HVR 4000 and DVB-API

HVR 4000 and DVB-API

[Dominique Michel]

The WinTV HVR-4000-HD is a multi-tuners TV card with 2 dvb tuners.
It look like its driver doesn't have been updated to the new DVB-API.

The problem I get with dvr is than vdr only seam to recognize and use
the first tuner of my Hauppauge WinTV HVR-4000-HD. The devices are
in /dev/dvb/adapter0:

# ls /dev/dvb/adapter0
demux0  demux1  dvr0  dvr1  frontend0  frontend1  net0  net1

frontend0 is the dvb-s tuner and frontedn1 is the dvb-t/c tuner, and I
want to be able to use both of them. It is a hardware limitation in
that card (among other) that make not possible to use those 2 tuners at
the same time.

When starting vdr, the only error message I get at the console is, when
I make udev to create symlinks like /dev/dvb/adapter1/*0
to /dev/dvb/adapter0/*1:

 * VDR errors from /var/log/messages:
 *   ERROR: /dev/dvb/adapter1/frontend0: Device or resource busy

I can use mplayer instead of vdr. It work with the symiliks with
"mplayer dvb://2@", and without the symlinks by acceding directly the
adapter0/drv1 device after tuning with tzap. When trying to access one
of the dvb-t channels from shmclient, it tell me "Channel not
available".

vdr holds an opened handle on the frontend during its running time.
Since the DVB-S frontend is the first one, DVB-T does not work. Some
months ago the linux-media DVB-API was extended so multiple delivery
systems can be accessed through one frontend, if they are mutually
exclusive. Sadly the driver for the HVR 4000 was forgotten.

I don't want to buy another TV card or a TV set. So, can I hope than,
in the reasonably near future, someone on this list will get some time
to fix and update the HVR 4000 driver?

Dominique
-- 
"We have the heroes we deserve."

Re: HVR 4000 and DVB-API

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Le lundi 24 septembre 2012 10:51:23, Dominique Michel a écrit :
> The WinTV HVR-4000-HD is a multi-tuners TV card with 2 dvb tuners.
> It look like its driver doesn't have been updated to the new DVB-API.

Multi-standard frontends required DVB API version 5.5. That is found in kernel 
versions 3.2 and later. So you might need to update the kernel. If you already 
have, then well, you need to get someone to update the driver.

Also the application needs to be updated to support DVBv5.5 too. I don't know 
which versions of VDR support multi-standard frontends, if any as yet.

-- 
Rémi Denis-Courmont
http://www.remlab.net/

Re: HVR 4000 and DVB-API

[Dominique Michel]

Le Tue, 25 Sep 2012 22:27:55 +0300,
"Rémi Denis-Courmont" <remi@remlab.net> a écrit :

Thanks for the answer.


> Le lundi 24 septembre 2012 10:51:23, Dominique Michel a écrit :
> > The WinTV HVR-4000-HD is a multi-tuners TV card with 2 dvb tuners.
> > It look like its driver doesn't have been updated to the new
> > DVB-API.
> 
> Multi-standard frontends required DVB API version 5.5. That is found
> in kernel versions 3.2 and later. So you might need to update the
> kernel. If you already have, then well, you need to get someone to
> update the driver.

I have kernel 3.4.5 with the in-kernel dvb driver, so it must be OK.
I just checked the kernel config, and it seam OK too. But just to be
sure, do you know if it is some specific kernel option that need to be
enabled in order to get the DVB API version 5.5, or is it the only one
that is in the kernel?

> 
> Also the application needs to be updated to support DVBv5.5 too. I
> don't know which versions of VDR support multi-standard frontends, if
> any as yet.
> 
In the main time, I will ask on the vdr forum. vdr-1.6.0 here, the last
stable version.

-- 
"We have the heroes we deserve."

Re: HVR 4000 and DVB-API

[Dominique Michel]

Le Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:48:41 +0200,
Dominique Michel <dominique.michel@vtxnet.ch> a écrit :

> Le Tue, 25 Sep 2012 22:27:55 +0300,
> "Rémi Denis-Courmont" <remi@remlab.net> a écrit :
> 
> Thanks for the answer.
> 
> 
> > Le lundi 24 septembre 2012 10:51:23, Dominique Michel a écrit :
> > > The WinTV HVR-4000-HD is a multi-tuners TV card with 2 dvb tuners.
> > > It look like its driver doesn't have been updated to the new
> > > DVB-API.
> > 
> > Multi-standard frontends required DVB API version 5.5. That is found
> > in kernel versions 3.2 and later. So you might need to update the
> > kernel. If you already have, then well, you need to get someone to
> > update the driver.
> 
> I have kernel 3.4.5 with the in-kernel dvb driver, so it must be OK.

I get 2 frontends, so the driver was not updated in order to use only 1
frontend and calls like DTV_ENUM_DELSYS and FE_SET_PROPERTY /
DTV_DELIVERY_SYSTEM.

The driver is cx88_dvb from Chris Pascoe and Gerd Knorr.

> > Also the application needs to be updated to support DVBv5.5 too. I
> > don't know which versions of VDR support multi-standard frontends,
> > if any as yet.
> > 
> In the main time, I will ask on the vdr forum. vdr-1.6.0 here, the
> last stable version.

vdr >= 1.7.23 is needed too.


-- 
"We have the heroes we deserve."