Video4linux2 bttv configuration parameters for K-World XPERT TV878 PCI TV Card

[Teo En Ming]

This TV tuner card is using Conexant Fusion 878a chipset, commonly known as BT878. I have tried many different card numbers in the CARDSLIST of the video4linux documentation /usr/src/linux/documentation/video4linux/, but none of them can get the audio to work. Even trying card number 78 which is specifically for this tv card cannot get sound to work.

Eventually I fiddled around with the GPIO registers GPIO out enable and GPIO data enable, and I managed to get the audio to work.

The reference system is SuSE Linux 10.1 x86-64 with a Nvidia nForce3 250GB board with a Realtek AC97 Audio Codec. The kernel version is 2.6.16.13-4.

ALSA-driver-1.0.11 is used. The audio driver to load is snd-intel8x0 even though the chipset is nForce3 and audio codec is realtek alc650. snd-intel8x0 works for ICH6, ICH7 and Nvidia chipsets.

You need to place the following parameters in /etc/modprobe.d/tv. If your distro is not suse, place the paramaters in /etc/modprobe.conf for kernel 2.6 and above or /etc/modules.conf for kernel 2.4.

/etc/modprobe.d/tv:

alias char-major-81 videodev
options i2c-algo-bit bit_test=1
options bttv card=78 tuner=5 radio=1 pll=1 gpiomask=0x000007 audiomux=0x000001,0x000000,0x000002,0x000002,0x000001
options tuner debug=1 pal=b

# YaST configured TV card
# jqQS.bJ31E5obFa9:Jetway TV/Capture JW-TV878-FBK, Kworld KW-TV878RF

# DO NOT USE YAST2 ON SUSE LINUX 10.1 X86-64 TO CONFIGURE TV CARD AGAIN! IT WILL OVERWRITE THIS FILE.

alias char-major-81-0 bttv
alias char-major-81-1 off
alias char-major-81-2 off
alias char-major-81-3 off

/etc/modprobe.d/sound:

options snd-intel8x0 enable=1 index=0
# H0_h.mWsEuKjYc7F:nForce3 250Gb AC'97 Audio Controller
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

The above settings have been tested to work. There is usually no problem getting video to work because many of the cards use a common chipset known as bt878.

The key/important parameters to pass to the bttv module is gpiomask and audiomux.

[Teo En Ming]

Adding country support in common tv applications like kdetv and xawtv:

You need to find and edit Index.map and to create a country file with a list of frequencies in the respective application's directory.

The following code is specially adapted for Singapore tv channels.

Index.map:

[singapore]
file = singapore.list

singapore.list:

[Channel 5]
freq = 175250

[Channel 8]
freq = 196250

[Channel U]
freq = 487250

[Channel News Asia]
freq = 543250

[Suria]
freq = 224250

[Kids Central]
freq = 495250

[RTM 1]
freq = 552500

[StarHub Test]
freq = 743250

All the frequencies have been tested to work for free-to-air channels.

To add support for your own country, simply modify Index.map as needed and create a listing file for your country with a list of frequencies.