[mythtv-users] newbie help - ATI capture card?

[Bruce Markey]

Todd Houle wrote:
> I've been fighting for 'bout 2 week now and failing :(   MythTV (I  
> think) is working..  I think the problem I'm having is getting Fedora  
> to recognize my TV Card.  It comes up in lspci as an ATI Rage 128.   It 
> also have a coax port on it that is ignored.  I think I heard this  card 
> was a TV Wonder card (not that all-in-Wonder) but am not sure.   ATI 
> doesn't label anything...

This doesn't add up so here's a quick rundown.

An "ATI Rage 128" would normally be a graphics output card to
display on a monitor. It may also have s-video out, or more likely
a special ATI connector to go to group of wires or a small box
that has s-video, composite, and audio connectors. This may be
support TV-out. These would not do any video capture.

An ATI All-In-Wonder has both SVGA+TV-out for display and coax for
for capture built into the same one or two slot card. However, this
pokes the video capture data directly into the video output buffer
rather than sending it over the PCI bus. This makes it useless as
a video4linux device for MythTV or almost any other application
that records video. However, the card may still be useful for TV-out
only.

A TV-Wonder card does not have any SVGA connector and does not do
video output. This is supported by the "bttv" driver (bytesex.org)
and will absolutely work with MythTV. You would also need a separate
graphics card for SVGA or TV-out.


If your card says "ATI Rage 128", has a coax and SVGA connector, it
is an AIW card and cannot be used for capture.

> I also have 2 usb TV tuners to try including an ATI USB (I've no idea  
> what model/version) and MyTV2Go ('for Mac' sticker on back).  I was  
> using debian with no success so I switched to Fedora after I found  this 
> tutorial on MythTV and Fedora online....
> 
> The TV program and MythTV both say "can't open /dev/video0".  Looking  
> in /dev i see no video entries...    Are there drivers for these  
> devices?  How do I find/install them?  I'm an advanced Mac OS X user  
> and very comfortable with command line- but newish to linux.

You need the "bttv" driver from http://linux.bytesex.org/v4l2/bttv.html
which should be included with your linux kernel. Google for "bttv"
to find help with setting this up and testing. Make sure video and
audio capture work before proceeding further with MythTV.

> Oh- and am I right that the card with the coax port on it is called a  
> "capture card"?

If you go to a computer store and ask for a "capture card" they may
point you to simple devices to hook up a camcorder. "TV tuner card"
avoids this confusion.

--  bjm