How to make Pinnacle PCTV Stick 72e work?

linuxcbon · 08-15-2008, 07:51 AM

Hi,

I got a Pinnacle PCTV Stick 72e.

I did these steps :
I put the firmware.
I did the MAKEDEV-DVB.sh to create the DVB device nodes in /dev/
Stick is started and works with kernel.
I scanned channels to channels.conf
But gxine doesnt work and mplayer neither.

Any tips ?

Tangalso · 08-16-2008, 03:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxcbon

Hi,

I got a Pinnacle PCTV Stick 72e.

I did these steps :
I put the firmware.
I did the MAKEDEV-DVB.sh to create the DVB device nodes in /dev/
Stick is started and works with kernel.
I scanned channels to channels.conf
But gxine doesnt work and mplayer neither.

Any tips ?

Do you have any reason for not installing TVTime to let it do the setup for you?
http://tvtime.sourceforge.net/

purevw · 08-16-2008, 03:28 AM

Here is the link to the Linux TV WIKI for your card. I used the download for my ATI USB card. Just follow the instructions and you shouldn't have any problems. Tangalso has a good point. I use tvtime too. It is very easy to use and configure. Also, are you sure that you were set up for the correct input when you scanned the channels? ie: tv, cable, s-video.

http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Pinnacle_PCTV_72e

kevanf1 · 08-16-2008, 09:28 AM

This may sound daft but have you tried the official Pinnacle website forums? There are some Linux users on there and they are willing to help and share any information on the various Pinnacle offerings. I should add that Pinnacle have always been crap with Linux in the past :-( This may hopefully have changed though..

Kevan

linuxcbon · 08-16-2008, 04:29 PM

I prefer to use a light player like gxine or mplayer.

I asked them here http://forums.pinnaclesys.com/forums/thread/222610.aspx

Thanks for your help.

simopal6 · 09-07-2008, 03:50 AM

Excuse me, what does "scan the channels" mean?
I've got the same device, and it seems to be working, output of dmesg is:

Code:

dib0700: loaded with support for 7 different device-types
dvb-usb: found a 'Pinnacle PCTV 72e' in cold state, will try to load a firmware
firmware: requesting dvb-usb-dib0700-1.10.fw
dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-dib0700-1.10.fw'
dib0700: firmware started successfully.
dvb-usb: found a 'Pinnacle PCTV 72e' in warm state.
dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer.
DVB: registering new adapter (Pinnacle PCTV 72e)
DVB: registering frontend 0 (DiBcom 7000PC)...
DiB0070: successfully identified
input: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /class/input/input7
dvb-usb: schedule remote query interval to 150 msecs.
dvb-usb: Pinnacle PCTV 72e successfully initialized and connected.
usbcore: registered new interface driver dvb_usb_dib0700

Anyway, xine says that it doesn't find any DVB device.
VDR says that my sources.conf doesn't work (it just contains the "T Terrestrial" line).
Do I need to create dev nodes? And do I need utilities like that scan program?
Thanks!

purevw · 09-08-2008, 07:25 AM

Here's the link that I posted earlier. It's got a lot of good information:

http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Pinnacle_PCTV_72e

"Scan the channels" means that whatever program you are using will scan all possible channels to try and find active channels, but only for the current input type. In other words, if it is set for ATSC, then it will scan all ATSC channels, looking for a signal. Then it will make note of the active channels and add them to the configuration file.

kevanf1 · 09-09-2008, 08:16 AM

One other very good tip. Make sure you are using a very good digital aerial. Unless you happen to be in a very strong signal area then your channels will not scan properly. Some can rely on the funny little stick antennae that often come with these USB plug in receivers but not many. The majority of people I know tend to end up ditching them.

Kevan

linuxcbon · 09-18-2008, 05:57 PM

I am very busy, I didnt have time to investigate or answer anything. I will in some weeks, sorry again.

linuxcbon · 10-04-2008, 03:08 AM

I copied the firmware dvb-usb-dib0700-1.10.fw in /lib/firmware/

I plugged the stick in.

dmesg gave :

Code:

usb 3-6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
usb 3-6: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
dib0700: loaded with support for 7 different device-types
dvb-usb: found a 'Pinnacle PCTV 72e' in cold state, will try to load a firmware
dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-dib0700-1.10.fw'
dib0700: firmware started successfully.
dvb-usb: found a 'Pinnacle PCTV 72e' in warm state.
dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer.
DVB: registering new adapter (Pinnacle PCTV 72e)
DVB: registering frontend 0 (DiBcom 7000PC)...
DiB0070: successfully identified
input: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.2/usb3/3-6/input/input5
dvb-usb: schedule remote query interval to 150 msecs.
dvb-usb: Pinnacle PCTV 72e successfully initialized and connected.
usbcore: registered new interface driver dvb_usb_dib0700

Then I need to create the DVB device nodes :
with the script

Code:

#!/bin/sh
# Create device nodes for the Linux DVB API with DVB_API_VERSION 2.
# The devices created are suitable for most current PC DVB cards,
# i.e. cards having one frontend, one demux and optionally one
# MPEG decoder.
# The script creates devices for four cards by default.

if [ -e /dev/.devfsd ]; then
echo "It seems you are using devfs. Good!"
exit 0
fi

# get rid of old DVB API devices; do it twice for good measure...
rm -rf /dev/ost
rm -rf /dev/ost
rm -rf /dev/dvb
rm -rf /dev/dvb

mkdir /dev/dvb
chmod 755 /dev/dvb

for i in `seq 0 3`; do
echo "Creating DVB devices in /dev/dvb/adapter$i"
mkdir /dev/dvb/adapter$i
chmod 755 /dev/dvb/adapter$i
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/video0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 0`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/audio0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 1`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/frontend0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 3`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/demux0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 4`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/dvr0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 5`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/ca0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 6`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/net0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 7`
mknod -m 0660 /dev/dvb/adapter$i/osd0 c 212 `expr 64 \* $i + 8`
chown root.video /dev/dvb/adapter$i/*
done

I created a text file called fr-Paris :

Code:

# Paris - France (DVB-T transmitter of the Eiffel tower)
# T freq bw fec_hi fec_lo mod transmission-mode guard-interval hierarchy
T 474166000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 490166000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 498166000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 522166000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 562166000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 586166000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM64 8k 1/8 NONE

Then installed linuxtv-dvb-apps-1.1.1
And did

Code:

# scan fr-Paris | tee channels.conf

Then

Code:

# cp channels.conf /root/.mplayer/
# mplayer dvb://

IT WORKED

linuxcbon · 10-04-2008, 10:56 AM

----- merged with previous post ------