR-250.  How does the
>>> quality
>>> compare between them?  I've read some postings about M179's having 
>>> bad
>>> quality, but that may only apply to the Windows drivers (which I 
>>> don't
>>> care about).  If there is any difference in quality, I'll spend the
>>> extra for another PVR-250.  If the quality is the same, then I might 
>>> as
>>> well save the money.  Does a M179 and a PVR-250 play nice together in
>>> the same box?  Which would you recommend for a 2nd card?  Thanks!
>
>> No distinguishable difference between the two for me. I have a retail
>> rev2 PVR-250 and an M179 in the same box, no problem. For a secondary
>> card (or even a primary, if you have another remote control 
>> interface),
>> the M179 is a solid deal. Save the money.
>
> I would recommend the PVR-250. I have both and the M179 card is
> the only one that gives me zero length recordings. I get it up and
> running and then the machine reboots for some reason and it takes
> me a while to get the M179 happy again. The symptom is I get are
> problems initializing the firmware during boot and then:
>    ivtv: timed out waiting for firmware
>    ivtv: init error <n>. Code -16
> Others have said that they can rmmod ivtv; insmod ivtv to get it
> to work, I always get a "device inuse" message from the rmmod. A
> couple more reboots and sometimes reloading the firmware fixes
> the problem.
>
> This never happens with the PVR card.
>
> I'm using ivtv-cvs-latest+1125A+M179_close_stream with
> Knoppmyth and pvr250_17_21226.exe

You're using a rather old version of ivtv there. Lots of problems were 
fixed in the 0.1.9 release. I believe problems with zero-length 
recordings were addressed after the version you're running, so I'm not 
surprised you see that happening. Have you considered trying the newer 
ivtv driver? It might make all your M179 problems history...

-- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

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