[linux-dvb] WinTV HVR-900 USB (B3C0)

[linux-dvb] WinTV HVR-900 USB (B3C0)

[Rob Beard]

Hi folks,

I've borrowed a WinTV HVR-900 USB stick from a friend of mine to see if 
I can get any reception in my area before forking out for one however 
I've run in to a couple of problems and wondered if anyone had used one 
of these sticks?

The device appears to support both analogue and DVB-T (Freeview) TV 
however when I plug the device in it only appears to enable the analogue 
side of things (it comes up as /dev/video1 as I have a webcam on my laptop).

I've downloaded and installed the firmware in /lib/firmware as per the 
instructions on the LinuxDVB web site
 and it appears to pick it up and I've even tried compiling the v4l-dvb 
drivers too which didn't appear to make any difference.

Just to check it wasn't me going mad, I tried the dvb-utils scan utility 
and also Kaffene, both of which doesn't work (and I can't find a 
/dev/dvb directory either).

If it helps, the output from /var/log/messages is here: 
http://pastebin.com/m34f1048f

I just wondered if anyone else had one of these sticks actually working 
under Ubuntu 9.10?  (I'm running kernel 2.6.31-16-generic-pae).

Rob






_______________________________________________
linux-dvb users mailing list
For V4L/DVB development, please use instead linux-media@vger.kernel.org
linux-dvb@linuxtv.org
http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linux-dvb

Re: [linux-dvb] WinTV HVR-900 USB (B3C0)

[Devin Heitmueller]

On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 12:35 PM, Rob Beard <rob@esdelle.co.uk> wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I've borrowed a WinTV HVR-900 USB stick from a friend of mine to see if I
> can get any reception in my area before forking out for one however I've run
> in to a couple of problems and wondered if anyone had used one of these
> sticks?
>
> The device appears to support both analogue and DVB-T (Freeview) TV however
> when I plug the device in it only appears to enable the analogue side of
> things (it comes up as /dev/video1 as I have a webcam on my laptop).
>
> I've downloaded and installed the firmware in /lib/firmware as per the
> instructions on the LinuxDVB web site
> and it appears to pick it up and I've even tried compiling the v4l-dvb
> drivers too which didn't appear to make any difference.
>
> Just to check it wasn't me going mad, I tried the dvb-utils scan utility and
> also Kaffene, both of which doesn't work (and I can't find a /dev/dvb
> directory either).
>
> If it helps, the output from /var/log/messages is here:
> http://pastebin.com/m34f1048f
>
> I just wondered if anyone else had one of these sticks actually working
> under Ubuntu 9.10?  (I'm running kernel 2.6.31-16-generic-pae).

The DVB-T portion of that particular board is unsupported (I have some
code in the works but there are issues with the firmware
redistribution rights).

Cheers,

Devin

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

Re: WinTV HVR-900 USB (B3C0)

[Lukasz Sokol]

Rob Beard wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> I've borrowed a WinTV HVR-900 USB stick from a friend of mine to see if
> I can get any reception in my area before forking out for one however
> I've run in to a couple of problems and wondered if anyone had used one
> of these sticks?
> 
[snip]
> 
> I just wondered if anyone else had one of these sticks actually working
> under Ubuntu 9.10?  (I'm running kernel 2.6.31-16-generic-pae).
> 
> Rob
> 


Hi Rob,
this device uses empia chips.

I have a similar situation with Pinnacle Hybrid Pro 330e (yes, 3_3_0e) : the only
driver that works (and was great at it) was Markus Rechberger's em28xx-new project.
(my device has cx88 tuner IIRC). The em28xx-new project had some modifications to
some tuner drivers too. They were based both on RE and documentation for which
Markus had NDA's signed (a vague recollection of past googling).

The mainline kernel unfortunately does not support it out of the box, and it is not only
about the firmware you have to download; There is something severely nonfunctional.

Why am I writing in past tense ?
This driver (em28xx-new) has recently been abandoned, and its author went proprietary.
I was using a ubuntu package prepared by some ubuntu user, named gborzi.
Unfortunately the package cannot apply to more recent kernels any more.
The last kernel it worked with, was 2.6.27-14 (Ubuntu terminology) and I'm stuck with it.

I have emailed Markus but he seems to have lost any interest in the em28xx-new...
can't blame him though, he gave his reasons, some of them unfortunately true. 

To v4l developers : as it is the case now that we can consider em28xx-new abandonware,
could somebody see, what got devices like ours working in his driver, and push it to 
mainline, please ? Just the DVB support would be fine...

To Markus : the above is not a call to _steal_your_code_ but merely to somebody have
a look and modify the mainline drivers so it could support A 5 YEAR OLD DEVICE like mine.
People could employ a 'clean room' like in alternative to Broadcom (b43) development.

At least mine, is a 5 YEARS OLD design (bought in 2006).
On my computer, which was middle spec 5 years ago, I've always had problems with this device
under Windows (XP) : 100% CPU on max frequency (1.6GHz) all the time, when playing.
Under Linux, stock Ubuntu 8.10 Kaffeine, and em28xx-new, it is max 30% CPU at lowest freq (800MHz)).

Stock em28xx driver only supports analog (with no sound under stock tvtime, supposedly patched tvtime required).

el es

Re: WinTV HVR-900 USB (B3C0)

[Rob Beard]

On 09/12/2009 09:16, Lukasz Sokol wrote:
> Rob Beard wrote:
>    
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> I've borrowed a WinTV HVR-900 USB stick from a friend of mine to see if
>> I can get any reception in my area before forking out for one however
>> I've run in to a couple of problems and wondered if anyone had used one
>> of these sticks?
>>
>>      
> [snip]
>    
>> I just wondered if anyone else had one of these sticks actually working
>> under Ubuntu 9.10?  (I'm running kernel 2.6.31-16-generic-pae).
>>
>> Rob
>>
>>      
>
> Hi Rob,
> this device uses empia chips.
>
> I have a similar situation with Pinnacle Hybrid Pro 330e (yes, 3_3_0e) : the only
> driver that works (and was great at it) was Markus Rechberger's em28xx-new project.
> (my device has cx88 tuner IIRC). The em28xx-new project had some modifications to
> some tuner drivers too. They were based both on RE and documentation for which
> Markus had NDA's signed (a vague recollection of past googling).
>
> The mainline kernel unfortunately does not support it out of the box, and it is not only
> about the firmware you have to download; There is something severely nonfunctional.
>
> Why am I writing in past tense ?
> This driver (em28xx-new) has recently been abandoned, and its author went proprietary.
> I was using a ubuntu package prepared by some ubuntu user, named gborzi.
> Unfortunately the package cannot apply to more recent kernels any more.
> The last kernel it worked with, was 2.6.27-14 (Ubuntu terminology) and I'm stuck with it.
>
> I have emailed Markus but he seems to have lost any interest in the em28xx-new...
> can't blame him though, he gave his reasons, some of them unfortunately true.
>
> To v4l developers : as it is the case now that we can consider em28xx-new abandonware,
> could somebody see, what got devices like ours working in his driver, and push it to
> mainline, please ? Just the DVB support would be fine...
>
> To Markus : the above is not a call to _steal_your_code_ but merely to somebody have
> a look and modify the mainline drivers so it could support A 5 YEAR OLD DEVICE like mine.
> People could employ a 'clean room' like in alternative to Broadcom (b43) development.
>
> At least mine, is a 5 YEARS OLD design (bought in 2006).
> On my computer, which was middle spec 5 years ago, I've always had problems with this device
> under Windows (XP) : 100% CPU on max frequency (1.6GHz) all the time, when playing.
> Under Linux, stock Ubuntu 8.10 Kaffeine, and em28xx-new, it is max 30% CPU at lowest freq (800MHz)).
>
> Stock em28xx driver only supports analog (with no sound under stock tvtime, supposedly patched tvtime required).
>
> el es
>    

Thanks for the heads up, I think I'll have a look and see what else is 
available out there then, luckily I only borrowed it to test if it would 
work.

Regards,

Rob

Re: [linux-dvb] WinTV HVR-900 USB (B3C0)

[Stu Fleming]

>
> Thanks for the heads up, I think I'll have a look and see what else is 
> available out there then, luckily I only borrowed it to test if it 
> would work.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rob
http://www.kernellabs.com/blog/?p=761

Re: [linux-dvb] WinTV HVR-900 USB (B3C0)

[Emanoil Kotsev]

hi,


--- On Wed, 12/9/09, Rob Beard <rob@esdelle.co.uk> wrote:

> From: Rob Beard <rob@esdelle.co.uk>
> Subject: Re: [linux-dvb] WinTV HVR-900 USB (B3C0)
> To: "Lukasz Sokol" <el_es_cr@yahoo.co.uk>
> Cc: linux-dvb@linuxtv.org, linux-media@vger.kernel.org
> Date: Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 10:34 AM
> On 09/12/2009 09:16, Lukasz Sokol
> wrote:
> > Rob Beard wrote:
> >    
> >> Hi folks,
> >>
> >> I've borrowed a WinTV HVR-900 USB stick from a
> friend of mine to see if
> >> I can get any reception in my area before forking
> out for one however
> >> I've run in to a couple of problems and wondered
> if anyone had used one
> >> of these sticks?
> >>
> >>      
> > [snip]
> >    
> >> I just wondered if anyone else had one of these
> sticks actually working
> >> under Ubuntu 9.10?  (I'm running kernel
> 2.6.31-16-generic-pae).
> >>
> >> Rob

I've been using one (AxC0 I think) for years until the hardware died earlier this year. I think I bought it 2006, not quite sure when exactly. I think what killed it was that it was working permanently for 1,5years, so it probably overheated somwhen in the summer. But it was working fine with analog and dvb signal.

> >>
> >>      
> >
> > Hi Rob,
> > this device uses empia chips.
> >
> > I have a similar situation with Pinnacle Hybrid Pro
> 330e (yes, 3_3_0e) : the only
> > driver that works (and was great at it) was Markus
> Rechberger's em28xx-new project.
> > (my device has cx88 tuner IIRC). The em28xx-new
> project had some modifications to
> > some tuner drivers too. They were based both on RE and
> documentation for which
> > Markus had NDA's signed (a vague recollection of past
> googling).

I've never used the in-kernel module rather the v4l-dvb one for this specific card. I even did not compiled it recently.

> >
> > The mainline kernel unfortunately does not support it
> out of the box, and it is not only
> > about the firmware you have to download; There is
> something severely nonfunctional.
> >
> > Why am I writing in past tense ?
> > This driver (em28xx-new) has recently been abandoned,
> and its author went proprietary.
> > I was using a ubuntu package prepared by some ubuntu
> user, named gborzi.
> > Unfortunately the package cannot apply to more recent
> kernels any more.
> > The last kernel it worked with, was 2.6.27-14 (Ubuntu
> terminology) and I'm stuck with it.
> >
> > I have emailed Markus but he seems to have lost any
> interest in the em28xx-new...
> > can't blame him though, he gave his reasons, some of
> them unfortunately true.
> >
> > To v4l developers : as it is the case now that we can
> consider em28xx-new abandonware,
> > could somebody see, what got devices like ours working
> in his driver, and push it to
> > mainline, please ? Just the DVB support would be
> fine...
> >
> > To Markus : the above is not a call to
> _steal_your_code_ but merely to somebody have
> > a look and modify the mainline drivers so it could
> support A 5 YEAR OLD DEVICE like mine.
> > People could employ a 'clean room' like in alternative
> to Broadcom (b43) development.
> >
> > At least mine, is a 5 YEARS OLD design (bought in
> 2006).
> > On my computer, which was middle spec 5 years ago,
> I've always had problems with this device
> > under Windows (XP) : 100% CPU on max frequency
> (1.6GHz) all the time, when playing.
> > Under Linux, stock Ubuntu 8.10 Kaffeine, and
> em28xx-new, it is max 30% CPU at lowest freq (800MHz)).
> >
> > Stock em28xx driver only supports analog (with no
> sound under stock tvtime, supposedly patched tvtime
> required).
> >
> > el es
> >    
> 
> Thanks for the heads up, I think I'll have a look and see
> what else is 
> available out there then, luckily I only borrowed it to
> test if it would 
> work.

I'm using now terratec for about 30€. There were again problems with the drivers so I'm compiling again the v4l-dvb code. I don't see anything wrong to do it on your own.

regards