TV Capture problems w/ LeadTek TV2000 XP

ShadyMilkman · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2002 Posts: 57

Well I just got this card, and it works great under windows(smooth playback, no artifacts, good color). However, under linux is a different story. I'm using mythtv w/ bttv driver version 0.7.1 I think, kernel v4l support built in(not v4l2). My problems are these:

1st) TV comes in in only black and white. I can sometimes see a little bit of color, but not really. I'm on regular cable in US, and in mythtv I have its set to NTSC, and us-cable.

2nd) Playback is very choppy. I'm assuming this is because myth is trying to capture it at 800x600, which is too much for my processor. Is there any way to get it to only capture 320x240? I set the settings.txt file to 320x240, but I think that only affects recording. Basically, for watching live TV I want it to stretch the 320x240, because I know that looks fine.

My specs are these:
bt878 LeadTek WinFast TV2000 XP.
gentoo 2.4.19-r10
Pentium 3 450 MHz

Is there some option I need to pass when insmod'ing bttv to get this to work right? I've definitally seen some people saying they have this card working perfectly, so can they please share their secret(s)?
Thanks!

ShadyMilkman · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2002 Posts: 57

Well, I fixed it. Problem with the color was because it was being detected as tuner type 2, when it should've been 5. I fixed that by changing my /etc/modules.autoload from:
bttv
tuner type=5

to

tuner type=5
bttv
. Also, I fixed the other problem. I guess I was just being stupid, and those capture vars really did decide what resolution tv was being watched at. Anywho... now my only problem is that audio is a few seconds ahead of video, I'm gonna tinker some more.

perry · Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2002 3:42 am Post subject:

Keep us (me

) updated, I'm probably going to order that card this week!

ShadyMilkman · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2002 Posts: 57

Well I fixed the sound problem! All I did was switch from kernel sound to alsa, and everything fixed itself. Lastly, I'm working on the f*ing remote. I've been messing around for about 4 hours now, and still haven't gotten it to work. I've done the following:
i2c-dev,-proc, and -core as modules. All loaded before my lirc_* modules. in my /etc/modules.d/lirc:
alias char-major-89 lirc_i2c
alias /dev/lirc* lirc2_i2c

And I insmod lirc_gpio, then _dev, then _i2c (all after my bttv and tuner and other modules). I have a /dev/lircd and /dev/lirc/0 devices appear, but I get an input/output error when i try to cat /dev/lirc/0. I've modified my /etc/init.d/lircd script to use /dev/lirc/0 instead of /dev/lirc as per somebody's suggestion, and it did make it so that irw could connect, but it still shows no signals when I press buttons on the remote. Yes, I know the remote is working because I've used it under windows. Can somebody here tell me what I'm doing wrong?

perry · Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2002 8:56 pm Post subject:

I got my card yesterday and it fired right up in xawtv. I had to use tuner type=2, as 5 seemed to give me wrong channels. Works with Creative's drivers for SB Live!. No ALSA.

Then I got ambitious and tried mythtv. Had to emerge mysql, then re-emerge qt w/ mysql support. And that broke konsole, so I'm upgrading kdebase. 8 hours and still going...

Trying to get mythtv working as I wait for KDE to finish up. I can run mythtv alright, video goes full screen and audio works. But when I run mythfrontend, I just get the display drawn in the upper left area of my screen, w/o any window decorations. And when I move my mouse into the window, it just disappears and doesn't respond to any clicks.

Haven't even begun to fight with the remote yet... Any luck with yours?

edit: well, don't I feel like a dummy!!! I was supposed to use the arrow keys to navigate mythfrontend, not the mouse. RTFM, duh

ShadyMilkman · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2002 Posts: 57

I have had a little bit of luck with the remote, that is I can use irrecord to get the signals, and it definitally is getting stuff from my remote. However, lircd seems to get no input, as running irw just sits there while pressing buttons. I've checked /var/log/lircd and it seems fine, I'm thinking of compiling in debug mode so I can get more output.

To get the remote to my point, you need to modprobe lirc_gpio and lirc_i2c. Of course you're already got i2c support for the tuner, so those you should't have to modprobe. That's about all the wisdom I have so far.

perry · Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2002 5:17 pm Post subject:

I think you just set off some electrons in my brain...

I had been using the lirc.conf.leadtek file from lirc.org as my /etc/lircd.conf file.

But I decided to give irrecord a try. I ran that

ShadyMilkman · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2002 Posts: 57

Great idea, I think having i2c as modules might be tripping up my setup. Unfortunately I'm not at my box, I only have ssh right now but at least I can try it tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

<edit> Just to maybe save me some time, what i2c options do you have enabled? I've been using i2c, bit-banging, dev and proc, but maybe the dev and proc are screwing me up. Also, do you have an "alias char-major-61 lirc_gpio" in your /etc/modules.d/lirc, or did you just skip that? Thanks </edit>

perry · Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2002 9:22 pm Post subject:

Straight from my .config

ShadyMilkman · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2002 Posts: 57

My performance is great... of course I"m capturing at 320x240 (in settings.txt). You might want to try scaling it down from the default settings. (/usr/local/share/mythtv/settings.txt).

Also, do you have the alias exactly as I typed it, did you add more lines or what? Thanks

perry · Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2002 4:05 am Post subject:

ShadyMilkman · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2002 Posts: 57

Did you adjust the actual capture resolution settings in settings.txt? That's what helped me a _lot_. Width and Height. Did you try that?

BigRedDog · n00b Joined: 31 Jul 2002 Posts: 7

Is there any way to adjust the frequency table for this card? When I select a channel, the frequency is WAY too low. For example, when I select channel 25, I see what's supposed to be on channel 24. I have to fine-tune the frequency up 108 points to get the right channel.

I'm using us-cable channel list.

ShadyMilkman · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2002 Posts: 57

Make sure you're passing the right options when insmod'ing/modprobe'ing bttv and tuner. I don't think there's a way to manually adjust, but you shouldn't have to.

ShadyMilkman · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2002 Posts: 57

I got it to work! w00t! Anyway, I'm pretty sure it all had to do with compiling it (i2c) into the kernel. However, I also made sure lircd was reading the right config file by adding the /etc/lircd.conf parameter to the end of my /etc/init.d/lircd script. Anyway, it's sooo much better this way (I've got my box hooked up to a tv, the box is behind the tv so a kb is a pain in the butt).
However, I still have a question:

How do I keep X/Fluxbox from "sleeping", that is after a period of mouse inactivity, the screen will go completely black. While this is useful for desktops/laptops, it is much less than helpful when I am watching a recorded show and my tv goes black (blue actually). Where can I change this setting? (i.e. disable)

perry · Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2002 1:32 pm Post subject:

I think "xset s off" should do the trick to stop screen blanking. Put it in your xinitrc or whatever.

I've had some more success w/ mythtv. Tweaked the settings file based on one that was posted to the mythtv-dev mailing list, and it's looking better. Not as good as I would like, but acceptable.