[Mr_T]

Ok Please be gentel this is my first post.

I am trying to setup what i think should be a very easy configuration.

Ubuntu 12.10
XBMC - Frontend
tvheadend - pvr
hvr-1600 using the sVideo port

I want to have my Bell satellite receiver connected to the svideo port on my 1600. I don't need EPG, i don't need to change channels, nothing a simple signal from the receiver to my pc.

I have tried everything i can find on the web to get it working.

Ubuntu sees and registers the card no problem
tvheadend sees the card as well but i don't know how to tell it to use svideo port vs tuner port. I did use v4l-ctl commands but no matter what i changed it never made a difference.

I am not sure what you might want from logs or configs so please ask.

I know the card works because when I use it in Windows it works perfectly, but i hate windows and just knowing that it is running in the background makes me sick...

Please if anyone can point me in a direction i would really appreciate it.

[tazr42]

Hiya,

quick reply with no real info in front of me, but two questions:
1) does the card have an MPEG encoder? I believe it's a requirement for analog cards.
2) do you get any output? snow would show it's working but on the tuner input.
3) is it just an analog card? if it has dvb as well I hear that locks the other inputs out.

personally I've got a script which sets the input on my pvr 150 and then launches XBMC that runs on boot, but I've had to put a delay in it as tvheadend sets it when it starts so needs to be done after that. not sure if it can be done via tvheadend.

[tcope]

I am needing almost the exact same thing.
I have been googling for hours, and asking in
irc with no luck. All support I have found has
been geared for use as a tuner. All I need is
a way to input an external video/audio composite
source through this HPV-1600 card and view it
through xbmc . Icing would be to also have pause
forw/rev features with it as well. However just making
it work at all would be great.

[Mr_T]

Tazr42,

1. Yes it has a mpeg encoder built on the card.
2. I can get a partial picture it reminds me of the old dial tv's and you were not quite on the correct channel or something. I will try to get a picture and post it.
3. It has dvb but i do not have a source that uses that connection.

I was thinking that i would have to write a script to set the input and channel etc. on boot because every time i boot up the default input is tuner instead of s-video.

Thank you for your reply!

[tazr42]

Hi Mr T,

I don't know the official way, but what I do is....

Firstly, I've got multiple adapters, do I have a udev rule to link it to /dev/pvr150:

Code:

$ cat /etc/udev/rules.d/10-dvb-cards.rules
SUBSYSTEM=="video4linux",ATTR{name}=="ivtv0 encoder MPG", SYMLINK+="pvr150"

The SUBSYSTEM and ATTR parts are just matching the parameters which you can get from a udev walk:

Code:

udevadm info -q all --attribute-walk -n /dev/video0

This means that I always know what device the PVR card will come up as. If you've only got the one /dev/videoX device, then no need to even think about this bit.

Then on boot, instead of running XBMC, I run my script:

Code:

$ cat xbmcLauncher.sh
#!/bin/bash

#Actions before XBMC Starts:
sleep 20

#Ensure PVR is on Composite:
v4l2-ctl --set-input=2 --device=/dev/pvr150

DISPLAY=:0 xrandr --newmode  "1920x1080"  84.72  1360 1424 1568 1776  768 769 772 795  -HSync +Vsync
DISPLAY=:0 xrandr --output HDMI2 --addmode HDMI2 1920x1080
DISPLAY=:0 xrandr --output HDMI2 --mode 1920x1080

RETURNVAL=1
while [ $RETURNVAL -ne 0 ]; do
    sleep 5
    /usr/bin/xbmc
    RETURNVAL=$?
done

The loop is just so XBMC will always restart in the event of a crash.

The xrandr lines are because my intel graphics guess on a resolution if the TV isn't switched on, so it forces it to set the correct resolution before XBMC starts.

And the important part is the v4l2 command. This is setting the correct input.

If you're getting a bit of a picture, then it sounds like it's using the analog input, which is a good start, which means you should be able to find a v4l2 command that will change it correctly. If you investigate the man pages you'll find ways to list all the outputs etc.
(v4l2-ctl --list-inputs) (If you don't specify the device name, it defaults to /dev/video0)

If you've got the snowy old analog style picture going through XBMC, you should be able to stop the stream, run the v4l2 command(s) and then restart the stream to see the effects. Running the commands while XBMC is streaming from that card will just result in v4l2 exiting with an error.

Note! The sleep is so that TVHeadend will boot up first, set the input as it wants, and then this script will set it to the correct input for when XBMC starts. If you don't do it before XBMC starts, then the client could be viewing that channel, which means you're not able to modify the settings.

Perhaps there's a way to configure what v4l commands get sent to configure an adapter, but I haven't found where yet.

.........sorry, this turned into a bit of a brain dump......guess what I've been doing these last few days ;-) Hope you can find something useful in the above!

Let me know how you get on.

[jorge.leitao]

Hi, I'm also interested in this. I have DVB-T in my country but there are only 4 (very bad) channels. So I want to use my cable TV connection with lots of analog channels, either with RF or Composite.

I bought a AVerTV Volar HX Hybrid tunner card (USB) but TVHeadend only detects the "A827[0] DVB-T" adapter.

My dmesg:

[ 7.781009] AVerTV Volar HX AX MAX version 0.10 loaded
[ 8.088123] A827 registered V4L2 device video0[video]
[ 8.088260] A827 registered V4L2 device vbi0[vbi]
[ 8.088387] A827 registered V4L2 device radio0[radio]
[ 8.088750] A827 registered ALSA sound card 2
[ 8.088781] DVB: registering new adapter (A827[0] DVB-T)
[ 8.088788] A827[0] DVB-T registered DVB adapter 0
[ 8.089231] DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (A827[0] DVB-T)...

Did anyone manage to put analog tv working with XBMC? Can you make a small tutorial?

Thank you!