[mythtv-users] Firewire, framegrabbers, and Nvidia (was Re: Current wisdom on PVR-150/250/350/500

Scott Doty scott at corp.sonic.net
Tue Apr 18 14:33:26 UTC 2006


On Mon, Apr 17, 2006 at 11:46:39PM -0400, Jeff Simpson wrote:
> I'd like to see it, too. I love the idea of open source, I just don't
> think that closed-source should be as negative. They are making
> drivers, the drivers are working. If the drivers sucked, I can see why
> people would want to have open-source, but the drivers work great.

Heh...which brings us back to the concept of framegrabbers...

Specifically, I've got an Nvidia EVGA 7800GTX that apparently has the hardware
for composite video capture, which is exactly what I need.  Alas, the Nvidia
binary blob doesn't support that part of the hardware -- and indeed, they
have the temerity and chutzpah to ask in their forum if Linux users want
a driver for this part of the hardware?

And for anyone who thinks they can get by without the "binary blobs",
consider Dell's new 30" monitor.  Getting a video card with the prerequisite
DVI-D connector that _works_ with this thing is tough in the Windoze world,
much more so with Linux...

It does require some Linux fu to be confident about the Nvidia drivers, and
even so, to get them working with FC5 x86_64 required a trip to the Nvidia forum
for the proper recipe -- but again, I still can't use the capture hardware.

So the question becomes:  What's a good choice for a composite framegrabber
with good quality?  I have a Hauppauge WinTV in my old workstation, but it's
5V, and the 5V PCI slot on this new motherboard is covered by the
(double-sized) Nvidia card... so I'm running mythbackend on my old
workstation, and viewing on this new workstation.

I also have Comcast, and a Motorola DCT-6208 which _used_ to work with that
old Linux ddr project -- but 5C encryption in the firmware killed that
functionality.  Does the 6200 support in MythTV work with SF Bay Area
Comcast?

And if not, is there a DVB card that can receive the digital cable (QAM?)
signal?

 -Scott
p.s. Just tried to get the 6200/fw working:

2006-04-18 07:31:29.064 TVRec(1): Changing from None to WatchingLiveTV
2006-04-18 07:31:29.065 FireWireChannel: channel:010 cmds: 0x487c20, 0x487c21, 0x487c20
2006-04-18 07:31:31.802 Firewire: Initializing Port: 0, Node: 2, Speed: 100Mbps
2006-04-18 07:31:31.802 Firewire: Creating P2P Connection with Node: 2
libiec61883 warning: No plugs exist on either node; using default broadcast channel 63.
2006-04-18 07:31:31.803 Firewire: Created Channel: 63, Bandwidth Allocation: 0
2006-04-18 07:31:31.804 Firewire: Changing Speed 200Mbps -> 100Mbps
2006-04-18 07:31:38.417 TVRec(1): Changing from WatchingLiveTV to None
2006-04-18 07:31:46.811 Firewire: No Input in 15 seconds [P:0 N:2] (select)
2006-04-18 07:31:46.814 Finished recording Entertainment Tonight: channel 1010

Any ideas? :)

 /sd


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