[mythtv-users] DRAFT of proposed new FAQ (or HowTo section)

[Gerald Britton]

On Wed, Jun 25, 2003 at 10:14:04AM -0700, Ray Olszewski wrote:
> Q. What video capture cards work with MythTV?
> (Last updated: June 25, 2003)
> 
> A. As a general matter, any capture card that works with the video4linux 
> (v4l) extensions to the Linux kernel will work with MythTV. Any video card 
> can provide audio through a patch cable to a sound card's Line-In jack; 
> some allow you to record sound directly, for example by use of the btaudio 
> driver.

I would probably edit this to read more like:

A. As a general matter, any capture card that works with the video4linux
(v4l) extensions to the Linux kernel will work with MythTV.

Most video capture cards available use the bttv driver (so named because
the original manufacturer of the capture chip was brooktree) which provides
the video part of the capture.  This driver is included in the standard
linux kernel, updated versions may be available here:
http://bytesex.org/bttv/  The audio is captured separately from the video
with this hardware.  Most of these cards provide an audio-out jack for
connection to a sound card's line-in jack via a patch cable (some also
provide a header on the board for connecting to an internal port on the
sound card, in the same way as CD-ROM drives do).  Some cards provide
digital audio along with the capture and the btaudio driver provides a
sound device for this stream to be read.

Other capture devices provide hardware encoded MPEG streams of the captured
video and audio.  In this case, a separate audio capture device is not
required.  There are not many MPEG encoder cards which work with linux,
some of them are supported by the ivtv driver at http://ivtv.sourceforge.net

> No one individual can personally identify all the cards that do and do not 

[snip]
 
> Hauppauge WinTV Go.  Video capture works with older versions of this card, 
> which uses a bt878-compatible chip; newer versions use a different chip 
> (CX21881) that is not yet supported by v4l. Audio requires using a jumper 
> to a sound card; btaudio does NOT work.

A driver does exist for the cx88 chips, but i don't think it's ready for
production use.  http://bytesex.org/cx88/

> Hauppauge WinTV dbx TV/FM Radio. Video capture works using the bttv kernel 
> driver; we believe this is the only Hauppauge card currently shipping that 
> works with bttv. Reports about audio are mixed; seemingly, the latest 
> version of this card does work with btaudio, but some older version does 
> not work with btaudio.
> 
> Hauppauge WinTV HDTV. Video capture  does NOT work under Linux.

It's worth noting here that the "Hauppauge Win PVR" card is NOT supported
by any working drivers.  There has been some development done here:
http://pvr.sourceforge.net/, and here: http://bytesex.org/snapshot/, but
neither is at a working point.

> Hauppauge Win PVR 250. Video capture  works using the IVTV kernel driver. 
> Audio: no information.
> 
> Hauppauge Win PVR 350. Video capture works using the IVTV kernel driver. 
> Audio: no information.

Audio for both of these is provided in the MPEG stream and does not require
any additional sound device for capture.

> Hauppauge WinTV-Nexus-s. This card does not yet work with MythTV, but Isaac 
> reports (on June 25): "Almost.  It's being worked on.  Help coding/testing 
> would be appreciated". Audio: no information.

[snip]

				-- Gerald