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From: ale.cx on 28 Dec 2006 03:50
I'd just like to post a message to this froup saying how easy it is to
use a DVB card in Linux.

After spending days struggling to get a cheapo Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T
card working on a fully patched-up XP Pro box, I put it in my Linux box
without much hope of getting it to do anything other than take up a PCI
slot and tax the PSU.

So you can probably imagine my surprise when Debian's kernel detected
and loaded the correct modules for it on boot! I mucked around for ages
with femon, scan and tzap, but didn't get anywhere. I was lamenting
this to a friend, and he said "kaffeine", and I said "bless you", and
he said, "no, it's part of KDE". Sure enough, one apt-get install
later, I'm watching, recording to a schedule and pausing live TV!

If only Microsoft could make Windows so easy to use, they might have a
hit on their hands.

alexd

From: Alex Butcher on 28 Dec 2006 06:00
On Thu, 28 Dec 2006 00:50:41 -0800, ale.cx wrote:

> I'd just like to post a message to this froup saying how easy it is to use
> a DVB card in Linux.
>
> After spending days struggling to get a cheapo Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T card
> working on a fully patched-up XP Pro box, I put it in my Linux box without
> much hope of getting it to do anything other than take up a PCI slot and
> tax the PSU.

Yup; I use a couple of Nova-Ts in my MythTV box. I wish they could cope
better with less signal strength, and I wish the kernel/BIOS would assign
them detect them in a consistent order so I didn't need to play games
with udev to get the IR sensor to have a consistently-named
/dev/input/event* node from reboot to reboot.


# udev rule to create /dev/input/novairN for Hauppauge Nova-T IR

SUBSYSTEM=="input", SYSFS{vendor}=="0x14f1", NAME="input/%k", SYMLINK="input/novair-%b"

The above uses the PCI bus ID which seems to be constant for a given card.

The low-tech approach would be to plug an IR diode into /both/ cards and
not worry about which one is /dev/input/event2 or whatever.

> alexd

Best Regards,
Alex.
--
Alex Butcher, Bristol UK. PGP/GnuPG ID:0x5010dbff

"[T]he whole point about the reason why I think it is important we go for
identity cards and an identity database today is that identity fraud and
abuse is a major, major problem. Now the civil liberties aspect of it, look
it is a view, I don't personally think it matters very much."
- Tony Blair, 6 June 2006 <http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page9566.asp>

From: Ian Rawlings on 28 Dec 2006 08:31
On 2006-12-28, Alex Butcher <alex.butcher.news1006(a)assursys.co.uk> wrote:

> Yup; I use a couple of Nova-Ts in my MythTV box. I wish they could cope
> better with less signal strength,

Ah, that's them ruled out of my mythtv box then, I have an unknown dvb
USB thing attached to a windows box and that can't pick up many
channels while my cheap set-top box can pick up a full complement even
in bad weather.

I'm trying to find a DVB card, USB or PCI, that can cope with low
signal levels, if you or anyone else knows about one then please let
me know. I've got a decent aerial and a masthead amplifier but our
area won't have full-power signals until 2009, the transmitters are
only working on low power until then.

--
Blast off and strike the evil Bydo empire!
From: Alex Butcher on 28 Dec 2006 09:56
On Thu, 28 Dec 2006 13:31:21 +0000, Ian Rawlings wrote:

> On 2006-12-28, Alex Butcher <alex.butcher.news1006(a)assursys.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Yup; I use a couple of Nova-Ts in my MythTV box. I wish they could cope
>> better with less signal strength,
>
> Ah, that's them ruled out of my mythtv box then, I have an unknown dvb USB
> thing attached to a windows box and that can't pick up many channels while
> my cheap set-top box can pick up a full complement even in bad weather.

The Nova-T does fairly well, I suppose, considering I have a communal
aerial shared with five other properties and I personally have connected
via a 4-way amplifier:

- a VCR looped through to the TV
- a DVB STB
- an FM tuner
- two Nova-T DVB cards

Of all the multiplexes, only the one carrying Film Four tends to drop out,
which it does on my STB also (albeit somewhat less frequently).

Best Regards,
Alex.
--
Alex Butcher, Bristol UK. PGP/GnuPG ID:0x5010dbff

"[T]he whole point about the reason why I think it is important we go for
identity cards and an identity database today is that identity fraud and
abuse is a major, major problem. Now the civil liberties aspect of it, look
it is a view, I don't personally think it matters very much."
- Tony Blair, 6 June 2006 <http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page9566.asp>

From: Tim S on 28 Dec 2006 10:46
Alex Butcher wrote:

> On Thu, 28 Dec 2006 13:31:21 +0000, Ian Rawlings wrote:
>
>> On 2006-12-28, Alex Butcher <alex.butcher.news1006(a)assursys.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> Yup; I use a couple of Nova-Ts in my MythTV box. I wish they could cope
>>> better with less signal strength,
>>
>> Ah, that's them ruled out of my mythtv box then, I have an unknown dvb
>> USB thing attached to a windows box and that can't pick up many channels
>> while my cheap set-top box can pick up a full complement even in bad
>> weather.
>
> The Nova-T does fairly well, I suppose, considering I have a communal
> aerial shared with five other properties and I personally have connected
> via a 4-way amplifier:
>
> - a VCR looped through to the TV
> - a DVB STB
> - an FM tuner
> - two Nova-T DVB cards
>
> Of all the multiplexes, only the one carrying Film Four tends to drop out,
> which it does on my STB also (albeit somewhat less frequently).
>
> Best Regards,
> Alex.

Careful, there are several variants sold as "Nova-T" with differing
chipsets. Some work better than others...

Cheers

Tim
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