1 2IMPORTANT: Don't send me mails with images attached unless I ask you 3to do so. Mails with images attached will go to /dev/null unseen. 4 5 6Release notes for bttv-0.7.x 7============================ 8 9This version is based on Ralphs 0.6.4 release. There are alot of 10changes. Bugfixes, merged patches from other people, merged fixes 11from the kernel version, port to the new i2c stack, removed support 12for 2.0.x, code cleanups, ... 13 14To compile this bttv version, you'll the new i2c stack. Kernels 15newer than 2.3.34 have this already included. If you have a older 16kernel, download it from: 17 http://www2.lm-sensors.nu/~lm78/download.html 18 19You'll need at least these config options for bttv: 20CONFIG_I2C=m 21CONFIG_I2C_ALGOBIT=m 22CONFIG_VIDEO_DEV=m 23 24The latest bttv version is available from http://bytesex.org/bttv/ 25 26You'll find Ralphs original (mostly outdated) documentation in the 27ralphs-doc subdirectory. 28 29 30Compile bttv 31------------ 32 33If you are compiling the kernel version, just say 'm' if you are asked 34for bttv. I /strongly/ recommend to compile bttv as module, because 35there are some insmod options for configuring the driver. Starting 36with 0.7.49 the most important ones are available as kernel args too. 37 38If you downloaded the separate bttv bundle: You need configured kernel 39sources to compile the bttv driver. The driver uses some Makefile 40magic to compile the modules with your kernel's configuration 41(wrt. module-versions, SMP, ...). If you already have compiled the 42kernel at least once, you probably don't have do worry about this. If 43not, go to /usr/src/linux and run at least "make config". Even 44better, compile your own kernel, you'll never become a real hacker 45else ;-) 46Note that you have to turn on video4linux support (CONFIG_VIDEO_DEV) 47in the kernel to get the videodev.o module which is required by bttv. 48 49 50Make bttv work with your card 51----------------------------- 52 53Setup your /etc/modules.conf file and let kmod load the modules. 54See also: 55 56Modules.conf: some sample entries for /etc/modules.conf 57Insmod-options: list of all insmod options available for bttv and 58 the helper modules. 59MAKEDEV: a script to create the special files for v4l 60CARDLIST: List of all supported cards 61Cards: more detailed descriptions of known TV cards: 62 OEM name variants, used i2c chips, ... 63 also includes non-bttv cards. 64 65Loading just the bttv modules isn't enouth for most cards. The 66drivers for the i2c tuner/sound chips must also be loaded. bttv tries 67to load them automagically by calling request_module() now, but this 68obviously works only with kmod enabled. 69 70If bttv takes very long to load (happens sometimes with the cheap 71cards which have no tuner), try adding this to your modules.conf: 72 options i2c-algo-bit bit_test=1 73 74The most important insmod option for bttv is "card=n" to select the 75correct card type in case the autodetection does'nt work. If you get 76video but no sound you've very likely specified the wrong (or no) 77card type. A list of supported cards is in CARDLIST. 78 79For the WinTV/PVR you need one firmware file from the driver CD: 80hcwamc.rbf. The file is in the pvr45xxx.exe archive (self-extracting 81zip file, unzip can unpack it). Put it into the /etc/pvr directory or 82use the firm_altera=<path> insmod option to point the driver to the 83location of the file. 84 85If your card isn't listed in CARDLIST or if you have trouble making 86audio work, you should read the Sound-FAQ. 87 88 89Autodetecting cards 90------------------- 91 92bttv uses the PCI Subsystem ID to autodetect the card type. lspci lists 93the Subsystem ID in the second line, looks like this: 94 9500:0a.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 (rev 02) 96 Subsystem: Hauppauge computer works Inc. WinTV/GO 97 Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 5 98 Memory at e2000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K] 99 100only bt878-based cards can have a subsystem ID (which does not mean 101that every card really has one). bt848 cards can't have a Subsystem 102ID and therefore can't be autodetected. There is a list with the ID's 103in bttv-cards.c (in case you are intrested or want to mail patches 104with updates). 105 106Old driver versions used to have a heuristic which could identify some 107bt848-based cards. It worked for Hauppauge and Miro cards in most 108cases (simply because these where the first cards available on the 109market), but misdetected other bt848 cards. That code is gone now for 110exactly this reason, the misdetection confused lots of people. If you 111have a old Hauppauge or Miro card, you'll have to load the driver with 112card=1 or card=2 these days. 113 114 115Still doesn't work? 116------------------- 117 118I do NOT have a lab with 30+ different grabber boards and a 119PAL/NTSC/SECAM test signal generator at home, so I often can't 120reproduce your problems. This makes debugging very difficult for me. 121If you have some knowledge and spare time, please try to fix this 122yourself (patches very welcome of course...) You know: The linux 123slogan is "Do it yourself". 124 125There is a mailing list: video4linux-list@redhat.com. 126https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/video4linux-list 127 128If you have trouble with some specific TV card, try to ask there 129instead of mailing me directly. The chance that someone with the 130same card listens there is much higher... 131 132For problems with sound: There are alot of different systems used 133for TV sound all over the world. And there are also different chips 134which decode the audio signal. Reports about sound problems ("stereo 135does'nt work") are pretty useless unless you include some details 136about your hardware and the TV sound scheme used in your country (or 137at least the country you are living in). 138 139 140Finally: If you mail some patches for bttv around the world (to 141linux-kernel/Alan/Linus/...), please Cc: me. 142 143 144Have fun with bttv, 145 146 Gerd 147 148-- 149Gerd Knorr <kraxel@goldbach.in-berlin.de> 150