[mythtv-users] Blackgold's BGT3620 card

[Toric]

 Hi Tony,
I find a mixture of interest and disappointment for myself in your email.
As I surmised, you are clearly light-years ahead of me in the kernel/module
driver area. I would be grateful if you could find a few moments to
enlighten me or give me a pointer towards an informed source.

The disappointment is in the IP rights issue that indeed appears to be a
major stumbling block. Perhaps more disappointing is the likelihood of a
timely resolution and that probably echos the thoughts in your last
paragraph.

Whilst I have used Linux distros on and off for about ten years, this is my
first foray into building a TV recorder and it has been a sharp learning
curve. I still know hardly anything about the DVB API, how it hangs
together, and where device-specific variations are handled. I had not
anticipated having to brush the dust off my 1985 copy of Kernighan &
Ritchie.



On 14 February 2012 at 23:48 Tony Engeham <tony at metanate.com> wrote:

> I greatly appreciate your response to my plea for help!
>
> I wish I'd found the threads you've pointed to me earlier as it took me
> the best part of a day to work it out from scratch.  The only difference
> from my version is that I had to replace the kernel dvb-core.ko with the
> Blackgold supplied one rather than post load it after booting.  It's
> reassuring to find that I haven't done anything stupid.
Does this mean that, other than dvb-core.ko, the dozen or so drivers
supplied by BlackGold are indentical to components already integrated in
the kernel (possibly not compiled in my distro, but in the kernel source)?
Also, might that integrated code also support the component/composite
video/audio input port provided on these cards? If the supplied drivers are
not identical to the integrated ones, could that be a source of instability
in your case?

>
> As I said in my mail to the mythtv list I've had the cards working and
> capturing video (even though the frame rate stuttered from time to time)
> they just don't seem to be much better than alpha release quality in
> terms of stability.
>
> I did look at writing the kernel driver for the card myself and tried to
> get hold of the data sheet for one of the chipsets.  Unfortunately the
> IP rights had been sold to a Taiwanese company and they refused to
> release the information on anything other than a non-disclosure
> agreement, which means that it would be impossible to get the source
> code integrated back into the linux kernel if I wrote it.  This is
> likely to be the problem that BlackGold have hit and I don't see any
> easy solution.  The Open Software Foundation has even got involved in
> trying to resolve the IP issue and so far drawn a blank.
Do you have a link for this OSF discussion?

>
> I think from the responses I've had back, and the lack of response from
> BlackGold, tells me that I'm wasting my time here and need to go with
> different capture cards.
>
> Thanks once again,
>
> Best regards,
>
> Tony
>
>

I had hoped to combine this quad tuner low-profile card with one of the low
wattage AMD A-series CPU/GPU combined processors on an Matx or Mitx board,
and some eco hard drives in smallish case using a pico-PSU to create a
Mythtv FE/BE that would sit nicely and quietly under the TV. But it's not
looking very promising at the moment.

Regards,

Eric