[mythtv-users] Adding HVR-1600 to working PVR-500 mythtv setup -> no NTSC signal on HVR-1600 & ATSC guide info missing (comcast Mountain View, CA)

Fri May 1 18:06:07 UTC 2009

>
> Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:14:45 -0400
> From: Dale Pontius <DEPontius at edgehp.net>
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Adding HVR-1600 to working PVR-500 mythtv
>        setup -> no NTSC signal on HVR-1600 & ATSC guide info missing
> (comcast
>        Mountain View, CA)
> To: Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
> Message-ID: <49FA4D05.3050303 at edgehp.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Matt Beadon wrote:
> > Hi,
> > I have a mythtv 0.21 setup running on debian lenny.  It is my first
> > experience with myth so it took me ages to get everything configured
> > correctly.  However now Comcast in Mountain View is cutting all analog
> cable
> > for channels >34 so I'm forced to add a ATSC cabability or lose most of
> the
> > channels I watch.  :(
> >
> > Here's where I am so far:
> >
> > I followed the procedure here:
> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Hauppauge_hvr-1600
> > My first problem was that using the HVR-1600 with the PVR-500 my
> /dev/video*
> > devices moved around on me depending on cold boot or warm reboot.  So I
> > created a set udev rules (below) to give me a consistent place to link my
> > various tuners.
> > /etc/udev/rules.d/56-custom.rules:
> >
> >> KERNEL=="video[0-2]*", ATTR{name}=="cx18*0 encoder MPEG*",
> >> SYMLINK+="HVR-1600"
> >> KERNEL=="video[0-2]*", ATTR{name}=="ivtv0 encoder MPG*",
> >> SYMLINK+="PVR-500_1"
> >> KERNEL=="video[0-2]*", ATTR{name}=="ivtv1 encoder MPG*",
> >> SYMLINK+="PVR-500_2"
> >> SUBSYSTEM=="dvb", DRIVERS=="cx18", SYMLINK+="HVR-1600_digital"
> >>
> I have 2 HVR-1600s and a PixelPro.  I admire your efforts with udev, but
> I took the simple, dirty way around the problem.  I simply blacklisted
> the cx18 module, guaranteeing that bttv would load first and keep the
> PixelPro at /dev/video0.  Then in a later script I modprobed cx18,
> letting it take /dev/video1 and /dev/video2, as well as the ATSC
> devices.  Whatever works...
>

The udev rules are actually pretty straightforward.  I can't find the howto
I used but this gives you an example of the udevinfo command you'll need to
identify your devices and then you can tweak the lines I've posted above to
fit your setup.  After that no need to muck with blacklisting and scripts
running in the correct order.

>
> Next thing, are you using the in-kernel cx18 drivers, or the ones off of
> Mercurial?  I'd strongly suggest the latter, as the drivers have been
> under heavy development through the last half of last year and early
> this year.  It has slowed down in the past few months, but there was an
> update earlier this month, and I have no idea how far behind the
> in-kernel driver is.
>
I'm using the latest driver from
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Hauppauge_hvr-1600  step 1a)

>
> This may be germane to your problems.
> > Probably the last one is unecessary but I don't think it hurts anything
> (?).
> >
> > Problem #1: No video on /dev/HVR-1600 (analog)
> >
> > dmesg reports that the HVR-1600 was initialized.  The only odd message I
> see
> > is:
> >
> >> [   16.838687] cx18-0: tveeprom cannot autodetect tuner!<6>cx18-0:
> >> Simultaneous Digital and Analog TV capture supported
> >>
> > Haven't been able to figure out if the tveeprom msg is important or not?
>
> This looks really bad to me.  Here's an excerpt from my dmesg:
> cx18:  Start initialization, version 1.1.0
> cx18-0: Initializing card 0
> cx18-0: Autodetected Hauppauge card
> ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APC2] enabled at IRQ 17
> cx18 0000:05:07.0: PCI INT A -> Link[APC2] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
> cx18-0: Unreasonably low latency timer, setting to 64 (was 32)
> cx18-0: cx23418 revision 01010000 (B)
> tveeprom 3-0050: Hauppauge model 74041, rev C6B2, serial# xxxxxxx
> tveeprom 3-0050: MAC address is xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx
> tveeprom 3-0050: tuner model is TCL M2523_5N_E (idx 112, type 50)
> tveeprom 3-0050: TV standards NTSC(M) (eeprom 0x08)
> tveeprom 3-0050: audio processor is CX23418 (idx 38)
> tveeprom 3-0050: decoder processor is CX23418 (idx 31)
> tveeprom 3-0050: has no radio, has IR receiver, has IR transmitter
> cx18-0: Autodetected Hauppauge HVR-1600
> cx18-0: Simultaneous Digital and Analog TV capture supported
> IRQ 17/cx18-0: IRQF_DISABLED is not guaranteed on shared IRQs
> tuner 4-0061: chip found @ 0xc2 (cx18 i2c driver #0-1)
> cs5345 3-004c: chip found @ 0x98 (cx18 i2c driver #0-0)
> tuner-simple 4-0061: creating new instance
> tuner-simple 4-0061: type set to 50 (TCL 2002N)
> cx18-0: Registered device video1 for encoder MPEG (64 x 32 kB)
> DVB: registering new adapter (cx18)
> MXL5005S: Attached at address 0x63
> DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Samsung S5H1409 QAM/8VSB
> Frontend)...
> cx18-0: DVB Frontend registered
> cx18-0: Registered DVB adapter0 for TS (32 x 32 kB)
> cx18-0: Registered device video33 for encoder YUV (16 x 128 kB)
> cx18-0: Registered device vbi1 for encoder VBI (20 x 51984 bytes)
> cx18-0: Registered device video25 for encoder PCM audio (256 x 4 kB)
> cx18-0: Initialized card: Hauppauge HVR-1600
> cx18-1: Initializing card 1
> cx18-1: Autodetected Hauppauge card
> cx18 0000:05:08.0: PCI INT A -> Link[APC3] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
> cx18-1: Unreasonably low latency timer, setting to 64 (was 32)
> cx18-1: cx23418 revision 01010000 (B)
> tveeprom 5-0050: Hauppauge model 74041, rev C6B2, serial# xxxxxxx
> tveeprom 5-0050: MAC address is xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx
> tveeprom 5-0050: tuner model is TCL M2523_5N_E (idx 112, type 50)
> tveeprom 5-0050: TV standards NTSC(M) (eeprom 0x08)
> tveeprom 5-0050: audio processor is CX23418 (idx 38)
> tveeprom 5-0050: decoder processor is CX23418 (idx 31)
> tveeprom 5-0050: has no radio, has IR receiver, has IR transmitter
> cx18-1: Autodetected Hauppauge HVR-1600
> cx18-1: Simultaneous Digital and Analog TV capture supported
> IRQ 18/cx18-1: IRQF_DISABLED is not guaranteed on shared IRQs
> tuner 6-0061: chip found @ 0xc2 (cx18 i2c driver #1-1)
> cs5345 5-004c: chip found @ 0x98 (cx18 i2c driver #1-0)
> tuner-simple 6-0061: creating new instance
> tuner-simple 6-0061: type set to 50 (TCL 2002N)
> cx18-1: Registered device video2 for encoder MPEG (64 x 32 kB)
> DVB: registering new adapter (cx18)
> MXL5005S: Attached at address 0x63
> DVB: registering adapter 1 frontend 0 (Samsung S5H1409 QAM/8VSB
> Frontend)...
> cx18-1: DVB Frontend registered
> cx18-1: Registered DVB adapter1 for TS (32 x 32 kB)
> cx18-1: Registered device video34 for encoder YUV (16 x 128 kB)
> cx18-1: Registered device vbi2 for encoder VBI (20 x 51984 bytes)
> cx18-1: Registered device video26 for encoder PCM audio (256 x 4 kB)
> cx18-1: Initialized card: Hauppauge HVR-1600
> cx18:  End initialization
>
> Compare this with yours, remember I've got 2, here.  Especially with the
> earlier drivers there were problems with older revisions of PCI
> motherboards.  They manifested themselves as i2c bus problems, which is
> how you talk to the tuners.  A lot of fiddling was done to get the i2c
> communications reliable, and you may need newer drivers.
>

I'm really starting to think that this different model # is the key to my
problems since I have:
tveeprom 1-0050: Hauppauge model 74591, rev C1A4, serial#

and everything I've found online has been like yours:
tveeprom 5-0050: Hauppauge model 74041, rev C6B2, serial# xxxxxxx

Looks like I should have spent more time b4 bidding on ebay.  :)

> >
> > Using mplayer to test the various video devices I can see video on
> > /dev/PVR-500_* but "mplayer /dev/HVR-1600" gives me nothing but static.
> > Just for kicks I also tried "mplayer /dev/video0, 1 and 2.  Right now
> > HVR-1600 is video1 with PVR-500 on 0 & 2.  As expected video0 & 2 work
> fine
> > and video1 shows nothing but static.
> >
> It takes a little more incantation to get mplayer to run well this way.
>  Here's the line that I use - maybe the -vo isn't needed, but it was
> suggested, and it works:
> mplayer /dev/video1 -cache 8192 -vo x11
>

I don't need the -cache or -vo args for my PVR-500 devices...

>
> > As further confirmation I tried "ivtv-tune -c 47 -d /dev/video[0-2]"
> which
> > gave me:
> >
> >> /dev/video0: 361.250 MHz  (Signal Detected)
> >> /dev/video1: 361.250 MHz
> >
> > /dev/video2: 361.250 MHz  (Signal Detected)
> >
> > Suggestions for problem #1?  The only thing that I haven't tried yet is
> > swapping the cable I'm using from the splitter between the analog and
> > digital inputs on the HVR-1600.  I'll try that tonight though I think
> it's
> > unlikely that I have a bad cable.
> >
> > Problem #2: No guide data for ATSC channels
> >
> > After scanning for both QAM-256 and QAM-64 channels using "-" (minus) as
> the
> > channel separator (since that matches the schedulesdirect listing
> better).
> > I have found a bunch of unecrypted channels that myth can tune.  I added
> a
> > schedulesdirect lineup for "Comcast - Digital" and setup my DVB tuner as
> > described in the HVR-1600 wiki.  Fired up the backend and frontend after
> > running mythfilldatabase but all the channels were listed as unknown.  I
> > could tune in a bunch of channels but without listing data why bother?
> >
> I've done very little with ATSC - just verified that I was able to get
> QVC, and little-to-nothing else - Comcast, of course.  I see that you
> have an interesting link later, but wasn't able to check it out because
> I'm busy compiling xulrunner/firefox-3.0.10 and seem to be in an
> "unfortunate spot."  Come to think of it, thunderbird also got
> recompiled somewhere in there, so maybe that's the problem.
>
> > So after a bunch of searching online I got the idea that maybe
> > schedulesdirect "Local Broadcast Listings - Antenna" seemed to more
> closely
> > match the channels I was tuning.  So I switched my input connection for
> the
> > DVB tuner to broadcast and rescaned.
> >
> > I still have digital channels that I can tune in but no listing
> > information.  Also now I appear to have an odd mix of channel numbers
> such
> > as 2,2-1,2-2,... ,83,83#3,93#3.
> >
> > Questions:
> > 2a) how can I dump out a list of all the digital channels I've scanned
> and
> > found?  I'd like to compare this list to my lineups to see if there's a
> > better match with broadcast or digital cable.
> > 2b) Do I need to correct this mix of 2-1 and 83#3 channels?  I'm guessing
> > that I should have only one kind of channel separator and not two?
> > 2c) What's the best way to wipe all the found channels to start over with
> > scanning?
> > 2d) Does anyone in Mountain View with comcast have a list of clear QAM
> > channels that I should be able to tune and/or suggestions on how to get
> this
> > working?  The list on
> > http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/lineupui/US:94043seems extremely
> > optimistic and doesn't match what I've found so far for OTA
> > or QAM256.
> > 2e) Can anyone with comcast in Mtn View confirm that they have a mythtv
> > setup working with clear QAM?  I'm beginning to think I'll have to get
> one
> > of comcast's crappy STB tuners and dive into IR blasting that device from
> > myth (yuck).
> >
> > If you made it this far thanks for reading and any suggestions or
> questions
> > welcome!
> > Matt
>
> I would also suggest checking out the video4linux list.  I got quite a
> bit of help there.  If you go, search for my name and you can watch my
> bring-up problems.  I had quite a nasty i2c problem that turned out to
> be fixed by a card replug.
>
> Dale Pontius

Will do, thanks!
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