[mythtv-users] Hauppauge ImpactVCB-e failure

[Stephen Worthington]

On Fri, 4 Sep 2020 14:46:28 +0100, you wrote:

>Hi Folks,
>
>I have recently started an enforced refresh of my media server which
>included switching out some older PCI cards for PCI-e as the new Mobo
>has no PCI slots.
>
>One of the input channels is an analogue composite input from an
>external device. I previously handled this with an ivtv based card but
>am now trying to use a Hauppauge ImpactVCB-e for this.
>
>The v4l2-ctl tool under the user "mythtv" produces the following:
>$ v4l2-ctl -D
>Driver Info:
>	Driver name      : cx23885
>	Card type        : Hauppauge ImpactVCB-e
>	Bus info         : PCIe:0000:06:00.0
>	Driver version   : 5.7.16
>	Capabilities     : 0x85220011
>		Video Capture
>		VBI Capture
>		Audio
>		Read/Write
>		Streaming
>		Extended Pix Format
>		Device Capabilities
>	Device Caps      : 0x05220001
>		Video Capture
>		Audio
>		Read/Write
>		Streaming
>		Extended Pix Format
>
>The mythtv-setup tool, using the card type V4L2 finds the card,
>correctly identifies it, correctly lists the card inputs (Composite1 and
>Svideo) and allows the input to be set to Composite1.
>
>The setup works well enough for tvtime to replay the composite data, but
>when I try and connect to it using MythTV I just get a blank screen and
>the atached lines in the console log (see end).
>
>Has anyone had any success with this card ?
>
>Cheers
>
>Andy M

A different angle to consider - you can still use your PCI cards with
a PCIe only motherboard.  I recently had this problem with upgrading
my mother's MythTV box, where her DVB-T tuners were PCI.  The solution
I found was to use one of these:

https://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/components/other-pci-cards/listing-2763205390.htm

It is a PCIe x1 to 2 x PCI slots adapter.  I have it connected out the
back of her MythTV box with her two Hauppauge Nova-TD dual DVB-T tuner
cards in it.  It uses a USB 3 cable to carry the PCIe x1 signals to
the dual PCI slots, and also needs a SATA power plug.  If your case is
right, it is supposed to be possible to mount it internally in a 5.25"
dive slot, but I did not try that.

Another alternative that should work if your PCI card is low profile
or your case has extra headroom is one of these:

http://65.19.191.231/pcie2pci.htm

The disadvantage of these is the you only get one PCI card in one PCIe
slot, when a PCIe x1 slot is capable of running several PCI cards.