here in Italy (bologna) we have a T-DMB trial from Rai and other 
broadcasters.

i got one Terratec Cinergy Piranha based on a Siano SMS1xxx chip and 
indeed the  T-DMB stream works on the "other OS".. (and the DVB-T works too)

this T-DMB stuff is still based on Transport Stream:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Multimedia_Broadcast

as i'd like to dump a full TS of the stream, i was thinking that it was 
just setting the proper mode (2) in the sms1xxx module, i would have 
been able to use the same "dvb-tools" like dvbstream to tune the right 
frequency and dump the whole TS.

too easy, it seems! there were my steps:

1. i put the firmware file for T-DMB demodulation with the right name  
"tdmb_stellar_usb.inp" in /lib/firmware

2. i loaded the module with the supposed right default mode: modprobe 
sms1xxx default_mode=2

3. i put my stick on the linux,  but the module didn't got up with this 
error:

  "SMS Device mode is not set for DVB operation."

I'm halted.

The showstopper come from this smsdvb.c where there's this control:

====================
        if (smscore_get_devicke_mode(coredev) != 4) {
#if 1 /* new siano drop (1.2.17) does this -- yuck */
                sms_err("SMS Device mode is not set for "
                        "DVB operation.");
                return 0;
#else
====================

of course, this seems only a safety check.

let's hope it's not just a "marketing" showstopper (i'm going anyway to 
try to relax this control, i bet i'm not going to burn anything inside 
the device!)

probably there's more to be implemented to driver correctly the Siano 
chip when not in DVB mode. but how much? ask here could be useful..

it should be easy to "implement" the T-DMB stuff inside the same DVB 
scenario!
it's already a system based on transport stream. right?

sadly there are no open specs about it on the siano web site, just this 
brief:

  http://www.*siano-ms*.com/*pdf*s/00_Siano_SMS*1010*.*pd*f

does anyone know a solution about this issue?

is it so though to implement T-DMB decoding inside the DVB architecture?

are the specs available somewhere?

bye

andrea venturi