Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI 2000i

Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI 2000i

[pigeonskiller]

Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI 2000i (http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-
T_PCI_Cards#Pinnacle) was introduced in 2006 and after 5 years it is still 
unsupported in linux!
Unbelievable!
Yet its chips Zarlink ZL10353 (http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.
php/Zarlink_ZL10353) and Microtune MT2060 (http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.
php/Microtune_MT2060) are supported (http://www.linuxtv.
org/downloads/drivers/linux-media-LATEST.tar.bz2)!
So, what is missing?
Probably this is the reason why Linux is not so widespread: LACK OF DRIVERS!
And this is the reason why a lot of users cannot migrate to Linux and are 
forced to use that stupid O.S. called Win****!
If anyone wants to have a look at Windows' drivers and is able to develop 
drivers (I'm not), here are the drivers:
ftp://ftp.pctvsystems.com/TV/driver/PCTV%202000i/PCTV%20250i%202000i.zip

Sorry for the outburst.
A user wishing to migrate to Linux.

Re: [linux-dvb] Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI 2000i

[Marc Coevoet]

Op 08-04-11 11:35, pigeonskiller@libero.it schreef:
> Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI 2000i (http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-
> T_PCI_Cards#Pinnacle) was introduced in 2006 and after 5 years it is still
> unsupported in linux!
> Unbelievable!

Unbelieveable.

I bought me a super smaal dvbt stick in a 2 hand shop for 4 euros.

I t works.

My first was a Terratec T².

I also have the pinnacle dual analog/digital...  that does not work ..  
but that's not a big problem..


Too much noise on a dvbt stick...

Even a satellite usb box gives too much noise in reception ..

Marc

-- 
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Re: [linux-dvb] Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI 2000i

[Devin Heitmueller]

On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 5:35 AM, pigeonskiller@libero.it
<pigeonskiller@libero.it> wrote:
> Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI 2000i (http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-
> T_PCI_Cards#Pinnacle) was introduced in 2006 and after 5 years it is still
> unsupported in linux!
> Unbelievable!

I'm not sure why you find it so unbelievable.  This is a project
largely composed of volunteers who are working on products in their
own time.  If it still isn't supported, then it means that no
developer owns a board and cares enough to spend a couple dozen hours
to make it work.

> Yet its chips Zarlink ZL10353 (http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.
> php/Zarlink_ZL10353) and Microtune MT2060 (http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.
> php/Microtune_MT2060) are supported (http://www.linuxtv.
> org/downloads/drivers/linux-media-LATEST.tar.bz2)!
> So, what is missing?

A developer who cares enough to do the work for free, or a corporate
entity willing to pay fair market prices to pay to have it supported?

> Probably this is the reason why Linux is not so widespread: LACK OF DRIVERS!
> And this is the reason why a lot of users cannot migrate to Linux and are
> forced to use that stupid O.S. called Win****!
> If anyone wants to have a look at Windows' drivers and is able to develop
> drivers (I'm not), here are the drivers:
> ftp://ftp.pctvsystems.com/TV/driver/PCTV%202000i/PCTV%20250i%202000i.zip

There are very few developers actively contributing to LinuxTV.  With
limited developer resources, they have to make decisions about what
they are going to work on.  if those decisions aren't aligned with
what *you* want them working on, then your only option really is to
learn to become a developer and add the support yourself.

You just have to look at motivation:  if a developer doesn't benefit
personally from having the card working, doesn't think it's fun to
make it work, and isn't being paid, then why invest ten or twenty
hours of his/her valuable time?

Welcome to a community of volunteers.  We'll be happy to refund 100%
of the money that you've paid to seeing this device work under Linux.
:-)

Devin

-- 
Devin J. Heitmueller - Kernel Labs
http://www.kernellabs.com

Re: [linux-dvb] Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI 2000i

[Devin Heitmueller]

On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 5:35 AM, pigeonskiller@libero.it
<pigeonskiller@libero.it> wrote:
> Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI 2000i (http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-
> T_PCI_Cards#Pinnacle) was introduced in 2006 and after 5 years it is still
> unsupported in linux!
> Unbelievable!
> Yet its chips Zarlink ZL10353 (http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.
> php/Zarlink_ZL10353) and Microtune MT2060 (http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.
> php/Microtune_MT2060) are supported (http://www.linuxtv.
> org/downloads/drivers/linux-media-LATEST.tar.bz2)!
> So, what is missing?
> Probably this is the reason why Linux is not so widespread: LACK OF DRIVERS!
> And this is the reason why a lot of users cannot migrate to Linux and are
> forced to use that stupid O.S. called Win****!
> If anyone wants to have a look at Windows' drivers and is able to develop
> drivers (I'm not), here are the drivers:
> ftp://ftp.pctvsystems.com/TV/driver/PCTV%202000i/PCTV%20250i%202000i.zip
>
> Sorry for the outburst.
> A user wishing to migrate to Linux.

Just a quick followup.  I talked to my engineering contact over at
PCTV and got some more information about the product.  The PCI bridge
in question is proprietary to Pinnacle and only used in four of their
products.  By contrast, most of the bridges we add support for are
used by dozens of products by multiple vendors (and in most cases at
least somebody working on the Linux driver has documentation from the
chipset vendor under NDA).

Adding support for a new bridge often takes weeks or even months of
development (and that's when the developer has supporting
documentation).  It doesn't make sense for a LinuxTV developer to make
that sort of investment in time unless there is a good level of
confidence that the work would apply to a large number of products.

In other words, out of dumb lucked you happened to have bought a
device that will likely *never* be supported because of the components
used.  Your best bet is to spend a few bucks and buy a recent product
(five years is an eternity in the computer business).

Devin

-- 
Devin J. Heitmueller - Kernel Labs
http://www.kernellabs.com

Re: [linux-dvb] Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI 2000i

[Hans-Frieder Vogt]

Am Samstag, 9. April 2011 schrieb Devin Heitmueller:
> On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 5:35 AM, pigeonskiller@libero.it
> 
> <pigeonskiller@libero.it> wrote:
> > Pinnacle PCTV Dual DVB-T Pro PCI 2000i
> > (http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB- T_PCI_Cards#Pinnacle) was
> > introduced in 2006 and after 5 years it is still unsupported in linux!
> > Unbelievable!
> > Yet its chips Zarlink ZL10353 (http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.
> > php/Zarlink_ZL10353) and Microtune MT2060 (http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.
> > php/Microtune_MT2060) are supported (http://www.linuxtv.
> > org/downloads/drivers/linux-media-LATEST.tar.bz2)!
> > So, what is missing?
> > Probably this is the reason why Linux is not so widespread: LACK OF
> > DRIVERS! And this is the reason why a lot of users cannot migrate to
> > Linux and are forced to use that stupid O.S. called Win****!
> > If anyone wants to have a look at Windows' drivers and is able to develop
> > drivers (I'm not), here are the drivers:
> > ftp://ftp.pctvsystems.com/TV/driver/PCTV%202000i/PCTV%20250i%202000i.zip
> > 
> > Sorry for the outburst.
> > A user wishing to migrate to Linux.
> 
> Just a quick followup.  I talked to my engineering contact over at
> PCTV and got some more information about the product.  The PCI bridge
> in question is proprietary to Pinnacle and only used in four of their
> products.  By contrast, most of the bridges we add support for are
> used by dozens of products by multiple vendors (and in most cases at
> least somebody working on the Linux driver has documentation from the
> chipset vendor under NDA).
> 
> Adding support for a new bridge often takes weeks or even months of
> development (and that's when the developer has supporting
> documentation).  It doesn't make sense for a LinuxTV developer to make
> that sort of investment in time unless there is a good level of
> confidence that the work would apply to a large number of products.
> 
> In other words, out of dumb lucked you happened to have bought a
> device that will likely *never* be supported because of the components
> used.  Your best bet is to spend a few bucks and buy a recent product
> (five years is an eternity in the computer business).
> 
> Devin

Some years ago I started writing a driver for this card (which should have 
covered as well the single tuner version and the DVB-S versions of that card).
I found out quite a lot of the register set of the DTV bridge (e.g. I2C 
communication, talking to the tuners and demodulators), but was stuck when it 
came to DMA transfers (probably because I haven't written a driver for such a 
complex piece of hardware before).
Finally I lost interest because I switched to a PCIe based solution (DVICO 
DVB-T Dual express, which worked practically "out of the box").

If anybody is interested I am happy to share my notes and the pieces of the 
driver that I put together.

Hans-Frieder

Hans-Frieder Vogt                       e-mail: hfvogt <at> gmx .dot. net