[mythtv-users] Problems with PVR-250 MCE OEM card - PAL version [long]

[Michael T. Dean]

John Oliver wrote:

> I'm down in New Zealand, and we run PAL format tv broadcasts here. The 
> MCE OEM cards are not available locally, just the retail 250s and 350s 
> which are sold at total rip-off prices (around US$400!!!). However I 
> was able to mail order some PAL format MCE cards from the US.
>
> These cards have on the label "WIN-TV PAL B/G-I-D/K-SECAM" and are 
> model number 32559.
>
> I can see that the encoder chip is a CONEXANT CX23416-12. By carefully 
> peeling back the sticker on the tuner enclosure I can see another 
> label identifying the tuner as a Microtune 4049 FM5 <uh oh...>

...

> And finally, insmod tveeprom gives this:

...

> tvee: tuner=<unknown> (idx=52, type=-1)

Means that the tuner kernel module you've installed does *NOT* support 
the tuner type you're using (regardless of which patches you 
installed--possibly because of all the dependencies spelled out below).

If you really do have a Microtune 4049 FM5, there's still hope--but it 
will take some work on your part (may actually be more than $400US worth 
of time, depending on your luck/comfort-level with Linux, so 
returning/replacing the card may not be a terrible idea).

The tuner module is a kernel module.  The IvyTV drivers do *NOT* 
distribute the tuner module.  Instead, the tuner module is distributed 
as part of the bttv driver ( http://linux.bytesex.org/v4l2/bttv.html ).  
The BTTV driver is also distributed with the Linux kernel, and the 
associated tuner module is *ONLY* compiled if the BTTV driver is 
selected in the Kernel configuration.

The Linux 2.6.4+ kernel has support for the Microtune 4049 FM5 tuner in 
its tuner kernel module.  Also, bttv 0.9.x (not sure which version added 
support, but the latest version 0.9.15 has it) supports the 4049 (bttv 
0.7.x does NOT support the 4049).  Therefore, you can upgrade your tuner 
module to the bttv 0.9.15 version with your current kernel or upgrade 
your kernel to 2.6.4+.

Unfortunately, bttv 0.9.x (which is in the Linux 2.6 series) uses 
Video4Linux2 (V4L2) and I-squared C (I2C) 2.8.x; whereas bttv 0.7.x 
(which is in the Linux 2.4 series) uses Video4Linux (V4L) and I2C 
2.6.x.  Neither V4L2 nor I2C 2.8 are API-compatible upgrades to the 
previous versions.  Therefore, to get your card to work with Linux 
2.4.x, you will need to upgrade the kernel's I2C to 2.8.x ( 
http://secure.netroedge.com/~lm78/ ) and V4L to V4L2 ( 
http://linux.bytesex.org/v4l2/ ), compile and install the bttv 0.9.x 
drivers, and compile and install the ivtv drivers (which will now 
require explicitly specifying I2C 2.8.x support).

Instead, a kernel upgrade will most likely be much easier.  And, to make 
things even better, the current implementations of the ivtv driver with 
Chris Kennedy's patches ( http://kmos.org/~ckennedy/ivtv/ ) seem to be 
_much_ more stable on Linux 2.6.x.  (Note, the current "stable" release 
of IvyTV 0.1.9 does not support Linux 2.6.x, so you will need patches.  
The ck patches include 2.6.x support and many other fixes.  And, the ck 
versions of the driver are much more stable on my system than the 
"stable" release.)

My recommendation:
    - upgrade your kernel to Linux 2.6.5 (making sure to include 
CONFIG_VIDEO_BT848=y (as well as all other required options--such as 
V4L2) so you compile tuner.ko )
    - compile ivtv-0.1.10pre2 with ck patches and support for the 
Microtune 4049 tuner (see below)
    - Enjoy...

You'll need to add the line:
#define TUNER_MICROTUNE_4049FM5  45
to the ivtv/drivers/tuner.h file (at the end of the section with the 
other TUNER defines would be prettiest...).  Note that I haven't tried 
this (because I don't have that--or any other unsupported--tuner), so 
you might encounter other "speed bumps" along the way.

I recommend trying the following versions of the ck patches in order:  
ck63, 41, 36a, 26, and 07D.  Use whichever one you feel gives you the 
most stable performance.  Also, I *highly* recommend signing up for the 
ivtv mailing lists ( http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=73219 ) if 
using the ivtv drivers.  They're all relatively low-volume lists (at 
least compared to the Myth lists), and answer a lot of questions about 
the iTVC15/6-family of chips.  And, you get to see which patches are 
worth trying and which ones are better left to the module hackers.  Once 
you've seen a couple of day's traffic, you'll have information on the 10 
or so patch versions Chris released since you've signed up.  :)  (He's 
making amazing progress--and putting a lot of time into the process.)

Don't you just love open source.  Try changing a proprietary binary-only 
driver (especially one for a certain relatively-popular OS) to support 
an as-yet-unsupported hardware type...  :)

Good luck,
Mike