[mythtv-users] pcHDTV 5500 must be set as Analog V4L, hiss, boo

[Michael Basus]

>From: "James F. Carter" <jimc[at]math.ucla.edu>
>To: lodurr8[at]hotmail.com
>Subject: pcHDTV 5500 must be set as Analog V4L, hiss, boo
>Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2007 22:32:21 +0000
>
>I've installed MythTV for the first time and am having some major pains.
>
>First, I can only get live TV (NTSC) if I configure the pcHDTV 5500
>capture card as an "Analog V4L Capture Card". "DVB DTV Capture Card
>v3.x" (with the analog part configured on the DVB sub-page) and "pcHDTV
>DTV capture card (w/v4l drivers)" both yield no signals even on
>hand-edited channels. This is contrary to the setup instructions and
>seems perverse. The appropriate lineup was attached to the analog
>section of the card, the "Television" input, for the DVB configuration.
>The mythtv user is in the video UNIX group which has read-write
>permission on /dev/video0 and /dev/vbi0.
>
>kdetv, and scantv, ttv and fbtv from v4l-tools, can also get NTSC
>signals out of the card. The latter ones use /dev/video0 while kdetv
>says it is using /dev/vbi0. As far as I can tell there are no HD
>channels on our basic cable service.
>
>Does anyone have any insight how this card really should be configured
>for mythtv?
>
>My configuration:
>Dell Dimension 4100 -- Intel Pentium III "Coppermine" 1.0 GHz
>256 Mb RAM. 40 Gb disc.
>Operating system: OpenSuSE 10.2, kernel 2.6.18.8
>Graphics: nVidia GeForce2 MX 400
>MythTV version: 0.20
>Capture card: pcHDTV HD-5500
>Leading drivers: cx88_blackbird cx2341x cx88_dvb etc.
>
>Yes, I know the system is a bit underpowered (see next post).
>
>James F. Carter Voice 310 825 2897 FAX 310 206 6673
>UCLA-Mathnet; 6115 MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA, USA 90095-1555
>Email: jimc[at]math.ucla.edu http://www.math.ucla.edu/~jimc (q.v. for PGP 
>key)
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>http://liveearth.msn.com
>

I'm trying to set up my 5500 for analog cable only and have hit a similar 
brick wall.

I can get V4L working perfectly on my box--I can watch live tv and schedule 
recordings--but if I switch in and out of "Watch TV" mode, the backend will 
crash, sometimes taking the frontend down with it.  This isn't really 
acceptable for media center use when someone might accidentally go to the 
MythTV menu and want to jump right back live TV.

Using DVB, when I set up just the "Television" input source, it doesn't 
work.  When I go to Watch TV, I can change channels but all I get is a black 
screen on all of them.  On the bottom of the screen is a message about 
signal strength, which might mean that it's trying to use the DVB input 
device to get Television channels, which of course won't work.  This is 
despite the fact that MythTV has the DVB device set to "(None)".

I've gotten DVB drivers to work by setting up two input sources for the 
card.  I set up the "Television" input source as normal, and set up the 
"DVB" input source with some dummy data--in this case, the same analog cable 
data as the "Television" source.  When I start live tv, it starts on the 
blank DVB input source, but then I hit "C" and it switches to the Television 
source and all is well--until I try to schedule a recording.  Every 
recording I schedule has a "Recorder Failed" error that looks like this in 
the log:

2007-07-15 06:30:02.499 TVRec(1): Changing from None to RecordingOnly
2007-07-15 06:30:02.511 TVRec(1): HW Tuner: 1->1
2007-07-15 06:30:02.555 DVBTuning Error: Could not find dvb tuning 
parameters for mplex 32767
2007-07-15 06:30:02.556 DVBChan(0) Error: SetChannelByString(54): Failed to 
initialize channel options
2007-07-15 06:30:02.557 TVRec(1) Error: Failed to set channel to 54. 
Reverting to kState_None
2007-07-15 06:30:02.557 TVRec(1): Changing from RecordingOnly to None
2007-07-15 06:30:02.587 Canceled recording (Recorder Failed): Kong: The 
Animated Series "Apocalypse": channel 1054 on cardid 1, sourceid 1

Note the "dvb tuning parameters" line.  I'm trying to record analog cable 
with my Television device, not DVB.

Back to your message, are you saying you got V4L to work without any hitches 
on your 5500?  If that's the case I can look to updating drivers or a 
reinstall to remedy my problems, and just use V4L since analog cable is all 
I have.  On my box, it seems that V4L is just much less stable than DVB, and 
I also get 3-second long pauses intermittently, when my box should have more 
than enough power to do regular live TV recordings (AMD 4400+, 1 gig of 
RAM).

-Mike

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