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-   Linux - Hardware (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/)
-   -   TV-Card support in linux? (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/tv-card-support-in-linux-483661/)

jlo_sandog 09-17-2006 10:24 PM
If you are interested in hdtv signals, then FussionHDTV cards are supported out of the box with the latest kernels.

Electro 09-18-2006 12:28 AM
I was not being negative. I am just telling the truth. When I mean crash, I mean the computer will just halt or freeze.

I suggest Sunsway ST Lab PCI-FM/TV7130. It seems the card uses the Philips SAA713x chip which provides good video quality, but it is hard to tell from the pictures. The TerraTec Cinergy 250 PCI seems good too and from the information at http://www.linuxtv.org/v4lwiki/index...inergy_250_PCI it uses Philips SAA7133. These are only suggestions. If you still decide to get Hauppauge PVR-500, then I am not stopping you. I think the store or the web designer for the store has misprint the price for the Hauppauge PVR-500 because in USA it costs about 140 US dollars at Newegg. I think it should be 941 NOK which is 144 US dollars. From Google's currency converter, 149 NOK is about 23 US dollars. Do not be surprise on your bill when the store states 941 NOK for the Hauppauge PVR-500.

TerraTec Cinergy 250 PCI is a better card than Sunsway ST Lab PCI-FM/TV7130. From the pictures of TerraTec Cinergy 250 PCI from TerraTec site, it contains a digital tuner that can handle multiple signals (NTSC, PAL, SECAM, etc). It does not mean it can recieve digital channels. It can not handle digital channels, but it can handle anaglog channels for just about any where you go. Though what I read digital tuners changes channels slower than analog tuners, but digital tuners decreases the size and the cost of the card by half.

MasterOfTheWind 09-18-2006 03:40 AM
Hmmm.... Well, I have contacted the store, and, yes, it was a misprint of course. What they were actually selling for that price was a cable set for the actual card.

So, I think I'm going to get a Sunsway card. Is it fully supported?

AND: Electro, thank you so much for your kind help!! This is great!

HappyTux 09-18-2006 07:47 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterOfTheWind
Hmmm.... Well, I have contacted the store, and, yes, it was a misprint of course. What they were actually selling for that price was a cable set for the actual card.

So, I think I'm going to get a Sunsway card. Is it fully supported?

AND: Electro, thank you so much for your kind help!! This is great!
I can't speak as to the Sunsway card but of the ones you listed I can tell you that the MSI TV@nywhere works great I have one in my computer right now. The only issue with it is you have to pass the card=13 to the cx88xx module to tell it what card you have as it does not get auto-detected.

Electro 09-18-2006 04:36 PM
The TerraTec Cinergy 250 PCI will be a smarter buy than Sunsway ST Lab PCI-FM/TV7130 because the kernel supports the TerraTec card. Since you live in Europe which sends out different signals (what I read), the TerraTec card will be better than the MSI TV@nywhere.

Make sure you get a version that has Line-out or else you going to be stuck watching TV from only the tuner input instead of Composite and S-Video inputs.

To make the TerraTec Cinergy 250 PCI work in Linux you need to pass card=83 when loading up the module saa7134 to get it to work from reading /usr/src/linux-`uname -r`/Documentation/video4linux/CARDLIST.saa7134. To get the tuner to work, well that is a trial and error. I suggest using tvtime and select either Composite or S-Video inputs to find out if it is actually working.

MasterOfTheWind 09-19-2006 12:02 AM
Quote:
Make sure you get a version that has Line-out or else you going to be stuck watching TV from only the tuner input instead of Composite and S-Video inputs.
Uhm.... OK... I'm feeling really stupid... And I'm very sorry for bothering you again - please excuse my noobiness in this, but why should it have a Line-out? From what I read it has an S-video and Composite inputs... But here is a pic
of it at least: link

HappyTux 09-19-2006 12:31 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterOfTheWind
Uhm.... OK... I'm feeling really stupid... And I'm very sorry for bothering you again - please excuse my noobiness in this, but why should it have a Line-out? From what I read it has an S-video and Composite inputs... But here is a pic
of it at least: link
From the looks of that picture/labeling it does not have line out nor composite in only S-Video and Cable in. The line out is used when the TV card sound is not supported directly via the driver used. For instance the first one I owned/ran in Linux a Zoltrix TV-Max I used the cable in to get the signal and the btaudio module got the sound from it no line out on TV card to line in on sound was needed. Depending on how you set up the card for example when using S-Video or Composite Video in on my second card (Leadtek TV2000XP Deluxe) the line out on the TV card is disabled using these and the BTTV driver did not support direct audio from the card so I needed a Composite audio to sound card line in jack adapter to get the sound so as you can see it can get complicated. How exactly do you plan to get the signal to the TV card do you know which connectors you want to use?

MasterOfTheWind 09-19-2006 01:53 AM
I have a usual TV-cable. That is pretty much it :D

HappyTux 09-19-2006 02:18 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterOfTheWind
I have a usual TV-cable. That is pretty much it :D
Since you will be using the cable in connection then you need to make sure the card you get either will support direct audio from the board itself or has an audio out to sound card line in connection/jumper cable included then.

MasterOfTheWind 09-19-2006 02:56 AM
Quote:
you need to make sure the card you get either will support direct audio from the board itself
How can I find that out?

HappyTux 09-19-2006 09:44 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MasterOfTheWind
How can I find that out?
Take the card you think you would like to buy and put it into Google Linux then start reading as many post as necessary until you find people who have had success using it. Your probably better off getting a card with the audio out connector as long as it is supported then it should just work and you will not have to worry about the direct audio from the card itself.

Electro 09-20-2006 02:04 AM
Terratec site has other pictures than what HappyTux look at. It seems there are two version of the TerraTec Cinergy 250 PCI. Version A comes with Line out, Composite, S-Video, and cable. Version B contains S-Video and cable, but it does not contain Composite and Line out. Your store probably sells version A. Version B is just there to decrease the cost of the product to make it more appealing. I suggest contacting the store to find out if it contains a Line out connector.

By not buying a non-PVR video capture card that has a line out jack makes it a little harder. Depending on the chip used, there will be program crashes and a lot of hair pulling. For example kernel developers have seperate the audio function SAA7134 to saa7134-oss for OSS and saa7134-alss for ALSA for kerenel version 2.6.15 and up. I am using kernel version 2.6.16 and programs crash when accessing saa7134-alsa or saa7134-oss device. I have not yet checked changelogs for kernels higher than mine, so it may or may not be corrected yet. This is the reason why I suggest being picky to select video capture models that have a Line out connector. Also the CX88xx chips have the same problems. Though the Hauppauge PVR-500 could be a possibility, but only your wallet will know that. Either way you go has the same hardness level.

BruceCadieux 09-20-2006 03:02 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Electro
BruceCadieux, The PVR-500 uses a PCI-PCI bridge to handle two PVR-150 on the same board but not every system will work. Most Windows and Linux users have trouble with the PVR-500. No, PVR cards do not have better quality than non-PVR. I think you are comparing the old BT878 cards to the PVR-250. The PVR-250 has a lot better video capture chip than BT878 chip.

Go to non-PVR and PVR Comparision and please be gentle or else I have to password protect the file.

I used the following command for the FlyVideo 3000 card that contains the SAA7133 to equal the temporal noise filter of my Hauppauge PVR-250 (model 980).

mplayer -quiet -identify -tv \
driver=v4l2:width=704:height=480:outfmt=422p:fps=59.94:input=3:normid=4 \
-vf scale=-1:-1:1:1:0.00:0.75:ntsc,swapuv,pp=ac,hqdn3d=4:3:6,yuy2,screenshot \
tv://

In the verbose messages for mplayer, it seems to leave out 240 lines. The picture should be a lot better and I think mplayer adds too much post processing. Tvtime displays the output better than mplayer but does not include temporal noise filter.

I change the source code for saa7134 to make the inputs human friendly. Input 3 is S-Video. The signal is NTSC.

The Hauppauge PVR-250 picture needs to be deinterlaced. I used Video Lan Client because mplayer crashes when /dev/video1 is used as the file.

I used a cartoon because cartoons are easier to show quality.

The PVR-150 or PVR-500 would not be as good as the PVR-250 or PVR-350 because the PVR-150 contains Conexant as the video capture that does not have the same quality as Phillips SAA7115 chip that is used in PVR-250 and PVR-350.
Great example of how much better the quality is on the PVR card, the crispness of picture, for instance the text on the box is very readable with the PVR, the lack of jaggies on the edges of the hands and clothing with the PVR, now you just need to enable deinterlacing.

MasterOfTheWind 09-20-2006 08:30 AM
OK, after a thorough investigation, I have found out that the TerraTec card has:

1 x S-video input
1 x Composite input
1 x line-out minijack
1 x line-in minijack

This looks OK, doesn't it?


But the Sunsway card I was talking about (ST Lab PCI-FM/TV7130) has the same specifications. Does anyone know if it works? I have googled it, but it doesn't seem that anyone has any experience with it. At least not this model. And it is cheaper, so I would strongly prefer Sunsway over Terratec...

MasterOfTheWind 09-21-2006 06:15 AM
OK, Electro and all others, thank you so much for your help! Have ordered a Sunsway card...


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