TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe card

TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe card

[Thomas Kernen]

Hello,

Is someone already working on supporting the TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe 
card? http://www.tbsdtv.com/english/product/6980.html

Chips in use appear to be:
- Conexant CX23885 (PCI Express bridge)
- NXP/Conexant CX24132 (DVB-S/S2 tuner)
- NXP/Conexant CX24117 (DVB-S/S2 demodulator)

I know there is code in v4l-dvb for the CX23885 but I don't think I've 
seen any for the CX24132 and CX24117.

Any insight into supporting this card would be great

Thanks
Thomas

Re: TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe card

[Matthias Wächter]

Hallo Thomas!

Am 02.12.2009 15:31, schrieb Thomas Kernen:
> Is someone already working on supporting the TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe
> card? http://www.tbsdtv.com/english/product/6980.html

Have you seen/tried their all-in-one linux source package which was
released 2009-12-03?

http://www.tbsdtv.com/download/common/linux_tbs_all.rar

– Matthias

BTW: Where did you get yours?

Re: TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe card

[Thomas Kernen]

Matthias Wächter wrote:
> Hallo Thomas!
> 
> Am 02.12.2009 15:31, schrieb Thomas Kernen:
>> Is someone already working on supporting the TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe
>> card? http://www.tbsdtv.com/english/product/6980.html
> 
> Have you seen/tried their all-in-one linux source package which was
> released 2009-12-03?
> 
> http://www.tbsdtv.com/download/common/linux_tbs_all.rar
> 
> – Matthias
> 
> BTW: Where did you get yours?

Hello Matthias,

I've ordered a card directly from TBS. It's currently being shipped 
hence I won't be able to test it until at least next week. Then I'll see 
how it behaves in my system alongside all the other cards I have in it.

Regards,
Thomas

Re: TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe card

[Ian Richardson]

On 2009-12-08 13:31, Thomas Kernen wrote:
> Matthias Wächter wrote:
>> Hallo Thomas!
>>
>> Am 02.12.2009 15:31, schrieb Thomas Kernen:
>>> Is someone already working on supporting the TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe
>>> card? http://www.tbsdtv.com/english/product/6980.html

I got one last Thursday, also direct from TBS. They provide a mini CD 
with their own V4L which has support for it included, together with 
versions of scan-s2 and szap-s2, but I'm a relative newbie and I've 
already managed to break my MythTV 0.22 setup trying to get it working. 
Any tips on how to get it working with Ubuntu 9.10 and kernel 
2.6.31-16.52 would be very handy.

With their V4L I can only get as far as a successful channel scan.

Ian

Re: TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe card

[Thomas Kernen]

Ian Richardson wrote:
> On 2009-12-08 13:31, Thomas Kernen wrote:
>> Matthias Wächter wrote:
>>> Hallo Thomas!
>>>
>>> Am 02.12.2009 15:31, schrieb Thomas Kernen:
>>>> Is someone already working on supporting the TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe
>>>> card? http://www.tbsdtv.com/english/product/6980.html
> 
> I got one last Thursday, also direct from TBS. They provide a mini CD 
> with their own V4L which has support for it included, together with 
> versions of scan-s2 and szap-s2, but I'm a relative newbie and I've 
> already managed to break my MythTV 0.22 setup trying to get it working. 
> Any tips on how to get it working with Ubuntu 9.10 and kernel 
> 2.6.31-16.52 would be very handy.
> 
> With their V4L I can only get as far as a successful channel scan.
> 

Ian,

I got my card today and have installed it. Works fine with the drivers 
from the mini CD and the streamer I'm testing against (DVBlast). So 
unfortunately I can't help you with MythTV since I don't use it.

Note that I'm using Ubuntu 9.10 with 2.6.31-16-server

Thomas

Re: TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe card

[Ian Richardson]

On 2009-12-09 15:27, Thomas Kernen wrote:
> Ian Richardson wrote:
>> On 2009-12-08 13:31, Thomas Kernen wrote:
>>> Matthias Wächter wrote:
>>>> Hallo Thomas!
>>>>
>>>> Am 02.12.2009 15:31, schrieb Thomas Kernen:
>>>>> Is someone already working on supporting the TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 
>>>>> PCIe
>>>>> card? http://www.tbsdtv.com/english/product/6980.html

I can now confirm it works fine with MythTV 0.22 and at least their 
version of V4L. I tripped up on the known backend defect where you can't 
obviously select the DiSEqC config. See 
https://bugs.launchpad.net/mythtv/+bug/452894 for more info, and the 
workaround.

Thanks,

Ian

Re: TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe card

[Dominic Fernandes]

Hi,

I just got a new card the TBS 8920 DVB-S2 PCI version.  And having problems with MythTV.
I'm running Mythbutu 9.10 with MythTV0.22 and the TBS supplied drivers.  I have generated a channels.conf file using scan and can view channels using mplayer dvb:// command.

Now I want to import my channels.conf into Mythtv, I gone through the steps of specfying the card in Mythtv backend setup, DiSEqC set to LNB, specified path and file to import channels.conf file /home/tv/channels.conf.  It then starts to do a Scan, but timesout and no channels are found.  I tried increasing the timeout values but I get the same result.  

Can you tell me if I'm missing a step?  or how you approached the scanning of channels in MythTV

Thanks,
Dominic





----- Original Message ----
From: Ian Richardson <ian.richardson@rbsworldpay.com>
To: Thomas Kernen <tkernen@deckpoint.ch>
Cc: Matthias Wächter <matthias@waechter.wiz.at>; linux-media@vger.kernel.org
Sent: Thu, December 10, 2009 2:37:23 PM
Subject: Re: TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe card

On 2009-12-09 15:27, Thomas Kernen wrote:
> Ian Richardson wrote:
>> On 2009-12-08 13:31, Thomas Kernen wrote:
>>> Matthias Wächter wrote:
>>>> Hallo Thomas!
>>>> 
>>>> Am 02.12.2009 15:31, schrieb Thomas Kernen:
>>>>> Is someone already working on supporting the TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe
>>>>> card? http://www.tbsdtv.com/english/product/6980.html

I can now confirm it works fine with MythTV 0.22 and at least their version of V4L. I tripped up on the known backend defect where you can't obviously select the DiSEqC config. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/mythtv/+bug/452894 for more info, and the workaround.

Thanks,

Ian

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TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe card

[Per Lundberg]

Hi!

I read the old thread about this card, at
http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-media@vger.kernel.org/msg12753.html. I've also
tried downloading the vendor-provided drivers from
http://www.buydvb.net/download2/TBS6980/tbs6980linuxdriver2.6.32.rar

As someone has already indicated, it seems like TBS (TurboSight) have made their
own fork of v4l where the drivers for this card is included. I've also
understood that the card works fine, which is nice (I down own it yet but am
considering getting one).

Has anyone done any attempt at contacting TBS to see if they can release their
changes under the GPLv2? Ideally, they would provide a patch themselves, but it
should be fairly simple to diff the linux/ trees from their provided
linux-s2api-tbs6980.tar.bz2 file with the stock Linux 2.6.32 code... in fact, it
could be that their patch is so trivial that we could just include it in the
stock Linux kernel without asking them for license clarifications... but
obviously, if we can get a green sign from them, it would be even better.
--
Best regards,
Per Lundberg

Re: TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe card

[hermann pitton]

Am Donnerstag, den 04.03.2010, 08:19 +0000 schrieb Per Lundberg:
> Hi!
> 
> I read the old thread about this card, at
> http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-media@vger.kernel.org/msg12753.html. I've also
> tried downloading the vendor-provided drivers from
> http://www.buydvb.net/download2/TBS6980/tbs6980linuxdriver2.6.32.rar
> 
> As someone has already indicated, it seems like TBS (TurboSight) have made their
> own fork of v4l where the drivers for this card is included. I've also
> understood that the card works fine, which is nice (I down own it yet but am
> considering getting one).
> 
> Has anyone done any attempt at contacting TBS to see if they can release their
> changes under the GPLv2? Ideally, they would provide a patch themselves, but it
> should be fairly simple to diff the linux/ trees from their provided
> linux-s2api-tbs6980.tar.bz2 file with the stock Linux 2.6.32 code... in fact, it
> could be that their patch is so trivial that we could just include it in the
> stock Linux kernel without asking them for license clarifications... but
> obviously, if we can get a green sign from them, it would be even better.
> --
> Best regards,
> Per Lundberg
> 

It is always the other way round.

In the end they need a green sign from us.

Cheers,
Hermann

BTW, the TBS dual seems to be fine on m$, but there are some mysterious
lockups without any trace, if used in conjunction with some prior
S2/HDTV cards. I can't tell yet, if that it is evenly distributed over
amd/ati and nvidia stuff or whatever on win7 ... , but people do spend
lifetime in vain on it.

Re: TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe card

[Per Lundberg]

Hi Hermann,

On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 11:05 AM, hermann pitton <hermann-pitton@arcor.de> wrote:

>> Has anyone done any attempt at contacting TBS to see if they can release their
>> changes under the GPLv2? Ideally, they would provide a patch themselves, but it
>> should be fairly simple to diff the linux/ trees from their provided
>> linux-s2api-tbs6980.tar.bz2 file with the stock Linux 2.6.32 code... in fact, it
>> could be that their patch is so trivial that we could just include it in the
>> stock Linux kernel without asking them for license clarifications... but
>> obviously, if we can get a green sign from them, it would be even better.
>
> It is always the other way round.
>
> In the end they need a green sign from us.

Well... I guess we are both right. :-) They need to assert ownership
and license the code under the GPL, and we need to ensure that the
quality of the code is high enough (driver is working and does not
interfer with other parts of the code base...).

> BTW, the TBS dual seems to be fine on m$, but there are some mysterious
> lockups without any trace, if used in conjunction with some prior
> S2/HDTV cards. I can't tell yet, if that it is evenly distributed over
> amd/ati and nvidia stuff or whatever on win7 ... , but people do spend
> lifetime in vain on it.

This is pretty interesting, do you have any references? (forum links
or similar)
In my particular case, I was thinking about using it as the "only" S2
card in the machine, later possibly adding a DVB-C card if/when we get
cable... so, it might not be a problem for me, but it still doesn't
feel really good. I guess the card is pretty new, so maybe (hopefully)
it will get fixed by a new firmware release.

Do we have any readers of this list who own the card and use it in
Linux (with the drivers from TBS)? Could you please share your
experiences: is the picture quality good? Sound? Does the tuner work
well? (e.g. can you receive all channels you normally receive...)
-- 
Best regards,
Per Lundberg

Re: TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe card

[Thomas Kernen]

On 3/4/10 1:03 PM, Per Lundberg wrote:
> Hi Hermann,
>
> On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 11:05 AM, hermann pitton<hermann-pitton@arcor.de>  wrote:
>
>>> Has anyone done any attempt at contacting TBS to see if they can release their
>>> changes under the GPLv2? Ideally, they would provide a patch themselves, but it
>>> should be fairly simple to diff the linux/ trees from their provided
>>> linux-s2api-tbs6980.tar.bz2 file with the stock Linux 2.6.32 code... in fact, it
>>> could be that their patch is so trivial that we could just include it in the
>>> stock Linux kernel without asking them for license clarifications... but
>>> obviously, if we can get a green sign from them, it would be even better.
>>
>> It is always the other way round.
>>
>> In the end they need a green sign from us.
>
> Well... I guess we are both right. :-) They need to assert ownership
> and license the code under the GPL, and we need to ensure that the
> quality of the code is high enough (driver is working and does not
> interfer with other parts of the code base...).

We I asked TBS' support about this question they told me they would like 
to get it out under GPL as it has been done with other cards they sell 
but that right now it was not possible due to legal contraints related 
to some of the code in use by some of the chips on the board. No further 
details were provided.

>
>> BTW, the TBS dual seems to be fine on m$, but there are some mysterious
>> lockups without any trace, if used in conjunction with some prior
>> S2/HDTV cards. I can't tell yet, if that it is evenly distributed over
>> amd/ati and nvidia stuff or whatever on win7 ... , but people do spend
>> lifetime in vain on it.
>
> This is pretty interesting, do you have any references? (forum links
> or similar)
> In my particular case, I was thinking about using it as the "only" S2
> card in the machine, later possibly adding a DVB-C card if/when we get
> cable... so, it might not be a problem for me, but it still doesn't
> feel really good. I guess the card is pretty new, so maybe (hopefully)
> it will get fixed by a new firmware release.
>
> Do we have any readers of this list who own the card and use it in
> Linux (with the drivers from TBS)? Could you please share your
> experiences: is the picture quality good? Sound? Does the tuner work
> well? (e.g. can you receive all channels you normally receive...)

Yes I use the card. Have had it for a couple of months now running in a 
server that acts as a video head-end in my test network. I only tune to 
specific transponders when I boot the server so I can't really comment 
on tuning time and related issues. Yes I've used it for S and S2 feeds 
and so far it fits my requirements.

HTH,
Thomas

Re: TBS 6980 Dual DVB-S2 PCIe card

[hermann pitton]

Hi Per,

Am Donnerstag, den 04.03.2010, 14:03 +0200 schrieb Per Lundberg:
> Hi Hermann,
> 
> On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 11:05 AM, hermann pitton <hermann-pitton@arcor.de> wrote:
> 
> >> Has anyone done any attempt at contacting TBS to see if they can release their
> >> changes under the GPLv2? Ideally, they would provide a patch themselves, but it
> >> should be fairly simple to diff the linux/ trees from their provided
> >> linux-s2api-tbs6980.tar.bz2 file with the stock Linux 2.6.32 code... in fact, it
> >> could be that their patch is so trivial that we could just include it in the
> >> stock Linux kernel without asking them for license clarifications... but
> >> obviously, if we can get a green sign from them, it would be even better.
> >
> > It is always the other way round.
> >
> > In the end they need a green sign from us.
> 
> Well... I guess we are both right. :-) They need to assert ownership
> and license the code under the GPL, and we need to ensure that the
> quality of the code is high enough (driver is working and does not
> interfer with other parts of the code base...).

no, they must provide GPLed code accepted by NXP or someone else will do
it. We can't assure quality of code we can't see.

> > BTW, the TBS dual seems to be fine on m$, but there are some mysterious
> > lockups without any trace, if used in conjunction with some prior
> > S2/HDTV cards. I can't tell yet, if that it is evenly distributed over
> > amd/ati and nvidia stuff or whatever on win7 ... , but people do spend
> > lifetime in vain on it.
> 
> This is pretty interesting, do you have any references? (forum links
> or similar)

No, a friend recently bought that card in addition to a Terratec S2 PCI
for his new windows 7 he already had. Likely totally unrelated to linux,
but on his stuff it turned out he can't use both cards at once, single
both are fine.

> In my particular case, I was thinking about using it as the "only" S2
> card in the machine, later possibly adding a DVB-C card if/when we get
> cable... so, it might not be a problem for me, but it still doesn't
> feel really good. I guess the card is pretty new, so maybe (hopefully)
> it will get fixed by a new firmware release.
> 
> Do we have any readers of this list who own the card and use it in
> Linux (with the drivers from TBS)? Could you please share your
> experiences: is the picture quality good? Sound? Does the tuner work
> well? (e.g. can you receive all channels you normally receive...)

Sorry, can't help much yet and can't add anything new.

For now I advised better not to try with binary blobs on linux, he was
already burned enough on win7. He might try later and we will have it
under GPL sooner or later.

Cheers,
Hermann