132e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 232e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 3c5b35243SMauro Carvalho Chehab====================================== 4c5b35243SMauro Carvalho ChehabAvermedia DVB-T on BT878 Release Notes 5c5b35243SMauro Carvalho Chehab====================================== 632e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 732e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabFebruary 14th 2006 832e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 932e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab.. note:: 1032e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 11c5b35243SMauro Carvalho Chehab Several other Avermedia devices are supported. For a more 12c5b35243SMauro Carvalho Chehab broader and updated content about that, please check: 1332e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 1432e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab https://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/AVerMedia 1532e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 1632e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabThe Avermedia DVB-T 1732e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1832e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 1932e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabThe Avermedia DVB-T is a budget PCI DVB card. It has 3 inputs: 2032e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 2132e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab* RF Tuner Input 2232e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab* Composite Video Input (RCA Jack) 2332e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab* SVIDEO Input (Mini-DIN) 2432e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 2532e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabThe RF Tuner Input is the input to the tuner module of the 2632e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabcard. The Tuner is otherwise known as the "Frontend" . The 2732e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabFrontend of the Avermedia DVB-T is a Microtune 7202D. A timely 2832e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabpost to the linux-dvb mailing list ascertained that the 2932e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabMicrotune 7202D is supported by the sp887x driver which is 3032e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabfound in the dvb-hw CVS module. 3132e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 3232e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabThe DVB-T card is based around the BT878 chip which is a very 3332e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabcommon multimedia bridge and often found on Analogue TV cards. 3432e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabThere is no on-board MPEG2 decoder, which means that all MPEG2 3532e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabdecoding must be done in software, or if you have one, on an 3632e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabMPEG2 hardware decoding card or chipset. 3732e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 3832e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 3932e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabGetting the card going 4032e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4132e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 4232e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabAt this stage, it has not been able to ascertain the 4332e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabfunctionality of the remaining device nodes in respect of the 4432e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabAvermedia DVBT. However, full functionality in respect of 4532e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabtuning, receiving and supplying the MPEG2 data stream is 4632e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabpossible with the currently available versions of the driver. 4732e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabIt may be possible that additional functionality is available 4832e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabfrom the card (i.e. viewing the additional analogue inputs 4932e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabthat the card presents), but this has not been tested yet. If 5032e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabI get around to this, I'll update the document with whatever I 5132e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabfind. 5232e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 5332e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabTo power up the card, load the following modules in the 5432e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabfollowing order: 5532e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 5632e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab* modprobe bttv (normally loaded automatically) 5732e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab* modprobe dvb-bt8xx (or place dvb-bt8xx in /etc/modules) 5832e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 5932e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabInsertion of these modules into the running kernel will 6032e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabactivate the appropriate DVB device nodes. It is then possible 6132e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabto start accessing the card with utilities such as scan, tzap, 6232e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabdvbstream etc. 6332e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 6432e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabThe frontend module sp887x.o, requires an external firmware. 6532e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabPlease use the command "get_dvb_firmware sp887x" to download 6632e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabit. Then copy it to /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware or /lib/firmware/ 6732e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab(depending on configuration of firmware hotplug). 6832e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 6932e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabKnown Limitations 7032e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 7132e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 7232e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabAt present I can say with confidence that the frontend tunes 7332e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabvia /dev/dvb/adapter{x}/frontend0 and supplies an MPEG2 stream 7432e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabvia /dev/dvb/adapter{x}/dvr0. I have not tested the 7532e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabfunctionality of any other part of the card yet. I will do so 7632e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabover time and update this document. 7732e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 7832e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabThere are some limitations in the i2c layer due to a returned 7932e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehaberror message inconsistency. Although this generates errors in 8032e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabdmesg and the system logs, it does not appear to affect the 8132e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabability of the frontend to function correctly. 8232e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 8332e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabFurther Update 8432e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 8532e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 8632e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabdvbstream and VideoLAN Client on windows works a treat with 8732e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabDVB, in fact this is currently serving as my main way of 8832e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabviewing DVB-T at the moment. Additionally, VLC is happily 8932e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabdecoding HDTV signals, although the PC is dropping the odd 9032e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabframe here and there - I assume due to processing capability - 9132e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabas all the decoding is being done under windows in software. 9232e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehab 9332e2eae2SMauro Carvalho ChehabMany thanks to Nigel Pearson for the updates to this document 9432e2eae2SMauro Carvalho Chehabsince the recent revision of the driver. 95