As the title suggests I am getting tuning issues with my Nova-T card in knoppmyth 5A30.2.

I am aware of http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=36007 and http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4571&highlight=failed+tuning+novat, although both of these threads are for older versions (R5A16 and R5A15.1 respectively). I could probably try an older version of knoppmyth (if I knew where to find one), but theoretically some of the support issues should have been solved by the newer kernel. uname -r tells me I've installed 2.6.13.2-chw-3 which most sources seem to suggest now supports the DVB cards natively. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that I can't find suitable patches for 2.6.13 at bytesex.

The issue I get is:

Some users on one of the above threads suggested downloading firmware from the supplied Windows CD to /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware. However most of the files there are *.fw, and the CD doesn't have any of those.

Is there a recommended starting point? I don't feel able to apply the received wisdom to my own situation. Actually I just feel quite dumb!

A couple of things could cause this:

1) The signal strength may not be good enough :/ Have u got any other dvb device to test it with?
2) Your aerial may not be pointing at the Oxford transmitter, you may need to use a different file
3) The frequencies may just be wrong in the oxford file.

Also this guide will be more relevant:

http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... 7860#37860

Just to give an example, if I pick the wrong transmitter file I get this:



Exactly the results you get

I should have mentioned: this card is lifted straight out of my other machine. That runs Ubuntu Breezy, upgraded to 2.6.14 I think, and has no tuning problems. (Though it does have other MythtV problems - hence my knoppmyth experimentation). When I try the card in this machine, connected to the very same aerial cable, I get 'tuning failed'.

My Breezy box tunes happily using the uk-Oxford file. I don't know why the files would be different between the two machines, but for the record I also tried a channel scan in mythtv-setup (using 578000000, 8MHz, QAM 16 etc.etc. the same values reported by dvb utils scan) to no avail.

I think that's "no" to your three points (unless I've missed something), but thanks for the suggestions. I wish it were as simple as having missed something like that. It's easier to understand (and fix) if I'm to blame!

Maybe just installing 2.6.14 would work, but this is an oldish machine, and I don't fancy a lengthy compile with 128Mb RAM if I can avoid it!

Tee hee hee:

I tried to compile a base 2.6.13 kernel, so that I could follow the instructions on the R5A16 page in my first post above.

After 3h05m (yes really!) the make instruction exited with "No space left on device". Oops.

Dunno if this'll shed any light on your predicament... but I have found the tuning for DVB to be a little flacky at times. When I first set my Mythbox up and scanned for channels sometimes I got some, sometimes all and sometimes none. You may have to just try again and wait for the right weather conditions. (Or some other atmospheric/atronomical event... check your stars for fortuitous circumstances )
I also remember that if I entered the exact frequency for BBC 1 it would miss it and I'd have to go back several Mhz for Myth to pick it up on a scan and that was from the BBC's main Crystal Palace antenna.
I know that's not very helpful, but I offer it simply as a reassurance that it might just be being 'tempramental'.

Thanks again, but putting the card straight back into my (admittedly higher spec) Ubuntu box I can tune away happily. I think it's a software rather than a reception problem.

I have been trying dvbscan periodically and just now got a weak signal. It found and put 6 lines into channels.conf, although they were all the QAM_64 type. Aren't they supposed to be the weakest signal quality?

armed with that comfidence I tried mythtv-setup and scanned with the 578000000 frequency reported (which works fine on my Ubuntu box).

I get :

Status Scanning, occasionally "signal locked", ocasionally not.
Progress 5% (stationary)
Signal/Noise ratio fluttering around 83%

And it sits there like that for ages.

Could this be to do with only having a 501MHz Pentium III? The Nova-T box wants minimum of PIII 800MHz. Maybe the processor can't keep up with the information from the dvb card.