Support for modern Hauppauge WinTV tuner cards

[newbi462]

I noticed a trend when reading through things regarding WinTV tuner cards aka Hauppauge..

The comon thread seams to be "IDIOT GET A 150 OR 150MCE". Well I have one, in fact 3 of them. However you cant buy them any more state side. I think they still sale the in Europe, but it seams like they are phasing them out there to like they did here.

That leaves the (Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 MCE) for those with PCI slots

and the (Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800 MCE)  for those with PCI-e

or if you want duel tuner

(WinTV-HVR-2250 MCE)

I am actually betting it wont be more than a few years before you cant even get the 1600. When you consider that more and more motherboards are using PCI-E instead of PCI..

But that is besides the point. as stated on their site "Note: this product is no longer for sale in the United States. It has been replaced by the WinTV-HVR-XXXX MC". So you cant buy them any more.

And to be frank at times getting a 150 to work can be slightly problematic..

I get the notion plans to support these cards are coming. But when it comes to LInux "coming can mean a lot of things.

All I am trying to suggest is supporting the cards that are actually being sold today is probably a good idea.

Am I crazy, or do others agree?
   

[tschak909]

There is no problem with this, but we need people to create device templates and associated setup scripts so that supporting these cards becomes a plug and play affair out of the box.

But, nobody seems to want to do the leg work, or is basically expecting us few core developers to add support for cards we don't have.

Am tired of trying to tell people to do the leg work to benefit themselves and others.

-Thom

[newbi462]

tschak909

...

Hope you don't mind but I plan to PM the post to you to so I know you get it, as I do not know if you will check back..


......

Ok, basically if I understand you correctly. It is not that these newer cards are not supported. But, instead that the distributed build of LinuxMCE has never seen them. So until it is told by some one how to use them, it can not.

But, that once it has been told how to use them.. If all the appropriate files were send back to you all you could add them to future releases and updates. As a result LinuxMCE would automatically know what to do with these cards on anyone's system.

Assuming all of this is correct the ultimate solution to this would be: some one buys all these cards, gets the needed help configuring them, then sends all the needed info back to you all.

Do I understand correctly?

[Marie.O]

newbi462,

I ain't Thom, but your assumption is correct.

[colinjones]

newbi

further detail - assuming that a card works with Linux (ie has a working driver for the particular kernel we are using at the time, in other words, if you want to do this, do it on 0810 not 0710), then...

If its a PCI card, it will have a vendor:device ID (hopefully unique!) which can be determined from lspci -n

Once you have that, you can create a Device Template in the webadmin, that contains the instructions on which packages to load (to install the driver) and what config files to create (to configure the driver). The device category, etc settings tell LMCE what type of device it is and where to put it in the hierarchy, etc.

Then you just set the vendor:device ID in the pnp section of the Device Template and tell it it is a PCI ID.

Then in theory, when LMCE is starting up, when the DCERouter does a reload or the HAL sends a PCI device detected event... the LMCE DCE HAL device will see this and send a pnp event to the pnpqueue. The pnp system then looks at the PCI vendor:device ID and looks for that in one of the Device Templates. It will see that your new Device Template has that ID and create a device based on that template in the correct location, then trigger the package and config installation.... making the new PCI device pnp with LMCE

hth

[castlec]

I had tried off an on to get someone to give me all of that info for a while now.  I have an HVR-2250.  I'm willing to do the leg-work.  I WANT to contribute.  I need people to point me at the right docs or give blatant instructions.  So someone help me show everyone some love

I'll have a look at your instructions in detail colin.  Hopefully, I won't get tripped up by anything.

I'll post back and let people know.

To Newbi:  I'd bet you could get people to do the work for you with free hardware or cash donations.  There's only so much others can do or are willing to do for free.  Remember, OSS is about scratching your own itch.  You have to convince people they itch somewhere

[castlec]

I come forward to admit that I have been defeated by the quantity of unknowns.  I'm going to try copying all of the info in another template, replacing what I know needs to be different, but I'm not expecting much.

In case anyone out there is curious, here is the card info

02:00.0 Multimedia controller: Philips Semiconductors Device 7164 (rev 81)
        Subsystem: Hauppauge computer works Inc. Device 88a1             
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16                 
        Memory at fb800000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]           
        Memory at fb400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]           
        Capabilities: [40] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/4 Enable-
        Capabilities: [50] Express Endpoint, MSI 00                                   
        Capabilities: [74] Power Management version 3                                 
        Capabilities: [7c] Vendor Specific Information <?>                             
        Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information <?>                           
        Capabilities: [160] Virtual Channel <?>                                       
        Kernel driver in use: saa7164                                                 
        Kernel modules: saa7164 

02:00.0 0480: 1131:7164 (rev 81)

[JaseP]

I have two Hauppauge HVR-1600s and would very much like to get them working, and am willing to do the leg work if someone were to help me with the play by play of getting them set up in LMCE... (Yes,... I AM running 8.10)...

So far the most I have gotten out of them is green snow... and once having one detect the broadcast ID of a station that didn't come in... Of course I was attempting LMCE 7.10 at the time...

[totallymaxed]

I have two Hauppauge HVR-1600s and would very much like to get them working, and am willing to do the leg work if someone were to help me with the play by play of getting them set up in LinuxMCE... (Yes,... I AM running 8.10)...

So far the most I have gotten out of them is green snow... and once having one detect the broadcast ID of a station that didn't come in... Of course I was attempting LinuxMCE 7.10 at the time...

There are two variants of this card so first off you need to figure out which you have. Go here http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-HVR-1600 to get some info on how to do that and also whats needed to get the card working.

All the best

Andrew

[totallymaxed]

I had tried off an on to get someone to give me all of that info for a while now.  I have an HVR-2250.  I'm willing to do the leg-work.  I WANT to contribute.  I need people to point me at the right docs or give blatant instructions.  So someone help me show everyone some love

I'll have a look at your instructions in detail colin.  Hopefully, I won't get tripped up by anything.

I'll post back and let people know.

To Newbi:  I'd bet you could get people to do the work for you with free hardware or cash donations.  There's only so much others can do or are willing to do for free.  Remember, OSS is about scratching your own itch.  You have to convince people they itch somewhere

Well we are just starting to test the hvr-2200 which is essentially the DVB-T variant of the ATSC hvr-2250. You should take a look at this linuxtv.org page about the 2250 http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-HVR-2250 and specifically at the reference and url to the Steven Toth drivers for the 2200/2250 card. That will at least get the card basically working...and you should be able to maullay set the card up inside MythTV once this has been achieved.. The next step is to have LinuxMCE automatically configure it for you inside MythTV...thats the part that Thom is referring too when he says 'create a device template' this is tougher...and you can tell thats the case by how many ATSC/DVB-T cards have had device templates created for them!

All the best

Andrew

[JaseP]

There are two variants of this card so first off you need to figure out which you have. Go here http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-HVR-1600 to get some info on how to do that and also whats needed to get the card working.

I've got 2 74041's. I specifically got them because the support QAM...