[linux-dvb] Re: DXR-3-Support in DVB-driver ?

[<mocm@metzlerbros.de>]

Hi Vincent,

I will send the answer to your question to the linuxdvb and
video4linux mailing lists, because there may be some people interested
in it.

Vincent Legoll writes:
 > > [...] (X-card, can do mpg4 replay) based card would be even
 > > better, but we can't give out/write those drivers as open source
 > 
 > Why can't we write one ?
 > Is there something that prevent someone doing so ?
 > Are you implying that we're never going to have linux drivers for
 > those cards ? I was about to buy one, but now...
 > 

No, I meant that we (Ralph and I) can't write an open source driver,
because we wrote a closed source one by looking at sigmas sources(
that's the driver for the em8400 based cards like netstream).
The problem is that all the em8xxx chips are quite similar and
therefore it would be questionable if we could write one for the
em845x/em847x cards which have mpg4 support (like X-card). 
AFAIK, sigma already has or will release user space closed source
drivers for those chips, the idea of which I really don't like. They
could just as easily release kernel modules, which would simplify a
lot of the stuff they are doing in there current "drivers" and would
allow them to use APIs like video4linux and maybe the DVB API. I don't
even know if or how the drivers we wrote for convergence can be
released. Probably only in conjunction with an STB.
There already are open source drivers for the em8300 chipset
(i.e. dxr3 cards), those have been reverse engineered and I started to
write DVB API wrappers for those drivers, but I haven't had time to
finish those yet. You can see how far I've gotten in the NEWSTRUCT
branch of the public CVS at linuxtv.org.
You have to look for the sigma drivers on their website. AFAIR they
are not easy to find, but they are there. I don't have a link right
now.
This all very unfortunate, because those chips are really nice and the
playback is very good picture and stability wise. The new cards are
very inexpensive (~$99) and provide mpg4 replay.
Maybe there is someone who would like to use his or her legal right to
reverse engineer those cards (depending on the country you live in),
you can use the winodws and linux drivers to do that.

Marcus

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| Dr. Marcus O.C. Metzler        |                                   |
|--------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
| mocm@metzlerbros.de            | http://www.metzlerbros.de/        |
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