Problems with Hauppauge Nova-T USB2

Problems with Hauppauge Nova-T USB2

[Thomas Rokamp]

Hi

I have found my old Hauppauge Nova-T USB2 box. It's the old revision, with and USB ID 9301.
I'm struggling to get it to work correctly under linux (Ubuntu Intrepid 2.6.27-11-server). So far all I have read and tried has been without success.

I'm running the latest checked out v4l-dvb drivers (using hg).

I have tested the box on the same location using windows, and "everything works fine".

My setup is a bit odd though. I have TV supplied from my local cable company, yet they have decided to supply the DVB signal using DVB-T. I guess it's because most of the TV's where I live supports DVB-T only. The signal is provided through the same plu in the wall as the old analog signal, though this should not be a problem, it works in windows. 

I have tried various tools from dvb-apps, the output supplied further down...

dmesg | grep dvb:
(I'm quite sure the MAC address it suggest is random upon each boot, which sounds like trouble to me)

dvb-usb: found a 'Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T usb2' in cold state, will try to load a firmware
firmware: requesting dvb-usb-nova-t-usb2-02.fw
dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-nova-t-usb2-02.fw'
usbcore: registered new interface driver dvb_usb_nova_t_usb2
dvb-usb: generic DVB-USB module successfully deinitialized and disconnected.
dvb-usb: found a 'Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T usb2' in warm state.
dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer.
dvb-usb: MAC address: f5c9c8e4
dvb-usb: schedule remote query interval to 100 msecs.
dvb-usb: Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T usb2 successfully initialized and connected.

Using 'scan' I have come to a channel.conf file, out of which I have added just one line to channels.conf:
X:722000000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_8_MHZ:FEC_5_6:FEC_5_6:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_2K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:513:644:905

Using the above channels.conf file as input to tzap, I get the following lines:

using '/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0' and '/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0'
reading channels from file '.tzap/channels.conf'
tuning to 722000000 Hz
video pid 0x0201, audio pid 0x0284
status 1f | signal 7bd3 | snr 0000 | ber 001fffff | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal 7b94 | snr 0000 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal 7b7d | snr 0000 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal 7b77 | snr 0000 | ber 00000090 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal 7b79 | snr 0000 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal 7b70 | snr 0000 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK

As you can see from above, the signal-to-noise ratio is, well... bad. I was hoping (according to my readings) a value much higher.

Trying to record something with dvbstream:
dvbstream -n 5 -qam 64 -gi 16 -cr 5_6 -crlp 5_6 -bw 8 -tm 2 -hy NONE -f 722000000 513 644 -o > test.mpg
dvbstream v0.6 - (C) Dave Chapman 2001-2004
Released under the GPL.
Latest version available from http://www.linuxstb.org/
Tuning to 722000000 Hz
Using DVB card "DiBcom 3000MC/P", freq=722000000
tuning DVB-T (in United Kingdom) to 722000000 Hz, Bandwidth: 8
Getting frontend status
Event:  Frequency: 722000000
Bit error rate: 2097151
Signal strength: 31503
SNR: 0
UNC: 0
FE_STATUS: FE_HAS_SIGNAL FE_HAS_LOCK FE_HAS_CARRIER FE_HAS_VITERBI FE_HAS_SYNC
dvbstream will stop after 5 seconds (0 minutes)
Output to stdout
Streaming 3 streams
Caught signal 1 - closing cleanly.


This 'test.mpg' output file, however, shows no video at all, despite it actually containing data. VLC reports 'nothing to play'.


Any help at this point would be highly appreciated :-)

Best regards,
Thomas Rokamp

Re: Problems with Hauppauge Nova-T USB2

[Patrick Boettcher]

Hi Thomas,

On Wed, 2 Sep 2009, Thomas Rokamp wrote:
> Using 'scan' I have come to a channel.conf file, out of which I have added just one line to channels.conf:
> X:722000000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_8_MHZ:FEC_5_6:FEC_5_6:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_2K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:513:644:905
>
> Using the above channels.conf file as input to tzap, I get the following lines:
>
> using '/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0' and '/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0'
> reading channels from file '.tzap/channels.conf'
> tuning to 722000000 Hz
> video pid 0x0201, audio pid 0x0284
> status 1f | signal 7bd3 | snr 0000 | ber 001fffff | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
> status 1f | signal 7b94 | snr 0000 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
> status 1f | signal 7b7d | snr 0000 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
> status 1f | signal 7b77 | snr 0000 | ber 00000090 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
> status 1f | signal 7b79 | snr 0000 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
> status 1f | signal 7b70 | snr 0000 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
>
> As you can see from above, the signal-to-noise ratio is, well... bad. I was hoping (according to my readings) a value much higher.

Ignore the SNR value. It is forced to 0000 even if the SNR is good 
(enough). This is a missing feature in the DiBx000-drivers (x < 8).

Beside that, everything looks fine: locks are there, signal is mid-range 
(~60 dBm I would estimate). ber = 0 and unc = 0, that means no problem on 
the demodulator side.

How did you get the channels.conf? How do you know the video and audio PID 
is correct?

Did you try to run scan or w_scan?

> [..[
> This 'test.mpg' output file, however, shows no video at all, despite it actually containing data. VLC reports 'nothing to play'.

What's the size of this file? (Should be ~1MB per second max on a very 
good MPEG2-stream) Maybe you're receiving H264... then it can be more and 
some versions of mplayer and vlc may not play it, because they are not 
able to detect that it is H264 + AAC without stream-meta-data (PAT, PMT).

regards,
--

Patrick Boettcher - Kernel Labs
http://www.kernellabs.com/

Re: Problems with Hauppauge Nova-T USB2

[Thomas Rokamp]

Hi Patrick

Patrick Boettcher wrote:
> Hi Thomas,
>
> Ignore the SNR value. It is forced to 0000 even if the SNR is good 
> (enough). This is a missing feature in the DiBx000-drivers (x < 8).
>
> Beside that, everything looks fine: locks are there, signal is 
> mid-range (~60 dBm I would estimate). ber = 0 and unc = 0, that means 
> no problem on the demodulator side.
>
> How did you get the channels.conf? How do you know the video and audio 
> PID is correct?
>
> Did you try to run scan or w_scan?
I used w_scan to get the the channels.conf file. I dont have the 
transponder data, so 'scan' is of no use. Unless I extract them from the 
output of w_scan, in which case the to generated files are identical on 
the numbers.
X:722000000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_8_MHZ:FEC_5_6:FEC_5_6:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_2K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:513:644:905
>
>> [..[
>> This 'test.mpg' output file, however, shows no video at all, despite 
>> it actually containing data. VLC reports 'nothing to play'.
>
> What's the size of this file? (Should be ~1MB per second max on a very 
> good MPEG2-stream) Maybe you're receiving H264... then it can be more 
> and some versions of mplayer and vlc may not play it, because they are 
> not able to detect that it is H264 + AAC without stream-meta-data 
> (PAT, PMT).
The file varies in size, from around 3MB to around 7MB for the 5 seconds.

I have no idea if the PIDs are the correct ones, but at least they match 
the output from dvbsnoop:

dvbsnoop -s pidscan
---------------------------------------------------------
Transponder PID-Scan...
---------------------------------------------------------
PID found:    0 (0x0000)  [SECTION: Program Association Table (PAT)]
PID found:  110 (0x006e)  [PS/PES: ITU-T Rec. H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2 or 
ISO/IEC 11172-2 video stream]
PID found:  120 (0x0078)  [PS/PES: ISO/IEC 13818-3 or ISO/IEC 11172-3 
audio stream]
PID found:  130 (0x0082)  [PS/PES: private_stream_1]
PID found:  131 (0x0083)  [unknown]
PID found:  257 (0x0101)  [SECTION: Program Map Table (PMT)]
PID found:  259 (0x0103)  [SECTION: Program Map Table (PMT)]
PID found:  260 (0x0104)  [SECTION: Program Map Table (PMT)]
PID found:  261 (0x0105)  [SECTION: Program Map Table (PMT)]
PID found:  301 (0x012d)  [PS/PES: private_stream_1]
PID found:  512 (0x0200)  [PS/PES: ITU-T Rec. H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2 or 
ISO/IEC 11172-2 video stream]
PID found:  513 (0x0201)  [PS/PES: ITU-T Rec. H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2 or 
ISO/IEC 11172-2 video stream]
PID found:  640 (0x0280)  [PS/PES: ISO/IEC 13818-3 or ISO/IEC 11172-3 
audio stream]
PID found:  644 (0x0284)  [PS/PES: ISO/IEC 13818-3 or ISO/IEC 11172-3 
audio stream]
PID found: 1200 (0x04b0)  [PS/PES: ITU-T Rec. H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2 or 
ISO/IEC 11172-2 video stream]
PID found: 1201 (0x04b1)  [PS/PES: ISO/IEC 13818-3 or ISO/IEC 11172-3 
audio stream]
PID found: 5008 (0x1390)  [PS/PES: private_stream_1]
PID found: 5009 (0x1391)  [PS/PES: private_stream_1]
PID found: 8180 (0x1ff4)  [unknown]
PID found: 8191 (0x1fff)  [stuffing]


If it can be any help, I have uploaded 2 test files
(both made with "dvbstream -n 5 -qam 64 -gi 16 -cr 5_6 -crlp 5_6 -bw 8 
-tm 2 -hy NONE -f 722000000 513 644 -o > testX.mpg")

http://phail.dk/test01.mpg
http://phail.dk/test02.mpg

/Thomas

Re: Problems with Hauppauge Nova-T USB2

[Patrick Boettcher]

Hi,

On Wed, 2 Sep 2009, Thomas Rokamp wrote:
> dvbsnoop -s pidscan
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Transponder PID-Scan...
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> PID found:    0 (0x0000)  [SECTION: Program Association Table (PAT)]
> PID found:  110 (0x006e)  [PS/PES: ITU-T Rec. H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2 or 
> ISO/IEC 11172-2 video stream]
> PID found:  120 (0x0078)  [PS/PES: ISO/IEC 13818-3 or ISO/IEC 11172-3 audio 
> stream]
> PID found:  130 (0x0082)  [PS/PES: private_stream_1]
> PID found:  131 (0x0083)  [unknown]
> PID found:  257 (0x0101)  [SECTION: Program Map Table (PMT)]
> PID found:  259 (0x0103)  [SECTION: Program Map Table (PMT)]
> PID found:  260 (0x0104)  [SECTION: Program Map Table (PMT)]
> PID found:  261 (0x0105)  [SECTION: Program Map Table (PMT)]
> PID found:  301 (0x012d)  [PS/PES: private_stream_1]
> PID found:  512 (0x0200)  [PS/PES: ITU-T Rec. H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2 or 
> ISO/IEC 11172-2 video stream]
> PID found:  513 (0x0201)  [PS/PES: ITU-T Rec. H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2 or 
> ISO/IEC 11172-2 video stream]
> PID found:  640 (0x0280)  [PS/PES: ISO/IEC 13818-3 or ISO/IEC 11172-3 audio 
> stream]
> PID found:  644 (0x0284)  [PS/PES: ISO/IEC 13818-3 or ISO/IEC 11172-3 audio 
> stream]
> PID found: 1200 (0x04b0)  [PS/PES: ITU-T Rec. H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2 or 
> ISO/IEC 11172-2 video stream]
> PID found: 1201 (0x04b1)  [PS/PES: ISO/IEC 13818-3 or ISO/IEC 11172-3 audio 
> stream]
> PID found: 5008 (0x1390)  [PS/PES: private_stream_1]
> PID found: 5009 (0x1391)  [PS/PES: private_stream_1]
> PID found: 8180 (0x1ff4)  [unknown]
> PID found: 8191 (0x1fff)  [stuffing]
>
>
> If it can be any help, I have uploaded 2 test files
> (both made with "dvbstream -n 5 -qam 64 -gi 16 -cr 5_6 -crlp 5_6 -bw 8 -tm 2 
> -hy NONE -f 722000000 513 644 -o > testX.mpg")
>
> http://phail.dk/test01.mpg

Hmm, I did:

wget http://phail.dk/test01.mpg
mplayer test01.mpg

and I see a nice star animation looks like Eurosport .

> http://phail.dk/test02.mpg

doing the same thing with this file:

It show Melzer vs. Safin playing Tennis at the US Open on Eurosport.

Something's wrong with your mplayer/vlc/libffmpeg or whatever, definitely 
not a problem of driver or reception.

best regards,

--

Patrick Boettcher - Kernel Labs
http://www.kernellabs.com/

Re: Problems with Hauppauge Nova-T USB2

[Thomas Rokamp]

Patrick Boettcher wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Wed, 2 Sep 2009, Thomas Rokamp wrote:
>> dvbsnoop -s pidscan
>> ---------------------------------------------------------
>> Transponder PID-Scan...
>> ---------------------------------------------------------
>> PID found:    0 (0x0000)  [SECTION: Program Association Table (PAT)]
>> PID found:  110 (0x006e)  [PS/PES: ITU-T Rec. H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2 
>> or ISO/IEC 11172-2 video stream]
>> PID found:  120 (0x0078)  [PS/PES: ISO/IEC 13818-3 or ISO/IEC 11172-3 
>> audio stream]
>> PID found:  130 (0x0082)  [PS/PES: private_stream_1]
>> PID found:  131 (0x0083)  [unknown]
>> PID found:  257 (0x0101)  [SECTION: Program Map Table (PMT)]
>> PID found:  259 (0x0103)  [SECTION: Program Map Table (PMT)]
>> PID found:  260 (0x0104)  [SECTION: Program Map Table (PMT)]
>> PID found:  261 (0x0105)  [SECTION: Program Map Table (PMT)]
>> PID found:  301 (0x012d)  [PS/PES: private_stream_1]
>> PID found:  512 (0x0200)  [PS/PES: ITU-T Rec. H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2 
>> or ISO/IEC 11172-2 video stream]
>> PID found:  513 (0x0201)  [PS/PES: ITU-T Rec. H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2 
>> or ISO/IEC 11172-2 video stream]
>> PID found:  640 (0x0280)  [PS/PES: ISO/IEC 13818-3 or ISO/IEC 11172-3 
>> audio stream]
>> PID found:  644 (0x0284)  [PS/PES: ISO/IEC 13818-3 or ISO/IEC 11172-3 
>> audio stream]
>> PID found: 1200 (0x04b0)  [PS/PES: ITU-T Rec. H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2 
>> or ISO/IEC 11172-2 video stream]
>> PID found: 1201 (0x04b1)  [PS/PES: ISO/IEC 13818-3 or ISO/IEC 11172-3 
>> audio stream]
>> PID found: 5008 (0x1390)  [PS/PES: private_stream_1]
>> PID found: 5009 (0x1391)  [PS/PES: private_stream_1]
>> PID found: 8180 (0x1ff4)  [unknown]
>> PID found: 8191 (0x1fff)  [stuffing]
>>
>>
>> If it can be any help, I have uploaded 2 test files
>> (both made with "dvbstream -n 5 -qam 64 -gi 16 -cr 5_6 -crlp 5_6 -bw 
>> 8 -tm 2 -hy NONE -f 722000000 513 644 -o > testX.mpg")
>>
>> http://phail.dk/test01.mpg
>
> Hmm, I did:
>
> wget http://phail.dk/test01.mpg
> mplayer test01.mpg
>
> and I see a nice star animation looks like Eurosport .
>
>> http://phail.dk/test02.mpg
>
> doing the same thing with this file:
>
> It show Melzer vs. Safin playing Tennis at the US Open on Eurosport.
>
> Something's wrong with your mplayer/vlc/libffmpeg or whatever, 
> definitely not a problem of driver or reception.
>
> best regards,
>
> -- 
>
> Patrick Boettcher - Kernel Labs
> http://www.kernellabs.com/

Yikes... well, thanks for that information. Been trying on two machines, 
windows + linux, and no result.
What player are you using? Any special codec?

Re: Problems with Hauppauge Nova-T USB2

[Patrick Boettcher]

On Wed, 2 Sep 2009, Thomas Rokamp wrote:
>> wget http://phail.dk/test01.mpg
>> mplayer test01.mpg
>> 
>> and I see a nice star animation looks like Eurosport .
>> 
>>> http://phail.dk/test02.mpg
>> 
>> doing the same thing with this file:
>> 
>> It show Melzer vs. Safin playing Tennis at the US Open on Eurosport.
>> 
>> Something's wrong with your mplayer/vlc/libffmpeg or whatever, definitely 
>> not a problem of driver or reception.
>
> Yikes... well, thanks for that information. Been trying on two machines, 
> windows + linux, and no result.
> What player are you using? Any special codec?

mplayer and no special codec:

When I'm running mplayer it shows that:

TS file format detected.
VIDEO MPEG2(pid=513) AUDIO MPA(pid=644) NO SUBS (yet)!  PROGRAM N. 0
VIDEO:  MPEG2  704x576  (aspect 2)  25.000 fps  10000.0 kbps (1250.0 
kbyte/s)
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough
VDec: vo config request - 704 x 576 (preferred colorspace: Mpeg PES)
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
Try adding the scale filter, e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.
VDecoder init failed :(
Opening video decoder: [libmpeg2] MPEG 1/2 Video decoder libmpeg2-v0.4.0b
Selected video codec: [mpeg12] vfm: libmpeg2 (MPEG-1 or 2 (libmpeg2))
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 192.0 kbit/12.50% (ratio: 24000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
==========================================================================

It looks quite standard to me.

--

Patrick Boettcher - Kernel Labs
http://www.kernellabs.com/

Re: Problems with Hauppauge Nova-T USB2

[Thomas Rokamp]

> mplayer and no special codec:
>
> When I'm running mplayer it shows that:
>
> TS file format detected.
> VIDEO MPEG2(pid=513) AUDIO MPA(pid=644) NO SUBS (yet)!  PROGRAM N. 0
> VIDEO:  MPEG2  704x576  (aspect 2)  25.000 fps  10000.0 kbps (1250.0 
> kbyte/s)
> ========================================================================== 
>
> Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough
> VDec: vo config request - 704 x 576 (preferred colorspace: Mpeg PES)
> Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
> Opening video filter: [scale]
> The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
> Try adding the scale filter, e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.
> VDecoder init failed :(
> Opening video decoder: [libmpeg2] MPEG 1/2 Video decoder libmpeg2-v0.4.0b
> Selected video codec: [mpeg12] vfm: libmpeg2 (MPEG-1 or 2 (libmpeg2))
> ========================================================================== 
>
> ========================================================================== 
>
> Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
> AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 192.0 kbit/12.50% (ratio: 24000->192000)
> Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
> ========================================================================== 
>
>
> It looks quite standard to me.
Thanks for helping me debugging this. Turned out that none of the 
players I had at the moment of testing was working (VLC / windows media 
player), so I concluded that the stream was broken.
Media Player Classic played it just fine.

Problem is solved and with MythTV now installed, even VLC will play the 
files, after they have been recorded through MythTV.


Thanks again, also for the other suggestions I have received.

Best regards,
Thomas Rokamp