How to get a basic TV capture capability working -- Hauppauge PVR-150/250/350

[dibl]

Re: How to get a basic TV capture capability working -- Hauppauge PVR-150/250/35

Wow, thanks for that, Detonate!

I never did complete my project by converting the mpg files to DVDs that would play on anything other than a computer. I had around a dozen VHS tapes, and some of them had 4 or 5 hours of recorded material, so I'll have to find break points and break them up into manageable file sizes. I've got it all on a big hard drive, waiting for time and inspiration to take it the rest of the way to DVDs. I had heard about DeVeDe but never tried it. I used Avidemux for the messing about that I did to make a DVD (and multiple coasters ...), but I was missing the step where you make the ISO, I guess.

Knowing this helps -- thanks!

[Detonate]

Re: How to get a basic TV capture capability working -- Hauppauge PVR-150/250/35

I think the DeVeDe program gives you the option of breaking the files. Mine was small enough to fit on one Dvd without breaking.

[Detonate]

Re: How to get a basic TV capture capability working -- Hauppauge PVR-150/250/350

Another hint. When using DeVeDe, if the file is too large for a standard DVD, lower the bit rate. Small changes in the bit rate make large changes in the file size. I assume that if you lower it too much there will be a loss of quality, but I have lowered a couple by as much as 20% and if there is a loss of quality I can't see it.

I recently changed my satellite TV provider form Direct TV to Dish Network. I had several movies saved on the Direct TV recorder that were important to my grandchildren. I hooked the box up to my PVR 150 and recorded all of those movies, then made DVD's. Works great in both the computer and the DVD player.

When I called direct TV to cancel my service they ingormed me that the equipment belongs to me, and they did not want it back, so I took that box apart and grabbed the hard drive out of it, 160 GB Seagate.

[dibl]

Re: How to get a basic TV capture capability working -- Hauppauge PVR-150/250/350

Thanks Detonate!

Have you ever tried to use the program "Tovid"? It seems to get rave reviews -- I was thinking of trying it as well as Devede.

[Detonate]

Re: How to get a basic TV capture capability working -- Hauppauge PVR-150/250/350

No, I have not tried it. I'll download it and check it out.

[MoonRise]

Re: How to get a basic TV capture capability working -- Hauppauge PVR-150/250/350

Took a while to find this post Dibl! Anyway, my Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 850 (USB) seems to have issues. First of all the ivtv packages don't work with mine. However, found a project here --> http://linuxtv.org/hg/v4l-dvb <-- that was reported to work. Did everything there and it went smoothly. Tried the TVtime and I agree, waste of time. Didn't even know the device was plugged in. VLC however did. Still having issues. Get some error messages from it I don't understand.

Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvb://'. Check the log for details.

And

dvb error: ATSC: setting frontend failed (-1): Invalid argument
dvb error: ATSC: tuning failed
main error: open of `dvb://' failed: could not create access

DMESG gives this which is why I might be having issues, but don't know where to go from here.

[10480.778664] hauppauge_eeprom: hauppauge eeprom: model=72301
[10480.784084] xc5000 0-0061: creating new instance
[10480.786261] xc5000: Successfully identified at address 0x61
[10480.786264] xc5000: Firmware has not been loaded previously
[10480.786266] DVB: registering new adapter (au0828)
[10480.786269] DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Auvitek AU8522 QAM/8VSB Frontend)...
[10480.786594] Registered device AU0828 [Hauppauge HVR850]
[10540.864251] xc5000: waiting for firmware upload (dvb-fe-xc5000-1.1.fw)...
[10540.864257] firmware: requesting dvb-fe-xc5000-1.1.fw
[10540.866478] xc5000: Upload failed. (file not found?)
[10540.866483] xc5000: Unable to initialise tuner
[10540.868557] DVB: adapter 0 frontend 0 frequency 61250 out of range (54000000..858000000)

[Detonate]

Re: How to get a basic TV capture capability working -- Hauppauge PVR-150/250/350

Since this howto was written, there was a major upgrade to VLC. And I have not been able to make it work as easily as the old version. However, I think you can get it going, but my device is a "pvr" device, and I don't have any experience with "hvr" and it is not listed in the pulldown menu for "Capture mode". You might try the "pvr" mode and see if that works. I know that "dvb" is probably the wrong mode.

[dibl]

Re: How to get a basic TV capture capability working -- Hauppauge PVR-150/250/350

Geez, I'd forgotten how much time I spent working to get that PVR-150 to behave. I'm also ashamed to admit I still have not put in the time to figure out how to convert my 140GB of video files to DVD images -- life kind of gets in the way of these things, I guess. It's easy to postpone, since I know the files are sitting there on a hard drive, patiently waiting.

@Moon, it looks like your system still isn't happy with the firmware, from your dmesg output -- it appears one file is missing. Maybe they've changed the hardware design, or something -- I dunno. It seems I recall there were three firmware files required -- but I'm not sure any more. I'd review the process and make sure you've got all the firmware that is needed -- "xc5000-xxx" seems to be missing in action. :P

In recent times, the scanning and webcam packages all wanted to grab the PVR-150 when that was not the device I wanted, and it got to where I couldn't select my scanner at all under 8.10, so I pulled the PVR-150 out of my system. All of which is to say, I can't help much at this point.

[MoonRise]

Re: How to get a basic TV capture capability working -- Hauppauge PVR-150/250/350

I found this. Haven't read through it yet. Can't tell how old it is either. Looks recent though.

http://www.nabble.com/-Bug-40582--NE...p20282569.html

[dibl]

Re: How to get a basic TV capture capability working -- Hauppauge PVR-150/250/350

Yep -- there's a link there for your dvb-fe-xc5000-1 firmware -- that might solve the driver issue.

[MoonRise]

Re: How to get a basic TV capture capability working -- Hauppauge PVR-150/250/350

Yep and it worked great! DMESG shows that when it is plugged into the USB port, everything is loaded AOK, no error messages there. However I still can't get VLC to use it. DVB is the correct device. AFAIK I have all the settings there correct. I'll have to look further into its error message.

dvb error: ATSC: setting frontend failed (-1): Invalid argument
dvb error: ATSC: tuning failed
main error: open of `dvb://' failed: could not create access

[Detonate]

Re: How to get a basic TV capture capability working -- Hauppauge PVR-150/250/350

Moonrise, did you ever solve this problem? I am currently trying to get my Hvr-1250 to work and I am getting the same error messages.

[MoonRise]

Re: How to get a basic TV capture capability working -- Hauppauge PVR-150/250/350

Not fully. The Terrestrial Digital (ATSC) works great. The analogue (I believe NTSC) I have never figured out how to access. I need that to be able to see devices like a VCR or such that outputs in that format. I do however install "linux-firmware-nonfree" in order to get to view digital over the air TV. I also use MeTV to be able to view TV. Do have to scan your own "channels.conf" file as well.

[Detonate]

Re: How to get a basic TV capture capability working -- Hauppauge PVR-150/250/350

I'm trying to get the feed from my Dish Network HDTV DVR to work. The feed is via coax on channel 73. I am using VLC. The device is recognized at /dev/dvb/adaptor0.

This is what I get:

floyd@maverick64:~$ vlc dvb dvb://frequency=517250 :dvb-adapter=0 :dvb-bandwidth=0 :file-caching=300VLC media player 1.1.4 The Luggage (revision exported)
Blocked: call to unsetenv("DBUS_ACTIVATION_ADDRESS")
Blocked: call to unsetenv("DBUS_ACTIVATION_BUS_TYPE")
[0x905120] main libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
Blocked: call to setlocale(6, "")
Blocked: call to sigaction(17, 0x7fb28e2b0b20, 0x7fb28e2b0a80)
Warning: call to signal(13, 0x1)
Warning: call to signal(13, 0x1)
Warning: call to srand(1299403261)
Warning: call to rand()
Blocked: call to setlocale(6, "")

(process:15154): Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library.
Using the fallback 'C' locale.
Warning: call to signal(13, 0x1)
Warning: call to signal(13, 0x1)
libdvdnav: Using dvdnav version 4.1.3
libdvdread: Using libdvdcss version 1.2.10 for DVD access
libdvdread: Can't stat /home/floyd/dvb
No such file or directory
libdvdnav: vm: failed to open/read the DVD
[0xa6fad0] filesystem access error: cannot open file /home/floyd/dvb (No such file or directory)
[0x7fb28032e3c0] main input error: open of `file:///home/floyd/dvb' failed: (null)
[0xa747f0] dvb access error: ATSC: setting frontend failed (-1): Invalid argument
[0xa747f0] dvb access error: ATSC: tuning failed
[0xa703e0] main input error: open of `dvb://frequency=517250' failed: (null)
Warning: call to rand()
Warning: call to rand()
Warning: call to rand()
Warning: call to rand()

I'm completely lost.