[mythtv-users] DVB-S2 IP tuner

Stephen Worthington stephen_agent at jsw.gen.nz
Sat Jan 4 17:20:01 UTC 2020


On Sat, 4 Jan 2020 14:21:29 +0000, you wrote:

>On 04/01/2020 13:55, Stephen Worthington wrote:
>> On Sat, 4 Jan 2020 11:28:04 +0000, you wrote:
>> 
>>> On 03/01/2020 17:45, Tim Draper wrote:
>>>> back with hell on centos8 ... discovered that my TBS 6981 card really isnt liking the platform, despite running on 4.x kernels in the past and the current 5.4.7 on centos7. Centos8 ships with 4.18 and dvb support and attempts over christmas with '8 and a 5.x kernel were also unfruitful.
>>>> While i'm still looking into finding a solution that wont involve money, it's been a growing wish in the last few years for an IP tuner as a replacement for the 6981 PCIe card when the time came.
>>>>
>>>> TBS have EOL'd the card and last driver pack for 6981 was 2017. Seems 6981 hardware is also around 9years old.
>>>>
>>>> While i haven't looked much yet, does anyone have experience and recommendations for a DVB-S2 IP box? minimum of 2ch and multiplex advantageous. 4ch also desirable but i think will exceed the cost vs benefit threshold.
>>>> the DVB-T2 signal in my area isn't the best so not really an option. I'm UK based should that matter.
>>>
>>> Not IP, I know, but I wonder if anyone has experience of using this:
>>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/DVBSky-profile-DVB-S2-windows-software/dp/B00FAPDVDS/ref=pd_ybh_a_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=SB2RTM3D43QJTN08KBVH
>>>
>>> I'm not sure how to interpret the information here:
>>> https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVBSKY_S952_v3
>> 
>> I do not have one of these, but I can interpret the linuxtv.org
>> information.  There is a closed source driver available from DVBSky,
>> but you do not need to use it as the Linux kernel has had an open
>> source driver since 3.19.  Use the dvb-demod-m88rs6000.fw firmware
>> from the OpenElec github page with the open source kernel drivers.
>> Check first if the firmware file is already on your system or
>> available in one of its standard packages.  If not, download it and
>> put it in your system's firmware directory (/lib/firmware in Ubuntu).
>> Then reboot and it should be working.
>
>Okay great, thanks Stephen. I wasn't sure given the "since" wasn't 
>explicit. Thought perhaps the APIs might not be consistent between 
>kernel versions and that drivers need updating from time to time (and in 
>this case might not have been). Though, come to think of it, my 
>experience with an ancient PCI card has been once they work they stay 
>working.

The kernel developers have a policy of not breaking existing devices.
So if a driver needs to be modified to keep working with later
kernels, the modification will be done.  Occasionally, something does
get broken in a new kernel, but if you report it, it should get fixed.
Especially if you are able to do a kernel bisection to find out
exactly which change caused the problem.


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