Re: [tlug] tv tuners question

[Al Hoang <hoanga@example.com>]

Sorry for coming late to this thread,

On Thu, Dec 14, 2006 at 01:50:39PM +0000, Fergal Daly wrote:
> On 13/12/06, Marcelo Martins <mhtmartins@example.com> wrote:
> >On 12/13/06, Fergal Daly <fergal@example.com> wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
[snip]
> >> Has anyone got any advice on what cards work
> >> well with Linux and whether I should be aiming at digital terrestrial
> >> broadcasts or capturing the cable feed. 
> >> [snip]
> >
> >I posted a similar question a fews weeks ago regarding Japanese HDTV.
> >In the end, I decided to stick with analog capturing. After doing some
> >research, I came to the conclusion that it´s better to buy a Hauppage
> >or Plextor tuner card.

	I would also suggest the Hauppage WinTV PVR-150 as well.   I
think a decent number of the MPEG-2 capture cards you will see on the
market in Japan have a good chance of being supported by the ivtv driver.
But I would stick with a Hauppage PVR-150 if you can because I know for
sure it works and there are some pages on the mythtv website that tell
you how to get it up and running.

	The Plextor USB tuner card is interesting however the driver
support is currently outside of the kernel.  The driver itself might
need a patch depending on the version of the kernel you're running.
For an Ubuntu Edgy-based kernel I know I had to find some patch
floating on their forums in order to get the driver to compile properly.

[snip]
> >about PX-TV432P´s image quality. In addition, it seems that Plextor
> >have become hostile to the open-source software community lately (see
> >http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=138061)

	I didn't know this and find this rather disappointing if it is
true however from a glance at their driver website it looks like
it has the smell of being thrown out into the wild and left there.
I certainly hope I'm wrong.

> 
> Interesting thread, I'm not quite sure if it's plextor or some comapny
> that writes software for their drives threatening him. Anyway, since I
> use a PVR150 at home already it seems like a good idea to stick with
> what works. I didn't see any Hauppage when browsing (online or in
> Akihabara) and some other people I asked never heard of them so I just
> assumed they don't sell over here.

	Hauppage is available here.  Although I'm not sure how easy
it is to find.  I know Sofmap in Yokohama is currently carrying them.
THe PVR-150 retail comes in some bright orange colored box and 
is clearly labeled Hauppage PVR-150 and is around 6980Y last I 
checked.  If you want, I can post a link to a photo if you want 
to cut down the factor of mistaken hardware box more. :-)

> 
> PVR150 works pretty well for me with Ubuntu. I think I had to download
> extra drivers (maybe that was 5.10 and 6.06, can't remember). Even let
> me capture subtitles.

	I couldn't get subtitle capture working in Japan.  I didn't
spent a lot of time on it but if someone knows the right invocation
I'd appreciate it.

Extra gotchas, 
	I couldn't get automatic channel scanning working properly so 
had to write a script to call ivtv channel changer tool and 
then have mythtv use tht externally.  
	You need extra libraries for Japanese handling if you want 
to use xmltv in mythtv (I have no idea if there's an 
English only listing).  
	KnoppMyth ended up being a nightmare 
for me to try setting up on my hardware (see below) as it 
didn't detect the SiS based chipset by default and I ended up 
munging the X11 config to kingdom come. (I hate configurating X11) 
However, Ubuntu found it just fine (yay xorg) so dumped the 
whole KnoppMyth idea since it wasn't just 30 minutes from 
install to recording TV for me.
	I have idea if this will work with IP-TV setups.  I'd
be glad to hear feedback  :)

> 
> That just leaves me needing a tidy shuttle/whatever case. I haven't
> seen too many of those around though,

	These should be easily available in Akihabara.   I've been
using a Shuttle SS56G V3 to good effect and it's silent enough for
my needs although a more silent one wouldn't be that bad.  Although
if I bought a case now I wouldn't get that model and opt for whatever
latest socket form factor  Intel has out right now in order to make
maintenance easier.

Alain