[mythtv-users] PVR500, PCHDTV 3000, and AMD64

[R. G. Newbury]

Steven Adeff wrote:
> On 1/31/06, *Brad Fuller* <bradallenfuller at yahoo.com 
> <mailto:bradallenfuller at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>
>     Jeffrey R. Born wrote:
>>
>>     I am in the process of setting up my box and have finally gotten
>>     to the point where I'm ready to test my capture cards.
>>
>     remove your 3000 and get the PVR500 working first. It'll save a
>     lot of headaches.
>
>
>
> Two things, first, the HD3000 drivers that will be loaded by default 
> are the v4l drivers, not the ATSC drivers. You should disable the 
> HD3000 drivers from loading at boot. Then get the PVR500 running.
> Second, I assume your going to be using the HD3000 for HDTV channels 
> only, so then have your system load the ATSC digital drivers instead 
> of the v4l. Technically you can have it load them first then get the 
> PVR500 running, the order shouldn't matter.
>
Since you will need to use the kernel module tveeprom driver for the 
HD3000 card (rather than the one which comes with ivtv) you may find it 
easier to get teh HD3000 card working first. It will NOT be easier 
however, if you are using a cable feed. In that case, get the PVR500 
running first.

If you are workingon the PVR500 card first, remove the HD card from the 
box. Otherwise, the kernel will recognize it, and load drivers for it. 
And the kernel will load the cx8800 and cx88-blackbird drivers (which 
you do NOT want) and will steal /dev/video0 for the HD3000 card.
Install the PVR500 using modprobe.conf entries and ensure that you have 
a line '#alias tveeprom tveeprom-ivtv". This will use the kernel module 
tveeprom instead of tveeprom-ivtv. The PVR500 will work with either 
module, but the HD3000 must use the tveeprom module.
The PVR500 will/should show up as /dev/video0 and /dev/video1.  The 
(long) ivtv output of dmesg is posted in the archives.
Now put the HD3000 card back into the box.

I originally thought that I could force loading of the cx88-dvb module 
by placing it first in /lib/modules/modules.pcimap (This is Fedora Core 
4). However I have found that Fedora re-orders that file 
'automagically'. Loading cx88-dvb in modprobe.conf  does not seem to 
work repeatably. Therefore I load cx88-dvb with some lines in rc.local 
(going from memory here):   rmmod cx88-blackbird;  rmmod cx8800; 
modprobe cx88-dvb.
I cannot remember at the moment if I had to do anything in udev for the 
HD3000 card. I did add a "Group" and "Mode" entry for the /dev/video 
entries for the PVR500 card.
The HD3000 card will show up at /dev/dvb/adapter0 with a bunch of subdirs.
Setting up HD from that point has been discussed. Use the archives. 
Search for "Sweet. pcHD3000...."

IN mythtv-setup it is probably best to enter the HD3000 card FIRST. It 
is the most difficult to get set up and if your setup is wrong, you get 
nothing but a black screen or a hung process. Setting mythfrontend to 
run in a window helps when you need to recover: use alt-tab. With the 
HD3000 card first, myth grabs one of the PVR500 tuners for LiveTV and 
that is much more likely to work.. It is LiveTV which is the bugbear of 
using the HD card.

Geoff

-- 
       R. Geoffrey Newbury			
     Barrister and Solicitor
 Suite 106, 150 Lakeshore Road West
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       newbury at mandamus.org