[mythtv-users] Firewire ( 1394) Capture with multiple FW Cards

Steve Adeff adeffs at gmail.com
Mon Dec 12 14:52:18 EST 2005


On Monday 12 December 2005 00:02, Mike Smith wrote:
> Steve,
>
> Here is the output of lspci:
>
>
> 01:03.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments
> TSB82AA2 IEEE-1394b Link Layer Controller (rev 01)
>
> 01:09.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments
> TSB43AB23 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)

looks good, from what I've seen TI makes the better of the FireWire chipsets. 
My laptop has one and whenever I connect it to a cablebox its been nothing 
short of perfect.

> I think the second one is the for the onboard 1394.
> The first is the
> Belkin card I recently installed.  The Belkin card was
> on the Hardware
> Compatibility list on the linux1394.org web site.
>
> How do I find out if the 5C Digital Rights Management
> is enabled
> on my video stream.

When connecting the firewire to your PC, if you get a channel over firewire it 
is set to 5C=0 (ie disabled) (if that box even supports 5C?). The DCT6xxx 
series has a service menu that you can use to see if 5C is enabled. I don't 
know about the receiver you have though. Check avsforum.com you might be able 
to find something. 

But the other way is to tune the channel and see if it outputs the video over 
firewire and is picked up by your PC. OTA stations are not supposed to be 
blocked, and usually the basic cable channels are not. Its the movie channels 
(like HBO) and extended digital cable channels that are, when the cable 
company decides to do it. My fathers cable company has no 5C restrictions 
even though they can, mine has 5C enabled on all but the OTA and basic cable 
channels. Both are Comcast, though in different areas!

try running test-mpeg2 with it connected to your pci firewire card and see if 
you can get one of the OTA channels (PBS HD is usually a good one to try) to 
stream. 

>
> Note - when I connect my SA3250HD to my television
> with the firewire
> connection,  I think I get every channel via firewire,
> which surprised
> me.  I get the 900 level HDTV channels ( including the
> local HDTV
> channels in Cincinnati ), I even get the analog
> stations from
> channel 3 - 100.  The latter surprised me.
>
> Thanks,

Your TV supports 5C and so can tell the cable box that it is a 5C=1 device 
(view once). So while totally cool from a technology perspective, useless for 
testing for PC capture =(

-- 
Steve

>
> Mike
>
> --- Steve Adeff <adeffs at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Saturday 10 December 2005 01:29, Mike Smith
> >
> > wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I'm trying to get my SA3250HD cable box to work
> >
> > with
> >
> > > the Firewire capture.
> > > Cable company is Time Warner in Cincinnati.  After
> >
> > a
> >
> > > lot of phone calls,
> > > and email, they finally give me an SA3250HD with
> > > active 1394 ports.  I
> > > can connect it to the 1394 ports on my TV and
> >
> > watch
> >
> > > HDTV from it.
> > >
> > > I struggled for weeks to try getting this to work
> >
> > with
> >
> > > the onboard
> > > 1394 ports on my ASUS motherboard.  Built the
> >
> > 2.6.12
> >
> > > kernel needed
> > > for latest drivers from linux1394.org.  No luck.
> >
> > I
> >
> > > try following
> > > Jarod's guide for setting it up on Fedora ( I'm
> >
> > using
> >
> > > Mandrivia 2006 ).
> > > I finally noticed Jarods comment that he could not
> >
> > get
> >
> > > the FW ports on
> > > his ASUS motherboard to work,  so I purchased a
> >
> > Belkin
> >
> > > 1394 board that
> > > was recommended on the linux1394.org site.
> > >
> > > I have it in.  The card is recognized.  But,  I
> >
> > can't
> >
> > > figure out
> > > what is meant by port and node in a two board
> >
> > context.
> >
> > >  Here
> > > is the output of plugreport:
> > >
> > > [root at lbk ~]# plugreport
> > > Host Adapter 0
> > > ==============
> > >
> > > Node 0 GUID 0x00e0180000899531
> > > ------------------------------
> > > libiec61883 error: error reading oMPR
> > > libiec61883 error: error reading iMPR
> > >
> > > Host Adapter 1
> > > ==============
> > >
> > > Node 0 GUID 0x000f2142f10c0000
> > > ------------------------------
> > > oMPR n_plugs=1, data_rate=2, bcast_channel=63
> > > oPCR[0] online=1, bcast_connection=0,
> > > n_p2p_connections=0
> > >         channel=0, data_rate=0, overhead_id=0,
> > > payload=146
> > > iMPR n_plugs=0, data_rate=2
> > >
> > > Node 1 GUID 0x00d0035600b17934
> > > ------------------------------
> > > libiec61883 error: error reading oMPR
> > > libiec61883 error: error reading iMPR
> > >
> > >
> > > What should I use a node and port in the
> >
> > mythtv-setup
> >
> > > for the firewire
> > > capture device?
> > >
> > > An interesting side note:  I disabled the onboard
> > > firewire in the BIOS
> > > setup,  but the gigabit ethernet stopped working.
> > >
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Mike
> >
> > whats the firewire chipset for your onboard
> > firewire?
> >
> > #!/bin/bash
> > plugctl -n 2 opcr[0].channel=63
> > plugctl -n 2 opcr[0].n_p2p_connections=1
> > plugctl -n 2 opcr[0].bcast_connection=1
> > plugctl -n 2 opcr[0].data_rate=3
> >
> > node # doesn't matter. but make the -n # whatever
> > node your box is on. You
> > also won't get anything if 5C Digital Rights
> > Management is enabled for the
> > channels.
> >
> > --
> > Steve


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