Question for kernel expert

[Nigel Henry]

On Saturday 18 October 2008 02:43, Mike Adolf wrote:
> NoOp wrote:
> > On 10/16/2008 06:51 PM, Mike Adolf wrote:
> >> I have been attempting to install a tv tuner, pctv 800i, chipset
> >> cx23883-39.  I bought this after reading in the mythtv wiki that it
> >> worked under linux and that all one had to do was extract firmware file
> >> from a windows file and build and install the latest v4l driver tree.
> >
> > You might find this of some help:
> > <http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?s=a6b83afa49241e0af777f62735c6840
> >a&t=602039> [Pinnacle PCTV HD pci card(800i), anybody got it working?]
>
> Thanks for your reply, but I've given up for now. Just too difficult!

Hi Mike. I can understand how you feel. It took me more than 2 weeks to get my 
Hauppauge Win TV Express card to produce sound, and vision.

going back a bit further, I, as a relative newbie thought I'd have a go at 
installing Gentoo. 3 months later, having a break now and again, I eventually 
had it up, and running. I didn't start afresh with the install, but just 
continued where I'd left off.

It's good to take a break now and again, then you can approach the problem 
refreshed.

I found the same link as above when googling for your problem.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=602039

10
wizkey
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Re: Pinnacle PCTV HD pci card(800i), anybody got it working?
I came back to this thread to report that support for the card has been 
accomplished, but see others have beat me to the punch.

Probably one of the things biting people is not having the firmware for the 
tuner. This quite probably is the source of the hangs folks are experiencing. 
The driver will attempt to load the firmware for the tuner, but if the 
firmware isn't in the /lib/firmware/<YourKernelVersion> directory, it can 
cause the system to hang.

If you do not have the xc5000 firmware, you can get it at:

http://steventoth.net/linux/xc5000/

for now. Follow the instructions in the readme.

That will get you the firmware you need for the tuner. If you don't have that 
firmware, then the tuner won't work and neither will anything else, and can 
even hang the startup process.

I am using the card to watch NTSC right now. I've got it working under TVTime, 
MythTV, VLC, and MPlayer. Getting both video and audio.

I'm not familiar with using DVB for tuning for the digital, but it should 
"just work" as long as the drivers and firmware load as they should. Reading 
the mailing list, it appears most folks are using the card for DVB. I didn't 
see anyone testing for NTSC, but I can confirm it works.
wizkey is offline    Reply With Quote
>
>
And moving on to page 2 on the forum post, as below.

There are no real instructions in the readme, but, I'll try to figure it out.

In the meantime, are you using an nVidia driver? That's one common thread I am 
finding.

EDIT: It works. Not sure about sound, KDE TV is still channel scanning.

For those who arent sure how to fix the issue:

As for those who arent sure what to do...

Download two things from the link Wizkey supplied.

1) http://steventoth.net/linux/xc5000/H...25271_WHQL.zip

2) The extract.sh file. Just right click and "Save Link as..."

Once you have these two down, put them both into a folder, drop into a 
terminal cd to the folder you put them in and do the following:

chmod +x extract.sh

./extract.sh

This will extract the proper firmware file. It will then tell you where you 
need to copy the file to, and how to do so.

Now I don't have the TV card, but have been able to make the firmware 
available in /lib/firmware2.6.24-16-generic by following the instructions 
above.

If I had the money to buy the card, I would try it, just for the sake of 
seeing if I could get it working, and it seems that some folks have. Some 
have still had sound problems, but on subsequent forum postings, others have 
offered solutions to this, and have got the sound working for this card.

Always happy to help, where I can.

Nigel.