[linux-dvb] Re: networked digital tuner project

[Brian Kuschak]

There was a long discussion thread on this topic
several months ago, when I proposed this design for a
networked tuner module.  

Since then, I've made alot of progress.  I have a
custom board with 5 tuners (VSB, QAM, and DVB) which
can tune 5 independent RF channels, PID filter the
streams, and send the data out over UDP/IP multicast. 
I took into consideration several of the
comments/recommendations made earlier.  The module
presents a simple UDP control interface, and
completely encapsulates all the low-level commands to
access the tuners.

I'm soliciting offers for help, from those with
interest and experience with VHDL FPGA design, and
driver/userspace coding.  My list of TODO items
includes DVB-T, DVB-CI, cable-card, OOB tuning,
DTCP/IP support, upnp, and a USB-2.0 interface
alternative. I'm short on hardware now, but will be
making a few more boards soon.  If you think you could
make a technical contribution to this project, let me
know.

Regards,
Brian


--- Brian Kuschak <bkuschak at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I'm writing to see if there is any interest here in
> a
> project I've been considering.  It consists of a
> device with a set of digital tuner modules (perhaps
> 5
> or 6) which attach through an FPGA to Ethernet.  The
> tuners would be a combination of QAM/VSB and DVB,
> for
> receiving MPEG programming over cable, terrestrial
> (US), and FTA DVB satellite.  The filtered MPEG
> packets would be sent multicast UDP, and the tuners
> could be shared among multiple clients on the
> network.
>  The device would also support I2C commands to the
> tuners using control packets. The existing linux DVB
> drivers would be used with some modifications.
> 
> This would allow: 1) sharing of tuners between
> multiple clients, 2) multi-channel video
> applications,
> 3) doing things like background scanning,
> enhanced-PVR, etc, and 4) easy expansion by just
> adding more devices to the LAN.
> 
> I haven't been able to find such a device for sale,
> so
> I'm considering rolling my own.  If anyone is
> interested, or alternatively if such a thing already
> exists, please let me know.  



	
		
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