[mythtv-users] Nova-T USB2 or equivilant

[Toby Smith]

Matt Collins wrote:
> I have an EPIA II system (so virtually no CPU) with a PVR350 
> already in it. I'd like to get some more tuners on the box 
> but sadly it only has one PCI slot and thats taken. 
> 
> I'm considering getting a Nova-T USB2 external box to get 
> freeview (UK DVB) broadcasts... I guess my question is, has 
> anyone had any experience with the USB models under linux + 
> myth? Any idea how well they work?

I have a similar setup with a Twinhan in the PCI slot, and a NovaT USB2,
working quite happily on UK Freeview DVB.

It did require a copy of the 2.6.12 kernel in order to get the support for
the USB DVB system, and I compiled from the Fedora Core 3 source packages in
order to get that included along with a few other customised EPIA bits etc.
That all worked fairly happily from that kernel version, but not previous
ones, if I remember right. This was about 6/8 months or so ago, so more
modern kernels possibly work straight out of the box...

The USB unit comes with a remote, that ends up being treated as a USB
keyboard, rather than via lirc etc. I've not actually messed around with
this at all, as I've got a separate IR PS2 keyboard I'm quite happy with,
but I believe you can change the keyboard codes generated for each button on
the remote in the USB DVB driver to map those more suitably to the existing
Myth keys. Someone else may be able to contribute a mapping here.

> I understand the DVB signal is already encoded so the lack of 
> CPU shouldn't be an issue, and I can use the PVR350's output 
> to decode to TV.

There's practically no load from the recording as far as I can tell - my
M1000 EPIA board doesn't particularly bother the CPU when recording two
streams, even with one of those over USB2. I've got the MPEG decoder in with
the M-series board, so playback doesn't particularly bother the CPU either,
even mildly speeded up.

Hope that helps - oif there's any specific bits that I might be able to help
with, drop me a direct line.

--
Toby Smith -=- at Home
Me? I said nothing. you just interpreted it.