[linux-dvb] WinTV-PVR DVB Encapsulation Idea (help!)

["Ben Matthew" <ben@thelemite.freeserve.co.uk>]

Hi,

I recently have set up a little PVR system at home based around a Hauppauge
Nova-T card using the LinuxTV drivers and MythTV.  After many months
(literally!) of tinkering everything is mostly ok.  The only thing that I’m
missing is the ability to capture output from my cable box.  So to fix this,
and given I’m already using the only PCI slot on my system (a MiniITX type
arrangement), I purchased a cheap 2nd hand WinTV PVR jobbie that connects
via USB.

There’s a guy who has already made a very simple driver (who basically has
done all the hard work), which can be found at:
http://pvrusb.sourceforge.net/.  

Because this device is a MPEG2 encoder I figured it would probably be
possible to encapsulate this into a LinuxTV DVB driver.  Ok maybe I’m being
naïve here but its an MPEG stream coming out so how difficult can it be?!

Anyway annoyingly I’ve discovered that this pre-existing driver has been
written for pre 2.6 kernels which means I can’t even test if it works in
it’s current state.  Hence my gameplan to create the all-in-wonder DVB
wrapper was:

1) Port existing driver to use the new USB stack in 2.6
2) Get the driver into a 2.6 kernel format
3) Encapsulate the driver into a basic Linux-DVB driver (ignoring tuning;
since only composite streaming is supported by the original driver)


Anyway I’ve had a stab at 1) but am getting unstuck at stage 2.  Now I’m no
Linux programmer; I’m a C programmer, yes, but I lack the necessary indepth
knowledge to easily achieve this.  I’ve had a stab at it but it’s all gone a
bit pear shaped.

Now I could spend days, weeks, months learning how to do this from scratch
but I’m a little concerned that stage 3) is not going to be feasible.  I’ve
noticed on this mailing list people asking questions about the WinTV PVR PCI
cards and getting sent away with a flea in their ears about PVR boards not
being digital TV boards.  This is true, but it would be bloody useful to be
able to use PVR devices through the DVB api and thus be supported by DVB
enabled applications like MythTV or Mplayer.

So on to my questions….  

1. Am I barking up the wrong tree here in attempting to create a DVB driver
to operate a MPEG-encoder such as this?  Is it do-able or should I think
about pestering folk on the MythTV mailing list with these questions?
2. Is there anyone out there who would be prepared to lend a hand?
Especially with the nitty-gritty kernel module type stuff…  As I said; I’m a
competent enough C programmer, just not a Linux specialist.
3. Anyone else interested in this idea at all?  Don’t see why the project
couldn’t be expanded to use the PCI cards as well.  Or is everyone happy
using the Ivytv stuff and built-in support that certain applications provide
(I’m specifically thinking of Myth’s PVR 250/350 support when I make this
comment)

I’ve posted the work I’ve currently done at:
http://www.cleverbox.co.uk/pvrusb.tar.gz.  So if anyone fancies a laugh
and/or wants to help out then take a peek.

Regards,

Ben Matthew