<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.59 - 18 Aug 2008 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 497 to 497

The DVB drivers for the pcHDTV cards are now in the mainstream Linux kernel. See this guide for more details.

Links

Added:

>
>

ATSC

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.58 - 10 Feb 2008 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems unavoidable when trying to make sense of the subject of digital television. In the USA, terrestrial digital video broadcasts are transmitted in

Changed:

<
<

8VSB-modulated ATSC-encoded MPEG-2 transport streams containing high

>
>

8VSB-modulated (see also here) ATSC-encoded MPEG-2 transport streams containing high

definition content in progressive 720p/59.94 (1280x720) and interlaced 1080i/29.97 (1920x1088) formats. I'm still not even sure what the official name for this stuff is, so let's just call it HDTV.

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.57 - 12 Aug 2007 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 7 to 7

8VSB-modulated ATSC-encoded MPEG-2 transport streams containing high definition content in progressive 720p/59.94 (1280x720) and interlaced 1080i/29.97 (1920x1088) formats.

Changed:

<
<

I'm still not even sure what the official name for this stuff is, so let's just call it HDTV.

>
>

I'm still not even sure what the official name for this stuff is, so let's just call it HDTV.

Curiously, even movies which originated as 1080p/24 edit masters are broadcast as 1080i/29.97 (if you're lucky and they're not down-converted to standard definition but still broadcast within 1080i). Because 1080 isn't a multiple of 16, broadcasters send 1920x1088 and define the last 8 lines to be blank.

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.56 - 01 Jun 2007 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 10 to 10

I'm still not even sure what the official name for this stuff is, so let's just call it HDTV. Curiously, even movies which originated as 1080p/24 edit masters are broadcast as 1080i/29.97 (if you're lucky and they're not down-converted to standard definition but still broadcast within 1080i).

Added:

>
>

Because 1080 isn't a multiple of 16, broadcasters send 1920x1088 and define the last 8 lines to be blank.

So How Can I Get This HDTV Stuff?

There are two aspects to consider. The first is the antenna,

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.55 - 07 Apr 2007 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 8 to 8

definition content in progressive 720p/59.94 (1280x720) and interlaced 1080i/29.97 (1920x1088) formats. I'm still not even sure what the official name for this stuff is, so let's just call it HDTV.

Added:

>
>

Curiously, even movies which originated as 1080p/24 edit masters are broadcast as 1080i/29.97 (if you're lucky and they're not down-converted to standard definition but still broadcast within 1080i).

So How Can I Get This HDTV Stuff?

There are two aspects to consider. The first is the antenna,

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.54 - 26 Mar 2007 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 494 to 494

The DVB drivers for the pcHDTV cards are now in the mainstream Linux kernel. See this guide for more details.

Links

Added:

>
>

Interview with Jack Kelliher, pcHDTV

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.53 - 25 Feb 2007 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 102 to 102

  mplayer -ao alsa -ac hwac3 -tsprog 3 filename.mpg

Changed:

<
<

Is there a command-line tool for scheduling recordings?

Inkling's atscap is probably what you've been looking for, see here to download the 1.1rc9f release candidate! It's an amazing console application. The previous release of atscap was called pchdtvr, but the new name atscap is used because it works on any ATSC capture cards that support the DVB api (e.g. the AirStar HD5000 PCI), and not just the cards from pcHDTV.
Here's a screen shot of an earlier pchdtvr in action, showing the program guide received from off-the-air:
Inkling's pchdtvr

Because full ATSC streams eat up large amounts of disk space, you'll be happy to see that Inkling's stable release, pchdtvr 1.0, allows you to select which program stream to record. Program streams are called Virtual Channels in the ATSC spec. Inkling also developed a graphical xtscut tool which makes it really simple and speedy to cut out commercials and other junk from your recordings, to save space and make them more convenient for later viewing. There's also a command line atscut tool, which can be used for extracting a single virtual channel from a full stream capture and for other kinds of editing, as well as for very detailed inspection of the stream contents in human-readable form.
With atscap you can schedule recordings of specific program streams using a timer. E.g. to record channel 30 virtual channel 3 (KQED-HD) for thirty minutes every Monday, use an entry in your /etc/atscap/atscap.0.conf (or for pchdtvr, in /etc/pchdtvr.0.conf) like this:

C30:KQED:PBS
T30:20:00:030:0100000:PBS.3

With pchdtvr, you can enable the use of GNU screen using pchdtvr -i0 -w, so that when you run pchdtvr on the console you'll still be able to view it and control it from within X11 without worrying about X11 crashing and messing up your recording session. Even if X11 should happen to crash, the screen session will still be running completely unaffected and you'll be able to re-attach to it and resume control using pchdtvr -i0 -R. It also allows you to conveniently control pchdtvr remotely over ssh.

>
>

Is there a user-friendly tool for scheduling recordings?

Inkling's atscap is what you've been looking for!

Electronic Program Guide

In case you've still not quite gotten around to setting up MythTV, Andy Balaam's freeguide is a nifty Java tool which can download XML program guides, parse them and display them in a nice human-readable channel guide format. On Debian unstable, freeguide is even available as a package. For the USA, freeguide will download the program guides from Zap2it. You can create yourself an account at Zap2it Labs. The freeguide tool displays the "Certificate Code" needed to create your Zap2it account, or if you prefer you could use the Certificate Code from the EFF's MythTV Guide.

These ATSC files are huge. Can I squash them?

Changed:

<
< Using mencoder, the following recipe seems to work relatively reliably to compress single program stream video files recorded using Inkling's atscap as described above. It uses the lavc mpeg4 codec, and does two-pass encoding at a very high 5000 bitrate. This high bitrate is only needed if you want to preserve the high resolution. To determine the resolution of the stream you're viewing, use the Ctrl-I key with xine-hd tells you the resolution is). This recipe also preserves the original audio stream (which could be 5.1 channel), rather than compressing it using lame to mp3. Some folks may not have lame support built in to their mencoder. Compressing the audio to mp3 at a low bitrate of 96kbps would provide quite significant space saving, see the mencoder manual page for the explanation of the options to use.

>
> Using mencoder, the following recipe seems to work relatively reliably to compress single program stream video files recorded using Inkling's atscap. It uses the lavc mpeg4 codec, and does two-pass encoding at a very high 5000 bitrate. This high bitrate is only needed if you want to preserve the high resolution. To determine the resolution of the stream you're viewing, use the Ctrl-I key with xine-hd tells you the resolution is). This recipe also preserves the original audio stream (which could be 5.1 channel), rather than compressing it using lame to mp3. Some folks may not have lame support built in to their mencoder. Compressing the audio to mp3 at a low bitrate of 96kbps would provide quite significant space saving, see the mencoder manual page for the explanation of the options to use.


mencoder -oac copy -ovc frameno -o frameno.avi ABC.3.ts

Line: 349 to 337

  cd pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver && ./minstall

Changed:

<
< Then to test whether recording works, use Inkling's pchdtvr:

>
> Then to test whether recording works, use Inkling's pchdtvr, or the latest release atscap:

  mkdir pchdtvr-1.0 && cd pchdtvr-1.0 && tar zxvf ../pchdtvr-1.0.tar.gz
  gcc pchdtvr.c -o pchdtvr -Wall -O3 -lpthread -lm -lrt

Line: 470 to 459

following list. This list of channels allotted by the FCC for digital television may also be of interest.

Changed:

<
< Either use the TAB key followed by several presses on the w key in Inkling's atscap to display the wavelength, or use this handy little calculator. (Ideally, the antenna loop diameter should match the wavelength of the channel you want to receive.)

>
> Either use the TAB key followed by several presses on the w key in Inkling's atscap to display the wavelength, or use this handy little calculator. (Ideally, the antenna loop diameter should match the wavelength of the channel you want to receive.)

Although a simple HDTV antenna can be made by stripping 12.5cm of coaxial cable as explained on the VDR Wiki, you may also want to try the guide to building a UHF Log-Periodic Array Antenna

Line: 487 to 476

The Redistribution Control Descriptor, also known as the broadcast flag, is described on page 79 of the ATSC Standard A_65B. To check whether the transport stream you are receiving has this 0xAA flag set, you can build the NIST DASE ATSC/MPEG2 parser,

Changed:

<
< which will print out Content_Protect_Copy_Mngt_descr when it sees the 0xAA flag set in the stream. Inkling's atscap

>
> which will print out Content_Protect_Copy_Mngt_descr when it sees the 0xAA flag set in the stream. Inkling's atscap

conveniently strips the RC flag from single VC captures, and the atscut tool can display its setting and can also strip the flag from existing captures. During capture, atscap indicates the RC flag's setting by causing the packet statistics display PMT to turn an ominous glowing red color. If statistics are not switched on, then the presence of the RC flag is indicated by a red R appearing in the bottom line of the display, to the left of the TEVM summary display.

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.52 - 20 Feb 2007 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 103 to 103

mplayer -ao alsa -ac hwac3 -tsprog 3 filename.mpg

Is there a command-line tool for scheduling recordings?

Changed:

<
< Inkling's atscap is probably what you've been looking for. It's an amazing console application. The current release of atscap is called pchdtvr, but the new name atscap is needed because it now works on any ATSC capture cards that support the DVB api, and not just the cards from pcHDTV.

>
> Inkling's atscap is probably what you've been looking for, see here to download the 1.1rc9f release candidate! It's an amazing console application. The previous release of atscap was called pchdtvr, but the new name atscap is used because it works on any ATSC capture cards that support the DVB api (e.g. the AirStar HD5000 PCI), and not just the cards from pcHDTV.

Here's a screen shot of an earlier pchdtvr in action, showing the program guide received from off-the-air:

Because full ATSC streams eat up large amounts of disk space, you'll be

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.51 - 14 Sep 2006 - PeterKnaggs)

  META TOPICPARENT  LinuxHints 

  Digital Television 
Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems
   mplayer -ao alsa -ac hwac3 -tsprog 3 filename.mpg

  Is there a command-line tool for scheduling recordings?
-<
<
+Inkling's pchdtvr is probably what you've been looking for. It's an amazing console application. 

Here's a screen shot of pchdtvr in action, showing the program guide received from off-the-air:
->
>
+Inkling's atscap is probably what you've been looking for. It's an amazing console application. The current release of atscap is called pchdtvr, but the new name atscap is needed because it now works on any ATSC capture cards that support the DVB api, and not just the cards from pcHDTV.

Here's a screen shot of an earlier pchdtvr in action, showing the program guide received from off-the-air:
 Because full ATSC streams eat up large amounts of disk space, you'll be
-<
<
+happy to see that Inkling's latest release, pchdtvr 1.0-rc9, allows you to select which program stream to record. Program streams are called Virtual Channels in the ATSC spec. Inkling also developed atscut which you can use to cut out commercials and other junk from your recordings, to save space and make them more convenient for later viewing. It can also be used for far more than that, though.

With pchdtvr you can schedule recordings of specific program streams using a timer. E.g. to record channel 30 virtual channel 3 (KQED-HD) for thirty minutes every Monday, use an entry in your /etc/pchdtvr.0.conf like this:
->
>
+happy to see that Inkling's stable release, pchdtvr 1.0, allows you to select which program stream to record. Program streams are called Virtual Channels in the ATSC spec. Inkling also developed a graphical xtscut tool which makes it really simple and speedy to cut out commercials and other junk from your recordings, to save space and make them more convenient for later viewing. There's also a command line atscut tool, which can be used for extracting a single virtual channel from a full stream capture and for other kinds of editing, as well as for very detailed inspection of the stream contents in human-readable form.

With atscap you can schedule recordings of specific program streams using a timer. E.g. to record channel 30 virtual channel 3 (KQED-HD) for thirty minutes every Monday, use an entry in your /etc/atscap/atscap.0.conf (or for pchdtvr, in /etc/pchdtvr.0.conf) like this:
 C30:KQED:PBS
T30:20:00:030:0100000:PBS.3
-<
<
+If your machine is a Pentium 4, please turn off hyperthreading in the BIOS before recording using pchdtvr on 2.6 kernels. I'm not sure yet why, but while running with hyperthreading enabled, the system would always lock up shortly after pchdtvr started recording. With hyperthreading turned off, everything works fine. 
Update: when using pchdtvr with the DVB drivers, 
hyperthreading can be safely enabled again, as the DVB drivers don't suffer from this problem.

Now with pchdtvr 1.0-rc9, you can enable the use of GNU screen using pchdtvr -i0 -w, so that when you run pchdtvr on the console you'll still be able to view it and 
control it from within X11 without worrying about X11 crashing and messing up your recording session. 
Even if X11 should happen to crash, the screen session will still be running completely unaffected and you'll be 
able to re-attach to it and resume control using pchdtvr -i0 -R. It also allows you to conveniently control 
pchdtvr remotely over ssh.
Notes on the pchdtvr 1.0-rc9 release: If your /etc/pchdtv.0.conf file contains channels 63 or above, then you'd need to edit the atsc_bcast array (move the #if 0 a few lines further up), or memory would be corrupted: the definition for ATSC_MAX_CHAN is too high. You could also just remove any channels above 62 from the config file. Also, the definition for PRODUCTION (near the top of the file) should
be changed from 0 to 1, as otherwise functionality intended only for use during development (by Inkling) will be enabled.
->
>
+With pchdtvr, you can enable the use of GNU screen using pchdtvr -i0 -w, so that when you run pchdtvr on the console you'll still be able to view it and control it from within X11 without worrying about X11 crashing and messing up your recording session. 
Even if X11 should happen to crash, the screen session will still be running completely unaffected and you'll be able to re-attach to it and resume control using pchdtvr -i0 -R. It also allows you to conveniently control pchdtvr remotely over ssh.
   Electronic Program Guide 
In case you've still not quite gotten around to setting up MythTV, Andy Balaam's freeguide is a nifty 
Java tool which can download XML program guides, parse them and display them in a nice human-readable channel guide format. On Debian unstable, freeguide is even available as a package. For the USA, freeguide
will download the program guides from Zap2it. You can create yourself an account at Zap2it Labs. The freeguide tool  displays the "Certificate Code" needed to create your Zap2it account, or if you prefer you could use the Certificate Code from the EFF's MythTV Guide.
   These ATSC files are huge. Can I squash them?
-<
<
+Using mencoder, the following recipe seems to work relatively reliably to compress single program stream video files recorded using Inkling's pchdtvr as described above. It uses the lavc mpeg4 codec, and does two-pass encoding at a very high 5000 bitrate. This high bitrate is only needed if you want to preserve the high resolution. To determine the resolution of the stream you're viewing, use the Ctrl-I key with xine-hd tells you the resolution is). This recipe also preserves the original audio stream (which could be 5.1 channel), rather than compressing it using lame to mp3. Some folks may not have lame support built in to their mencoder. Compressing the audio to mp3 at a low bitrate of 96kbps would provide quite significant space saving, see the mencoder manual page for the explanation of the options to use.
->
>
+Using mencoder, the following recipe seems to work relatively reliably to compress single program stream video files recorded using Inkling's atscap as described above. It uses the lavc mpeg4 codec, and does two-pass encoding at a very high 5000 bitrate. This high bitrate is only needed if you want to preserve the high resolution. To determine the resolution of the stream you're viewing, use the Ctrl-I key with xine-hd tells you the resolution is). This recipe also preserves the original audio stream (which could be 5.1 channel), rather than compressing it using lame to mp3. Some folks may not have lame support built in to their mencoder. Compressing the audio to mp3 at a low bitrate of 96kbps would provide quite significant space saving, see the mencoder manual page for the explanation of the options to use.
 mencoder -oac copy -ovc frameno -o frameno.avi ABC.3.ts
   cd pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver && ./minstall
-<
<
+Then to test whether recording works, use Inkling's pchdtvr:
->
>
+Then to test whether recording works, use Inkling's pchdtvr:
-<
<
+  mkdir pchdtvr-rc9 && cd pchdtvr-rc9 && tar jxvf ../pchdtvr-1.0-rc9.tar.bz2
->
>
+  mkdir pchdtvr-1.0 && cd pchdtvr-1.0 && tar zxvf ../pchdtvr-1.0.tar.gz
   gcc pchdtvr.c -o pchdtvr -Wall -O3 -lpthread -lm -lrt
-<
<
+First, you'll need to use pchdtvr to scan for channels (always run it as root):
->
>
+First, you'll need to use pchdtvr to scan for channels (always run it as root):
   mkdir /dtv  # (this is where pchdtvr will save the recordings)
  ./pchdtvr -S
-<
<
+This creates the file /etc/pchdtvr.0.conf
Now you can run pchdtvr without the -S, to record as usual.
For example, press 3 followed by Enter to record from channel 3.
->
>
+This creates the /etc/pchdtvr.0.conf configuration file.
Now you can run pchdtvr without the -S, to record as usual.
In the upcoming atscap this process has been simplified, and atscap will 
scan for channels automatically unless the configuration file already exists.
Once the channel scan is completed, you can try capturing a stream; for 
example, press 3 followed by Enter to record from channel 3.
 To playback you can install xine:
  apt-get install xine-ui
 Mythtv Air2PC FC3 guide.
The cleanup patch must be compiled against dvb-kernel CVS, not against a vanilla kernel, as explained 
here on the linux-dvb mailing list.
-<
<
+It appears that the Air2PC card won't yet work with the upcoming DVB version of Inkling's pchdtvr, 
as it's awkward to get the driver to capture the full transport stream, as discussed here on the linux-dvb mailing list.
->
>
+Using the Air2PC card, it may be awkward to get the driver to capture the full transport stream, as discussed here on the linux-dvb mailing list.
 For more discussion, see the non official Air2PC/Airstar HD-5000 Forum.
  The pcHDTV Card 
The Linux folks at pcHDTV supply two HDTV cards with Linux drivers, the HD-2000 and HD-3000 cards. The following is a list of some of the details on the HD3000 card:
 following list. This
list of channels 
allotted by the FCC for digital television may also be of interest.
-<
<
+Either use the TAB key followed by several presses on the w key in Inkling's pchdtvr to display the wavelength, or use this handy little calculator. (Ideally, the antenna loop diameter should match the wavelength of the channel you want to receive.)
->
>
+Either use the TAB key followed by several presses on the w key in Inkling's atscap to display the wavelength, or use this handy little calculator. (Ideally, the antenna loop diameter should match the wavelength of the channel you want to receive.)
 Although a simple HDTV antenna can be made by stripping 12.5cm of coaxial cable as explained on the VDR Wiki, you may also want to try the guide 
to building a UHF Log-Periodic Array Antenna
 The Redistribution Control Descriptor, also known as the broadcast flag, is described on page 79 of the ATSC Standard A_65B.
To check whether the transport stream you are receiving has this 0xAA flag set, you can build 
 the NIST DASE ATSC/MPEG2 parser,
-<
<
+which will print out Content_Protect_Copy_Mngt_descr when it sees the 0xAA flag set in the stream. Inkling's pchdtvr, now at rc9,
->
>
+which will print out Content_Protect_Copy_Mngt_descr when it sees the 0xAA flag set in the stream. Inkling's atscap
 conveniently strips the RC flag from single VC captures, and the atscut tool can display its setting and can also strip the flag from existing captures.
-<
<
+During capture, pchdtvr indicates the RC flag's setting by causing the packet statistics display PMT to turn an ominous glowing red color. If statistics are not
->
>
+During capture, atscap indicates the RC flag's setting by causing the packet statistics display PMT to turn an ominous glowing red color. If statistics are not
 switched on, then the presence of the RC flag is indicated by a red R appearing in the bottom line of the display, to the left of the TEVM summary display.
For more info on the RC flag, how it may affect your rights, and what you can do before 
the 1st of July 2005 deadline, see the EFF.

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.50 - 11 Sep 2006 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Changed:

<
<

definition content in progressive 720p (1280x720) and interlaced 1080i (1920x1088) formats. I'm still not even sure what the official name for this stuff is, so let's just call it HDTV.

>
>

definition content in progressive 720p/59.94 (1280x720) and interlaced 1080i/29.97 (1920x1088) formats. I'm still not even sure what the official name for this stuff is, so let's just call it HDTV.

So How Can I Get This HDTV Stuff?

There are two aspects to consider. The first is the antenna,

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.49 - 03 Sep 2006 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 461 to 461

There's a (perhaps somewhat biased) comparison here.

Video Card Considerations

Changed:

<
< Playback of HDTV streams uses quite a lot of CPU resources. One possible way to get around the issue of HDTV playback on slower machines is to use XvMC to offload the MPEG-2 decoding task to the video card itself. Apparently there are some video cards support XvMC, have DVI outputs, and work in Linux. For a more in-depth discussion, check out the Linux HTPC Howto.

>
> Playback of HDTV streams uses quite a lot of CPU resources. One remarkably effective way (although it does depend on using proprietary drivers) to get around the issue of HDTV playback on slower machines is to use XvMC to offload the MPEG-2 decoding task to the video card itself, as described in more detail here. There are some video cards which support XvMC, have DVI outputs, and work in Linux, for example the nVidia 5200. For a more in-depth discussion, check out the Linux HTPC Howto.

More Antenna Considerations

The frequencies for the channels used for ATSC broadcasts tend to be higher, so the UHF antennas used for HDTV reception tend to be physically a lot smaller

Line: 515 to 516

Changed:

<
< -- PeterKnaggs - 18 Nov 2005

>
> -- PeterKnaggs - 03 Sep 2006

Back to LinuxHints - Everything GNU ever wanted to know about Linux

Changed:

<
<

PepsiWhistling.ogg: PepsiWhistling^?

>
>

PepsiWhistling.ogg: PepsiWhistling

META FILEATTACHMENT	guide.gif	attr="h" comment="Inkling's pchdtvr" date="1115740666" path="guide.gif" size="20444" user="PeterKnaggs" version="1.1"
META FILEATTACHMENT	guide.png	attr="" comment="Inkling's pchdtvr (png format)" date="1123441269" path="guide.png" size="13108" user="PeterKnaggs" version="1.1"

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.48 - 06 Jul 2006 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 519 to 519

Back to LinuxHints - Everything GNU ever wanted to know about Linux

Added:

>
>

PepsiWhistling.ogg: PepsiWhistling^?

META FILEATTACHMENT	guide.gif	attr="h" comment="Inkling's pchdtvr" date="1115740666" path="guide.gif" size="20444" user="PeterKnaggs" version="1.1"
META FILEATTACHMENT	guide.png	attr="" comment="Inkling's pchdtvr (png format)" date="1123441269" path="guide.png" size="13108" user="PeterKnaggs" version="1.1"

Added:

>
>

META FILEATTACHMENT	PepsiWhistling^?.ogg	attr="" comment="PepsiWhistling" date="1152171407" path="PepsiWhistling.ogg" size="839874" user="PeterKnaggs" version="1.1"

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.47 - 18 Nov 2005 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 6 to 6

In the USA, terrestrial digital video broadcasts are transmitted in 8VSB-modulated ATSC-encoded MPEG-2 transport streams containing high definition content in progressive 720p (1280x720) and interlaced

Changed:

<
<

1080i (1920x1080) formats. I'm still not even sure what the official

>
>

1080i (1920x1088) formats. I'm still not even sure what the official

name for this stuff is, so let's just call it HDTV.

So How Can I Get This HDTV Stuff?

Line: 515 to 515

Changed:

<
<

-- PeterKnaggs - 03 Nov 2005

>
>

-- PeterKnaggs - 18 Nov 2005

Back to LinuxHints - Everything GNU ever wanted to know about Linux

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.46 - 03 Nov 2005 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 425 to 425

although it is out of stock until August 2005. More details may be found on the following pages: Mythic TV and Cyberstore

Changed:

<
<

Update: The Air2PC rev 3.1 is now available, with the name AirStar-HD5000-PCI.

>
>

Update: The Air2PC rev 3.1 is now available, with the name AirStar-HD5000-PCI.

Taylor Jacob is working on a patch and a cleanup patch

Changed:

<
<

to attach the lgdt3303 frontend, discussed here

>
>

to attach the LG DT3303 frontend (lgdt3303), discussed here

and here on the linux-dvb mailing list,

Changed:

<
<

and Jan Kansky reported that the first patch already works well with 2.6.13.2 kernel.org, following the

>
>

and Jan Kansky reported that the first patch already works well with vanilla 2.6.13.2 from kernel.org, following the

Mythtv Air2PC FC3 guide. The cleanup patch must be compiled against dvb-kernel CVS, not against a vanilla kernel, as explained here on the linux-dvb mailing list.

Line: 515 to 515

Changed:

<
<

-- PeterKnaggs - 4th Oct 2005

>
>

-- PeterKnaggs - 03 Nov 2005

Back to LinuxHints - Everything GNU ever wanted to know about Linux

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.45 - 05 Oct 2005 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 153 to 153

stream from ATSC recordings is to use mplayer's -dumpaudio flag. This extracts the A52 audio channel (also known as AC3 audio) into a file called stream.dump, suitable for processing with a52dec and lame

Changed:

<
< into an mp3, as follows:

>
> into an mp3, as follows. On Debian, the a52dec utility can be found in package liba52-0.7.4-dev.

mplayer -dumpaudio input.atsc

Changed:

<
< a52dec -o wav stream.dump | lame - output.mp3

>
> /usr/bin/a52dec -o wav stream.dump | lame - output.mp3

Added:

>
>

Strangely, using extract_a52, as one would normally expect to use for this purpose in place of mplayer -dumpaudio, usually results in audio that plays at the wrong speed. To hear what it sounds like, use:

Line: 484 to 485

Most satellite installation technicians will have the equipment to do this, and it will help to know whether you need to consider multipathing (reflections) of the received signals in your design.

Added:

>
>

Inkling pointed out this article on Propagation of Waves by the Navy. Thanks, Ink!

Redistribution Control Descriptor

Line: 512 to 515

Changed:

<
< -- PeterKnaggs - 27 Sep 2005

>
> -- PeterKnaggs - 4th Oct 2005

Back to LinuxHints - Everything GNU ever wanted to know about Linux

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.44 - 04 Oct 2005 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 436 to 436

here on the linux-dvb mailing list. It appears that the Air2PC card won't yet work with the upcoming DVB version of Inkling's pchdtvr, as it's awkward to get the driver to capture the full transport stream, as discussed here on the linux-dvb mailing list.

Changed:

<
<

>
>

For more discussion, see the non official Air2PC/Airstar HD-5000 Forum.

The pcHDTV Card

The Linux folks at pcHDTV supply two HDTV cards with Linux drivers, the HD-2000 and HD-3000 cards. The following is a list of some of the details on the HD3000 card:

The HD3000 is an NTSC (analog capture) and ATSC (digital) card for HDTV in North America.

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.43 - 27 Sep 2005 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 425 to 425

following pages: Mythic TV and Cyberstore

Update: The Air2PC rev 3.1 is now available, with the name AirStar-HD5000-PCI.

Changed:

<
<

Taylor Jacob is working on a patch to attach the lgdt3303 frontend, discussed here on the linux-dvb mailing list, and Jan Kansky reported that it already works well with 2.6.13.2 kernel.org, following the

>
>

Taylor Jacob is working on a patch and a cleanup patch to attach the lgdt3303 frontend, discussed here and here on the linux-dvb mailing list, and Jan Kansky reported that the first patch already works well with 2.6.13.2 kernel.org, following the

Mythtv Air2PC FC3 guide.

Added:

>
>

The cleanup patch must be compiled against dvb-kernel CVS, not against a vanilla kernel, as explained here on the linux-dvb mailing list.

It appears that the Air2PC card won't yet work with the upcoming DVB version of Inkling's pchdtvr,

Changed:

<
<

as the driver is unable to capture the full transport stream, as discussed here on the linux-dvb mailing list.

>
>

as it's awkward to get the driver to capture the full transport stream, as discussed here on the linux-dvb mailing list.

The pcHDTV Card

The Linux folks at pcHDTV supply two HDTV cards with Linux drivers, the HD-2000 and HD-3000 cards. The following is a list of some of the details on the HD3000 card:

Line: 507 to 512

Changed:

<
<

-- PeterKnaggs - 19 Aug 2005

>
>

-- PeterKnaggs - 27 Sep 2005

Back to LinuxHints - Everything GNU ever wanted to know about Linux

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.42 - 23 Sep 2005 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 429 to 429

to attach the lgdt3303 frontend, discussed here on the linux-dvb mailing list, and Jan Kansky reported that it already works well with 2.6.13.2 kernel.org, following the Mythtv Air2PC FC3 guide.

Added:

>
>

It appears that the Air2PC card won't yet work with the upcoming DVB version of Inkling's pchdtvr, as the driver is unable to capture the full transport stream, as discussed here on the linux-dvb mailing list.

The pcHDTV Card

The Linux folks at pcHDTV supply two HDTV cards with Linux drivers, the HD-2000 and HD-3000 cards. The following is a list of some of the details on the HD3000 card:

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.41 - 22 Sep 2005 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 424 to 424

although it is out of stock until August 2005. More details may be found on the following pages: Mythic TV and Cyberstore

Changed:

<
<

Update: The 3rd generation Air2PC is now available, with the new name AirStar-HD5000-PCI.

>
>

Update: The Air2PC rev 3.1 is now available, with the name AirStar-HD5000-PCI.

Taylor Jacob is working on a patch

Changed:

<
<

to attach the lgdt3303 frontend, discussed here on the linux-dvb mailing list.

>
>

to attach the lgdt3303 frontend, discussed here on the linux-dvb mailing list, and Jan Kansky reported that it already works well with 2.6.13.2 kernel.org, following the Mythtv Air2PC FC3 guide.

The pcHDTV Card

The Linux folks at pcHDTV supply two HDTV cards with Linux drivers, the HD-2000 and HD-3000 cards. The following is a list of some of the details on the HD3000 card:

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.40 - 21 Sep 2005 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 421 to 421

Satellite HDTV tends to use QPSK modulation rather than 8VSB or QAM modulation.

At the time of writing, March 2005, the Air2PC card was around $169.95,

Changed:

<
<

although it is out of stock until May. More details may be found on the following pages: Mythic TV and Cyberstore

>
>

although it is out of stock until August 2005. More details may be found on the following pages: Mythic TV and Cyberstore

Update: The 3rd generation Air2PC is now available, with the new name AirStar-HD5000-PCI. Taylor Jacob is working on a patch to attach the lgdt3303 frontend, discussed here on the linux-dvb mailing list.

The pcHDTV Card

The Linux folks at pcHDTV supply two HDTV cards with Linux drivers, the HD-2000 and HD-3000 cards. The following is a list of some of the details on the HD3000 card:

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.39 - 11 Sep 2005 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 179 to 179

Using two monitors at the same time turns out to be very convenient when viewing digital TV, as the primary monitor can be used for other stuff while keeping the TV output running on the secondary monitor. For recent ATI graphics cards, I try to explain the required configurations here.

Added:

>
>

Details of building the pcHDTV 1.6 drivers for Debian Sarge

For Debian Sarge running with the 2.6.8-2-386 kernel, installed from Netinst booted using the "linux26" option and installed with the "Workstation" package selection group, you can build the 1.6 drivers as follows:

apt-get install kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-386
wget http://www.pchdtv.com/downloads/pcHDTV-1.6.tar.gz 
tar zxvf pcHDTV-1.6.tar.gz
cd pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver
make
make install # (run this as root)

The build output should look similar to the following:

/pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver$ make
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/build SUBDIRS=/pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-386'
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/bttv-driver.o
/pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/bttv-driver.c: In function `bttv_register_video':
/pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/bttv-driver.c:3836: warning: int format, pointer arg (arg 2)
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/bttv-cards.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/bttv-if.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/bttv-atsc.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/bttv-risc.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/bttv-vbi.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/bttv-i2c.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/bttv-gpio.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-video.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-tvaudio.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-i2c.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-vbi.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-atsc.o
/pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-atsc.c: In function `btatsc_read':
/pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-atsc.c:717: warning: long unsigned int format, pointer arg (arg 2)
/pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-atsc.c:717: warning: long unsigned int format, pointer arg (arg 3)
/pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-atsc.c:717: warning: long unsigned int format, pointer arg (arg 4)
/pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-atsc.c:717: warning: long unsigned int format, dma_addr_t arg (arg5)
/pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-atsc.c:718: warning: long unsigned int format, pointer arg (arg 2)
/pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-atsc.c:718: warning: long unsigned int format, pointer arg (arg 3)
/pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-atsc.c:661: warning: `ndst' might be used uninitialized in this function
/pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-atsc.c: At top level:
/pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-atsc.c:273: warning: `write_regs' defined but not used
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-cards.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88-core.o
  LD [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx8800.o
  LD [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88xx.o
  LD [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/bttv.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/tuner.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/v4l2-common.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/v4l1-compat.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/video-buf.o
  CC [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/btcx-risc.o
  Building modules, stage 2.
  MODPOST
  CC      /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/btcx-risc.mod.o
  LD [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/btcx-risc.ko
  CC      /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/bttv.mod.o
  LD [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/bttv.ko
  CC      /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx8800.mod.o
  LD [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx8800.ko
  CC      /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88xx.mod.o
  LD [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/cx88xx.ko
  CC      /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/tuner.mod.o
  LD [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/tuner.ko
  CC      /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/v4l1-compat.mod.o  LD [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/v4l1-compat.ko
  CC    /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/v4l2-common.mod.o  LD [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/v4l2-common.ko
  CC      /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/video-buf.mod.o
  LD [M]  /pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/video-buf.ko
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-386'

The install output will look like this:

/pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver# make install
install -d /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/media/video /lib/modules/misc /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/media/video/cx88
install -c tuner.ko /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/media/video
install -c tuner.ko /lib/modules/misc
install -c bttv.ko /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/media/video
install -c bttv.ko /lib/modules/misc
install -c cx8800.ko /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/media/video/cx88
install -c cx8800.ko /lib/modules/misc
install -c cx88xx.ko /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/media/video/cx88
install -c cx88xx.ko /lib/modules/misc
install -c video-buf.ko /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/media/video
install -c video-buf.ko /lib/modules/misc
install -c v4l2-common.ko /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/media/video
install -c v4l2-common.ko /lib/modules/misc
install -c v4l1-compat.ko /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/media/video
install -c v4l1-compat.ko /lib/modules/misc
install -c btcx-risc.ko /lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/media/video
install -c btcx-risc.ko /lib/modules/misc
install -c linux/videodev.h /usr/include/linux
install -c linux/videodev2.h /usr/include/linux
/sbin/depmod -a 2.6.8-2-386
./minstall
FATAL: Error inserting bttv (/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/media/video/bttv.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

The error is due to the Sarge kernel already having modules similar to the ones we're building, so at this stage we need to reboot the system. Once the system is rebooted, the following errors loading the bttv and cx8800 modules will no longer be seen:

bttv: disagrees about version of symbol btcx_riscmem_alloc
bttv: Unknown symbol btcx_riscmem_alloc
bttv: disagrees about version of symbol btcx_riscmem_free
bttv: Unknown symbol btcx_riscmem_free 

cx8800: disagrees about version of symbol btcx_riscmem_free
cx8800: Unknown symbol btcx_riscmem_free
cx8800: disagrees about version of symbol cx88_risc_disasm
cx8800: Unknown symbol cx88_risc_disasm
cx8800: disagrees about version of symbol cx88_card_setup
cx8800: Unknown symbol cx88_card_setup
cx8800: disagrees about version of symbol cx88_card_list
cx8800: Unknown symbol cx88_card_list
cx8800: disagrees about version of symbol cx88_sram_channel_dump
cx8800: Unknown symbol cx88_sram_channel_dump
cx8800: disagrees about version of symbol cx88_sram_channel_setup
cx8800: Unknown symbol cx88_sram_channel_setup

OK, so the above is due to the kernel still making use of the old module symbol versions of the old modules. If you see the above errors, it's time to reboot, there's apparently no way around it. After reboot of Sarge, the Debian kernel will automatically have the cx8800 module loaded, but if you redo the sequence:

  rmmod cx8800
  modprobe cx8800

Now you should get this from "dmesg" for the unload of cx8800 (this is for two HD3000 cards):

cx88atsc0: shutdown_dvr
cx88: shutdown_dvr completed
Unregistered device dtv
cx88atsc1: shutdown_dvr
cx88: shutdown_dvr completed
Unregistered device dtv

and "dmesg" should show the following for the load of cx8800 (this is for two HD3000 cards):

cx2388x v4l2 driver version 0.0.4 loaded
pcHDTV HD3000 Driver Version 1.6
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:04:02.0[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 201
cx8800[0]: found at 0000:04:02.0, rev: 5, irq: 201, latency: 64, mmio: 0xdb000000
cx8800[0]: subsystem: 7063:3000, board: pcHDTV HD3000 HDTV [card=14,autodetected]
tuner: chip found at addr 0xc2 i2c-bus cx8800[0]
tuner: type set to 51 (Thomson DDT 7610 ATSC/NTSC)) by cx8800[0]
cx8800[0]: i2c attach [client=Thomson DDT 7610 ATSC/NTSC)]
cx8800[0]: i2c register ok
cx8800[0]: registered device video0 [v4l2]
cx8800[0]: registered device vbi0
cx88: registered device dtv0
cx8800[0]: pcHDTV_HD3000 calling init_dvr
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:04:02.2[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 201
cx88:: 0 Version Data: 10001134-19430000
cx88:: 1 Version Data: 10001134-19430000
cx88:: Version: 113-4-194-3
pcHDTV HD3000 Driver Version 1.6
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:04:03.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 169
cx8800[1]: found at 0000:04:03.0, rev: 5, irq: 169, latency: 64, mmio: 0xdd000000
cx8800[1]: subsystem: 7063:3000, board: pcHDTV HD3000 HDTV [card=14,autodetected]
tuner: chip found at addr 0xc2 i2c-bus cx8800[1]
tuner: type set to 51 (Thomson DDT 7610 ATSC/NTSC)) by cx8800[1]
cx8800[1]: i2c attach [client=Thomson DDT 7610 ATSC/NTSC)]
cx8800[1]: i2c register ok
cx8800[1]: registered device video1 [v4l2]
cx8800[1]: registered device vbi1
cx88: registered device dtv1
cx8800[1]: pcHDTV_HD3000 calling init_dvr
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:04:03.2[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 169
cx88:: 0 Version Data: 10001134-19430000
cx88:: 1 Version Data: 10001134-19430000
cx88:: Version: 113-4-194-3

After reboot, it seems to also be necessary to re-run the pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver/minstall script, to create the device /dev/dtv0 which is used to access the kernel module from userspace. I'm not sure why the /dev/dtv0 inode gets removed, but this brings it back:

  cd pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver && ./minstall

Then to test whether recording works, use Inkling's pchdtvr:

  mkdir pchdtvr-rc9 && cd pchdtvr-rc9 && tar jxvf ../pchdtvr-1.0-rc9.tar.bz2
  gcc pchdtvr.c -o pchdtvr -Wall -O3 -lpthread -lm -lrt

First, you'll need to use pchdtvr to scan for channels (always run it as root):

  mkdir /dtv  # (this is where pchdtvr will save the recordings)
  ./pchdtvr -S

This creates the file /etc/pchdtvr.0.conf Now you can run pchdtvr without the -S, to record as usual. For example, press 3 followed by Enter to record from channel 3. To playback you can install xine:

  apt-get install xine-ui
  xine /dtv/N30.ts

To build pcHDTV's xine-hd for Debian, these development packages need to be installed first:

  apt-get install zlib1g-dev
  apt-get install libasound2-dev
  apt-get install libpng12-dev
  apt-get install libcurl3-dev
  apt-get install libreadline5-dev
  apt-get install libxft-dev
  apt-get install x-window-system-dev

When unpacking xine-hd, be sure to unpack it into a subdirectory, as otherwise unpacking will erase the original file you downloaded. xine-hd is useful, in that it is patched to include the -C flag to playback virtual channels within a full capture, similar to the -tsprog flag in mplayer.

Experience with other Linux distros

The pcHDTV drivers built from the pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver module sources work with the following distros. Note: the module to load is called cx8800, and there's a script called minstall which can be used to create the device

<<O>> Difference Topic DigitalTelevision (r1.38 - 28 Aug 2005 - PeterKnaggs)

META TOPICPARENT	LinuxHints

Digital Television

Sorry to start off with such a bunch of alphabet soup, but it seems

Line: 180 to 180

as the primary monitor can be used for other stuff while keeping the TV output running on the secondary monitor. For recent ATI graphics cards, I try to explain the required configurations here.

Experience with other Linux distros

Changed:

<
< The pcHDTV drivers built from the pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver module sources work with:

>
> The pcHDTV drivers built from the pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver module sources work with the following distros. Note: the module to load is called cx8800, and there's a script called minstall which can be used to create the device file /dev/dtv0.

Debian Testing (installed from Sarge Netinst)
Novell SuSE Linux Desktop 9
Novell SuSE SLES-9 SP1, which has kernel 2.6.5-7.139.
Novell SuSE Linux 9.2 professional (the shrink-wrap bundle, also installable by ftp, using SuSE's mini-installation boot CD).
Fedora Core 3 (First remove the line /sbin/modprobe bttv from the minstall script when building the pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.6.x/driver modules for the HD-3000 card, as otherwise the cx8800 module won't work properly).
Red Hat RHEL-4, which has kernel 2.6.9-5.EL.

Added:

>
>

The pcHDTV drivers built from the pcHDTV-1.6/kernel-2.4.x/driver module sources work with:

Libranet (tested with a vanilla kernel built from the stable 2.4.31 sources).

I've tried the newer DVB drivers for the pcHDTV HD3000 card only with:

Debian Unstable, with kernel 2.6.12.3, see here for details on how to build this kernel.

The Air2PC card

According to the Myth TV project documentation, the Air2PC is an ATSC card manufactured by BBTI which makes nothing but digital TV capture cards.

Changed:

<
< They are the maker of the SkyStar2 card (one of the best DVB cards available for sale currently). It uses a 4th Generation NXT2002 demodulator. The Air2PC is supported by the linuxtv-dvb driver set.

>
> They are the maker of the SkyStar2 card. The Air2PC is supported by the linuxtv-dvb driver set, and uses a 4th Generation NXT2002 demodulator.

This driver set has been used for many years, and is designed for Digital TV. The Air2PC driver has been included in Linux since the 2.6.11 kernel.

Changed:

<
< The Air2PC supports hardware filtering of the Transport Stream, which relieves the PCI bus of the entire transport stream thus making the burden on your computer less when recording.

>
> The Air2PC supports hardware filtering of the Transport Stream, and the driver implements the demux API. This relieves your computer's PCI bus of the burden of passing the entire transport stream over to the dvb_demux module, which would otherwise need to be used to do software filtering.

The Air2PC card also supports QAM, which allows it to receive unencrypted digital cable.

Deleted:

<
< ATSC is used for over-the-air (terrestrial) broadcast of TV, as well as for most digital cable TV in North America (USA, Canada and Mexico).

The Air2PC card CANNOT be used to receive European DVB, although it does use drivers that are commonly used for European DVB, hence the confusion.

Line: 218 to 217

following pages: Mythic TV and Cyberstore

The pcHDTV Card

Changed:

<
< The Linux folks at pcHDTV supply two HDTV cards with Linux drivers, the HD-2000 and HD-3000 cards. The HD3000 is an NTSC (analog capture) and ATSC (digital) card for HDTV in North America. The HD3000 uses a 2nd generation Oren demodulator. The HD3000 is supported by a modified bttv driver that is not yet included in the mainline Linux Kernel. The HD3000 does not support hardware filtering and the entire raw transport stream is sent over the PCI bus. The HD3000 in theory could support QAM for digital cable. The HD-3000 card has one RF input, one S-Video input, one Composite Video/Audio input and one Stereo Audio output for NTSC. The HD-3000 card is not a universal PCI card. The HD-3000 card is a PCI 2.2 compliant 5-Volt card. That means, there may be mother-boards (which

>
>

The Linux folks at pcHDTV supply two HDTV cards with Linux drivers, the HD-2000 and HD-3000 cards. The following is a list of some of the details on the HD3000 card:

The HD3000 is an NTSC (analog capture) and ATSC (digital) card for HDTV in North America.
It uses a 2nd generation Oren demodulator.
It is supported by a modified bttv driver that will not be included in the Linux Kernel, as well as by the new DVB drivers which are now included.
It does not support hardware filtering and needs to send the entire raw transport stream over the PCI bus. With the new DVB drivers, instead of hardware filtering, the driver for the HD3000 makes use of the kernel demux API to the dvb_demux module. The dvb_demux module contains a complete DVB demultiplexer with PID, PES and section filters implemented in software.
With the DVB drivers, it now supports QAM for digital cable.
It has one RF input, one S-Video input, one Composite Video/Audio input and one Stereo Audio output for NTSC.
It is not a universal PCI card.
It is a PCI 2.2 compliant 5-Volt card. That means, there may be mother-boards (which

only accept 3.3 Volt cards) that the HD-3000 cannot be used with, so check that the PCI slot has a 5V key/riser toward the center of the mother-board and not a 3.3V-only key/riser toward the connector-end of the mother-board.

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