When you use mythtv-setup and setup the capture card as V4L, that is where you tell MythTV to use /dev/dsp as the default sound mixer device to input and output sound. If you have just a single audio device, this works great.

Now, how you tell MythTV to accept input from one card /dev/dsp1 and output on another, /dev/dsp0 is beyond me. I would check the documentation. My guess is that the mythtv-setup for the capture card is where you would put /dev/dsp1 (input) and there is probably another mythtv-setup or mythtvfrontend screen to tell it to use /dev/dsp0 for output.

Whatever it is, I am fairly sure there is a way but I have always just connected the audio output from the TV tuner to the sound card line-in with a patch cable. I recommend doing a search on the forum for your tuner card configuration. You might try searching the mythtv-users mailing list as well.

Best of luck!

Andrew Lynch

I've found the following topic: http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9498 (see last post)
I've checked and my tunercard is also recognised as card1 device0 so in mythtv-setup under capture cards I've put "ALSA:hw:1,0" but I still can't get sound to work.

I've also tried the following: "arecord -D hw:1,0 -r 32000 -c 2 -f S16_LE | aplay" (from this link, at the bottom) but I didn't get any sound.

It looks like a lot of people have trouble getting their sound to work with 7134-based soundcards...

[Edit] I've just noticed that when I type "ALSA:hw:1,0" under capture cards in mythtv-setup and then check back it says /dev/dspX (X = number). It looks like mythtv doesn't recognise/remember the "ALSA:hw:1,0"-format.

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I checked my PVR and there is an option under mythfrontend -> utilities/setup -> general that allows you to set the audio output to /dev/dsp. Since that is almost always the default, I never have changed it before.

I recommend keeping the audio output to /dev/dsp (as above) and rather than spend hours fighting the saa7134 configuration battle, I would just use the patch cable and configure the V4L TV tuner card in mythtv-setup to /dev/dsp as well. Once the system is known working correctly, then I would experiment with saa7134 configuration and getting rid of the patch cable.

Why? Because you need to log some hours actually using your PVR to see if it is suitable or not. There are lots of peculiarities to using low end systems that need to be accounted for and that only comes with usage. Yes, the patch cable method is ugly and nasty workaround but it works and is reliable.

Do a search of the forums for btaudio and you'll see that many people who eventually do get the internal sound routing to work (usually after some difficulty) end up going back to the patch cable due to sound quality issues. I can't say for sure that would happen to you but I would spend my time on other PVR aspects.

Best of luck

Andrew Lynch

Well there are extra two reason why I wanted to get it working via the PCI slot. One is that I couldn't measure any output on the cable connector (so I think it's broken) and another one is that the connector is a four-pin connector (rectangle block) and not a regular jack-connector so I'll need to find a piece that goes from a four-pin connector to a jack-connector.

I'll see if I can get such a connector and I'll report back here

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Did you try attaching some headphones or small speakers to the tuner card audio output jack?

The signal levels present on it will be very small and only present when MythTV as told the tuner to tune a channel.

Did you try all the inputs on the soundblaster for capture? There are probably several. The internal one could be CD, line-in, aux-in, or many possible variations. Try changing the capture device while watching TV and with alsamixer running in an xterm.

Best of luck!

Andrew Lynch

I've got my hands on a connector from the tuner card to a normal jack-connector for speakers but the sound I get when I watch tv sounds like it isn't tuned it at the right frequency (noise with some high pitched sounds in the background).

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Hi Guys -- Just for fun, I'm also trying to see if I can get an old underpowered PC to work with KnoppMyth.

I've got an old Compaq Deskpro SFF (PII-350 Mhz 192MbRAM) and a KWorld Global Studio Terminator (saa7134 based analog video card).

After making the documented changes to /etc/modprobe.d/saa7134
(i.e. options saa7134 card=65 tuner=54) the card seems to be recognized at startup, though a message stating that KnoppMyth cannot find a MultiMedia card appears. No errors appear when running dmesg.

I installed TVTime - but get NO SIGNAL on all channels.

It does appear as though bttv and bt878 drivers are somehow loading themselves somehow. How can I see what is launching them?

This is fun - but its keeping me up at night ....

I used to have an EF SFF with a PIII-500. It was just fast enough for SD DVB TV. I am not sure yours will cope with analog (because the processor has to compress the video stream).



I would test the card is setup correctly with xawtv (a but simpler than tvtime - there is just PAL/NTSC, the country, abd the channel number). If that cannot find /dev/video, check the modprobe options. You might need a different set for a later revision of the card (e.g. a later version of the frontend chipset)

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| "Things you own end up owning you" - Tyler, Fight Club

Hi,

I like to run KM at the "low edge" also You may get the 350mhz to do the trick but will require a pvr350 card so the encoding / decoding is off loaded to the card to be usable. I find 256 mem w/ 384 swap is the bare bottom. The memory is a big performance booster (go 512 if you can to help stay out of the swap area)

Enjoy
Mike