[pvrusb2] wintvpvrusb tv tuner

[Mike Isely]

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007, Chris Rutherford wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> I have just upgraded my kernel etc to get the pvrusb2 driver working.  I was
> previously on a really old kernel so I jumped straight to 2.6.18.  The
> driver is compiled in and working etc.  I can access video from /dev/video0
> and the led glows red when streaming etc.  Unfortunately all I can see is
> black and white dots.  i.e. after several hours of searching I have not been
> able to change channel.  I have used the scantv tool to locate channels, but
> I have been unable to actually make the pvr output the channel that I want.
> Does anyone know of a working app and a set of CLI parameters that can be
> used to tune the device.
> 
> The closet I have found so far is:-
> 
> mplayer tv:// -tv chanel=56:driver=v412:norl=pal:device=/dev/video0
> 
> However this results in an ioctl error.

The part of the usage page which talks about V4L apps probably has some 
info you can use:

http://www.isely.net/pvrusb2/usage.html#V4L

Specifically it explains that mplayer in v4l mode (which is the command 
spelling you describe above) won't work and it attempts to explain why.  
You can use mplayer, but not in V4L mode - and in that case you have to 
use sysfs or some other V4L app to tune the device.  A common test I do 
is just running "mplayer /dev/video" while at the same time using the 
sysfs interface to tweak various aspects of the device (e.g. volume, 
input, frequency, etc).

If you're trying to tune the device using a v4l app, then xawtv is 
probably your best choice (of which scantv is a part).  However you need 
to compile a 4.x version of xawtv, with mpeg decoding enabled, otherwise 
it won't work either.  You can also run it with MythTV, but unless you 
are already familiar with MythTV, I would not recommend it at a first 
attempt.  Moving outside the realm of V4L, there's a sysfs interface 
present which you can use to directly tune the device.  A different part 
of the usage page above talks about that.

If you think that tuning might just be "messed up", e.g. you suspect the 
RF connection, your tuner type might be wrong (unlikely these days), or 
you just aren't sure about what frequencies are usable, then I suggest 
you try something with the device that doesn't involve the RF tuner.  If 
you have a VCR, DVD player, or camcorder laying around, jack it into the 
s-video or composite input of the device, use the sysfs interface to 
switch the input appropriately, and see if you can get a picture that 
way.  If you can, then you've ruled out everything except the RF side as 
a cause for trouble.

  -Mike


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