FreeBSD support for modern TV tuners?

Sun Dec 26 00:47:25 UTC 2010

Hi!

In article <4D161D9C.6030100 at gmail.com> you write:
>Thanks for the response! :-)
>
>
>See below:
>
>On 12/25/2010 10:39 AM, grarpamp wrote:
>> Hope no one minds the slight change of subject line
>> as it really comes down to drivers. Then you can plop
>> MythTV, etc on top.
>>
>> If you know of more support / work on HD, please add it :)
>>
>> All the current Hauppauge US boards are here. No idea about
>> PAL, other than some chips include that as a bonus.
>> http://hauppauge.com/site/products/prods_hvr_internal.html
>>
>> No idea about other manufacturers.
>>
>> Here's the only FreeBSD CX88 drivers/projects I've found:
>> http://corona.homeunix.net/cx88wiki
>>
 Yes that's in ports as:

	http://www.freshports.org/multimedia/cx88

(and afaik at least the dvb-s(2) hw some of those cards have still
isn't supported.)

>> I've not yet found anyone in FreeBSD land working on the
>> HVR-2250 / SAA7164 / NXP NGene:
>> http://www.tridentmicro.com/producttree/tv/pc-tv/saa/saa7164/
>>
>> There's this guy under Linux, don't know about FreeBSD for it:
>> http://pchdtv.com/ HD-5500
>>
>> Here's some Linux drivers/projects to contact/port if need be:
>> http://kernellabs.com/hg
>> http://www.steventoth.net/blog/products/hvr-2250/
>>
>> Some related FreeBSD items:
>> http://www.selasky.org/hans_petter/video4bsd/

 That's webcamd, see below.

>> http://video4bsd.sourceforge.net/ Fritz Katz, frtzkatz at yahoo
>> http://wiki.freebsd.org/HDTV
>> http://www.freebsd.org/releases/8.1R/hardware.html
>>
>> Lastly, would a HVR-2250 as bounty help?
>>    
>
>If the card is supported under FreeBSD then I would be much inclined to 
>go for it!
>
>
>I mean does it have FM radio and DAB capabilities too??
>
>I checked the site for it:
>
>http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hvr2250.html
>
>
>It says it's got FM tuner but DAB?? Is that streamed over DVB-T?? As in 
>for North America ATSC or UK would be FreeView?

 While you are looking for pci cards with native FreeBSD drivers
don't forget to also look at webcamd,

	http://www.freshports.org/multimedia/webcamd

which should let you use many of those usb dvb (and atsc?) tuners
that are also supported on Linux since webcamd essentially runs
Linux usb v4l/dvb drivers on FreeBSD in userland:

	http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-C_USB_Devices
	http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-S_USB_Devices
	http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-S2_USB_Devices
	http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-T_USB_Devices
	http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/ATSC_USB_Devices

(and there are also analog usb video devices that may work tho
those are probably less interesting nowadays:

	http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Video_via_USB
)

 Another advantage of webcamd is it provides essentially the same
/dev/dvb/adapterX (resp. /dev/videoX for analog) interface as on
Linux so software from Linux can be used with less porting effort,
and indeed I have used at least the mplayer, kaffeine, and vlc ports
with webcamd and usb dvb tuners (and w_scan and szap-s2), and of
course :) also my vdr ports that I posted a Call for testing for
not too long ago:

	http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-multimedia/2010-November/011392.html

(and others have used mythtv too.)

 I'm in europe so I can't test atsc (and know little about it), but
at least theoretically what is supported of that in e.g. vdr (or
mythtv?) should work with webcamd too, here are two related threads
I found on the vdr list:

	http://linuxtv.org/pipermail/vdr/2010-October/023777.html
	http://linuxtv.org/pipermail/vdr/2010-October/023793.html

 Tuners I have personally tested:

- dvb-s2: PCTV 452e Sat HDTV Pro USB driven by:

	/usr/ports/multimedia/webcamd/work/webcamd-0.1.18/v4l-dvb/linux/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-usb/pctv452e.c

  Seems to work alright for me now, including for (fta) dvb-s2 hdtv.
  (The same driver appears to also support TechnoTrend TT-connect
   S2-3600 and TechnoTrend TT-connect S2-3650 CI so those have good
   chances of working with webcamd too; note this driver is imported
   from the Linux s2-liplianin dvb tree because it's still(?) not
   in mainline Linux v4l-dvb.)

- dvb-s2: TeVii S660 driven by:

	/usr/ports/multimedia/webcamd/work/webcamd-0.1.18/v4l-dvb/linux/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-usb/dw2102.c

  Seems to be very picky wrt on which usb controllers it actually
  works, (like it made even Linux' `lspci' hang on an onboard ATI
  SB700 until I unplugged it again, and you can find reports on the
  web of other users having problems too) - and even after I found
  a pci usb card that it works on with Linux it still wouldn't do
  anything useful on FreeBSD with webcamd.

- dvb-t: MSI DIGIVOX Duo and LC-Power LC-USB-DVBT driven by:

	/usr/ports/multimedia/webcamd/work/webcamd-0.1.18/v4l-dvb/linux/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-usb/af9015.c

  (btw variations of this chipset seem to be in a lot of at least
  the cheaper dvb-t tuners currently being sold here.)

  The MSI DIGIVOX Duo needs a workaround (patch) I described in this
  posting:

	http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-multimedia/2010-December/011509.html

  and even with that applied only one of its two tuners can actually
  be used or I get stream corruptions.  The LC-Power LC-USB-DVBT
  is a single tuner device and works as is, but note there is/was
  different older(?) hw sold under the same name that is not af9015(6)
  but ec168 i.e. it would be driven by

	/usr/ports/multimedia/webcamd/work/webcamd-0.1.18/v4l-dvb/linux/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-usb/ec168.c

  which _probably_ will also work but I haven't tested it.  (hdtv
  also not tested as there is none broadcast via dvb-t here, but I
  see no reason why that shouldn't work too where it's available.)

 And finally, some links are also here:

	http://people.freebsd.org/~nox/dvb/

 HTH,
	Juergen