PVR-350 and the pvr250 port - report

[Torfinn Ingolfsen]

Hello,

It was asked on this list if my PVR-350 card worked with the pvr250
port / driver.
Here are the results.
System:
root at kg-quiet# uname -a
FreeBSD kg-quiet.kg4.no 6.1-STABLE FreeBSD 6.1-STABLE #10: Wed Oct 11 19:49:47 CEST 2006     root at kg-quiet.kg4.no:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/QUIET  amd64

>From /var/log/messages after 'kldload cxm_iic' and 'kldload cxm':
Oct 11 23:21:17 kg-quiet kernel: cxm0: <Conexant iTVC15 MPEG Coder> mem 0xf8000000-0xfbffffff irq
 20 at device 0.0 on pci2
Oct 11 23:21:17 kg-quiet kernel: cxm_iic0: <Conexant iTVC15 / iTVC16 I2C controller> on cxm0
Oct 11 23:21:17 kg-quiet kernel: iicbb0: <I2C bit-banging driver> on cxm_iic0
Oct 11 23:21:17 kg-quiet kernel: iicbus0: <Philips I2C bus> on iicbb0 master-only
Oct 11 23:21:17 kg-quiet kernel: cxm0: Philips FM1216ME MK3 tuner
Oct 11 23:21:17 kg-quiet kernel: cxm0: SAA7115 rev 1 video decoder
Oct 11 23:21:17 kg-quiet kernel: cxm0: MSP4418G-B3 audio decoder
Oct 11 23:21:17 kg-quiet kernel: cxm0: IR Remote
Oct 11 23:21:17 kg-quiet kernel: cxm0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
Oct 11 23:21:20 kg-quiet kernel: cxm0: encoder firmware version 0x2050032
Oct 11 23:21:20 kg-quiet kernel: cxm0: decoder firmware version 0x2020023

I can then use pvr250-setchannel like this:
pvr250-setchannel -t -g 720x576
pvr250-setchannel -m 4 196.25

For some reason, pvr250-setchannel -m 4 196.25 (or some other frequency) fails some times. It goes like this; if I run the command with the frequency 196.25, it succeeds. I then change to another frequncy, which also succeds. But some times, it fails, and that might be on a frequency that was working just a minute ago.

and after that I can use 'mplayer /dev/cxm0' (or gmplayer, if I want a gui).
For some reason, mplayer fails sometimes, with "seek failed".

Also, the picture quality is very bad most of the time, with the occasional momentarily *totally* *crisp* picture.
Lots of interference and a "blurry" picture.
Whether this has something to do with my cabling or with the PVR-350 itself, I cannot tell. But I don't see such bad quality on the recordings from my KnoppMyth backend, which is on the same cable via a T-junction split). It does have a PVR-500 card instead, so ther is a difference. Oh, I'm using analog cable as my signal source.
-- 
Regards, 
Torfinn Ingolfsen,
Norway