Getting TV to Work --8500DV RH9
 

I'm tryin to get some kind of TV working. I've found plenty of articles and posts and web pages on doing it, but they all go right over my head within a couple paragraphs. I've only been doing Linux for a little over a week, so what I need is the equivalent of "Getting TV to work in Linux for Dummies" :-)

My problem with what I've found is that they tell you what to do, but not how to do it. Like "open your kernel configuration and turn off ALL DRM and Radeon support in the character devices section", only I have no idea how to do that (did I mention I'm like an uber-newb?)

Here's the important info:
Radeon 8500DV
Red Hat 9
Kernel 2.4.20-9
XFree - I know it's important, but don't know how to find out what version

If anyone can give me some good step by step instructions, or knows where a page is that can, I'd greatly appreciate it.

What, nobody?

type xawtv on a console and see what happens

otherwise if you want GUI , type motv and you will get the gui

else download zapping form http://freshrpms.net and type zappingon command line

[root@localhost root]# xawtv
This is xawtv-3.81, running on Linux/i686 (2.4.20-9)
can't open /dev/video0: No such device
v4l-conf had some trouble, trying to continue anyway
v4l2: open /dev/video0: No such device
v4l2: open /dev/video0: No such device
v4l: open /dev/video0: No such device
no video grabber device available


[root@localhost root]# motv
bash: motv: command not found


And I can't get zapping installed, i get :

[root@localhost root]# rpm -ivh zapping-0.6.6-fr2.src.rpm
warning: zapping-0.6.6-fr2.src.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID e42d547b
warning: user dude does not exist - using root
warning: group dude does not exist - using root
warning: user dude does not exist - using root
warning: group dude does not exist - using root
1:zapping ########################################### [100%]



I get the stuff about user dude and group dude with a bunch of rpm's I try to install.

For xawtv, how do I set the video device?

Thanks for the help man.

Ok...
your TV Tuner card is not configured. What does the hardware browser in RH 9 says? Does it recognize your TV Tuner card?
If the Hardware Browser does not recognize it then remove the card from its current slot and put it in another one. The next time Linux starts, it will recognize it.
Also , visit the Radeon site and make sure that you have the latest drivers.
As XFree86, RH 9.0 alrady has the 4.3 version which is sufficient to run your TV.
GEt back with all this info and if sitll you cannot make it run then we will see what we can do...

Hope that helps....

zapping-0.6.6-fr2.src.rpm - i wouldn't suggest using third party rpms unless you have to. use the distro provided ones, or the original release from bytesex.org i think.

if the card still isn't being auto cinfugred by whatever gunk redhat have thought up, check you have this in your /etc/modules.conf file:
major-81 refers to /dev/video0....
you should try without the options line first, but add it if it's still not coming up, replacing XX with the number of your card, found from erm... searching for "cardlist bttv" or such like in google. You can also just do this on a console i.e. temporarily...

modprobe bttv card=XX

Ok, first of all, to clear something up, the tuner is on my video card. So I can't change slots. In Hardware Browser, all that's listed is my video card (which shows up as the all-in-wonder 8500dv, which it is). I've run the Red Hat Network update, so I guess that means everything's up to date (right ?).

I added alias char-major-81 bttv to /etc/modules.conf , restarted, tried xawtv, got the same response. I tried modprobe bttv card=XX, with 63 (the ATI TV-Wonder) 64 (ATI TV-Wonder-VE) and 0 (Generic)
and got this:

[root@localhost root]# modprobe bttv card=63
/lib/modules/2.4.20-9/kernel/drivers/media/video/bttv.o: init_module: No such device
Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
/lib/modules/2.4.20-9/kernel/drivers/media/video/bttv.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.20-9/kernel/drivers/media/video/bttv.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.20-9/kernel/drivers/media/video/bttv.o: insmod bttv failed

I didn't see anything else in the Cardlist file that might match my tuner, and couldn't find out what tuner type it is.


Any of that tell you anything?

Guess that's a no?

ahhhh why didn't you say it was a nasty ATI card? kinda useful...

http://gatos.sourceforge.net/

I did dude, I said it was a Radeon 8500DV. My bad, shoulda pointed out that it was a ATI. Sourceforge's downloads seem to be disabled right now, so I can't download the stuff right now, but when I do, I need to install the ati.2 drivers, and then the drm-kernel, then install AVview?

Never late enough
 

OK, this thread is kinda old, but if anybody got far enough to read this, I would definitely want to continue this discusion, because thats exactly what i´m going thru right now.

I´ve been looking for a month or so and I just want somebody to tell me if it´s definitely a conclusion that the only way to get TV playback for AIW radeons is using gatos.