Alright, to start with, this is my very first foray into linux. If you have any suggestions or comment on how to do something please give detailed instructions on how to do that. I have been reading numerous threads on here to try to solve this issue on my own but am often baffled because people write that someone should do this or that but not say how to do it. That being said, here is my problem: I have installed Knoppmyth using the autoinstall feature and have gone through the video and channel setups several times. I set my frequency to us-cable, my source to tuner0 (for i am trying to capture the signal through the coax cable.) I was even able to download the listings and get them to correctly appear on the screen. Yet when I go to watch tv all i get is static/snow/fuzz. The tv listings accurately say what is on, but no images or sound. There is a lot of talk on various threads about setting some value to 38 or 39 and there is also a lot of talk on downloading and compiling new ivtv drivers. I don't have the slightest clue how to do any of those things. I know information on is an important thing so i have gathered as much as i can.

SYSTEM SPECS
Sempron 2400+
Asus A7V8X-X Motherboard
-Northbridge VIA KT400
-Southbridge VIA VT82325
Elixer 512mb PC2700 (single stick)
Geforce2 32mb w/s-video tv-out
Hauppauge PVR-250 Model 980

I have dug around some threads and figured out how to get some of the details on the Hauppage card so I will post those as well.
model 32062 rev c182
tuner = LG TAPC H791F
idx = 82
type = 39

Almost forgot to note, I am running R5A12

I'm sure more information will be needed so let me know what you all need.

If anyone can help me get rid of the snow and start watching tv i would be very appreciative. Please remember to give detailed linux oriented instructrions on how to retrieve information and to accomplish whatever tasks are givn. (I have a good bit of knowledge about hardware and such so don't worry about instructions for say moving the PVR-250 to another PCI slot or something like that.)

Thanks in advance.

_________________
Thervey

Sempron 2400+
512mb PC2700
Asus A7v8x-x
PVR-250
GeForce2 32mb
R5A16
Current Prognosis: Looking good! List of things left to get working is the remotet. Any suggestions?

Since you have type 39 card, try this at the command prompt

nano /etc/mythtv/modules/ivtv
-change the "options tuner type" line to read
options tuner type=39
-Reboot the computer
reboot


At least that is what I did to get my type 50 card to work.

Good luck

_________________
Running : KnoppMyth R5A12

ABIT NV7-133R
512MB Crucial
PVR-250 35062 (CX23416 - SAA7115) Tuner Type 50
Maxtor 250 GB x2

Hey, Thanks! Changing that line fixed the snow issue and I can now actually see and hear things. However I am getting pretty poor picture quality on some channels. Here is the strange thing though. The higher channels come in pretty clean while the lower ones get progressively worse. Any reason why this might be?

Again thanks for the suggestion willie44!

_________________
Thervey

Sempron 2400+
512mb PC2700
Asus A7v8x-x
PVR-250
GeForce2 32mb
R5A16
Current Prognosis: Looking good! List of things left to get working is the remotet. Any suggestions?

Are you sure 39 is the right type? Do this... (example from my box):

Here you can see that my tuner type is detected as the type 2 Philips model (it's over a year old now). Since you're using R5A12, you should be able to completely remove or comment out the "options tuner type" line and let the automatic detection do it's job, unless you have a really odd card (like the Avermedia m179).

Here is what I get when I run grep tveeprom: /var/log/messages



It says in there somewhere that it is type 39. I will try editing the other file as suggested to see what happens.

Thanks.

_________________
Thervey

Sempron 2400+
512mb PC2700
Asus A7v8x-x
PVR-250
GeForce2 32mb
R5A16
Current Prognosis: Looking good! List of things left to get working is the remotet. Any suggestions?

Alright, I was able to comment out options tuner type line from the ivtv file and I still get the fuzzy-ness. I am sort of wondering if it i just poor cable quality. (I am on a small campus cable network at school) You can sometimes notice fuzz in the signal on the tv but it doesnt seem as bad on the tv as it does on my monitor when playing through mythtv. I wonder if what my resolution is set to is sort of magnifying the fuzz. Maybe when and if I get it hooked up to a tv it will not look so fuzzy.

_________________
Thervey

Sempron 2400+
512mb PC2700
Asus A7v8x-x
PVR-250
GeForce2 32mb
R5A16
Current Prognosis: Looking good! List of things left to get working is the remotet. Any suggestions?

I have no knowledge of your problem directly, but in relation to your last comment in regards to resolution I do have some knowledge.

TV runs at 320 x 288 (PAL) and no doubt you would have a minimum resolution of 800 x 600 thus yes, your monitor would magnify the fuzz.

As to any changes when you plug your computer into a TV, I don't believe this will change as you computer will still be running at 800 x 600, but perhaps it may not be as noticable.

I read on the ivtv list of the ivtvctl options for turning on digital noise reduction or DNR on the PVR-150/500s, so I added lines like this to my /etc/init.d/set_ivtv_params file:

/usr/bin/ivtvctl -d /dev/video0 -c dnr_mode=0
/usr/bin/ivtvctl -d /dev/video0 -c dnr_temporal=4
/usr/bin/ivtvctl -d /dev/video0 -c dnr_spatial=4

where /dev/video0 may change depending on where your cards are. I don't know if it applies to all Hauppauge cards or just the 150/500s and I don't know if it's available in the ivtv-0.2.x drivers, since I'm using the ivtv-0.3.x drivers.

Have you turned on bob deinterlacing under setup? It may help.

I suspect that you may have a signal quality problem and will recommend that you pursue all the "usual" fixes.

- Avoid push on cables and use decent screw on ones, the difference is quite surprising.
- Don't dasiy chain splitters, since each level of splitter reduces your signal strength by some number of db (usually printed on the device).
- If you're feeding more than 3 devices you may need a powered signal booster.
-...

How do you turn on bob deinterlacing after setting everything up?



This may be an issue. I am using this in my dorm room and I have seen the wiring in the com closet. There is one cable line coming in that being split off into dozens of individual connections. This could be where the problem in quality lies.

Thanks to all who have made suggestions. I am just starting finals so I have not had a chance to implement all the suggestions here yet but as I do I will post a response on them. Thanks again.

_________________
Thervey

Sempron 2400+
512mb PC2700
Asus A7v8x-x
PVR-250
GeForce2 32mb
R5A16
Current Prognosis: Looking good! List of things left to get working is the remotet. Any suggestions?

Just go to the setup menu... From the main menu it's something like (not exact but close enough)...
setup and something -> setup -> tv setup -> playback ...

Ok, I'm to the stage that when I attempt to view tv I get color snow (changing tuners/cards doesn't help). I found this thread but I'm having the following problem finding my tuner type:

I did the grep tveeprom: /var/log/messages and this is what I get:

root@mythtv:~# grep tveeprom: /var/log/messages
May 5 02:25:44 mythtv kernel: tveeprom: Hauppauge: model = 23552, rev = D592, serial# = 29XXXXX
May 5 02:25:44 mythtv kernel: tveeprom: tuner = <unknown> (idx = 101, type = 0)
May 5 02:25:44 mythtv kernel: tveeprom: tuner fmt = <none> (eeprom = 0x00, v4l2 = 0x00000000)
May 5 02:25:44 mythtv kernel: tveeprom: audio_processor = MSP3410D (type = 5)

This is repeated like 30-40 times over and over in xterm. Not sure why I'm getting <unknown> and I don't know if mine is a type 0, type 5 or something else not detected.

Following the PVR-500 guide my ivtv file looks like this:

alias char-major-61 lirc_i2c
alias char-major-81 videodev
alias char-major-81-0 ivtv
options cx25840 no_black_magic=1
options ivtv ivtv_std=0 tuner=57,57 tda9887=0,0 ivtv_debug=1

#options ivtv debug=1
#options tuner type=2
options cx25840 i2c_enable=1
options saa7127 i2c_enable=-1
options msp3400 once=1 simple=1
install ivtv /sbin/modprobe tuner; /sbin/modprobe msp3400; /sbin/modprobe saa7115;$
remove ivtv /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove ivtv && /sbin/modprobe -r saa7115 &&$

You don't need the install ivtv/remove ivtv lines, I don't think.

Also, you have a 500? What version of ivtv are you using?

-brendan

How odd is this. I was getting really poor picture quality and all right? Well I was doing a little bit of cleaning around the room and i decide to move DVR from beside my primary computer to sitting on top of it to save space. So i unplug the whole thing and rearrange some wires. I set it on top, plug it in and start it up expecting to try to tackle the next line of suggestions. However I turn it on to watch tv and low and behold the picture quality has increased dramitically across the board. Maybe it was just how i plugged in the coax cable or maybe my other computer was causing some sort of interference but it seems everything is coming in clear now.

One more issue though. The system clock is way off. Thus the myth clock is also often and I can't record anything at the correct time. I tried to set the date and time using the date command but it kept saying incorrect string. What would be the correct syntax to set the time to US eastern standard timezone? Thanks.

_________________
Thervey

Sempron 2400+
512mb PC2700
Asus A7v8x-x
PVR-250
GeForce2 32mb
R5A16
Current Prognosis: Looking good! List of things left to get working is the remotet. Any suggestions?

Yep got a 500 card. I'll comment out those two lines (install and remove) and see what happens.

I'm using the IVTV 0.3.4b which according to gossamer-threads.com fixes some issues with the 150-500 cards.