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I've scoured Google for the answer to this, I've asked on IRC channels, I've trial and errored my way around for a while, all to no avail.
I've even tried reading documents in other languages to see if I could find hints or tips on the module options for this, but alas I cannot read anything but english.
My question is this: I have a Pinnacle PCTV card (with remote). It uses the Brooktree 878 chip for video capture. I can get xawtv working. However, I cannot change channels. It remains on the channel I was on last time I was in Windows. I am assuming this has something to do with my tuner type, but I don't have a clue what my tuner type is. I'm guessing my card type is 39 (Pinnacle PCTV Studio/Rave).
dmesg and tail -f /var/log/messages doesn't reveal anything about tuner: finding a chip on an address (most of the posts I found on Google had that). So I'm guessing its my tuner module. I'm gonna look on the card itself right after I post this, but other than that, I don't have any ideas how to get this working properly. And they all said Red Hat was supposed to be easy.
Quoted below is what I think is the relevant portion of dmesg:
Quote:
bttv: driver version 0.7.91 loaded
bttv: using 2 buffers with 2080k (4160k total) for capture
bttv: Host bridge is Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 730 Host
bttv: Bt8xx card found (0).
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:0b.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:01.1
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:0b.1
bttv0: Bt878 (rev 17) at 00:0b.0, irq: 11, latency: 32, memory: 0xdf004000
bttv0: detected: Pinnacle PCTV [card=39], PCI subsystem ID is 11bd:0012
bttv0: using: BT878(Pinnacle PCTV Studio/Ra) [card=39,insmod option]
i2c-dev.o: Registered 'bt848 #0' as minor 0
i2c-core.o: adapter bt848 #0 registered as adapter 0.
bttv0: i2c: checking for MSP34xx @ 0x80... not found
bttv0: miro: id=27 tuner=16 radio=no stereo=no
bttv0: i2c: checking for MSP34xx @ 0x80... not found
bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA9875 @ 0xb0... not found
bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA7432 @ 0x8a... not found
i2c-core.o: driver i2c TV tuner driver registered.
tuner: probing bt848 #0 i2c adapter [id=0x10005]
bttv0: registered device video0
bttv0: registered device vbi0
I seem to have managed to get the tuner to register a chip, but it only happened once (and I've not changed my /etc/modules.conf file at all). This is so friggin confusing that I'm giving up for now. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to post, but I honestly don't think Linux supports this crap very well yet. Guess I still do need Windows for something then.
does not being able to change channel just mean that you are not pressing the right buttons in xawtv? if you have a picture then the drivers must be correctly loaded. try pressing up and down to change channel. also read the manpage to get info setting a config file.
I've tried the up and down arrows. They seem to change the channel number, but the image being displayed stays exactly the same. I've tried this as root and as a normal user. As a normal user xawtv can't seem to create a config file. It gives me that dialog about creating a config file every time I start it.
I think my tuner type is wrong. Because in dmesg there is nothing about tuner: found chip @ 0x0c (or something similar). But I don't have the slightest idea how to figure out my tuner type.
You could try looking at the tuner itself and see if it says anything usefull which looks similar to one of the ones in the list below. Otherwise you can have some fun trying each one.
Oh thank god I ran across this forum, I am using a fresh install of red hat 8.0 and I was just about to go looking for some linux drivers for the tv tunner, I have the exact same one pctv studio if anyone knows anything please email me Shiggi@tampabay.rr.com
Originally posted by shiggidbug Oh thank god I ran across this forum, I am using a fresh install of red hat 8.0 and I was just about to go looking for some linux drivers for the tv tunner, I have the exact same one pctv studio if anyone knows anything please email me Shiggi@tampabay.rr.com
no, they will say so here... that's the point of a forum...
I'm still having the same old problem. I've tried this with a couple different distros, and no luck. If anything magically happens and it works, I'll be sure to update this...
Okay! I got it to work! I gave it a rest, and just got back to it tonight. Turns out that the latest version of the Kernel (2.4.20 as of this writing) uses version 0.7.96 of the bttv drivers. Since this card is new, I had to download and install the latest bttv drivers.
This isn't _that_ terrifying a task either. Download the tarball off http://bytesex.org/bttv/ and untar it. Make sure you have an unpacked source tree of your kernel version. I've got mine in /usr/src/linux. I suggest you do the same. The bttv Makefile will look there automatically, and begin building the bttv modules. (There's great instructions in the README file). Once the modules are installed, you need to set up the modules.conf file. Here is my relevant entry (I've not tweaked this to perfection yet, these are just some initial settings that actually allow me to tune the channel frequencies).
With that, depmod -a (or modprobe -r bttv;modprobe -r tuner; modprobe bttv). Start up xawtv, set up your frequency table, tv norm, etc and you should be able to change channels (with up & down). If this doesn't work, try card=52 (that's another Pinnacle PCTV card type).
I'll post some more up here when I tweak out my settings to my satisfaction. But for now, enjoy rotting your brain in Linux!
Well, there's a gnome/gtk application called zapping that I sometimes use. Don't know about Qt/KDE apps. Chances are that if xawtv doesn't fix the tuning problem you're having, its the version of bttv your kernel has. Other than the fix I've already mentioned I can't think of any way to get it working (besides just waiting for Linux to include the latest bttv modules.
I use TVtime instead of xawtv and zapping. Bot xawtv and zapping glitches. TVtime has better descalers than xawtv and zapping although TVtime uses some source code from descaler.org .
Does anybody know where I can find a GUI video capture program. I know there is command line programs but I will like to see what I'm capturing.
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