[ivtv-users] HVR-1800, NTSC and raw cable feed.

[Mark Jenks]

On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 8:35 PM, Andy Walls <awalls at radix.net> wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-02-13 at 20:09 -0600, Mark Jenks wrote:
>> On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 7:20 AM, Josh Borke <joshborke at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Mark Jenks wrote:
>> >> Hello all,
>> >>
>> >> I am trying to connect a HVR-1800 directly to the cable from the cable
>> >> company without a STB.  I have it plugged into the TV port of the
>> >> card, since I want to capture the analog signals.
>> >>
>> >> I have the latest mercurial drivers loaded and have the /dev/video
>> >> showing up and no errors that I can see.  If I move the cable over to
>> >> ATSC and scan for QAM, I find a few channels, but nothing like I would
>> >> get if I plugged it right into a TV without a cablebox.
>> >>
>> >> The problem is, I can't seem to capture anything but a black screen on
>> >> it.   Maybe I am doing something wrong, since I don't seem to have a
>> >> ivtv-tune command anywhere?
>> >>
>> >> I tried to cat /dev/video1 > test.mpg and didn't get anything.   If I
>> >> run v4lcrl -c /dev/video1 setnorm or setstation I don't get any
>> >> errors.  Even  v4l-info /dev/video1 doesn't show any problems that I
>> >> can see.
>> >>
>> >> v4lctl -c /dev/video1 list
>> >> attribute  | type   | current | default | comment
>> >> -----------+--------+---------+---------+-------------------------------------
>> >> norm       | choice | NTSC-M- | NTSC-M  | NTSC-M NTSC-M-JP NTSC-443
>> >> PAL-BG PAL-I PAL-DK PAL-M PAL-N PAL-Nc PAL-60 SECAM-DK SECAM-L
>> >> input      | choice | Televis | Televis | Television Composite1 S-Video
>> >> audio mode | choice | mono    | mono    | mono stereo lang1 lang2
>> >> bright     | int    |     146 |     127 | range is 0 => 255
>> >> contrast   | int    |      62 |      63 | range is 0 => 255
>> >> color      | int    |      65 |     127 | range is 0 => 255
>> >> hue        | int    |       0 |     127 | range is 0 => 255
>> >> volume     | int    |   60928 |      63 | range is 0 => 63
>> >> mute       | bool   | off     | on      |
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> What am I missing?   It must be something basic?
>> >>
>> >> Thanks!
>> >>
>> >> -Mark
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> ivtv-users mailing list
>> >> ivtv-users at ivtvdriver.org
>> >> http://ivtvdriver.org/mailman/listinfo/ivtv-users
>> >>
>> > Take what I have with a grain of salt because I'm still new at video
>> > devices in linux but, I have a HVR-1800 and this is what I know:
>> >
>> > 1) The HVR-1800 does not use the ivtv drivers so this isn't the correct
>> > list (I think).
>> > 2) In order for me to get anything out of my HVR-1800 I have to tune the
>> > analog video (/dev/video0) and then cat the mpeg video (/dev/video1).
>> > So, I either open tvtime and tune that way or use '$ v42-ctl -f
>> > <frequency> -d /dev/video0' and then cat /dev/video1
>> >
>> > I hope this helps.
>> > -josh
>> >
>>
>> This isn't working for me.  Maybe I'm missing something.    dmesg is
>> showing a firmware error when I try to do this, but when the driver
>> loads, it doesn't have the error.
>
> A good number of the v4l drivers defer firmware loading until the first
> call to open() on the device.  The reasons are that some devices load
> really slowly and on some systems when the driver module loads, the
> filesystem with the firmware might not be mounted yet.  So just because
> the driver loads, doesn't mean everything is OK with the firmware.  You
> have to open a device to check if the firmware loads.
>
> Regards,
> Andy
>
>> -Mark
>>


Thanks, that helps.  I will work on it and see what happens.

Where is the latest firmare for the 1800's?   i have no idea where I
got the one that I am using now.

-Mark