[Gllug] Using a DVB-T card with Linux

[Julian Somers]

On Sun, Jan 30, 2005 at 06:28:22PM +0000, John Winters wrote:
> Does anyone here use a DVB-T card with Linux?  If so, can you tell me
> where to find initial documentation about what kernel modules are needed
> to drive it?  I've found heaps of documentation but all of it seems to
> assume you'll just know by instinct what kernel drivers are required.

This readme for the BT878 cards was included in the linuxtv kernel
patches I grabbed from cvs on Tuesday. It might help.

Looks like your problem is wrong or missing frontend.

Julian

--------------------------------------------------------------------------


How to get the Nebula, PCTV and Twinhan DST cards working
=========================================================

This class of cards has a bt878a as the PCI interface, and require the
bttv driver.

Please pay close attention to the warning about the bttv module options
below for the DST card.

1) Loading Modules
==================

In general you need to load the bttv driver, which will handle the gpio
and i2c communication for us. Next you need the common dvb-bt8xx device
driver and one frontend driver.

The bttv driver will HANG YOUR SYSTEM IF YOU DO NOT SPECIFY THE
COORECT  CARD ID! A list of possible card ids can be found inside
"bttv-cards.c" inside the bttv driver package.

Pay attention to failures to load these frontends.
(E.g. dmesg, /var/log/messages).

2a) Nebula / Pinnacle PCTV
--------------------------

   $ modprobe bttv i2c_hw=1 card=0x68
   $ modprobe dvb-bt8xx

For Nebula cards use the "nxt6000" frontend driver:
   $ modprobe nxt6000

For Pinnacle PCTV cards use the "cx24110" frontend driver:
   $ modprobe cx24110



2b) TwinHan
-----------

   $ modprobe bttv i2c_hw=1 card=0x71
   $ modprobe dvb-bt8xx
   $ modprobe dst

The value 0x71 will override the PCI type detection for dvb-bt8xx,
which  is necessary for TwinHan cards.

If you're having an older card (blue color circuit) and card=0x71 locks
your machine, try using 0x68, too. If that does not work, ask on the
mailing list.

The DST module takes a couple of useful parameters, in case the dst
drivers fails to detect your type of card correctly.

dst_type takes values 0 (satellite), 1 (terrestial TV), 2 (cable).

dst_type_flags takes bit combined values:
1 = new tuner type packets. You can use this if your card is detected
    and you have debug and you continually see the tuner packets not
    working (make sure not a basic problem like dish alignment etc.)

2 = TS 204. If your card tunes OK, but the picture is terrible,
seemingly
    breaking up in one half continually, and crc fails a lot, then
    this is worth a try (or trying to turn off)

4 = has symdiv. Some cards, mostly without new tuner packets, require
    a symbol division algorithm. Doesn't apply to terrestial TV.

You can also specify a value to have the autodetected values turned off
(e.g. 0). The autodected values are determined bythe cards 'response
string' which you can see in your logs e.g.

dst_check_ci: recognize DST-MOT

or

dst_check_ci: unable to recognize DSTXCI or STXCI

-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug