This same system was running before with just a PVR-250 in it, and it worked fine. But since it wasn't "production" yet, and I managed to break the music in ways nobody seemed to be able to figure out, so I opted to just "go fresh" and plugged a new hd-3000 card along with the existing PVR-250.

Before, after doing the whole setup, the "Watch TV" worked fine, and it was just a matter of tweaking everything to make it smooth. But it worked.

But now, I get a black screen, and lockup with no keyboard responses to anything once I hit "Watch TV". I have to Alt-Ctrl-f2 to get a terminal prompt, then reboot.

Not sure if this is normal, but during boot I see a message:


I assume that second one is the PVR-250, and the first is the HD-3000?

I've looked around here and the KnoppMythWiki with no luck. I'm using RA12, and I did specify both tuners and appropriate channel lineups in the mythtv-setup program.

Any pointers?

Try taking the setup of the HD3000 out of the mythtv setup. It may be trying to use that card at a higher priority than the 250 and failing due to setup and/or signal level issues.

-brendan

OK, i did that and it still was a blank screen. So I shut 'er down and removed the hd3000 card entirely, re-ran mythsetup, purging all settings and then configuring the PVR-250.

TV works fine.

Now, I'll see if I can shut 'er down again, add the hd-3000 card, and see if I can still watch. I'll check the HD TV forums first, though, to see if there are any tricks I need to know. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll post my results for posterity, else ask other questions in the HD forum.

If your setup was like mine, it's quite possible that the HD3000 was getting assigned to the /dev/video0 device. I posted to a thread earlier today about the device discovery order causing me some headaches.

I think the best approach is what we did: start with one card, preferably the simpler one for the driver versions you will end up using, get that working, then add the second card, etc.

I'm not quite sure if changing the card order will help with juggling the /dev/videox numbers, or if changing the order of the list of modules will do it. Or some combination...if I find out, I'll post.

-brendan

Good thought. Here's what happened tonight...

I pulled the HD3000 card completely, re-ran setup. TV worked fine with just the PVR-250 installed. I put the HD card back in, re-ran setup... same problem (no TV at all). What bugs me is that the "watch TV" didn't even bother trying the previously functional PVR-250 card. Just locked up the interface and I had to reboot.

BTW, it was assigned for some reason to /dev/video32 and I *did* put the card in different slot the second time. Same behavior, though, so I doubt that was the issue.

I wish there was a nice "How to Add an HD-3000 to a working Myth Box" instruction set somewhere... but if there is, I can't find it. I've seen posts like "just recompile the kernel to 2.6, install the new drivers..." as if I'm supposed to know what any of that means, and how to do it. Provding links in such situations would be very helpful, but I've not seen any.

I do have to say that I philosophically LOVE linux and the whole open source movement... but there's a LONG way to go in making it accessible to mere humans before it ever gains broad acceptance. I'll keep working on it because I know it's worth it, but it would be nice to see some work toward dumbing-down for the "rest of us". Knoppix and KnoppMyth are good moves in that direction. I think I'll go try to find a link to kick in a few bucks to support the cause.

If you know of any links on "how to add an HD... " please do share!

I checked on the knoppmyth wiki and the install pamphlet and didn't see a section on the hd2000/hd3000 setup. Checking my notes...

Assuming your problem is similar to what experienced (HD3000 driver loads first and gets /dev/video0 and /dev/dtv0), I wonder if putting a line with "ivtv" in it early (but not *too* early), in the /etc/modules file would cause ivtv to load before the cx88xx/cx8800 module pair? I think that's why the cx88xx/cx8000 takes precedence as /dev/video0...

I tried working around this using the card setup priority field, but I think that only changes recording priorities and not the live tv which seems to always default to the first video source.

Anyway, I'll try the /etc/modules change myself and let you know what I find.

Also, remember that hauppauge wrote the drivers and apps for windows and also worked closely with microsoft for their MCE type cards (I assume there was a certain amount of back scratching going on there). Linux support for the hardware is all home grown.

The PC-HD3000 on the other hand was developed by people in the community. However, it's also somewhat bleeding edge vs. SDTV stuff.

Consider yourself an early adopter.

-brendan

Well, after physically removing the card, setting up the PVR-250, then adding back the HD3000, I noticed at boot that the device listing switched the HD3000 to second in a list of 2 rather than 1st. And it didn't seem to be device 0 as you suggested, at least not as far as MythSetup was concerned. Now, at the system level... that I don't know.

As many warts as it has, I still have to say that KnoppMyth with the PVR-250 is still WAY better than my ReplayTV. Far better at finding shows and actually getting them.

I found the "Donate" button and sent 20 bucks to MySettopBox. Even if it ain't "done", it's still a darn good thing.

Now if I could figure out why MythMusic crashes when I import a CD... <sigh> another forum, I s'pose.

I added my HD3000 back in and it shifted the /dev/video devices around a bit. So I went ahead and edited /etc/modles, added ivtv above cx8800 and cx88xx and the first two /dev/video devices became linked to the pvr-500 again, and /dev/video2 and /dev/dtv2 are now the HD3000. I added the HD3000 as the 3rd card in mythtv-setup as well, but put it at the lowest priority for now.

I figure that's good progress for the night. Tomorrow, I will attempt to get the HD3000 actually working so that when changing to that card it doesn't lock up mythfrontend.

[If and when *that's* done, I'll re-add the PVR-350.]

-brendan

goto antennaweb and find what channels you should be getting then use dtvscan to see what kind of signals you get on each of those frequencies. Make sure you have one that is over 70% or so and set that as your starting channel in mythtv-setup.

If you try to watch a channel that cannot be tuned the frontend will lockup. This is obviously not optimal, but it's just a bug in mythtv at the current time. I think it is supposed to be addressed in cvs. gr8nash could probably say for sure. I believe he is using cvs and a 3000.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

Thanks Xsecrets, that's what I feared. I suppose I should wait to try my luck with the HD3000 for the first R5Ax build based on mythtv 0.18 if or when it comes out.

-brendan

well I have a pchdtv3000 and it works great for all the channels that I get at over 60% which is all but one of the major networks. Although I do not channel surf or even watch livetv, I've heard there's problems with those things, however that is not my viewing habits anyways, but it records great.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

I just did this and my PVR-250 is back to /dev/video0 and the HD3000 is moved to /dev/dvb (which maps it to two different dvb items). Anyway, I'm pretty excited that this is working. I may need to make the backend only record HD as I am noticing the regular digital streams play ok while the HD digital skip and jump.

One strange thing is that when I went to the setup I had to add the HD source first and link that to the HD3000. After that I was able to scan for the channels using the utility. During the scan I played with the antenna and moved it around when it started to lock on a channel until the signal got over 75%.

Once the HD stuff was set I added the PVR-250 and then the cable source and used the zap2it listing.

Pretty darned cool if you ask me!

Ok, I may have to take back what I said.

While watching HD I lost the signal and MythTV locked up. I ssh'd to the box and killed mythfrontend and was able to restart it and watch HD and analog cable again. Things were a little buggy so I restarted the machine and after the restart I couldn't watch analog or digital cable again. I'm going to play with it again when I get home but we'll see what happens.

It seams that every time I make progress I break something again. I am keeping good notes and will compile them for my setup once completed and working. Right now there's no sence in posting every little thing I have done as I keep going back to redo them.