Building a Linux PVR Part I - MythTV Setup and Install
by Kristopher Kubicki on September 3, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Linux
IvyTV (continued)
Supposedly, our tuner card is working correctly. We can quickly check to see if everything went OK by using the utilities included with the ivtv drivers and also by checking the /var/log/messages log. Our log reveals something like this:Sep 2 13:31:36 linux kernel: ivtv: Found an iTVC16 based chip
Sep 2 13:31:36 linux kernel: i2c-algo-bit.o: (0) scl=1, sda=1
Sep 2 13:31:36 linux kernel: i2c-algo-bit.o: (1) scl=1, sda=0
Sep 2 13:31:36 linux kernel: i2c-algo-bit.o: (2) scl=1, sda=1
Sep 2 13:31:36 linux kernel: i2c-algo-bit.o: (3) scl=0, sda=1
Sep 2 13:31:36 linux kernel: i2c-algo-bit.o: (4) scl=1, sda=1
Sep 2 13:31:36 linux kernel: i2c-algo-bit.o: ivtv i2c driver #0 passed test.
Sep 2 13:31:36 linux kernel: tuner: chip found at addr 0xc2 i2c-bus ivtv i2c driver #0
Sep 2 13:31:36 linux kernel: tuner: type set to 2 (Philips NTSC (FI1236,FM1236 and compatibles)) by insmod option
Sep 2 13:31:36 linux kernel: msp34xx: init: chip=MSP3448W-A2 +nicam +simple +radio
Sep 2 13:31:36 linux kernel: msp3410: daemon started
Sep 2 13:31:36 linux kernel: saa7114.c: starting probe for adapter ivtv i2c driver #0 (0x10005)
Sep 2 13:31:36 linux kernel: saa7114.c: detecting saa7114 client on address 0x42
dmesg also reports success:
# dmesg | tail
[<c013569b>] sys_init_module+0xeb/0x1e0
[<c0107dc9>] sysenter_past_esp+0x52/0x79
ivtv: No mem on buf alloc!
ivtv: Buffer alloc failed!
ivtv: Registered v4l2 device, minor 0
ivtv: Registered v4l2 device, minor 32
ivtv: Registered v4l2 device, minor 224
ivtv: Registered v4l2 device, minor 24
ivtv: loaded
Linux finally sees a v4l2 (video 4 linux) device. Note: YAST will not see the card. In order to run the utility packages from ivtv, particularly the tuner script, we needed to install perl and a few dependencies. All of these dependencies can be handled by YAST with the exception of:
perl-Video-ivtv-0.12-1.noarch.rpm (right click to download)
perl-Video-Frequencies-0.03-1.noarch.rpm (right click to download)
We pulled both of these RPMs off ATRPMs.net, but we have included them in the review in case you have difficulty locating them. The ptune-ui.pl utility allows us to change the channels easily for testing our PVR card.
Click to enlarge.
Using the quick and dirty method to capture video, we pulled a few seconds of broadcast to test how well our device was working.
# cat /dev/video0 > /tmp/test.mpg
If we play this test.mpg back with Kaffeine (or some other player), we will get an mpeg2 stream. So far, so good. We used MPlayer to pull a single frame out of the stream, which can be seen below:
# mplayer -frames 1 -vo jpeg outdir=/tmp:quality=100 test.mpg
Click to enlarge.
Keen observers will note that this image is non-interlaced - something that we will discuss later in our analysis.
Just getting SuSE install and ivtv to play nicely took two hours; our total time for installation right now is at 2.25 hours. Opting for a different distribution that supports the PVR card natively would have been a better idea, but we have already gone this far...
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NullSpin - Saturday, September 4, 2004 - link
I can't tell you how long I have been waiting for this article. I have been waiting to buy components for almost a year but did not want to wade into this project with no idea of what hardware was reccomended. I'm also really interested in seeing the process of adding an nfs server into the mix for additional storage.Maybe you could price out a 'quiet' system and the various form factors for htpc's.
Can't wait for part deux.
NS
sisyphus - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
I have just one thing to say about MythTV:http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html
Save yourself some time and grief!
Use KnoppMyth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nnyan - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
Just had another thought, how does MythTV compare to other applications like Freevo?griffy - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
Great job, thanks.In your next article, could you let us know a little more why you chose the hardware you did, and maybe what you think the minimum might be?
Thanks
archcommus87 - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
Wow, goes to show me that there are still topics out there I know NOTHING about. Most of this article was over my head. Is that because I'm not familiar with Linux or something else?Just the whole part about getting the card setup, the commands to run, the Myth database, etc. WHOOSH.
Resh - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
Thanks for replying Kris, but your reply makes me cry. My Hitachi doesn't have a DVI or VGA-in so unless I can get the TV-out on the vid card to work under Linux, I'm dead in the water.If anyone has seen any good directions on making Suse, Fedora, or Mandrake work with the TV-out on currently available nVidia card or Radeon 8500, please let me know! llama at rogers dot com
Kris, if you can cover this in the next, or a third, I'd have your children (although my wife might object). ;-)
Thanks!
Nnyan - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
Cool article. My only complaint is that I would have liked to have read which distros DID work well with MythTV and perphaps the PVR-250. Perphaps in part 2?Thanks to skeptic for the mention of KnoppMyth distro.
JoeNiner - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
Please please please include a KnoppMyth install in a follow up!KristopherKubicki - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
Resh: We only used a PVR-250, so there is no passthrough. We just hooked the DVI out on our GeForce card up to the TV :)Kristopher
meksta - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
mythTV is perhaps the most versatile piece of software I have come across. You can build a system for cheaper if you want. I am running myth on a XP2500+ cpu and Chaintech 7nif2 mobo (built-in s-video out). I also run two el-cheapo tv tuner cards for some simultaneous recordings.With a PVR250, that does hardware encoding, you really don't need a kick ass cpu at all.
I agree it takes a while to set up. But once I had it up and running...it's been happily stable since.