dvb_usb_dib0700 driver woes with Pinnacle 72e stick

dvb_usb_dib0700 driver woes with Pinnacle 72e stick

[Alfredo Braunstein]

Hi & happy new year,

I recently bought a Pinnacle 72e USB stick, (lsusb says: Bus 002
Device 011: ID 2304:0236 Pinnacle Systems, Inc. [hex]. The stick says
"pinnacle" on front
and "72e" and  "1100" on the back) which seemed to be supported by the
dvb_usb_dib0700 driver. Indeed, the module seems to load correctly,
e.g.  this is the output of dmesg after sticking it in:

[10729.192683] usb 2-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 11
[10729.341288] usb 2-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[10729.341674] dvb-usb: found a 'Pinnacle PCTV 72e' in cold state,
will try to load a firmware
[10729.341685] usb 2-3: firmware: requesting dvb-usb-dib0700-1.20.fw
[10729.355056] dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-dib0700-1.20.fw'
[10729.588139] dib0700: firmware started successfully.
[10730.090185] dvb-usb: found a 'Pinnacle PCTV 72e' in warm state.
[10730.090245] dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream
to the software demuxer.
[10730.090711] DVB: registering new adapter (Pinnacle PCTV 72e)
[10730.340445] DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (DiBcom 7000PC)...
[10730.577782] DiB0070: successfully identified
[10730.577989] input: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-3/input/input28
[10730.578146] dvb-usb: schedule remote query interval to 50 msecs.
[10730.578156] dvb-usb: Pinnacle PCTV 72e successfully initialized and
connected.

However, scanning channels only finds a small subset of them (Always
the same set. I didn't find an identifying characteristic of this set,
I could look again with some pointers) and it is not possible to tune
to the others (tuning parameters obtained with another card)

If I install the provided driver in windows under virtualbox, the
stick works fine. Moreover, after exiting virtualbox (virtualbox
removes the dvb_usb_dib0700 module on start and reloads on exit) the
cards works fine under linux also!

This is both with shipped kernel/v4l from ubuntu lucid
(2.6.32-27-generic) and latest v4l hg.

Any clues on how can this be debugged / investigated? I can of course
look at usb trafic during the correct initialization.

Please ask me if you need further info or I forgot something (likely).

Thanks!

A/

Re: dvb_usb_dib0700 driver woes with Pinnacle 72e stick

[Alfredo Braunstein]

Alfredo Braunstein wrote:

> Hi & happy new year,
>
> I recently bought a Pinnacle 72e USB stick, (lsusb says: Bus 002
> Device 011: ID 2304:0236 Pinnacle Systems, Inc. [hex]. The stick says
> "pinnacle" on front
> and "72e" and  "1100" on the back) which seemed to be supported by the
> dvb_usb_dib0700 driver.

Some update.

Strangely enough, the problem seems to be related to a too *strong*
terrestrial signal. If I plug a small antenna instead of the one on the
rooftop, things get much better. Likewise, reception improves vastly
if I use the roof antenna with a longer coaxial cable.

Now, the Windows driver seems to be able to attenuate the signal
somehow, as after initializing under windows and before cold booting
the roof top antenna works like a charm (as stated on previous mail).
The small antenna stops working (signal probably too weak?).

Does this ring any bell? Is it possible to make the driver to attenuate the
signal (possibly via an option)? Some pointers on where to look?

Thanks again,

A/