Technical Details on Abus Digiprotect TV8802 Capture Card

Technical Details on Abus Digiprotect TV8802 Capture Card

[Gregor Glashüttner]

Hi!

I am trying to get a capture card working under linux. Ubuntu 8.09
loads bttv module but doesn´t recognize the type of the card - it is
not listed on cardlist.bttv . I tried several card=XX options (with
mediocre success, e.g. bad grey or green picture from only one input,
random change of input by changing between NTSC/PAL) but gave up since
the system often froze after closing xawtv.
The card is called ABUS Digiprotect TV8802. Windows-software
(including drivers and monitoring software) can be found at
abus-sc.com (http://www.abus-sc.co.uk/International/Service-Downloads/Software?q=tv8802&Send=Search).
The card features 4 composite inputs using BNC connectors and one
Cinch connector (for Video-Out i think). It has no tuner / radio /
remote. There is only one chip "Conexant Fusion 878A" on the card.
lspci identifies vendor=109E product 0878 and vendor=109E
product=036E. I installed the original drivers under WinXP and used
btspy which gave me the following output:

General information:
 Name:Abus Digiprotect TV8802
 Chip: Bt878 , Rev: 0x00
 Subsystem: 0x00000000
 Vendor: Gammagraphx, Inc.
 Values to MUTE audio:
  Mute_GPOE  : 0x3c7007
  Mute_GPDATA: 0x305000
 Has TV Tuner: No
 Number of Composite Ins: 4
  Composite in #1
   Composite1_Mux   : 2
   Composite1_GPOE  : 0x3c7007
   Composite1_GPDATA: 0x305002
  Composite in #2
   Composite2_Mux   : 2
   Composite2_GPOE  : 0x3c7007
   Composite2_GPDATA: 0x305001
  Composite in #3
   Composite3_Mux   : 2
   Composite3_GPOE  : 0x3c7007
   Composite3_GPDATA: 0x305003
  Composite in #4
   Composite4_Mux   : 2
   Composite4_GPOE  : 0x3c7007
   Composite4_GPDATA: 0x305002
 Has SVideo: No
 Has Radio: No

What confuses me, are the same values for GPDATA on Composite 1 and 4,
but maybe this is a problem with the software i used to select the
inputs (i used the software from abus-sc.com). I wasn´t able to use
the card using the drivers from btwincap.sf.net, but maybe this is
because the software from abus-sc.com needs the original drivers.

Maybe someone with more insight can add support for this card. I can
do some more testing / research, but need advice on what exactly to
do.

Best regards
Gregor

-- 
Partykeller
www.meineparty.at

Re: Technical Details on Abus Digiprotect TV8802 Capture Card

[Daniel Glöckner]

Hi Gregor,

On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 09:40:35AM +0200, Gregor Glashüttner wrote:
> The card is called ABUS Digiprotect TV8802. Windows-software
> (including drivers and monitoring software) can be found at
> abus-sc.com (http://www.abus-sc.co.uk/International/Service-Downloads/Software?q=tv8802&Send=Search).

Coincidence that they removed the driver?..

>  Subsystem: 0x00000000

These cards can't be identified automatically.

>   Mute_GPDATA: 0x305000
>    Composite1_Mux   : 2
>    Composite1_GPDATA: 0x305002
>    Composite2_Mux   : 2
>    Composite2_GPDATA: 0x305001
>    Composite3_Mux   : 2
>    Composite3_GPDATA: 0x305003
>    Composite4_Mux   : 2
>    Composite4_GPDATA: 0x305002

This looks like it might work with card 108 (Phytec VD-009).

If not, can you put the card on a scanner and create pictures of both
sides so that we can trace the signals? Please upload them on
imageshack.us or similar instead of mailing them to the list.

  Daniel

Re: Technical Details on Abus Digiprotect TV8802 Capture Card

[Gregor Glashüttner]

Hi Daniel!

2009/7/29 Daniel Glöckner <daniel-gl@gmx.net>:
> Coincidence that they removed the driver?..

Strange, it was still there when i posted the link. I still have it on
my HD however, should i put it online somewhere? It's about 55MB in
size...

> These cards can't be identified automatically.

OK, no problem as long as i can get it going manually ;-!

> This looks like it might work with card 108 (Phytec VD-009).

Sadly, it did not work. Tried NTSC, PAL, overlay, grabpicture, no
picture on composite0-7 (and s-video)
The card itself only has 4 inputs, is there a modprobe option to bttv
i should use (besides card=108 tuner=0 radio=0)?

> If not, can you put the card on a scanner and create pictures of both
> sides so that we can trace the signals? Please upload them on
> imageshack.us or similar instead of mailing them to the list.

OK, i will do so. Might take some days since i don't have a scanner
available at the moment.

Thanks for your reply!

Best regards
Gregor

-- 
Partykeller
www.meineparty.at

Re: Technical Details on Abus Digiprotect TV8802 Capture Card

[Gregor G.]

Hi!

Daniel Glöckner schrieb:
> If not, can you put the card on a scanner and create pictures of both
> sides so that we can trace the signals? Please upload them on
> imageshack.us or similar instead of mailing them to the list.
>   
I scanned the card but the picture is quite out of focus :-( I uploaded 
them anyway:
http://img517.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=tv8802front.jpg
I will try to take a picture with a camera, maybe that works better.

If you tell me which lines you need to trace on the card then maybe i 
can do that and mail you the information?

Regards
Gregor

-- 
Partykeller
www.meineparty.at

Re: Technical Details on Abus Digiprotect TV8802 Capture Card

[Gregor Glashüttner]

Hi!

2009/7/29 Daniel Glöckner <daniel-gl@gmx.net>:
> If not, can you put the card on a scanner and create pictures of both
> sides so that we can trace the signals? Please upload them on
> imageshack.us or similar instead of mailing them to the list.

I was able to take hi-res pictures of the card now. You can find them at:
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/7618/abustv8802front.jpg and
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/5421/abustv8802back.jpg
Maybe someone can help now.

Thanks a lot in advance

Gregor

-- 
Partykeller
www.meineparty.at

Re: Technical Details on Abus Digiprotect TV8802 Capture Card

[Daniel Glöckner]

Hi Gregor,

On 20 Sep 09 10:16, Gregor Glashüttner wrote:
> I was able to take hi-res pictures of the card now. You can find them at:
> http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/7618/abustv8802front.jpg and
> http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/5421/abustv8802back.jpg
> Maybe someone can help now.

the VD-009 entry didn't work because ABUS uses 8-input multiplexers for the
four inputs. So there are 3 GPIO lines (0-2) to select the channel instead
of the two on the Phytec board.

Other things I could see from the pictures:
- You can connect an audio source to J7.
  snd-bt87x will be able to capture it in analog mode.

- Any of the four bnc inputs can be routed to the cinch output.
  This is controlled by U1, which is accessed via I2C.

- U14 is a video amplifier for the output.

- U1 also controls the watchdog and is able to drive the PCI reset line.

- U12 is a sync separator.
  One of its outputs is connected to GPIO 15 - probably the vsync out pin.

I will try to create a patch for the card when I'm back home.

  Daniel