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 Post subject: AverMEDIA DVB-T card
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2004 4:02 am 
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Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2004 11:20 pm
Posts: 10
After a long and horrible battle with this particular card, I'm inclined to recommend against the purchase of this one for a KnoppMyth installation - they seem to randomly die and point blank refuse to work with some motherboards.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Aug 08, 2004 3:38 pm 
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Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2003 11:30 am
Posts: 188
Location: UK
With the latest Knoppmyth release this card works fine for me. Took a while to setup initially but proved solid since.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 09, 2004 3:50 am 
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spit2k1 wrote:
With the latest Knoppmyth release this card works fine for me.

I probably should have added the standard "YMMV" disclaimer, but I know I'm not the only one having problems with this particular card, both on V4R3 and V4R4. This card will seem to work OK on some motherboards, but with two of my current machines, this card causes IRQ lockups and on a brand new third simply refuses to acknowledge that a signal exists at all.

With some luck, the driver support will get better in the future and the card may become more stable for more people more of the time, but given the problems I've heard with it, I still cannot recommend it as a card for use with MythTV.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 3:23 am 
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Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 1:12 am
Posts: 32
Location: Sydney, Australia
Well this is just more evidence.

I've had a bad experience with this card. From the beginning there have been video freezes and audio 'pops' which varied from day today. I tried 3 different PCs, every driver/software revision and 2 different external antennas to no avail. Linux drivers with MythTV worked a little better.

There are 2 versions of this card. I have the 1st revision A761-C which has a big grey resistor near the S-Video connector. The 2nd revision, A771-B, does not have this resistor and has a different tuner ( Samsung ). To see the different cards go to http://home.swiftdsl.com.au/~iain/htpc.php. The author of this page had the older card and had similar problems as I and claims the newer card does not.

I have a theory that the old Avermedia card has a bad tuner which needs a stronger signal than normal to operate well, even with a good antenna setup. This may explain why some people have no problems with this card if they live closer to the transmission towers. For Sydney metropoliton all the towers are on the North Shore. For others with no problems, maybe they have the newer version of the card.

For more proof look at Avermedias web site. To quote from their product description of the A771-B DVB-T ( newer card )......

"In this newer version of DVB-T PCI card, the receiving sensibility is further reinforced, you will be astonished its stable and smooth receiving performance."

http://www.avermedia.com/cgi-bin/produc ... vtuner.asp

My supplier replaced the card with a Protac "Excel" VP-3020C which is a TwinHan DST clone. Works perfectly under Linux using MythTV and supports HD.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 4:20 am 
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Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2004 11:20 pm
Posts: 10
yamez wrote:
There are 2 versions of this card. I have the 1st revision A761-C which has a big grey resistor near the S-Video connector. The 2nd revision, A771-B, does not have this resistor and has a different tuner ( Samsung ).

This makes a lot of sense. It looks like I have the older version of the card (even though I only bought it a couple of months ago!) and live some 40 odd kilometres away from the nearest transmitters. To add insult to injury, I'm only catching the side lobe of the signal and the local birds have been using my antenna as a roost and chewing post for some time. No wonder I'm having problems with this card... :)

Fortunately for me, I'm moving in about 6 weeks to a new house that is under a kilometre from the nearest TV repeater. I live in Melbourne, Vic, Australia - the main transmitters are on Mt Dandenong, whereas all the areas around the hills that can't receive the signal (due to there being a mountain in the way) have local repeaters. This should mean I'll get a much better signal and might actually be able to use the damned card... :)


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Oct 28, 2004 3:31 am 
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Joined: Thu Oct 28, 2004 3:25 am
Posts: 2
I've not managed to get my Avermedia card working yet.

But in general it seems like it's just a problem with the limited usage of some hardware. Stuff like NIC drivers, USB, IDE etc.. have been well tested by many users and so the drivers are bulletproof.

DVB cards are less common and the drivers have been tested on less hardware. Ultimately the drivers need to adapt to the conditions of certain chipsets, perhaps by identifying certain chipsets and altering things on the PCI bus to ensure the cards work.

I had to alter my PCI delay time to 96 to get my Nova-T to work, so it's not unique to Avermedia. The Nova-T worked with no fuss in Windows, so it's just the Linux drivers that aren't robust/clever enough.


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 Post subject: How to make it run
PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 6:15 am 
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Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:29 am
Posts: 41
Location: Goettingen, Germany
I made the Avermedia DVB-T (761) work this way:

For mythtv <0.18 you will need to start at step 1, if you have 0.18+ you can start at step 4...
I used KnoppMyth R5A15.1. (with kernel 2.6.11.7-chw-4)

1. You need the firmware file "sc_main.mc" which you can find in the Windows Driver version. You may need to install the driver to get the file...
2. Copy it to "/usr/lib/hotplug/firmware" (for Kernal 2.6+, the 2.4 kernels use a different directory!)
3. Change right with "chown 644 /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/sc_main.mc"
In R5A15.1 the firmware is already included and is named "dvb-fe-sp887x.fw"

4. Change "/etc/modules". Add the line "dvb-bt8xx" to the start of the file.
With KnoppMyth <R5A12 you may also need to add the frontend "sp887x" for the card...

5. restart. The driver should get loaded and hotplug should successfully upload the firmware

6. Startup. Quit mythtv. Open a xterm.
7. run "/etc/init.d/mythtv-backend stop" to stop the backend
8. run "mythtv-setup" and configure your card. It should appear in the card configuration. If it doesn't, something went wrong. If it appears, but can't be opened you forgot to stop the backend (s.a.)

Worked for me. I can watch DVB, use timeshift, etc...

The thing that's left is the remote. You can include the module "ir-kbd-gpio" and use and xmodmap, but it seems easier to follow Simons excellent description of how to make it work using LIRC and "lirc_gpio". Read it here: http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5681
Works without problems now with my 761 card!

Maybe someone should move this to TIER 2 now...

Greetings

rarefluid


Last edited by rarefluid on Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:43 am, edited 4 times in total.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 6:49 am 
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Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2004 7:43 pm
Posts: 748
Location: Sydney, Australia
Nice writeup, rare.

Note that R5A12 or later don't need sp887x in /etc/modules, because the dvb_bt8xx module magically loads all the appropriate frontends.

_________________
| Nigel Pearson, nigel.pearson.au@gmail.com
| "Things you own end up owning you" - Tyler, Fight Club


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 7:52 am 
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Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:29 am
Posts: 41
Location: Goettingen, Germany
Hey Nigel.

Ok, so the frontend gets loaded automagically... I didn't know.

Do you have any idea on getting the remote to work correctly? I may be able to add it to ir-kbd-gpio (included in the BTTV-driver), but it seems like it is already there... "/proc/bus/input/devices" looks like this on my system:
...
I: Bus=0001 Vendor=1461 Product=0761 Version=0001
N: Name="bttv IR (card=124)"
...
meaning ir-kbd-gpio found a card it knows how to use. But downloading the BTTV-package and taking a look at the supported cards I couldn't find card=124 or 7C...


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 2:13 am 
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Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2004 7:43 pm
Posts: 748
Location: Sydney, Australia
Sadly, I have no idea about the remotes on any DVB cards. (I use an AirBoard, which is a IR PS/2 keyboard that I have learnt the codes to)

_________________
| Nigel Pearson, nigel.pearson.au@gmail.com
| "Things you own end up owning you" - Tyler, Fight Club


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 Post subject: Now works 100%!!!
PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:39 am 
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Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:29 am
Posts: 41
Location: Goettingen, Germany
Got the remote to work with LIRC and LIRC_GPIO thanks to Simon. Read the excellent "walktrough" here: http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5681

Now my AverMedia DVB-T 761 works fine!

rarefluid


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 Post subject: sc_main.mc
PostPosted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 3:29 pm 
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Joined: Mon Oct 24, 2005 3:22 pm
Posts: 1
Hi chaps

Could anyone be kind enough to post the sc_main.mc file, or advise me where to get it.
I do not have a windows machine on which to install the card and drivers, not to mention I am not sure which windows driver to install.

The only error I believe I have at the moment is an output from dmesg saying sp887x: no firmware upload (timeout or file not found?).

I thought I had the sc_main.mc file from a web source installed in the correct location /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/dvb-fe-sp887x

Any help appreciated.
Rick


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 6:26 am 
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Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2004 7:43 pm
Posts: 748
Location: Sydney, Australia
1) Note that older kernels wanted it at:
Code:
/usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/sc_main.mc


2) This script:
Code:
http://lists.suse.com/archive/suse-linux/2005-Aug/att-0622/get_dvb_firmware
should download/install it automatically?

_________________
| Nigel Pearson, nigel.pearson.au@gmail.com
| "Things you own end up owning you" - Tyler, Fight Club


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