Re: [linux-dvb] WinTV HVR-900 USB (B3C0)

[Emanoil Kotsev <deloptes@yahoo.com>]

hi,


--- On Wed, 12/9/09, Rob Beard <rob@esdelle.co.uk> wrote:

> From: Rob Beard <rob@esdelle.co.uk>
> Subject: Re: [linux-dvb] WinTV HVR-900 USB (B3C0)
> To: "Lukasz Sokol" <el_es_cr@yahoo.co.uk>
> Cc: linux-dvb@linuxtv.org, linux-media@vger.kernel.org
> Date: Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 10:34 AM
> On 09/12/2009 09:16, Lukasz Sokol
> wrote:
> > Rob Beard wrote:
> >    
> >> Hi folks,
> >>
> >> I've borrowed a WinTV HVR-900 USB stick from a
> friend of mine to see if
> >> I can get any reception in my area before forking
> out for one however
> >> I've run in to a couple of problems and wondered
> if anyone had used one
> >> of these sticks?
> >>
> >>      
> > [snip]
> >    
> >> I just wondered if anyone else had one of these
> sticks actually working
> >> under Ubuntu 9.10?  (I'm running kernel
> 2.6.31-16-generic-pae).
> >>
> >> Rob

I've been using one (AxC0 I think) for years until the hardware died earlier this year. I think I bought it 2006, not quite sure when exactly. I think what killed it was that it was working permanently for 1,5years, so it probably overheated somwhen in the summer. But it was working fine with analog and dvb signal.

> >>
> >>      
> >
> > Hi Rob,
> > this device uses empia chips.
> >
> > I have a similar situation with Pinnacle Hybrid Pro
> 330e (yes, 3_3_0e) : the only
> > driver that works (and was great at it) was Markus
> Rechberger's em28xx-new project.
> > (my device has cx88 tuner IIRC). The em28xx-new
> project had some modifications to
> > some tuner drivers too. They were based both on RE and
> documentation for which
> > Markus had NDA's signed (a vague recollection of past
> googling).

I've never used the in-kernel module rather the v4l-dvb one for this specific card. I even did not compiled it recently.

> >
> > The mainline kernel unfortunately does not support it
> out of the box, and it is not only
> > about the firmware you have to download; There is
> something severely nonfunctional.
> >
> > Why am I writing in past tense ?
> > This driver (em28xx-new) has recently been abandoned,
> and its author went proprietary.
> > I was using a ubuntu package prepared by some ubuntu
> user, named gborzi.
> > Unfortunately the package cannot apply to more recent
> kernels any more.
> > The last kernel it worked with, was 2.6.27-14 (Ubuntu
> terminology) and I'm stuck with it.
> >
> > I have emailed Markus but he seems to have lost any
> interest in the em28xx-new...
> > can't blame him though, he gave his reasons, some of
> them unfortunately true.
> >
> > To v4l developers : as it is the case now that we can
> consider em28xx-new abandonware,
> > could somebody see, what got devices like ours working
> in his driver, and push it to
> > mainline, please ? Just the DVB support would be
> fine...
> >
> > To Markus : the above is not a call to
> _steal_your_code_ but merely to somebody have
> > a look and modify the mainline drivers so it could
> support A 5 YEAR OLD DEVICE like mine.
> > People could employ a 'clean room' like in alternative
> to Broadcom (b43) development.
> >
> > At least mine, is a 5 YEARS OLD design (bought in
> 2006).
> > On my computer, which was middle spec 5 years ago,
> I've always had problems with this device
> > under Windows (XP) : 100% CPU on max frequency
> (1.6GHz) all the time, when playing.
> > Under Linux, stock Ubuntu 8.10 Kaffeine, and
> em28xx-new, it is max 30% CPU at lowest freq (800MHz)).
> >
> > Stock em28xx driver only supports analog (with no
> sound under stock tvtime, supposedly patched tvtime
> required).
> >
> > el es
> >    
> 
> Thanks for the heads up, I think I'll have a look and see
> what else is 
> available out there then, luckily I only borrowed it to
> test if it would 
> work.

I'm using now terratec for about 30€. There were again problems with the drivers so I'm compiling again the v4l-dvb code. I don't see anything wrong to do it on your own.

regards