Text 4736, 56 rader
Skriven 2005-12-20 23:08:06 av Maurice Kinal (1:261/38.9)
     Kommentar till en text av Russell Tiedt
Ärende: audio/video capture
===========================
Hey Russell!

Looks like the rumour I heard about ivtv and v4l was bang on as indicated by
the README in ivtv-0.4.1 which was just released;

---------------------------------- ye ol' cut `n paste ----------------------
NOTE 1: Starting with ivtv-0.4.1 kernel hotplug support is used to load the
firmware if the kernel supports this. Firmware hotplug support appeared in
kernel 2.4.23. The names for the firmware files also changed in this release to
keep them compatible with the 0.5.x series which is preparing the driver for
inclusion in the linux kernel.

NOTE 2: The PVR150/500 inputs (e.g. tuner, composite 0/1 or S-Video 0/1 input)
were reordered. You will have to correct the input setting of applications such
as MythTV that make use of this.

NOTE 3: If you have a kernel >= 2.6.15 then only the ivtv modules are built.
The supporting audio/video modules are now part of that kernel and so the
kernel modules should be used instead of the ivtv-supplied ones. Make sure you
have removed any old ivtv-based msp3400, saa7115, saa7127, cx25840, cs53l32a,
wm8775, tuner, tveeprom and tda9887 module. It may be easier to switch to the
0.5.2 or up version of the ivtv-driver after upgrading to a kernel >= 2.6.15.


IMPORTANT: Instructions on where to obtain the firmware files and how to
           install them can be found here:
               http://www.ivtvdriver.org/index.php/Firmware
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although I am not a big fan of firmware the above stategy works with ivtv-0.4.0
and a 2.6.12.6 kernel and then replacing some of the modules with the ivtv
modules compiled from the ivtv-0.4.0 source.  Also their apps work where the
hardware is actually there, such as ivtvctl to set up the inputs if needed.  I
don't like the default tuner setup so I use /etc/rc.d/rc.local to change the
default video input to the composite connection.  The firmware I put into
/lib/modules but I think they propably should be in either /usr/lib/firmware
or, better yet, /lib/firmware, so that hotplug can successfully load them at
bootup.  The way I have it now works okay but I do plan to check the above
strategy out soon.  I am just waiting for the REAL 2.6.15 kernel instead of the
rc patches.  If it isn't already on the kernel.org site I am sure the wait
won't be too much longer.

If I were going to build a digital graphical box today I probably would go with
the WinTV PVR pci card as part of that box.  It works good with the ivtv stuff
and doesn't require any more disk space then the mpeg2 end result which by
default is roughly 4G/hour of recorded material.  Comparing that with a USB
capture device and Windows, it requires roughly 60G's of working space to
record the average movie and the end result isn't that great.  Might work okay
for the less descriminating user who likes to waste valuable cpu time but to be
perfectly honest I wouldn't bother.  I like my cpu's as is thank you very much.

Life is good,
Maurice

--- Msged/LNX 6.1.2
 * Origin: The Pointy Stick Society XV - Linux Point (1:261/38.9)