[mythtv-users] cx88-blackbird & avermedia M150-D

[Sam Logen]

Hi,
I actually do need the latest v4l drivers.  My 1st
card is a DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT, a conexant card, and
which is only supported in the latest repositories. 
Perhaps, instead, the mythtv developers might be
persuaded to update their support for blackbird cards?
 As far as I know that's my only solution.  From my
perspective, the mythtv software is all that's holding
my system back.

Respectfully,
Sam

--------

On Thursday 18 October 2007 18:04:28 you wrote:
>
>   One, the cx88-blackbird (from v4l repo) driver no
> longer recognizes the old firmware file, so the
> instructions for pulling the firmware from windows
> drivers no longer applies.  It will only accept the
> new firmware file that the IVTV developers provide. 
I
> don't know if that's a good thing or not since
there's
> no documentation as to whether it works with drivers
> besides the IVTV drivers.  I did successfully
capture
> an mpeg2 stream as was stated in my previous email,
so
> I don't think there's a driver or firmware problem.

In principle, this sounds fine; however, as stated in
the wiki entry
 (which I 
wrote), the configuration seems rather finicky, as
you've
 discovered....

> Two, the instructions say to configure it as an
MPEG2
> Hardware encoder card.  So I do, and when I go to
> mythtv to watch the result, I get a black screen, no
> audio, and mythfrontend is unresponsive for the rest
> of the session.

This sounds like the freezing problem I described in
the wiki, although
 I 
don't recall it happening except after a channel
change. (It's been a
 while 
since I mucked with the configuration, though, so I
might not be
 remembering 
every detail.)

Overall, I'd suggest using a 2.6.19 kernel and its
blackbird drivers,
 as 
described in the wiki entry. This will also require
using the older
 firmware. 
I haven't tried the very latest drivers, but clearly
something broke
 between 
2.6.19.1 and 2.6.20, at least with respect to MythTV
and this specific
 card. 
(I don't recall if a direct access to the video device
file worked with
 these 
more recent kernels, but I have run into situations in
which direct
 access 
works but MythTV doesn't. MythTV seems picky that
way.)

>   First chance I get, I'll provide log files, but
for
> now I will say that the mythtv log file that I
checked
> afterwards continually showed errors with reference
to
> IVTV at the time that I tried to enable the card.  I
> didn't compile mythtv with IVTV enabled, nor does
the
> card have anything to do with IVTV.

I just checked my log file and I see a bunch of error
messages relating
 to 
IVTV, too. My system does work, though.

> So that gets me 
> to thinking that the configuration for MPEG2
Hardware
> cards only applies to IVTV devices.

Definitely not. I've got two non-IVTV MPEG-2 cards
(well, one card and
 one USB 
device) on my MythTV system.

That said, my understanding is that the API used by
the IVTV drivers
 isn't 
universally supported, and that there's another API
that's now being
 used by 
most drivers. My very limited understanding is that
MythTV still uses
 the old 
IVTV-specific API. It's conceivable that the Blackbird
driver has
 limited 
support for the IVTV API. This could be causing some
compatibility
 problems, 
but it shouldn't be causing total failures, AFAIK.
I've tried to learn
 more 
about this, but I couldn't find any user-oriented
documentation on it
 when I 
last looked (a few months ago).

>   Well, as you may see, it's been very frustrating
for
> me.  I expected the card to be more compatible,
> because the blackbird drivers have gotten more
mature.
>  In windows, at least, some people like this card
> better than the hauppauge cards.  If you could
> describe your setup, what version software you are
> using, and what firmware (check the size of it) you
> are using, that could be of help.  As for me, when I
> get back, I'll post my log files.

Check the wiki; all that information is there. I think
your problems
 boil down 
to using a too-recent kernel (or blackbird driver from
another source).
 With 
the right kernel driver version, it works, albeit with
quirks. With the
 wrong 
driver version, it's completely foobared.
Unfortunately, newer is not
 better, 
at least between 2.6.19.1 and 2.6.20 (I think I also
tried 2.6.21 at
 one 
point, and I definitely tried more recent
out-of-kernel drivers). The 
2.6.19.1 kernel is certainly not "current" by Linux
standards, but it's
 not 
yet so old that it should cause you problems to use
it, unless you've
 got 
some bleeding-edge piece of hardware that requires
newer drivers. In
 that 
case you may need to patch the kernel with the newer
drivers.

-- 
Rod Smith
http://www.rodsbooks.com

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