[mythtv-users] Can't Open HDTV Card

Gray grayman2 at cfl.rr.com
Sun Dec 31 23:13:22 UTC 2006


Thank you for the response :)  It is very helpful.  I will only discuss
whether the card is working or not in this reply.. I know it picks up
analog signals but lets concentrate on Digital. Let me go through step
by step and show results or ask some questions:

>1) Determining if your card is working.

>Do you have a folder structure under /dev/dvb ??? 
> You should have /dev/dvb/adapter0 and under that a demux0, frontend0 and 
> dvr0 folders.

Yes I have all of these folders :)

>Go to the pchdtv.com site and download the dvb-atsc-tools-1.0.4
package.  
> After compiling that package., you can use atscscan and one of the us-* 
> frequency table files to run a scan. This will produce a summary listing 
> which is an almost channels.conf for your cable feed (or antenna 
> reception if you are doing OTA).

Here are the files generated by the tools

*[mythtv at localhost dvb-atsc-tools-1.0.4]$ ls -l
total 236
-rwxrwxr-x 1 mythtv mythtv 11478 Dec 31 16:18 atscpackets
-rw-r--r-- 1 mythtv mythtv 10996 Jul 14 00:53 atscpackets.c
-rwxrwxr-x 1 mythtv mythtv  7698 Dec 31 16:18 chopatscfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 mythtv mythtv  4535 Jul 14 00:49 chopatscfile.c
-rwxrwxr-x 1 mythtv mythtv 27646 Dec 31 16:18 dtvscan
-rw-r--r-- 1 mythtv mythtv 91010 Sep  7 23:33 dtvscan.c
-rwxrwxr-x 1 mythtv mythtv 15228 Dec 31 16:18 dtvsignal
-rw-r--r-- 1 mythtv mythtv 14997 Sep  7 23:11 dtvsignal.c
-rwxrwxr-x 1 mythtv mythtv 10388 Dec 31 16:18 getatsc
-rw-r--r-- 1 mythtv mythtv  9441 Jul 14 00:45 getatsc.c
-rw-r--r-- 1 mythtv mythtv   226 Sep  1 02:21 Makefile
-rw-r--r-- 1 mythtv mythtv  1037 May 14  2006 README
-rw-r--r-- 1 mythtv mythtv  6279 May 14  2006 xine-dvb-support-patch

I am not sure what the atscpackets or getatsc is for?  I could not find
any documentation on what they do and the README file left me guessing?

I ran the dtvscan file.  It checked 109 channels just like the mythsetup
did.  
Question: how do I know if it scanning for ATSC signals or DVB?

*[mythtv at localhost dvb-atsc-tools-1.0.4]$ ./dtvscan
dtvscan ver 1.0.4 - by Jack Kelliher (c) 2002,2005,2006
Attempting to open /dev/dtv
Opened FE:/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0 4
Opened DMX:/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0 5
Opened DVR:/dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0 6
channel = 2 VSB_8
channel = 3 VSB_8
channel = 4 VSB_8
channel = 5 VSB_8
channel = 6 VSB_8
channel = 7 VSB_8
channel = 8 VSB_8
channel = 9 VSB_8

I only showed a few of the 109 results.  None seem to have any signal?
Are the VSB_8 digital channels? If not is it scanning for Analog
channels?  How do I correlate the channel Number to the OTA assigned
channel number?  For example for my location channel number 18.1 is the
CW channel digitally broadcast OTA signal(Webantenna site) is is
actually channel 17 according to the FCC? Oh to make it more confusing
some are shown as HD and I am told there is a format called SD and I am
clueless about the difference.  But once we can determine if the card is
working or at least scanning for Digital channels then maybe we tune to
the proper signals?

Then I tried the dtvsignal check on several of the known high strength
digital channels; the ones that should have lined up with my local
broadcast channels and all showed as Signal: 000.

[mythtv at localhost dvb-atsc-tools-1.0.4]$ ./dtvsignal 35
using '/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0' and '/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0'
tuning to 599000000 Hz
video pid 0x0021, audio pid 0x0024
dtvsignal ver 1.0.4 - by Jack Kelliher (c) 2002,2005,2006
channel = 35 freq = 599000000Hz
30db       0%         25%         50%         75%        100%
Signal:     |     .     :     .     |     ._____:_____._____|
Signal: 000 .



>You can then use the azap program to tune your card to a particular  
> stream, and mplayer to play the stream (mplayer 
> dvb://dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0 is the command IIRC).

I tried to find the azap program you are referring to apparently it is a
PChtdv tool but no biggie because you have stated it is the same as the
dtvscan program anyways.  I don't know how to stream to mplayer though?
I am not sure by the statement:(mplayer  
> dvb://dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0 is the command IIRC) if this is a command I should run?


Ok I think we something to work with/maybe LOL Anything I should be
checking for from what you see?

Thanks;

Gray



On Thu, 2006-12-28 at 10:55 -0500, R. G. Newbury wrote: 
> Gray wrote:
> 
> > I did a search to see if my system was showing my card and I found this
> > in my dmesg file:
> > 
> > [root at localhost /]# cat /var/log/dmesg |more | grep dvico -i
> > CORE cx88[0]: subsystem: 18ac:d500, board: DViCO FusionHDTV 5 Gold
> > [card=31,autodetected]
> > 
> > So my computer does recognize my Dvico card.  So the question remains
> > why can't i scan any channels?
> There are wo major questions:
> 
> 1)	Is your card working properly.
> 2)	Is myth scanning properly, if the hardware works.
> 
> 	There is a TRAC bug report about mythtv-setup not scanning properly. 
> That may be the problem you are experiencing. Then again, your card may 
> not be working.
> 
> 1)	Determining if your card is working.
> 
> Do you have a folder structure under /dev/dvb ???
> You should have /dev/dvb/adapter0 and under that a demux0, frontend0 and 
> dvr0 folders.
> 
> Go to the pchdtv.com site and download the dvb-atsc-tools-1.0.4 package. 
> After compiling that package., you can use atscscan and one of the us-* 
> frequency table files to run a scan. This will produce a summary listing 
> which is an almost channels.conf for your cable feed (or antenna 
> reception if you are doing OTA).
> 
> You can then use the azap program to tune your card to a particular 
> stream, and mplayer to play the stream (mplayer 
> dvb://dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0 is the command IIRC).  It appears that on 
> most cable feeds in North America, you will get a couple of hundred 
> digital streams, most of which are encrypted (and need a set top box). 
> You have to test each stream to find the ones that work.
> 
> You then amend your channels.conf to name your found channels to the 
> same naming scheme as your zap2it lineup and put the file at 
> ~/.mythtv/channels.conf.
> 
> There is another package which you could google for. The scanner program 
> is called dtvscan. It does the same thing as atscscan and azap.
> 
> Once you can tune a digital stream and play it with mplayer (or with 
> xine) you can be sure that your hardware is working.
> It appears from your dmesg extract, that your hardware is being 
> recognized and should work.
> 
> At this stage you can use azap -r <channel-name> in one console and 'cat 
> /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0 > save.mpg' to save a stream...If you start this 
> with a cron, you can schedule a recording of a TV program, outside of 
> myth for playback later! And I think you could even import that saved 
> file into myth using the myth.rebuilddatabase.pl script.
> 
> 
> 2)	Determining if mythtv-setup is working properly.
> 
> The next step is problematic. You are at least the third person who has 
> reported being unable to scan or import with mythtv-setup. There is a 
> TRAC report under number 2830 for this problem.
> 
> If you have any content in your mythconverg database, do a backup and 
> follow the 'Moving to new hardware' instructions in the Mythtv 
> documentation (about chapter 23). Then start with a brand new clean 
> database, and attempt to install....Something is going wrong with the 
> scan setup and even with an existing setup, myth does not properly 
> initilize the digital card, so it fails to tune. Post a note on the TRAC 
>   database, and ask what you should forward. This is being looked a but 
> your hardware may show a different symptom than mine.
> 
> Geoff
> 
> 
> 
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