[ivtv-users] cx18 analog cable problems

[Andy Walls]

On Mon, 2009-08-24 at 20:40 -0400, SoxSlayer wrote:
> On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:04:43 -0400
> Andy Walls <awalls at radix.net> wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 2009-08-24 at 17:42 -0400, SoxSlayer wrote:
> > > I have just gotten my HVR 1600 working, well sortof, and I'm running
> > > into some problems.  I have used the latest driver from linuxtv.org.
> > > The driver and firmware load just fine and dmesg report nothing
> > > which would indicate an error.  When I try and view the tv feed
> > > with mplayer tv:// the following is the output:
> > > 
> > > $ mplayer tv://
> > > MPlayer SVN-r29463-4.3.2 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team
> > 
> > 
> > Do this instead:
> > 
> > $ v4l2-ctl -i 0
> > Video input set to 0 (Tuner 1)
> > 
> > $ ivtv-tune -t us-cable -c 4
> > /dev/video0: 67.250 MHz  (Signal Detected)
> > 
> > $ mplayer /dev/video0 -cache 8192
> > MPlayer dev-SVN-r26936-4.3.0 (C) 2000-2008 MPlayer Team
> > CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+ (Family: 15,
> > Model: 107, Stepping: 2) CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1
> > SSE: 1 SSE2: 1 Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
> > mplayer: could not connect to socket
> > mplayer: No such file or directory
> > Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote
> > control.
> > 
> > Playing /dev/video0.
> > Cache fill: 18.85% (1581056 bytes)   
> > MPEG-PS file format detected.
> > VIDEO:  MPEG2  720x480  (aspect 2)  29.970 fps  8000.0 kbps (1000.0
> > kbyte/s) ....
> > 
> > 
> > > When I do cat /dev/video0 > test.mpg then play the file there is no
> > > audio and the video is not clear.  I can barely tell what channel
> > > it is but it is in black and white and is very badly distorted.
> > 
> > Hmmm, that should always work.  Perhaps trying to use the tv:// option
> > to mplayer set the cx18 driver to an unusual state.  Unload and reload
> > the module just to be sure you're in a known good state before running
> > the above test.
> > 
> > Regards,
> > Andy
> > 

> 
> Thanks a lot it worked.  It's not too crucial but when there is a lot
> of motion it seems like every other pixel row is laggin behind the
> rest.  It kinda looks like something to do with deinterlacing.  Is there
> some setting in mplayer that can get rid of this.

I'm not sure about mplayer.  You can try playing around with the MPEG
encoding controls in the driver:

$ v4l2-ctl --help
$ v4l2-ctl -L



> Also, what is the status of the IR remote that is included with the
> HVR-1600?  I didn't see too much information while researching the
> other topics with the card and linux.


It should work with the ir-kbd-i2c module in the latest v4l-dvb sources.

The unfortunate problem is that the latest v4l-dvb branch is broken for
LIRC.  I2C subsystem changes in the latest kernels broke the interface
LIRC used to hook up to I2C connected IR chips within V4L.  I updated
the cx18 driver to at least work with ir-kbd-i2c.  LIRC is undergoing
updates by Jarred Wilson, so that one day lirc_i2c and lirc_zilog (aka
lirc_pvr150) will work again. See discussions within the past year on
the linux-media and linux-kernel mailing lists.

I need to do an analogous change for ivtv, but haven't gotten to it yet.

Regards,
Andy