Problems with Pinnacle PCTV Stereo (saa7134)

exKoopa · 03-01-2004, 04:23 PM

My Problem : trying to get a Pinnacle PCTV Stereo tv tuner card (for PAL BELGIUM) to work under linux

Details: I'm trying to build my pvr system with mythtv. But first is thing to get my hardware running. The only problem I can't solve myself is the tv card setup. To test things simply I started with xawtv and tvtime. tvtime gave me info about VideoOverlay to be used instead of OpenGLOverlay in my XFree86 config. After changing this tvtime runs but gives me a blue screen with a No Signal message.I ran tvtime-scanner and I actually got sound from a channel on tvtime,but no picture, so that did seem to indicate that I must be on the right track (alas sound had 'magically disappeared' on next boot)

Anyway here is some info about my setup :
lsmod reports the following:

Code:

tda9887                 3168   1  (autoclean)
tuner                  13128   1  (autoclean)
saa7134                70724   0  (autoclean)
tvaudio                14408   0  (unused)
video-buf              13328   0  (autoclean) [saa7134]
i2c-core               13924   0  (autoclean) [tda9887 tuner saa7134 tvaudio]
ir-common               2500   0  (autoclean) [saa7134]
...

/dev/video0 seems to be ok:xawtv -hwscan reports the following :

Code:

port 59-59
    type : Xvideo, image scaler
    name : ATI Radeon Video Overlay

/dev/video0: OK                         [ -device /dev/video0 ]
    type : v4l2
    name : Pinnacle PCTV Stereo (saa7134)
    flags: overlay capture tuner

Concerned Hardware :
-Creative labs Audigy 2 ZS
-Ati Radeon 9700 PRO (Ati Display 3.07 + 1.3 Mesa 4.0.4 Drivers)
-Pinnacle PCTV Stereo (Philips saa7134 chip, at first I was mislead because other Pinnacle PCTV cards use bt878 chips, but saa7134 is what it says on my chip).

PAL B/G --> Belgium : I believe that frequencies are the same as standard Western-europe
3 first and last channels for Belgium are :

Code:

E2 48.25 NOS 1 Stereo
E3 55.25 KETNET-CANVAS Stereo Nicam
E4 62.25 RTBF LA UNE Stereo Nicam
...
E23 487.25 CARTOON NETWORK / TCM Stereo Nicam
E24 495.25 TRT Mono
E25 503.25 RTM Mono

Distro : Debian unstable (sid) from Knoppix hd-install
Kernel 2.4.24 : recompiled with alsa, v4l2, saa7134 support after patching with patch-2.4.24-rc1-kraxel (from bytesex.org)
Installed saa7134 0.2.9 drivers (from bytesex.org) with insmod options card=26 tuner=33

Other details: all the hardware runs fine on the same machine under Win XP Pro, so I'm not considering broken hardware.

Any pointers are welcome, being new to linux I might of forgotten something major.

hanberg · 03-02-2004, 04:22 AM

Hi

I'm having the opposite problem with my Pinnacle PCTV Stereo (without the bt878 chip). I'm running Debian 2.6.3 and I only have a picture without sound. The only thing I'm hearing is a buzzing sound, or no sound at all. This is the modules I have loaded:

tda9887 7360 0
tuner 17156 0
saa7134 89420 1
video_buf 20928 1 saa7134
v4l2_common 6528 1 saa7134
v4l1_compat 13952 1 saa7134
i2c_core 25280 3 tda9887,tuner,saa7134
ir_common 4672 1 saa7134
videodev 9984 2 saa7134
snd_via82xx 20384 0
snd_pcm 96640 1 snd_via82xx
snd_timer 25152 1 snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 12356 2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
snd_mpu401_uart 7616 1 snd_via82xx
snd_rawmidi 23808 1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_ac97_codec 57604 1 snd_via82xx
snd 54596 6 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_ac97_codec
nvidia 2072744 20

the output from dmesg is:

Linux video capture interface: v1.00
saa7130/34: v4l2 driver version 0.2.9 loaded
saa7134[0]: found at 0000:00:0b.0, rev: 1, irq: 5, latency: 32, mmio: 0xe7100000saa7134[0]: subsystem: 11bd:002b, board: Pinnacle PCTV Stereo (saa7134) [card=26,autodetected]
saa7134[0]: board init: gpio is 0
i2c_adapter i2c-0: registered as adapter #0
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_send: writing 1 bytes.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_recv: reading 64 bytes.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_recv: return:1 (count:64, addr:0x50)
saa7134[0]: i2c eeprom 00: bd 11 2b 00 f8 f8 1c 00 43 43 a9 1c 55 d2 b2 92
saa7134[0]: i2c eeprom 10: 00 00 19 0e ff 20 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
saa7134[0]: i2c eeprom 20: 01 40 01 03 03 ff 03 01 08 ff 00 53 ff ff ff ff
saa7134[0]: i2c eeprom 30: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
i2c-core: driver i2c TV tuner driver registered.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 0060
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
tuner: chip found @ 0xc0
tuner: type set to 33 (MT20xx universal)
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_send: writing 1 bytes.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_recv: reading 21 bytes.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_recv: return:1 (count:21, addr:0x60)
tuner: microtune: companycode=3cbf part=42 rev=2f
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_send: writing 2 bytes.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_send: writing 2 bytes.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_send: writing 1 bytes.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_recv: reading 1 bytes.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_recv: return:1 (count:1, addr:0x60)
tuner: microtune MT2050 found, OK
i2c_adapter i2c-0: client [MT20xx universal] registered to adapter
registering 0-0060
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 0061
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 0062
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 0063
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 0064
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 0065
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 0066
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 0067
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 0068
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 0069
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 006a
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 006b
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 006c
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 006d
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 006e
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c_range entry for adapter 0, addr 006f
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
i2c-core: driver i2c tda9887 driver registered.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c entry for adapter 0, addr 43<7>i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
tda9887: chip found @ 0x86
tuner: type already set (33)
i2c_adapter i2c-0: client [tda9887] registered to adapter
registering 0-0043
i2c_adapter i2c-0: found normal i2c entry for adapter 0, addr 4b<7>i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_xfer: with 1 msgs.
saa7134[0]: registered device video0 [v4l2]
saa7134[0]: registered device vbi0
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_send: writing 4 bytes.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_send: writing 4 bytes.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_send: writing 4 bytes.
i2c_adapter i2c-0: master_send: writing 6 bytes.
saa7134[0]/audio: audio carrier scan failed, using 5.500 MHz [default]

I don't know if this is helping you, but I'm glad someone is getting sound

Tony

Jelle · 03-04-2004, 01:58 PM

I am getting sound, with a saa7134! I am in the netherlands so I receive a PAL B/G signal too. somehow the driver complains that the "audio carrier scan failed". just to be sure I gave the following option in modprobe.conf:

Code:

options saa7134 card=9 audio_debug=1 audio_carrier=5500

This will tell the driver too look for the audio_signal at 5.5MHz
(maybe the audio_debug can be removed)
Next in tvtime, i had to set the inputconfiguration::change video source to TV(mono_only) and voila: sound!

exKoopa · 03-04-2004, 06:34 PM

Thanks for your suggestions Jelle. Trying to force the audio_carrier just resulted in a slightly different error :

Code:

saa7134[0]/audio: audio carrier scan failed, using 5.500 MHz [default]
tuner: TV freq (268435455.93) out of range (44-958)
tuner: TV freq (268435455.93) out of range (44-958)
...

I'll have to look into it a some more this week-end, I'll post the results of my findings (this seems to be an unusual card so I think I might write a howto once it's running)

Jelle · 03-04-2004, 06:50 PM

what are you seeing on the screen? snow or "blue no signal"?
Tried turning off the signal detection?
Have you already tried the tvtime-scanner; what was in the .tvtime/stationlist.xml?
My cable provider does not follow the european channels scheme, so the scanner was as good way to get some picture fast.

BTW is the antennacable in the right socket? ;-)

exKoopa · 03-06-2004, 05:49 AM

I'm seeing blue no signal. If I disable signal detection I hear noise, the menu becomes very unresponsive, shell spits out "videoinput: Can't read frame. Error was: Input/output error (0)." but I still see blue no signal.
I've already run tvtime-scanner, here are the first 4 entries

Code:

    <station name="1" active="1" position="1" band="VHF E2-E12" channel="E1" finetune="0" norm="PAL"/>
    <station name="2" active="1" position="2" band="VHF E2-E12" channel="E2" finetune="0" norm="PAL"/>
    <station name="3" active="1" position="3" band="VHF E2-E12" channel="E3" finetune="0" norm="PAL"/>
    <station name="4" active="1" position="4" band="VHF E2-E12" channel="E4" finetune="0" norm="PAL"/>

And, yes the cable is plugged in

, this is dualboot machine, and under winxp everything is runnning smoothly ...

Voeck · 03-17-2004, 03:57 PM

Hi!

I have the same problem with my Pinnacle Stereo PCTV card. I am in Germany, so I receive PAL B/G, too. My card has a great picture, but the sound is just white noise. Dmesg also says something about "audio carrier scan failed".

Has anyone found a solution for that yet? Or has anyone got anymore ideas? I have now tried nearly all tuners options of the saa7134 modules but nothing helps.

Any ideas yet?

Sebastian

carboncopy · 04-02-2004, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by exKoopa
Thanks for your suggestions Jelle. Trying to force the audio_carrier just resulted in a slightly different error :

Code:

saa7134[0]/audio: audio carrier scan failed, using 5.500 MHz [default] tuner: TV freq (268435455.93) out of range (44-958) tuner: TV freq (268435455.93) out of range (44-958) ...

I'll have to look into it a some more this week-end, I'll post the results of my findings (this seems to be an unusual card so I think I might write a howto once it's running)

Hi! Have you solved it yet? This prob is driving me nuts too. I am in Malaysia. Not sure what is the audio carrier frequency. I tried 5500, 6000 and 6500. All to no avail. Anyway, tvtime causes segmentation fault when I forced the audio carrier freq.

m4ri0 · 04-11-2004, 03:07 PM

I have exactly the same card and the same problem.

Has anybody found a solution yet?

m4ri0 · 04-11-2004, 04:41 PM

I downloaded the newest v4l2 development-snapshot, compiled and installed it. And now it works!

hanberg · 05-07-2004, 01:54 PM

Thank you very much!! - That helped me! - I haven't looked at it for the last couple of months, so it was nice to finally get it working.

I still have another question.

How did you get the remote working with lirc (if you are using lirc that is)?

I have set up freevo, so it would be nice to have everything working.

Tony

m4ri0 · 05-09-2004, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by hanberg
Thank you very much!! - That helped me! - I haven't looked at it for the last couple of months, so it was nice to finally get it working.

I still have another question.

How did you get the remote working with lirc (if you are using lirc that is)?

I have set up freevo, so it would be nice to have everything working.

Tony

I haven't get the remote working yet.
But I'm still working...

Huco · 01-02-2005, 06:00 AM

Hi,

I could get sound to my Pinnacle PCTV Stereo card (driver saa7134) when I added "options tda9887 qss=0" to my /etc/modprobe.conf file as suggested in some other discussion thread, restarted my PC, and checked and unchecked Channel Management -> Use PAL-DK audio decoding in tvtime application.

I was having "audio carrier scan failed" lines in /var/log/messages and /var/log/dmesg. I have Fedora Core 3 with 2.6.9 kernel.

Regards,
--
Juha

aspirant_nono · 01-09-2005, 03:12 AM

Yes, definitely, those who are not in France should set options tda9887 qss=0 for FM sound demodulation. I think also setting port1=0 should be done and port2=1 for AGC issues.