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Advice on tuner for HTPC/DVR, please

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Advice on tuner for HTPC/DVR, please

Postby Reticent » Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:42 am

I want to use a Dell Studio Hybrid PC for recording OTA ATSC TV and viewing on a Sharp 37" LCD display (currently via HDMI cable). It's not connected to the www (yet).
With PenDriveLinux'd pens, I can boot UEv2.9 (sound seems ok) and UEv3.0 (no sound, tuner identified). Both correctly ID my display, though starting with the wrong resolution.
I'm not familiar with Linux, know Windows XP more than I like, don't want to know Vista, & remember DOS batch. I've heard some good about Windoze 7; I'm leery of Micro$lopt.
I have an eVGA inDtube usb tuner & remote, but how do I get xc3028L-v36.fw "found" :?:
[Update - copy file to /lib/firmware ... then ... um ...?
Last edited by Reticent on Wed Feb 01, 2012 1:43 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Advice on tuner for HTPC/DVR, please

Postby billhedrick » Fri Jan 20, 2012 9:54 am

there are a couple issues, first since XP is a 10 year old OS (!) it's about as well supported and bug free as a Windows product can be. Also the jump from Ubuntu 10.10 (Ultimate Edition 2.9) to 11.04 (UE3- though it is minty) isn't a clean one, I noticed that the older hardware, especially sound cards, are not well supported.

That being said here are a couple things to try: for the resolution issue, go to System/Hardware drivers (or something like that I am posting from 2.6.3) and do a search for video drivers. For the sound issue, do a search for OSS sound in the Ultimate Edition forum here. We had some discussion last year when I was trying to make my sound work with 3.0

Good luck!




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Re: Advice on tuner for HTPC/DVR, please

Postby Reticent » Fri Jan 20, 2012 5:40 pm

Please bear in mind (sorry if I repeat, can't find signature in User Control Panel):

I borrow an eMachines C6415 running Windows XP SP3 for internet activity

I'd like to set up a Dell Studio Hybrid PC for TV recording/DVR, OTA ATSC, closed-caption ( maybe later streaming, IPTV, www-surfing, etc )
. (I have Windows Vista SP2 x32 install disc(s) but am not eager to go that way)
. I have an eVGA inDtube usb tv tuner with remote
. For testing, I've been booting Ultimate Edition Live from usb flash pendrive (see http://www.PenDriveLinux.com)
.. either UEv3.0 (detects the tuner, but doesn't load its firmware) (and no sound)
.. or UEv2.9 (sound starts okay, may be fragile) (does it detect tuner?)

The resolution issue is minor - for Sharp 37"/32" LCD's, the default s/b 1360x768, but does 1280x720 instead.
I can mouse off-screen and find Preferences/Monitors.
I suspect that's a DebIan bug, but where do I report it? And my Sharp LCD's 32", not 37")

UEv3.0 detects the tuner while booting - I'm not sure earlier version(s) do. If there a boot log, or a way to slow the boot display so I can catch that?
Is there a boot parameter to load firmware from the flash stick after tuner detection?

Would this be easier if I had a different tuner?
Would this be easier if I use an older/earlier version of Ultimate Edition? or a different distro?
Would this be easier if I install Ultimate Edition instead of running a live (temporary) system?
Would this be easier if I connect it to the internet?
...
Or are my choices limited to "Go fish (Giggle)" or "get Microsoft Windows 7"?

I realize it's hard to produce one user guide or reference manual for so many different versions of a complex system for so many possible readers. Back in the day, I just RTM.
But now, I've found most "manual"s are way too dumbed-down to do any good, often lacking links to definitions, explanations or background subject matter. :roll:
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Re: Advice on tuner for HTPC/DVR, please

Postby WitchyWays » Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:53 pm

Hey Reticent, I'm going through same thing; setting up a tv tuner card. Mine is a Haupauge card. I looked up your card and it's discontinued; as far as buying one. Also I didn't see anything about Quam as far as signals. It says it will run on mmce up to Vista. I 've found some of my drivers (for mp3 devices) will still run on win7, even though Vista drivers. P.S. mmce is microsoft media center edition. It's incorporated in win media center now. OK , now; we both have a problem as far as if you want cable HD. I can either go OA with an antenna, which I still have to buy( it needs to be digital) or 3 other options. 1 rent another cable box. 2 rent an adapter box(so the card can interpret signal) 3 split the signal coming out of one of the boxes (which means moving computer next to tv) OK 4 running wire through house from box to card.Can we go for 5 look up your card and see if thier are any Linux drivers for it. How about 6, yea I know; so much for 3 :lol: You can find Linux media center programs everywhere. XMBC, Myth TV, Mediabuntu (maybe not the whole OS, but I think you can download TV program seperate), and many,many more. I think Ultimate Edition has a couple. If you can buy an updated card. About Vista, do you remember ME ? (many errors) Millenium. It's like that. Don't do it. Many ppl. went back to XP from Vista; for a reason! I have not had any problems with win7, I just prefer Ultimate Edition Linux. If you look in the right places you Will be able to configure your card. As far as I know these are our options. Hopefully this helps, good luck WitchyWays out.
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Re: Advice on tuner for HTPC/DVR, please

Postby jim » Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:49 pm

Here's a link to somebody who appears to have it working.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... 879&page=2

Is your Live Ultimate Edition stick persistent? If you're not familiar with that term it just means that it will remember changes to your Live Ultimate Edition install after reboot. If it is persistent then it should work. If not it might work better if you install.

If you're using OTA you should be able to use any regular old antenna. Let us know if it works or you need more help. Good luck.
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Re: HTPC/DVR tuner update

Postby Reticent » Sat Jan 28, 2012 3:52 am

(Tried to get Myth'buntu going - don't think it's ready for consumers. And no M.)
With UEv2.9, copying xc3028L-v36.fw to /lib/firmware/ seems to help detection,
but I'm a long way from actually being able to use this thing. TVtime isn't cooperating.
The power button on the remote brings up LogOut options ... !?

I remember WinME, the successor to Win98 and antecedent to WinVista.
I suspect it's MS's way to soften up the market before an incremental upgrade.
Bog old hardware down with high-consumption bling. (Unlike E17 ;) )
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Re: HTPC/DVR update

Postby Reticent » Sun Jan 29, 2012 4:47 am

After XP install (in logical NTFS partition C:, booting from 2Gb FAT32 primary, by habit), I installed UEv3.0 (from pendriveLinux'd Universal USB installer), then wiped that partition, made sure XP still booted, installed UEv2.9, copied xc3028L-v36.fw to /lib/firmware/ - both times there was brief disk activity after the restart request at the end of the Ultimate Edition install, then the GRUB menu on the next boot. (Hmm - was that disk activity storing GRUB in MBR?)
Of course, just because the tuner is correctly guessed at, and there's no complaint about firmware not found, that's not likely enough to get OTA ATSC tv working ... :roll:
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Re: Advice on tuner for HTPC/DVR, please

Postby jim » Sun Jan 29, 2012 2:39 pm

Sorry to hear you're having so much trouble with it. Here's a link that I hope will help you.

http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/EVGA_inDtube

It looks like you have to adjust the channel frequency list to get it to find channels.
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Re: Advice on tuner for HTPC/DVR, please

Postby Reticent » Sun Jan 29, 2012 4:29 pm

How do I get it to look for channels in the first place? I'm not well-versed in Linux/DebIan/Ubuntu/Mint/Ultimate Edition/... yet. It picked up a few after a scan, but they look worse than analog during a major storm.
Last edited by Reticent on Wed Feb 01, 2012 1:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Advice on tuner for HTPC/DVR, please

Postby jim » Tue Jan 31, 2012 6:07 pm

If you're still using TVTime here are a couple links to check out.

http://tvtime.sourceforge.net/usage.html

http://askubuntu.com/questions/45357/ho ... -usb-tuner
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