[mythtv-users] MythTV+Mageia2+PowerViewTV card(s)

[John Pilkington]

On 30/09/12 10:46, John Pilkington wrote:
> On 30/09/12 08:16, Marc Paré wrote:
>> Le 2012-09-30 02:29, Nick Rout a écrit :
>>> Now I wondered if I was right so I looked further! googling this card
>>> and linux mainly results in posts by you to the mageaia mailing lists
>>> LOL. One points here
>>> http://www.factorydirect.ca/Product.aspx?sku=PO0010  which has a pic.
>>> The pic shows a sticker on the card listing a number of analogue TV
>>> standards: PAL, NTSC, SECAM.
>>
>> Yup, I had tried to sign-up to the MythTV mailing list 3 times before I
>> finally got a reply to my sign-up -- it almost looks like sign-ups are
>> moderated. Anyway, I am glad I am on the list as it look like quite a
>> friendly and helpful list. However, as you most likely read, the members
>> on the Mageia list convinced me that using MythTV on Mageia was indeed
>> as possible as any other distro; their experience were all positive.
>>
>> As to the PowerView TV card that is mentioned in your text, yes, I have
>> been making reports for a few years on the Mandriva then Mageia forums
>> to keep anyone else appraised of the compatibility of the card with TV
>> time, as well as the setup to make them work on these distros. It uses
>> the Philips 713x or Bt 878 chipsets (labelled on the card). It says it
>> provides Mpeg1 or Mpeg2 compression, but I always assumed it did this
>> through software, but, only on the Windows side. It does not support
>> Linux; I am not sure how to test this to see if it is through hardware.
>> The manuals are quite cryptic and do not offer clear details ...
>> obviously for the price you pay, you get what you pay for.
>>
>> I have installed dozens of these on Linux boxes as they used to cost
>> around $12each but are now retailing slightly above $20Cdn. I have not
>> heard of any of the owners complaining of loss of service yet.
>>
>>> This reinforces my view that the card is analogue only, and you are
>>> getting some leftover Rogers analogue service.
>>>
>>> That may be switched off any time, so you will want to consider a move
>>> to digital, but you might also fall foul of various encryption
>>> problems - I don't know what Rogers makes available "in the clear".
>>> You will need the advice of others on the same or similar services to
>>> advise properly.
>>>
>>
>> Hmmm, not sure. I thought that the notes we received from Rogers stated
>> that if you used analog TV that there was no loss of channels. If you
>> purchased a digital TV, then, some channels would be affected, and of
>> course, they were advertising their "set top box" to fix this. I am a
>> little fuzzy on this, but for now, we are getting all of our channels
>> and our recent purchase of a digital TV (we finally joined the 21st
>> century, yeah!), we are in fact getting some extra channels.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Marc
>>
>
> Hmm.  'No loss of channels' may mean that they'll just get fuzzier.  I'm
> well outside my comfort zone here, but it looks as if you have what
> Mythtv will think is a v4l device.  Does mythtvsetup see one of those? I
> have a Hauppauge device that I use only for dvb, but ISTR that I used to
> see a v4l side too; now I don't, although dmesg | grep saa shows that
> the kernel still recognises it.
>
> With recent kernels mythtv has had, and may still have, issues in
> recognising tv cards, apparently because kernel modules were loaded in
> the wrong order.  I was able to work round this by restoring a working
> database but you won't have that option.  I don't know what kernel or
> mythtv release you have.
>
> I think you really ought to be looking towards digital tuners unless
> there is an encryption problem.  Here in the UK you can get twin-tuner
> dvb usb devices that work reasonably well for under 30 GBP - and with
> one of those you could record 10 channels at once...
>
> John P
>

I think what has been said here about the advantages of going digital 
still stands, but your current problem may be the kernel bug I mentioned 
above that I first saw with kernels later than 3.3.7-1.  Fixing it is 
seen as a kernel, rather than mythtv, issue.

http://code.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/11058
http://code.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/10830

I still see the  'FE_GET_INFO ioctl failed' when starting to set up a 
new tuner card in mythtvsetup, now under 3.4.11-1.  I haven't tried the 
normal 'delete all tuner cards' again after my last post to #11058, but 
it looks as if this will affect anyone trying to set up a new system - 
and would maybe affect new installations of eg TVTime as well.  It seems 
that workarounds exist but I have only tried reinstalling a working DB.

John P