Mike Isely wrote: > On Thu, 21 Feb 2008, dan wrote: > > >> Thanks for the reply...I had read the ref'd page(s)...but as you have >> found its hard to write it and its even harder for a stubborn old man to >> read it with any degree of comprehension... Thanks for holding my >> hand..or as we used to say ''''RTFM""". Off subject but you will >> appreciate: My first technical training was; age 18, navy comic books at >> naval training center for electronics...This worked as I had no math, >> science or knowledge... >> Second instance; age 26, junior engineer for aerospace co----They >> supplied tech writer with 30 years experience to turn my design into >> tech manual for air force...Last (recent); age 72, puppy linux, >> mepis....these have built short, concise, location (problem ?) specific >> popups with well written, short, descriptive items that really help >> those of us that can't or wont read in the depth you have done for the >> driver you built.....This is not a critisism of your documentation, just >> to show understanding of your frustration..It would be wonderful of you >> could access an old experienced tech writer....but again "that's linux"..... >> >> I spent the morning reading and trying to get tv working...I tried >> kdetv, kmplayer, mplayer, kino..etc. but I have been unable to set it >> up(or too lazy to find the setups to set it up). I googled and forumed >> and wikied for a easy way to setup mythtv....some referrals to synaptic >> appear but my mepis 7 install does not download any mythtv packages. I >> downloaded the tarball from mythtv site and one day may try to unball >> and compile??? it. >> > > One significant issue that you can't escape is that the pvrusb2 driver > emits an mpeg2 video stream via the V4L API. In order for an app to use > this it has to be able to handle mpeg2. And there are precious few V4L > apps that can do this - just xawtv and mythtv are the only two I know > about. There are some other apps that can also just "read" a random > path and decode mpeg2 from that - this is how mplayer can be made to > work. Unfortunately that's about it. > > There's a much larger set of video apps that can decode mpeg2 from the > DVB API. But unfortunately this driver doesn't use the DVB API. I'd > like very much to "fix" that issue, and there's been some progress along > this line, but DVB is a complex beast and there are some aspects to it > (like it really is meant for true digital TV receivers) that may yet > scuttle this ability. I'm still learning however... > > > >> Tried mplayer (yes, w/o the kde)....results: >> >> > > [...] > > In amongst all that noise (mplayer output is very noisy), I see this: > > >> MPEG-PS file format detected. >> VIDEO: MPEG2 720x480 (aspect 2) 29.970 fps 8000.0 kbps (1000.0 kbyte/s) >> > > [...] > > So it looks like it worked for you. > > >> Don't understand what this means or at least at a loss as to what to try. >> > > mplayer tries to open and do a lot of things, and it gets noisy if > certain things don't work. But it's not fatal. For example, mplayer > will try to talk to LIRC so you can use an IR remote with it, but if it > fails to open a channel to LIRC it complains loudly (and then goes on > without it). That's OK. Another thing is that when you stream a > real-time feed like this, there's really no "beginning" to it - mplayer > just starts getting data at some point. So it may take a second or so > for mplayer to lock on. That's ok too. > > Did you get a picture with it? You still might not have since you > didn't try to tune the device. When the driver comes up it will by > default first try to tune US broadcast frequency channel 7. If you have > an antenna connected and there *is* a channel 7 in your area then you > should have seen something. > > >> >> I am using kernel 2.6.22-1-mepis-smp >> > > I am unfamiliar with mepis, but assuming they've just repackaged the > vanilla 2.6.22 kernel then that should be fine. > > > >> It looks like I will have to use mplayer if I get tv...I suspect I have >> no tv channels or freq tables spec'd...but don't know what you mean by >> using Sysfs to control it.. I looked at your info but cannot figure >> what I type at term or ???? >> > > There's another page on the site that talks about sysfs. See here: > > http://www.isely.net/pvrusb2/usage.html#sysfs > > Basically "Sysfs" in this context is a small directory hierarchy where > each file is actually a virtual node that directly controls an aspect of > the driver. By cat'ing files in that area you can inspect driver state > and by echo'ing new values into files there you can control driver > state. Look at that page now and see if it makes more sense. > > You should also be able to use xawtv, but you're going to have to build > it first since you need a 4.x version of it. > > Of course, the real use for this driver is mythtv. I *have* built > mythtv from sources in the distant past, but I've long since given up on > that particular form of self-torture. I run Debian here and instead > install mythtv from prebuilt Debian packages available at > www.debian-multimedia.org. Since I don't know about mepis, I don't know > what packaging style it expects. But in your shoes I'd probably be > hunting around mythtv.org (in addition to perhaps a google search like > mepis+mythtv) for some answers. > > -Mike > > Thanks again and again.... Mepis is debian based and uses synaptic which makes it easier for us lazy old ones.....
I do not get video with mplayer, reports error opening video_out device (-vo) It will take me some time to absorb your new info....note; kmplayer shows gray then blue screen then it breaks to small narrow screen. it also has a console view and configurable ch/freq setup screen and may be easier for me to use. I will decide today if I try mythtv or continue to try mplayer or compile xawtv. _______________________________________________ pvrusb2 mailing list [email protected] http://www.isely.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pvrusb2
