Pinnacle PCTV USB2

An analogue (PAL) USB based device from Pinnacle.

It is supported under Linux.

Overview/Features

Components Used

• LG TAPE-S701D (tuner)
• ? (audio decoder)
• EmpiaTech EM2820 (video decoder & USB bridge)

Identification

output of lsusb -v

Making it Work

Firmware

n/a

Drivers

The drivers built into the gentoo kernel linux-2.6.22-gentoo-r9 did not work, so a more recent set was required. You can download the latest v4l-dvb drivers from LinuxTV's V4L-DVB repo. Unpack, compile and install the drivers; more detailed instructions are listed on the website, but essentially the entail:

$ tar xzf v4l-dvb-816f256c2973.tar.gz
$ cd v4l-dvb-816f256c2973.tar.gz
$ make
# make install

After that, set the parameters for module loading: For example, on a gentoo system, you might want to add a file em28xx in /etc/modules.d and do an update-modules -f.

content of file em28xx:

alias char-major-81 videodev
alias char-major-81-0 tveeprom
alias char-major-81-1 em28xx
options em28xx card=3 tuner=38
options tuner pal=b secam=b

Note: if tuner type 38 doesn't work for you, try 56 instead.

Sample kernel output

If you have problems, have a look at the kernel messages (dmesg) when you plug in the device and see if the drivers are loaded without any errors. Maybe you have another tuner built-in your PCTV USB2 device. So experiment with other settings for tuner or let the driver decide, what tuner to use by not specifying the tuner type in modprobe.conf. Good luck!

User example

Here's a small handy script that allows one to watch tv with the device:

#!/bin/sh -x
gnome-screensaver-command --exit
sox -t ossdsp -r 48000 -q -b -c 2 /dev/dsp2 -t ossdsp /dev/dsp &
pid_sox=$!
mplayer tv://
kill $pid_sox

Of course, you will need to setup the channels in your .mplayer/config file; e.g.:

:
vo=xv
tv=input=0:driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video0:channels=32-SF1,SE11-SF2...
:

Now Enjoy watching TV!

Remote Control Support

?

External Links

• [ Pinnacle product page]