OS4 TV software

@Spirantho

I have been following this thread with interest.
I'm in the same boat as others.
I have a Sam board in a small case, so I need to find either a low profile card or a 3.3 volt riser.

@Spirantho
V0.14
OK. I just changed my source.
A portable dvd player.
Seems to alot better.

Buffered plays nice and green.

Direct has a better picture with green bars running down it but they are tighter than before.

None- plays slightly slow but i do get the full picture with no artifacts or anything ruining the picture but if i do something else the picture freezes. I can still close the window and carry on.

Definately a lot stabler than before. Its still running while i`m typing this.



Now i`ve tried enabling interrupts on Buffered and apart from cpu cycles being gobbled up it the best picture yet-as good as could be i guess.

Buffered-Interrupts enabled and fullscreen works well but i couldn`t escape out without reseting the Amiga.

@Spirantho

blimey your working hard on this - I'd only just downloaded 0.13 when this one popped up !

oh - check your email...

@spirantho

Doctor Who Carnival of Monsters has never looked so good.

@Spirantho

I know that you're still working on getting the basics up and running, but when/if you move on to creating a PVR type app, please do NOT make it anything like MythTV.

I tried mythbuntu recently, and:
- After installation, the TV-out didn't work because the open-source NVidia drivers suck, and they didn't put the free NVidia drivers on the CD. I had to bring the PC upstairs in order to connect it to the internet and download the driver (hint mythbuntu developers: most of us don't care if the drivers are open-source or just free, we just want something that works properly).
- The main menu doesn't even have a "watch TV" entry, it's hidden away
- There is no way to just record something right away. Watching TV will record, but it will be broken up into half-hour segments, unless you have TV listings (which are not available in New Zealand)
- There's a lot of messing around in order to even have any channels to watch. This includes quitting MythTV in order to load up the config program.
- Set up is really fiddly.
- Simple things like switching to composite in, instead of the built in tuner require trawling the internet and running the separate config program in order to get it to work
- It won't automatically detect a plugged in USB drive and use the videos off it
- The record volume was really low, and there were no prefs (that I could find), in order to adjust it

In short, it failed to live up to expectations, and it is not particularly user-friendly, at least not if you want to anything other than record predefined shows off a schedule (assuming that you have the schedule).

Here's the fundamental design principles that I think such a program should have:
- Try to picture how an average person would use it, with just a remote control; no keyboard, no mouse, just the remote.
- If anything is harder to do with the PVR app, than with a typical VCR/TV + remote, then it's not designed correctly.

My apologies for the rant, but mythbuntu has seriously wasted my time. I don't really like ripping into someone else's hard work, but it's no where near as good as is claimed.

Hans

@Hans

The reason that it's so complicated is because different manufacturers have different tuner chips attached to their card, and there's not always a way to tell what's there in software.

Having said that it sounds like most of the problem is just in the GUI!

You needn't worry, though. I believe in making things as simple as possible (without compromised features, of course).

The things that you list though should have been done by the programmer when the beta testers recommended it. If that didn't happen then either the beta testers weren't very good, or else the programmer was working to a deadline. As I'm doing my program in my spare time, obviously the latter isn't a problem!

@Spirantho

It's good to see you working on this.

I don't have a suitable card yet, is there a compatibility list somewhere, for those wanting to buy a card which works with your software?

@COBRA

Nope, but if you get the same card as I do you have a good chance of compatibility! I have:

Win/TV (Bt848) - quite an old card, about 1999 I think.
Win/TV Go! (Bt878) - slightly newer.
Win/TV Go! (Cx23881) - I think this is a newer version of the above.
Win/TV HVR-1300 (Cx23882) - This card has DVB-T, an MPEG encoder and the analogue tuner.
KMedia AV/DV/TV (Cx23883) - Cost me ?20 on Scan.

All of the above cards work, but I still can't get interrupts on the Cx2388x. Better picture quality, though, and doesn't hang the machine solid when the video input is bad (e.g. it's not tuned and you've left it on tuner input).

If you want to run on a Sam, make sure it's 3.3V - only Cx2388x cards will support this; My Cx23881 Go! and HVR-1300 both work, and I have my HVR-1300 in my Sam which uses the case AmigaKit sells as standard - but I had to briefly take the PSU out to fit it in!

If you get another card, and it has a Bt848, Bt878, Cx23881, Cx23882 or Cx23883 chipset, though, it should work.

@Spirantho

OK, so basically the Cx2388x cards are the newer, better ones, right?

I think that it would be a good idea to compile a compatibility list and include it in the AmiTV documentation, to help people find a card they can use with it.

ALL: Anyone else successfully using some cards which were not listed by Spirantho?

@COBRA

the first problem is to found Cx2388x cards low profile for SAM with small and silent small case like mine (mapower KC or Red One).

In general fact, SAM users are verry proud to have small and silent case but just let the possibility to have small PCI low profile inside...

@Mrodfr

That's right... and why in the end I went for the cube case that AmigaKit recommend. It was a tight fit, but my HVR-1300 does fit.

Getting a low-profile card though is likely to be very hard!

@Mrodfr

I can get a Leadtek WinFast DTV1800H locally, it says "Chipset Conexant CX2388X + Intel CE6353 Tuner Xceive Tuner Hardware Interface 32-bit PCI 2.3 bus mastering". It looks like a low profile card. Would that be a good one?

@COBRA

I don't think I have anything with that tuner, but it sounds like it'll probably be just fine for composite! PCI 2.3 is indeed 3.3V I think, but you'll want to make sure!

@Spirantho

Only composite works with these? RF input or S-Video not?
What about audio?

I'm not entirely sure whether it's 3.3V, according to Wikipedia:

"PCI 2.3 permits use of 3.3 volt and universal keying, but does not allow 5 volt keyed add in cards."

"PCI 3.0 is the final official standard of the bus, completely removing 5-volt capability."

So it's only PCI 3.0 which is 3.3V-only.

By the way if I do get such a card, would you be interested in cooperating with me in trying to get a DvPlayer plugin working, so that it'd be possible to play the incoming video streams directly in DvPlayer?

Edit: I found this review of the card (Haven't had time to read through it all yet): http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=8000

Edit 2: The review says "The card is not a full height PCI card but only comes with a full height back bracket meaning it will not fit in a slim case that only supports low profile PCI cards."

@all

1. Low profile TV cards exist.
2. With the chipset needed for amiTV, thats become verry hard to found. Failed untill now...
3. The final point is an interesting TV card one because soon DVB-T only on lots of countries.

I don't know if Spirantho have planned to support other chipset (one on low profile PCI TV cards of course).

@Mrodfr

It seems there are several Leadtek WinFast cards which are widely available and are low profile cards (e.g. DTV1800H, DVR3100H, etc.), the only problem is the rear metal bracket which is for ATX and has to be replaced with a shorter one that suits slim cases. However it would be good if somebody with one of these cards could try them with AmiTV, as I don't want to spend money on it just to find that I can't use it.

@COBRA

If they use the supported chipsets, it's very likely they'll work just fine. No reason why they shouldn't.

RF isn't supported at the moment and might be if your card has a tuner chip that I have. If it doesn't, it probably won't work. I might be able to get it to work with some "external testing" (i.e. you run it and tell me how it failed) if so.

S-Video should work, just change the input to the S-Video one. If it's black and white you may need to press "S" to enable S-Video input, at least on the Cx2388x chipset cards.

If the card you're looking at has a notch in the connector near the backplane, it supports 3.3V. If it doesn't, and the notch is away from the backplane, it's 5V. If it has two notches, it'll work with 3.3V.

@Mrodfr:

I'd like to get DVB working some time but I can't find any datasheets for the DVB chipsets! Hence it's unlikely to happen any time soon...

@Spirantho

The tuner in this card is an Intel CE6353, does any of your cards have that one? The card seems to be both 3.3 and 5V one, so it should work in any machine. Also, what about audio, would that work?

@COBRA

Audio should work eventually - when I've written it! But there may be troubles there too, so don't bank on it. With 99% of composite inputs it's not a problem as you can just connect the source direct to your soundcard, it's only with RF it's a problem.

I don't know if any of my cards have that tuner, sorry. But I may be able to support it anyway if I can find the right I2C calls to make.... you'd need to do a lot of testing for me though!

@Spirantho

OK thanks, is the audio handled by the Cx2388x or some other chip which can be completely different from card to card?

I'd be more than willing to test for you, if you want to support more cards. The more are supported the better :) I'm a bit afraid to buy it as it's not so cheap but if I can't find a better alternative I'll probably get one when I get my pay at the end of the month.