Two Video Capture Card Setup Help

mkipper · 11-01-2003, 06:34 PM

Hi,

I am trying to set up a MythTV system for my home. I am new to Linux, and am not sure how to set up my two capture cards. I am using two Mercury (kobian.com) SAA7130HL based capture cards, with onboard IR and FM modules. I have installed Debian 3.0r1 woody, and then installed x-window-system, xfree86, and xawtv using apt-get. I also installed the newest nVIDIA Linux drivers from their website. When I start xawtv, I get a "Segmentation Fault", but when I start it as "xawtv -noxv", it works fine (no sound, but I'll work on that later.) When I run MythTV, I get up till the part where I can click "Watch TV", and then there's no video, and the computer freezes up. A ctrl+alt+bksp can usually get me out, but not always.

Note that when loading the module for the card, it loads as "[LG PAL (newer TAPC series)]", when the card should be NTSC. What am I doing wrong? What more information do you need?

Also, off-topic, why does "Intel MultiProcessor Specification v1.4" load, when I only have one processor?

Specifics:
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
512MB RAM
80GB HDD
2x Mercury SAA7130HL capture cards
nVIDIA GeForce 420 AGP video card
RealTek 8139 10/100 NIC onboard
VIA AC97' sound onboard
Debian Linux 3.0r1 woody
Kernel 2.4.22 from kernel.org
Kernel patches from bytesex.org
saa7134 from bytesex.org

Thanks!
Michael Kipper
mkipper (at) rogers dot com

Code:

************************************************************
* # lspci -v
*
************************************************************
<snip>
00:08.0 Multimedia controller: Philips Semiconductors: Unknown device 7130 (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Unknown device 5168:0138
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
        Memory at ef002000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 1

00:0a.0 Multimedia controller: Philips Semiconductors: Unknown device 7130 (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Unknown device 5168:0138
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 18
        Memory at ef000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 1
<snip>
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 0172 (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 03b3
        Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
        Memory at ec000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Memory at e4000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
        Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=512K]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [44] AGP version 2.0

Code:

************************************************************
* # cat /etc/modules
*
************************************************************
8139too
af_packet
saa7134

Code:

************************************************************
* # dmesg
*
************************************************************
Linux version 2.4.22 (mkipper@MythTV) (gcc version 2.95.4 20011002 (Debian prere
lease)) #2 Tue Oct 28 17:21:07 EST 2003
<snip>
Intel MultiProcessor Specification v1.4
    Virtual Wire compatibility mode.
OEM ID: OEM00000 Product ID: PROD00000000 APIC at: 0xFEE00000 Processor #0 Pentium(tm) Pro APIC version 17 <snip>
i2c-core.o: i2c core module
i2c-dev.o: i2c /dev entries driver module
i2c-core.o: driver i2c-dev dummy driver registered.
i2c-algo-bit.o: i2c bit algorithm module
i2c-algo-pcf.o: i2c pcf8584 algorithm module
i2c-proc.o version 2.6.1 (20010825)
<snip>
Linux agpgart interface v0.99 (c) Jeff Hartmann
agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 439M
agpgart: Detected Via Apollo Pro KM266 / KL266 chipset
agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xe0000000
<snip>
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2 Linux video capture interface: v1.00
<snip>
8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.26
eth0: RealTek RTL8139 Fast Ethernet at 0xe089a000, 00:40:ca:35:b6:28, IRQ 18
eth0:  Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8139C'
saa7130/34: v4l2 driver version 0.2.8 loaded
saa7130[0]: found at 00:08.0, rev: 1, irq: 16, latency: 32, mmio: 0xef002000
saa7130[0]: subsystem: 5168:0138, board: LifeView FlyVIDEO2000 [card=3,autodetected]
i2c-dev.o: Registered 'saa7130[0]' as minor 0
i2c-core.o: adapter saa7130[0] registered as adapter 0.
saa7130[0]: i2c eeprom 00: 68 51 38 01 10 28 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
saa7130[0]: i2c eeprom 10: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
saa7130[0]: i2c eeprom 20: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
saa7130[0]: i2c eeprom 30: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
saa7130[0]: board init: gpio is 39500
i2c-core.o: driver i2c TV tuner driver registered.
tuner: chip found @ 0xc2
tuner: type set to 37 (LG PAL (newer TAPC series))
i2c-core.o: client [LG PAL (newer TAPC series)] registered to adapter [saa7130[0 ]](pos. 0).
saa7130[0]: registered device video0 [v4l2]
saa7130[0]: registered device vbi0
saa7130[0]: registered device radio0
saa7130[1]: found at 00:0a.0, rev: 1, irq: 18, latency: 32, mmio: 0xef000000
saa7130[1]: subsystem: 5168:0138, board: LifeView FlyVIDEO2000 [card=3,autodetected]
i2c-dev.o: Registered 'saa7130[1]' as minor 1
tuner: chip found @ 0xc2
tuner: type set to 37 (LG PAL (newer TAPC series))
i2c-core.o: client [LG PAL (newer TAPC series)] registered to adapter [saa7130[1 ]](pos. 0).
i2c-core.o: adapter saa7130[1] registered as adapter 1.
saa7130[1]: i2c eeprom 00: 68 51 38 01 10 28 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
saa7130[1]: i2c eeprom 10: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
saa7130[1]: i2c eeprom 20: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
saa7130[1]: i2c eeprom 30: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
saa7130[1]: board init: gpio is 39500
saa7130[1]: registered device video1 [v4l2]
saa7130[1]: registered device vbi1
saa7130[1]: registered device radio1
eth0: Setting 100mbps full-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 45e1.

faheyd · 11-02-2003, 12:32 AM

http://www.exploits.org/v4l/
You should find something there. If I were you, I would try little steps first.
1. Pull both capture cards
2. Install Nvidia drivers and confirm you X-windows works OK, and opengl is really running, 'glxgears'.
3. Install 'one' capture card and work from there. With a known good capture card, you can then tweak your modules.conf (or whatever config file), for dual cards. and then press forward with the PVR project conclusion.
Good luck, feel free to post your progress.

atrain · 01-09-2005, 10:15 PM

ive been trying for months to get the stupid thing working!!!!!

then i saw xawtv -noxv and it works, with sound...

i have the same card as u

b4 i did modprobe saa7134 card=3 tuner=39

and i got it working!!!!!!!!!!!

what is xvideo?? i cant disable it in certain programs, eg: kdetv

atrain · 01-16-2005, 03:18 PM

well, for me it even runs without -noav now. it works 2 well....

i start my comp, and i hear radio. i have the keypad working as hotkeys for certain applications.

mythtv wont compile, and tvtime wont work though. any ideas??

Electro · 01-16-2005, 07:16 PM

I had trouble getting sound to work with kernel version 2.4.26 using one (1) Lifeview Flyvideo 3000 (SAA7130/SAA7134). I had no problems getting video to work although Xorg was pre-compiled. The way I got audio is by loading xawtv and then a program I like to use to watch tv like tvtime. I had to compile the SAA7130/SAA7134 because the kernel did not have that compiled. Also I had to compile xawtv because Slackware 10 did not have it included on the installation CD. Unfortunately the programmer for the SAA7130/SAA7134 has stop supporting for the 2.4.x kernels, so you have use 2.6.x kernels. Last week. I compiled kernel version 2.6.10, and the video capture cards worked well with video and audio. tvtime and mplayer works very well, but VLC (Video Lan Client) has the same problem in kernel version 2.4.26. When moving over to kernel version 2.6.x, you will need to use /etc/modprobe.conf instead of /etc/modules.conf

I have Lifeview Flyvideo 3000FM and a Hauppauge PVR-250 (model 980). Both were a pain to setup. For the Lifeview Flyvideo 3000FM, I used tuner number 17. I tried all NTSC tuners and tuner number 17 gave me better results. Lucky for me the ivtv latest version has some smarts what tuner it should use, so I do not have to give any tuner values to it like I did while using kernel version 2.4.26. For your tuner, it may be number 39. If you want sound specify oss=1. You do not have to specify for each video card because you have the same video capture brand and model. Also you have to use v4lctl to unmute the video capture card and unmute the input jack for your sound card.

XVideo is handled by the video card. If you use x11, it should work but it is going to slow because it uses the X Window System (the CPU) to draw the video. You may want to check for library dependencies for xv when compiling XFree86 or Xorg.

atrain · 01-23-2005, 12:49 AM

Ok. It works without the -noxv option.

Kdetv wont work with it, and i find myself rmmoding mand remodprobing it alot...

Very often it will only grab images from the higher channels...

I am using a mercury TV tuner card, saa7130HL, card3 tuner39.

EDIT:

tuner 2 will display lower channels