Hi list I'm looking for some advice configuring an Avermedia A771-B DVB-T PCI (with the MT352 chip) card on Linux. I had initially started with high hopes of setting up MythTV and recording stuff, I ended up using Knoppix and nothing worked/works. I've now just dropped back to trying the simplest of things and just try and get the LinuxTV DVB apps working (well just the scan application working). The first mistake I made was buying a Hauppage Nova-T PCI card - on the grounds that it's bound to work. Unfortunately I later learnt that it's the 90002 (?!) model and not the older Phillips based model and basically doesn't work with Linux. I looked around and eventually picked the Avermedia A771-B card mainly on the grounds that they've got this lovely "LINUX COMPATIBLE" claim on the page for the card. I'm living in the UK in the BlackHill transmitter area. I have installed Windows XP (not even SP1) onto the hardware I'm using and unsurprisingly it all works - both the avermedia and hauppage cards work, receive and play TV. The only reason I was using windows is just to prove the hardware works - I had got to the stage of thinking that I'd somehow broken the cards. The aerial works both with a standard set-top box and with the PC (running windows) using either the Avermedia card or the Hauppage card. Basically the hardware and aerial works. I know the PC is OK as I have tried 3 separate (known good) mobo/cpu combos and I get the same results (or lack of). I am using standard stock Slackware 10.2 (no patches, no additions just whats on the ISO), I'm using the standard 2.6.14.3 kernel downloaded from www.kernel.org - OK one addition to the stock Slackware 10.2 :-). I'm using linuxtv-dvb-apps-1.1.0 from linuxtv and I downloaded the CVS snapshot v4l-dvb-20051208 (downloaded from the website rather than sucked out of CVS). dmesg (with the v4l-dvb-20051208 drivers compiled and installed) gives Linux video capture interface: v1.00 i2c-core: driver [tveeprom] registered bttv: driver version 0.9.16 loaded bttv: snapshot date 2005-12-08 bttv: using 8 buffers with 2080k (520 pages) each for capture bttv: Bt8xx card found (0). ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:09.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 21 bttv0: Bt878 (rev 17) at 0000:00:09.0, irq: 21, latency: 32, mmio: 0xde000000 bttv0: detected: AVermedia AverTV DVB-T 771 [card=123], PCI subsystem ID is 1461:0771 bttv0: using: AVerMedia AVerTV DVB-T 771 [card=123,autodetected] bttv0: gpio: en=00000000, out=00000000 in=00ffff0f [init] i2c_adapter i2c-1: adapter [bt878 #0 [hw]] registered i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x50 i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x50, len=0 bttv0: using tuner=4 i2c-core: driver [tuner] registered i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x42 i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x42, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x43 i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x43, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x4a i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x4a, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x4b i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x4b, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x60 i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x60, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x61 i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x61, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x62 i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x62, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x63 i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x63, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x64 i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x64, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x65 i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x65, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x66 i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x66, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x67 i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x67, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x68 i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x68, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x69 i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x69, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x6a i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x6a, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x6b i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x6b, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x6c i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x6c, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x6d i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x6d, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x6e i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x6e, len=0 i2c_adapter i2c-1: found normal entry for adapter 1, addr 0x6f i2c_adapter i2c-1: master_xfer[0] W, addr=0x6f, len=0 bttv0: registered device video0 bttv0: registered device vbi0 bttv0: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 .. ok bttv0: add subdevice "remote0" bttv0: add subdevice "dvb0" bt878: AUDIO driver version 0.0.0 loaded bt878: Bt878 AUDIO function found (0). ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:09.1[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 21 bt878(0): Bt878 (rev 17) at 00:09.1, irq: 21, latency: 32, memory: 0xde001000 When I try dmesg with just the standard drivers in the 2.6.14.3 kernel I still get: bttv0: detected: AVermedia AverTV DVB-T 771 [card=123], PCI subsystem ID is 1461:0771 bttv0: using: AVerMedia AVerTV DVB-T 771 [card=123,autodetected] I have tried all these things with and without the sc_main.mc firmware code in the /lib/firmware directory. For whatever reasons I have to modprobe the dvb_bt8xx and mt352 modules Then in dmesg I can see: DVB: registering frontend 0 (Zarlink MT352 DVB-T)... When I try the scan utility from the dvb-apps, using the uk-Blackhill tuning file (provided with dvb-apps) all I get is: root@backend:# ./scan dvb-t/uk-BlackHill scanning dvb-t/uk-BlackHill using '/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0' and '/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0' initial transponder 634167000 0 2 0 3 0 0 0 >>> tune to: 634167000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_8_MHZ:FEC_2_3:FEC_NONE:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_2K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_32:HIERARCHY_NONE WARNING: >>> tuning failed!!! >>> tune to: 634167000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_8_MHZ:FEC_2_3:FEC_NONE:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_2K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_32:HIERARCHY_NONE (tuning failed) WARNING: >>> tuning failed!!! ERROR: initial tuning failed dumping lists (0 services) Done. It takes 2-3 seconds before I get the first tuning failed message - basically just enough time to make me think "Yes, this time!" Coincidentally, I also get this failure with the Hauppage card (which also seems to appear in dmesg). When I was using Knoppmyth (5R26) it detected the Avermedia card as a Zarlink and when doing a channel scan it just thinks about things for 10 seconds before saying it failed. My gut suspicions are: 1) The Avermedia card A771-B (MT352) is not really supported under Linux, perhaps some old version using the Ali-bongo chipset (or whatever) possibly worked. If someone can confirm that this card is not really supported I will contact Trading Standards in the UK as Avermedia would be clearly misrepresenting their card (as to it's Linux compatibility) this is an offence under the Trade descriptions act - it might force Avermedia to either help the community develop a working driver (unlikely) or remove the false claim from their website. 2) DVB support in Linux does not really work in the UK - as the software is no doubt developed in the US/Europe then it is keyed to their particular broadcast systems and there is no hard support for the UK. 3) The Linux DVB drivers actually require a theorectically perfect setup: perfect 100% signal reception, flat terrain with no obstructions more than 2 feet high between the receiver and the transmitter, also to be within 100.3 meters of the transmitter and to be aligned on a major ley-line. 4) It does all work but I need some super-duper experimental alpha release patch that is hidden in CVS in a disused toilet in the basement of LinuxTv HQ... Sorry if I'm ranting, for the money and time I've wasted on this I could've bought a hardware PVR which would just work. Still would like to get Myth working as it has a couple of nice features. Guess my two questions are:...<drumroll>..... 1) Does anyone in the UK actually really have any DVB-T card, that is still commerically available as of December 2005, working under linux and I mean working as in regularly watching and recording stuff (not "I installed the driver once") and if so which card (and chip set) and how did you get it working (some pointers at least). 2) In particular: does anyone in the UK have the Avermedia A771-B (mt352) DVB-T PCI card working under Linux and if so how. Any help would be gratefully received or if there is any extra info that you would like to know (as no doubt I have not mentioned a load of stuff). Even if my gut feelings are correct and it just doesn't work (never has, never will) then I'd be happy to know as then I could just go out and buy a PVR - once I'd whinged to Avermedia and Trading standards..... Many thanks Hugo
