Still doesnt work, but when I was playing around with xawtv I ran across the utilities: v4l-config and v4l-info, both with gave some additional output. See if you can make anything of them:

v4l-config output:

v4l-conf: using X11 display :0.0
WARNING: Your X-Server has no DGA support.
mode: 3072x768, depth=24, bpp=32, bpl=12288, base=unknown
/dev/video0 [v4l2]: no overlay support

v4l-info output:

ioctl VIDIOCGAUDIO: Invalid argument
ioctl VIDIOCGFBUF: Invalid argument
driver : "cx8800"
card : "Leadtek Winfast 2000XP Expert"
bus_info : "PCI:0000:00:08.0"
version : 0.0.3
capabilities : 0x5010011 [VIDEO_CAPTURE,VBI_CAPTURE,TUNER,READWRITE,STREAMING]

standards
VIDIOC_ENUMSTD(0)
index : 0
id : 0x1000 [NTSC_M]
name : "NTSC-M"
frameperiod.numerator : 1001
frameperiod.denominator : 30000
framelines : 525
VIDIOC_ENUMSTD(1)
index : 1
id : 0x2000 [NTSC_M_JP]
name : "NTSC-JP"
frameperiod.numerator : 1001
frameperiod.denominator : 30000
framelines : 525
VIDIOC_ENUMSTD(2)
index : 2
id : 0x7 [PAL_B,PAL_B1,PAL_G]
name : "PAL-BG"
frameperiod.numerator : 1
frameperiod.denominator : 25
framelines : 625
VIDIOC_ENUMSTD(3)
index : 3
id : 0xe0 [PAL_D,PAL_D1,PAL_K]
name : "PAL-DK"
frameperiod.numerator : 1
frameperiod.denominator : 25
framelines : 625
VIDIOC_ENUMSTD(4)
index : 4
id : 0x10 [PAL_I]
name : "PAL-I"
frameperiod.numerator : 1
frameperiod.denominator : 25
framelines : 625
VIDIOC_ENUMSTD(5)
index : 5
id : 0x100 [PAL_M]
name : "PAL-M"
frameperiod.numerator : 1001
frameperiod.denominator : 30000
framelines : 525
VIDIOC_ENUMSTD(6)
index : 6
id : 0x200 [PAL_N]
name : "PAL-N"
frameperiod.numerator : 1
frameperiod.denominator : 25
framelines : 625
VIDIOC_ENUMSTD(7)
index : 7
id : 0x400 [PAL_Nc]
name : "PAL-Nc"
frameperiod.numerator : 1
frameperiod.denominator : 25
framelines : 625
VIDIOC_ENUMSTD(8)
index : 8
id : 0x800 [PAL_60]
name : "PAL-60"
frameperiod.numerator : 1
frameperiod.denominator : 25
framelines : 625
VIDIOC_ENUMSTD(9)
index : 9
id : 0x7f0000 [SECAM_B,SECAM_D,SECAM_G,SECAM_H,SECAM_K,SECAM_K1,SECAM_L]
name : "SECAM"
frameperiod.numerator : 1
frameperiod.denominator : 25
framelines : 625

inputs
VIDIOC_ENUMINPUT(0)

index : 0
name : "Television"
type : TUNER
audioset : 0
tuner : 0
std : 0x7f3ff7 [PAL_B,PAL_B1,PAL_G,PAL_I,PAL_D,PAL_D1,PAL_K,PAL_M,PAL_N,PAL_Nc,PAL_60,NTSC_M,NTSC_M_JP,SECAM_B,SECAM _D,SECAM_G,SECAM_H,SECAM_K,SECAM_K1,SECAM_L]
status : 0x0 []
VIDIOC_ENUMINPUT(1)
index : 1
name : "Composite1"
type : CAMERA
audioset : 0
tuner : 0
std : 0x7f3ff7 [PAL_B,PAL_B1,PAL_G,PAL_I,PAL_D,PAL_D1,PAL_K,PAL_M,PAL_N,PAL_Nc,PAL_60,NTSC_M,NTSC_M_JP,SECAM_B,SECAM _D,SECAM_G,SECAM_H,SECAM_K,SECAM_K1,SECAM_L]
status : 0x0 []
VIDIOC_ENUMINPUT(2)
index : 2
name : "S-Video"
type : CAMERA
audioset : 0
tuner : 0
std : 0x7f3ff7 [PAL_B,PAL_B1,PAL_G,PAL_I,PAL_D,PAL_D1,PAL_K,PAL_M,PAL_N,PAL_Nc,PAL_60,NTSC_M,NTSC_M_JP,SECAM_B,SECAM _D,SECAM_G,SECAM_H,SECAM_K,SECAM_K1,SECAM_L]
status : 0x0 []

tuners
VIDIOC_G_TUNER(0)
index : 0
name : "Television"
type : ANALOG_TV
capability : 0x70 [STEREO,LANG2,LANG1]
rangelow : 0
rangehigh : 4294967295
rxsubchans : 0x1 [MONO]
audmode : MONO
signal : 65535
afc : 0

video capture
VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT(0,VIDEO_CAPTURE)
index : 0
type : VIDEO_CAPTURE
flags : 0
description : "8 bpp, gray"
pixelformat : 0x59455247 [GREY]
VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT(1,VIDEO_CAPTURE)
index : 1
type : VIDEO_CAPTURE
flags : 0
description : "15 bpp RGB, le"
pixelformat : 0x4f424752 [RGBO]
VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT(2,VIDEO_CAPTURE)
index : 2
type : VIDEO_CAPTURE
flags : 0
description : "15 bpp RGB, be"
pixelformat : 0x51424752 [RGBQ]
VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT(3,VIDEO_CAPTURE)
index : 3
type : VIDEO_CAPTURE
flags : 0
description : "16 bpp RGB, le"
pixelformat : 0x50424752 [RGBP]
VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT(4,VIDEO_CAPTURE)
index : 4
type : VIDEO_CAPTURE
flags : 0
description : "16 bpp RGB, be"
pixelformat : 0x52424752 [RGBR]
VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT(5,VIDEO_CAPTURE)
index : 5
type : VIDEO_CAPTURE
flags : 0
description : "24 bpp RGB, le"
pixelformat : 0x33524742 [BGR3]
VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT(6,VIDEO_CAPTURE)
index : 6
type : VIDEO_CAPTURE
flags : 0
description : "32 bpp RGB, le"
pixelformat : 0x34524742 [BGR4]
VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT(7,VIDEO_CAPTURE)
index : 7
type : VIDEO_CAPTURE
flags : 0
description : "32 bpp RGB, be"
pixelformat : 0x34424752 [RGB4]
VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT(8,VIDEO_CAPTURE)
index : 8
type : VIDEO_CAPTURE
flags : 0
description : "4:2:2, packed, YUYV"
pixelformat : 0x56595559 [YUYV]
VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT(9,VIDEO_CAPTURE)
index : 9
type : VIDEO_CAPTURE
flags : 0
description : "4:2:2, packed, UYVY"
pixelformat : 0x59565955 [UYVY]
VIDIOC_G_FMT(VIDEO_CAPTURE)
type : VIDEO_CAPTURE
fmt.pix.width : 320
fmt.pix.height : 240
fmt.pix.pixelformat : 0x33524742 [BGR3]
fmt.pix.field : INTERLACED
fmt.pix.bytesperline : 960
fmt.pix.sizeimage : 230400
fmt.pix.colorspace : unknown
fmt.pix.priv : 0

vbi capture
VIDIOC_G_FMT(VBI_CAPTURE)
type : VBI_CAPTURE
fmt.vbi.sampling_rate : 28636363
fmt.vbi.offset : 244
fmt.vbi.samples_per_line: 2048
fmt.vbi.sample_format : 0x59455247 [GREY]
fmt.vbi.start[0] : 9
fmt.vbi.start[1] : 272
fmt.vbi.count[0] : 17
fmt.vbi.count[1] : 17
fmt.vbi.flags : 0

controls
VIDIOC_QUERYCTRL(BASE+0)
id : 9963776
type : INTEGER
name : "Brightness"
minimum : 0
maximum : 255
step : 1
default_value : 0
flags : 0
VIDIOC_QUERYCTRL(BASE+1)
id : 9963777
type : INTEGER
name : "Contrast"
minimum : 0
maximum : 255
step : 1
default_value : 0
flags : 0
VIDIOC_QUERYCTRL(BASE+2)
id : 9963778
type : INTEGER
name : "Saturation"
minimum : 0
maximum : 255
step : 1
default_value : 0
flags : 0
VIDIOC_QUERYCTRL(BASE+3)
id : 9963779
type : INTEGER
name : "Hue"
minimum : 0
maximum : 255
step : 1
default_value : 0
flags : 0
VIDIOC_QUERYCTRL(BASE+5)
id : 9963781
type : INTEGER
name : "Volume"
minimum : 0
maximum : 63
step : 1
default_value : 0
flags : 0
VIDIOC_QUERYCTRL(BASE+6)
id : 9963782
type : INTEGER
name : "Balance"
minimum : 0
maximum : 127
step : 1
default_value : 64
flags : 0
VIDIOC_QUERYCTRL(BASE+9)
id : 9963785
type : BOOLEAN
name : "Mute"
minimum : 0
maximum : 1
step : 0
default_value : 0
flags : 0

### video4linux device info [/dev/video0] ###
general info
VIDIOCGCAP
name : "Leadtek Winfast 2000XP Expert"
type : 0x7 [CAPTURE,TUNER,TELETEXT]
channels : 3
audios : 0
maxwidth : 640
maxheight : 480
minwidth : 48
minheight : 32

channels
VIDIOCGCHAN(0)
channel : 0
name : "Television"
tuners : 1
flags : 0x1 [TUNER]
type : TV
norm : 1
VIDIOCGCHAN(1)
channel : 1
name : "Composite1"
tuners : 0
flags : 0x0 []
type : CAMERA
norm : 1
VIDIOCGCHAN(2)
channel : 2
name : "S-Video"
tuners : 0
flags : 0x0 []
type : CAMERA
norm : 1

tuner
VIDIOCGTUNER
tuner : 0
name : "Television"
rangelow : 0
rangehigh : 4294967295
flags : 0x7 [PAL,NTSC,SECAM]
mode : NTSC
signal : 65535

audio

picture
VIDIOCGPICT
brightness : 32896
hue : 0
colour : 32639
contrast : 14649
whiteness : 0
depth : 49171
palette : RGB24
VIDIOCGCHAN(2)
channel : 2
name : "S-Video"
tuners : 0
flags : 0x0 []
type : CAMERA
norm : 1

tuner
VIDIOCGTUNER
tuner : 0
name : "Television"
rangelow : 0
rangehigh : 4294967295
flags : 0x7 [PAL,NTSC,SECAM]
mode : NTSC
signal : 65535

audio

picture
VIDIOCGPICT
brightness : 32896
hue : 0
colour : 32639
contrast : 14649
whiteness : 0
depth : 49171
palette : RGB24

buffer

window
VIDIOCGWIN
x : 0
y : 0
width : 320
height : 240
chromakey : 0
flags : 0

playing around with xawtv still doesnt work and here is the output of dmesg relating to my tuner:

Linux video capture interface: v1.00
bttv: driver version 0.9.14 loaded
bttv: using 8 buffers with 2080k (520 pages) each for capture
tvaudio: TV audio decoder + audio/video mux driver
tvaudio: known chips: tda9840,tda9873h,tda9874h/a,tda9850,tda9855,tea6300,tea6420,tda8425,pic16c54 (PV951),ta8874z
cx2388x v4l2 driver version 0.0.3 loaded
cx8800[0]: found at 0000:00:08.0, rev: 5, irq: 11, latency: 32, mmio: 0xe0000000
cx8800[0]: subsystem: 107d:6613, board: Leadtek Winfast 2000XP Expert [card=5,autodetected]
cx8800[0]: i2c register ok
cx8800[0]: Leadtek Winfast 2000 XP config: tuner=43, eeprom[0]=0x01
cx8800[0]: registered device video0 [v4l2]
cx8800[0]: registered device vbi0
cx8800[0]: registered device radio0
cx8800[0]: set_audio_standard_BTSC (status: unknown)
tuner: chip found at addr 0xc0 i2c-bus cx8800[0]
tuner: type set to 43 (Philips NTSC MK3 (FM1236MK3 or FM1236/F)) by cx8800[0]
cx8800[0]: i2c attach [client=Philips NTSC MK3 (FM1236MK3 or FM1236/F)]
tda9887: chip found @ 0x86
cx8800[0]: i2c attach [client=tda9887]

man what a headache Thanks for all the help masterflibble, it is much appreciated!!!

getting closer,

I noticed the X has not dga support in the output of v4l-config so I commented that line out in my xorg.conf file and restarted x. Now when I start xawtv I get a blue screen (much more appealing than black). Anyways im gonna keep on working at it!

omg it works! (sortof...)

While googling around for a solution, I tried the following command:
xawtv -c /dev/video0 -remote -noxv

And whola it xawtv popped up with the tv stations (After I set it to us-cable),. One thing I noticed was that the Capture paramater was set to "grabdisplay" and not overlay. The thing that is not working is the tv tuner audio... no matter how high I turn the volume up, I hear nothing. This is even after I enabled the tv turner audio paramaters in the kernel. Got any suggestions?

i just thought of something. In Win Xp I have my soundcard set to output audio from the aux connector when I am watching tv, because that is how the two cards are connected. Is there any way to tell alsa or my soundcard (which works in linux) to output the data coming from the aux line?

never mind, used alsaconf to turn up most volumes, didnt work though Any suggestions anyone?

Awesome , I guess it turns out you can't use the xvideo extensions to play video, which depends on your graphics card. I think all xvideo is responsible for is scaling and stretching overlay video.

I thought the audio would have been controllable through the sound card. Did you try using alsamixer ('M' will unmute a channel)?

yep, everything is unmuted in alsamixer. I've been trying to pinpoint the problem but have had no luck yet. It seems that all other audio utilities are using /dev/dsp as the sound device but for some reason xawtv is not seeing this or just not using it. I just ran the ./configure utility for xawtv to see if that could give me more information, and this is what it output (excert):

checking soundcard.h usability... no
checking soundcard.h presence... no
checking for soundcard.h... no

Im not sure exactly what soundcard.h is and what its used for (its confusing because all other utilities seem to work without it). Anyways, Ill keep on looking and trying. Thanks for all the help

..... which of course is complete bs because after running a find / -name 'sound*.h" -print I find the following is on my system:
/apps/kdelibs-3.2.3/kabc/sound.h
/apps/xawtv-3.93/common/sound.h
/usr/lib/qt-3.3.2/examples/sound/sound.h
/usr/src/linux-2.4.26/drivers/sound/sound_firmware.h
/usr/src/linux-2.4.26/drivers/sound/soundvers.h
/usr/src/linux-2.4.26/drivers/sound/sound_calls.h
/usr/src/linux-2.4.26/drivers/sound/sound_config.h
/usr/src/linux-2.4.26/include/linux/soundcard.h
/usr/src/linux-2.4.26/include/linux/sound.h
/usr/src/linux-2.4.26/include/linux/soundmodem.h
/usr/src/linux-2.4.26/include/config/sound.h
/usr/src/linux-2.4.26/include/config/soundmodem.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.7/include/linux/sound.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.7/include/linux/soundcard.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.7/include/sound/soundmem.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.7/include/sound/soundfont.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.7/include/config/sound.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.7/sound/oss/sound_config.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.7/sound/oss/soundvers.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.7/sound/oss/sound_calls.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.7/sound/oss/sound_firmware.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.7/sound/isa/cs423x/sound_pc9800.h
/usr/include/linux/soundcard.h
/usr/include/linux/sound.h
/usr/include/linux/soundmodem.h
/usr/include/sound/soundfont.h
/usr/include/sound/soundmem.h
/usr/include/sys/soundcard.h
/opt/kde/include/arts/soundserver.h
/opt/kde/include/kabc/sound.h

I am running the latest stable xawtv (3.93) so right now im clue-less as to what to do and need to step away from my machine before I smash it to pieces I'll try again tommorow and post my results.

Misterflibble thank you so so so so so so so so so so so so so so x infinity much for all your help!!!!!!

lol I know that I said my last post was gonna be it for the night, but you know how it is...

anyways i started fidling around with mplayer again to see what I could get and ran the command:
mplayer -tv driver=v4l2:norm=ntsc:channel=3:chanlist=us-cable:width=352:height=240 -noxv tv://

What i got was a partially viewable video output with no audio, when I say partially viewable, I mean it was all statically, zig-zagidly and such but I could make out whats going on. This was the same for all channels.

I realize this really does not contribute to solving my problem, but I think that the fact that mplayer is also having trouble with the audio yields the conclusion that there is something wrong with the way the system is handling the tv card audio and not with the programs theirselves. Anyways, and update tommorow!

Hi... I use 'bashburn'. I found it a couple of weeks ago on Fresh Meat. It seems to do a
good job.
cheers!

cool, I'll check it out later on today! thx!

so far no luck,

still got my problem. I checked the cables today (externel cable and internel audio) and all are hooked up correctly (hooked the cable up to a tv and tv worked fine). Any ideas or suggestions?

I have a TV-in capable video card (just not under Linux), so in my experience, this sounds like your channels are not properly scanned, and (also in my experience), this is the first setup procedure you must do when running a TV application for the first time (or even, in fact, buying a new television set). Is there a setup sub-application somewhere in one of the dedicated TV viewing apps that will allow you to scan the cable for the real channel frequencies and set them? Or can you get a newspaper and look in the radio and TV listings (which often contain the television and radio frequency listings), and then use a specific frequency register when you call mplayer?

I don't see how it's supposed to know where "channel 4" is, if you don't tell it.

Well the thing is that with xawtv, all channels work 100% well video wise but they have no audio, eg. I can see the video crystal clear but cant hear jack. As for mplayer I will look into channel scanning. Thanks for the advice, much appreciatied!