[mythtv-users] Is the pchdtv card looking good?

Steve Bower sbower at cisco.com
Thu Sep 18 20:04:01 EDT 2003


Brandon> It grabs data from /dev/video32 (The device for the pcHDTV
Brandon> card) and puts it into the mythTV video buffer, either for
Brandon> livetv, or for writing it to disk.  But yes, same idea as used
Brandon> in dtvdump.

Hi Brandon,

Since you implemented the current pchdtv support, I wanted to ask you a
few basic questions (I've received my card and am working on getting it
going in mythtv):

- In what format is the data stored in the ".nuv" file?  I'm able to
schedule recordings (and data goes into the recording file), but I'm
unable to play them back.  I get "avformat error: -1" from the backend,
which then exits (I submitted a patch to let it continue with the error
instead of exiting).  Attempting to play with xine yields no useful
results, and the utilities that came with the card can't seem to make
any sense of it either.  I made /dev/video3 a symlink to /dev/dtv0 so
the setup gui would find the card.

- How does mythtv handle the logical->physical channel mapping?  Do I
need to edit the channel table in mysql for the correct frequencies (I
can't tell what got recorded above because I can't play it back!)?  I'm
guessing there's no support for PSIP yet...  :-)

- Have you been able (or attempted) to use a pchdtv card in the same
"cell" as an NTSC card?  I tried it with a PVR-250 in my master backend
and the pchdtv in a slave backend, but I couldn't get any recordings or
channel changes to do anything with the pchdtv card.

I've put the pchdtv card on its own master backend now, and am trying to
get it working in that simple case.  I've been able to record (and view)
stuff with the getatsc program that came with the card, so I know the
card and reception are fine.

I'm experiencing the same issues with both the 0.11 release and today's
CVS version.  I'm willing to contribute what I can to make things more
seamless, once I get my brain around the code...  :-)

BTW, what's the "dtvdump" program you mention above?  I don't see it on
the cdrom that came with the card (and a google search was fruitless).

  Thanks,
    Steve.


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