Monday, May 29, 2006

slackware-current and TV-Card

Ok, After having for years a TV Card hooked on one of my motherboard's PCI slots and never using it I decided to configure it and make it usable. My card is an old PixelView PV_BT878P+ (REV .9F) card with a TPI8PSB02D tuner on it, or at least that what it is printed on the tuner :).

It wasn't hard at all. I just open /usr/src/linux-2.6.16.18/Documentation/video4linux/CARDLIST.bttv and the most relative card values for my case were:
16 -> Prolink Pixelview PlayTV (bt878)
37 -> Prolink PixelView PlayTV pro
50 -> Prolink PV-BT878P+4E / PixelView PlayTV PAK / Lenco MXTV-9578 CP
70 -> Prolink Pixelview PV-BT878P+ (Rev.4C,8E)

For the tuner I opened /usr/src/linux-2.6.16.18/Documentation/video4linux/CARDLIST.tuner and since I couldn't find the exact model I tried those values:
tuner=28 - LG PAL_BG+FM (TPI8PSB01D)
tuner=29 - LG PAL_BG (TPI8PSB11D)

To make the modules load correct through hotplug I just created a new file in /etc/modprobe.d/, I named it v4l with those options in it:

# i2c
alias char-major-89 i2c-dev
options i2c-algo-bit bit_test=1

# bttv
alias char-major-81 videodev
alias char-major-81-0 bttv
options bttv card=70 radio=1 tuner=28

card=70 and tuner=28 gave me the best result I think. The signal is a lot weaker than the one I have on my TV and if I remember correct it's also weaker than the one I had in windows years ago, but at least the card works. I use tvtime as a TV application.

What exactly is the problem? the card, the modules, tvtime, me?