Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

[Harald Gustafsson]

Hi,

I searched for a dual tuner PCI-e DVB-T2 card with Linux support and
found this TBS6280 card:
http://tbsdvb.blog.com/2011/07/22/tbs-6280-freeview-hd-twin-tuner-card/
http://www.buydvb.net/tbs6280-pcie-dvbt2t-dual-tuner-card_p38.html
http://www.tbsdtv.com/english/Download.html

Previously I have only found the blackgold product that state they
will have Linux support but have not seen any drivers yet.

But when searching the mythtv lists and the linux dvb list I could not
find anyone using it. Do anyone have any info about this card, does it
work well with terrestrial DVB-T2 reception, is linux support working,
does it work with mythtv, etc.

/Harald

Re: Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

[Steve Kerrison]

Hi Harald,

Currently the controller chip on the BlackGold card is unsupported - I
don't know if there's any development work going on for that in this
arena or if perhaps BlackGold are working on something themselves.
Perhaps somebody else here knows the full story.

This TBS card has only just been brought to my attention. I cannot tell
what PCIe chip it uses and if it's supported. The alleged Linux driver
download for it doesn't have the cxd2820r code in it, so I can't see
that having much chance of working.

Perhaps ask TBS directly what the status on this one is? I don't know of
anybody who has used it yet (even in Windows).

Regards,
-- 
Steve Kerrison MEng Hons.
http://www.stevekerrison.com/ 

On Tue, 2011-08-09 at 12:35 +0200, Harald Gustafsson wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I searched for a dual tuner PCI-e DVB-T2 card with Linux support and
> found this TBS6280 card:
> http://tbsdvb.blog.com/2011/07/22/tbs-6280-freeview-hd-twin-tuner-card/
> http://www.buydvb.net/tbs6280-pcie-dvbt2t-dual-tuner-card_p38.html
> http://www.tbsdtv.com/english/Download.html
> 
> Previously I have only found the blackgold product that state they
> will have Linux support but have not seen any drivers yet.
> 
> But when searching the mythtv lists and the linux dvb list I could not
> find anyone using it. Do anyone have any info about this card, does it
> work well with terrestrial DVB-T2 reception, is linux support working,
> does it work with mythtv, etc.
> 
> /Harald
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-media" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Re: Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

[Antti Palosaari]

On 08/09/2011 01:57 PM, Steve Kerrison wrote:
> This TBS card has only just been brought to my attention. I cannot tell
> what PCIe chip it uses and if it's supported. The alleged Linux driver
> download for it doesn't have the cxd2820r code in it, so I can't see
> that having much chance of working.

FE I2C addresses used are those CXD2820R ones so it is CXD2820R.
Frontend driver is binary and strings stripped out.


Antti
-- 
http://palosaari.fi/

Re: Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

[Bjørn Mork]

Steve Kerrison <steve@stevekerrison.com> writes:

> This TBS card has only just been brought to my attention. I cannot tell
> what PCIe chip it uses and if it's supported. The alleged Linux driver
> download for it doesn't have the cxd2820r code in it, so I can't see
> that having much chance of working.

There's a binary-only tbs62x0fe_driver for x86_{32,64} in the archive,
so it _might_ work.  But I don't think anyone here will recommend
something like that... You may just as well run Windows instead, and at
least get a somewhat tested binary driver.


Bjørn

Re: Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

[Harald Gustafsson]

Thanks all for your quick answers.

On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 1:10 PM, Bjørn Mork <bjorn@mork.no> wrote:
> There's a binary-only tbs62x0fe_driver for x86_{32,64} in the archive,
> so it _might_ work.  But I don't think anyone here will recommend
> something like that...

Yes, this is what I was afraid of. That it was binary drivers, and I
agree that this usually only leads to problems when integrating it
with kernels that was not thought of by the developers.

Since I unfortunately don't have time to reverse engineer this binary
driver, I think I wait for another dual tuner DVB-T2 card shows up.

Thanks,
 Harald

Re: [mythtv-users] Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

[Lawrence Rust]

On Tue, 2011-08-09 at 12:35 +0200, Harald Gustafsson wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I searched for a dual tuner PCI-e DVB-T2 card with Linux support and
> found this TBS6280 card:
> http://tbsdvb.blog.com/2011/07/22/tbs-6280-freeview-hd-twin-tuner-card/
> http://www.buydvb.net/tbs6280-pcie-dvbt2t-dual-tuner-card_p38.html
> http://www.tbsdtv.com/english/Download.html
> 
> Previously I have only found the blackgold product that state they
> will have Linux support but have not seen any drivers yet.
> 
> But when searching the mythtv lists and the linux dvb list I could not
> find anyone using it. Do anyone have any info about this card, does it
> work well with terrestrial DVB-T2 reception, is linux support working,
> does it work with mythtv, etc.

I haven't used the 6280 but I do have a 6981 (dual dvb-S2).

The driver is shipped as a mixture of source and pre-compiled object
files for their custom frontends.  You re-build all the v4l drivers 'out
of tree' using a v4l-media environment (see www.linuxtv.org/repo/) by
running 'sudo make install'.

The stock v4l sources supplied are old (from around 2.6.35) and don't
contain many current fixes.  This isn't a problem per-se unless you
intend to use the card with another v4l card.  In this case your brand
new, bug fixed drivers are replaced by TBS's version which may or, as in
my case, may not work.

I repeatedly mailed TBS support at support@tbsdtv.com to ask how I could
only install the 6981 driver but never got an answer.  In desperation I
setup a git tree of 2.6.35 and merged it with the TBS drivers in order
to separate their changes.  Finally after many hours I have a set of
patches that I can apply to 2.6.39 that produce a working driver.

Be warned that if you run a 2.6.38 or later kernel then the IR RC won't
work because of significant changes to the RC architecture that TBS
don't like (see http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=929 and
http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=110&start=90#p2693 )

Not for the faint hearted.

-- 
Lawrence

Re: [mythtv-users] Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

[Harald Gustafsson]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

On Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 11:08 AM, Lawrence Rust <lvr@softsystem.co.uk> wrote:
> The stock v4l sources supplied are old (from around 2.6.35) and don't
> contain many current fixes.  This isn't a problem per-se unless you
> intend to use the card with another v4l card.  In this case your brand
> new, bug fixed drivers are replaced by TBS's version which may or, as in
> my case, may not work.
I have 2 other older cards that I intend to use it with, but currently
I'm using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS which have a 2.6.32 kernel, so this would
not be a problem, but later when I upgrade to 12.04 LTS and a newer
kernel this will be problematic. Since I can't trust that TBS will
deliver newer drivers.

> I repeatedly mailed TBS support at support@tbsdtv.com to ask how I could
> only install the 6981 driver but never got an answer.  In desperation I
> setup a git tree of 2.6.35 and merged it with the TBS drivers in order
> to separate their changes.  Finally after many hours I have a set of
> patches that I can apply to 2.6.39 that produce a working driver.
Is it possible to mix modules based on different versions of v4l? To
me that looks like it will work as long as the core infrastructure is
the same, but as soon as some common data structure that is used by
the obj files is changed it will break and you might not notice
directly. Just as you say with the IR changes, but also more subtle
changes by adding/removing elements in structures.

> Be warned that if you run a 2.6.38 or later kernel then the IR RC won't
> work because of significant changes to the RC architecture that TBS
> don't like (see http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=929 and
> http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=110&start=90#p2693 )

In the links you refer to the driver author (at least he seems to be
the author) states that he has not upgraded to the latest IR code due
to compatibility issues between the CX23885 and IR.

/Harald

Re: [mythtv-users] Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

[Lawrence Rust]

On Sun, 2011-08-14 at 17:50 +0200, Harald Gustafsson wrote:
> Thanks for sharing your experience.
> 
[snip]
> > Be warned that if you run a 2.6.38 or later kernel then the IR RC won't
> > work because of significant changes to the RC architecture that TBS
> > don't like (see http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=929 and
> > http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=110&start=90#p2693 )
> 
> In the links you refer to the driver author (at least he seems to be
> the author) states that he has not upgraded to the latest IR code due
> to compatibility issues between the CX23885 and IR.

The TBS cards use the same cx23885 device that the Hauppauge HVR 1250 &
1850 use, both of which support RC input.  The problem, as I understand
it, is that in some modes the cx23885 can produce an interrupt storm.

Given that the current v4l RC architecture is unlikely to change
significantly in the near future then instead of bleating, perhaps TBS
should contribute a fix.  However, given that to date all of TBS's code
has been kept private then that's unlikely.  So the TBS Linux drivers
are likely to become increasingly incompatible with current Linux
kernels.

I have a need to use my 6981 card so I'm developing my own fix for the
RC problem.  I'll post this to linuxmedia when I'm happy it's sound.

Incidentally, the latest TBS 6981 driver OOPS with linux 2.6.39 even
though their release note says "Ensure compatibility with latest
ArchLinux (with kernel 2.6.39.2-1)".  This is due to a change in an i2c
driver structure in 2.6.39 and is a direct consequence of TBS shipping
object modules built with old kernel headers.

Be warned, the h/w is sound but the software & support suck.

-- 
Lawrence

Re: [mythtv-users] Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

[Andy Walls]

Lawrence Rust <lvr@softsystem.co.uk> wrote:

>On Sun, 2011-08-14 at 17:50 +0200, Harald Gustafsson wrote:
>> Thanks for sharing your experience.
>> 
>[snip]
>> > Be warned that if you run a 2.6.38 or later kernel then the IR RC
>won't
>> > work because of significant changes to the RC architecture that TBS
>> > don't like (see
>http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=929 and
>> > http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=110&start=90#p2693
>)
>> 
>> In the links you refer to the driver author (at least he seems to be
>> the author) states that he has not upgraded to the latest IR code due
>> to compatibility issues between the CX23885 and IR.
>
>The TBS cards use the same cx23885 device that the Hauppauge HVR 1250 &
>1850 use, both of which support RC input.  The problem, as I understand
>it, is that in some modes the cx23885 can produce an interrupt storm.
>
>Given that the current v4l RC architecture is unlikely to change
>significantly in the near future then instead of bleating, perhaps TBS
>should contribute a fix.  However, given that to date all of TBS's code
>has been kept private then that's unlikely.  So the TBS Linux drivers
>are likely to become increasingly incompatible with current Linux
>kernels.
>
>I have a need to use my 6981 card so I'm developing my own fix for the
>RC problem.  I'll post this to linuxmedia when I'm happy it's sound.
>
>Incidentally, the latest TBS 6981 driver OOPS with linux 2.6.39 even
>though their release note says "Ensure compatibility with latest
>ArchLinux (with kernel 2.6.39.2-1)".  This is due to a change in an i2c
>driver structure in 2.6.39 and is a direct consequence of TBS shipping
>object modules built with old kernel headers.
>
>Be warned, the h/w is sound but the software & support suck.
>
>-- 
>Lawrence
>
>
>--
>To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-media"
>in
>the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
>More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

One of the bigger problems with the cx23885 driver and hardware was that things don't appear to work well with MSI enabled in the driver.  Hack your version of the driver to make sure MSI is not enabled for CX2388[578] chips.

As far as the unclearable IR interrupt with MSI disabled, I've only seen that with the CX23885 on nonHauppauge cards; the CX23888 seems to be ok.  I'm sure the problem on nonHauppauge cards is simply me no knowing for sure how some of the pins on the CX23885 were wired up.

-Andy

Re: [mythtv-users] Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

[Andy Walls]

Lawrence Rust <lvr@softsystem.co.uk> wrote:

>On Sun, 2011-08-14 at 17:50 +0200, Harald Gustafsson wrote:
>> Thanks for sharing your experience.
>> 
>[snip]
>> > Be warned that if you run a 2.6.38 or later kernel then the IR RC
>won't
>> > work because of significant changes to the RC architecture that TBS
>> > don't like (see
>http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=929 and
>> > http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=110&start=90#p2693
>)
>> 
>> In the links you refer to the driver author (at least he seems to be
>> the author) states that he has not upgraded to the latest IR code due
>> to compatibility issues between the CX23885 and IR.
>
>The TBS cards use the same cx23885 device that the Hauppauge HVR 1250 &
>1850 use, both of which support RC input.  The problem, as I understand
>it, is that in some modes the cx23885 can produce an interrupt storm.
>
>Given that the current v4l RC architecture is unlikely to change
>significantly in the near future then instead of bleating, perhaps TBS
>should contribute a fix.  However, given that to date all of TBS's code
>has been kept private then that's unlikely.  So the TBS Linux drivers
>are likely to become increasingly incompatible with current Linux
>kernels.
>
>I have a need to use my 6981 card so I'm developing my own fix for the
>RC problem.  I'll post this to linuxmedia when I'm happy it's sound.
>
>Incidentally, the latest TBS 6981 driver OOPS with linux 2.6.39 even
>though their release note says "Ensure compatibility with latest
>ArchLinux (with kernel 2.6.39.2-1)".  This is due to a change in an i2c
>driver structure in 2.6.39 and is a direct consequence of TBS shipping
>object modules built with old kernel headers.
>
>Be warned, the h/w is sound but the software & support suck.
>
>-- 
>Lawrence
>
>
>--
>To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-media"
>in
>the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
>More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

BTW, if it helps you develop a fix, the CX23885 IR unit is nearly identical to the IR unit and register set documented in the publicly available CX25840 datasheet.

The CX23888 IR unit is also very similar, but it is not I2C connected and has a few register differences.

Regards,
Andy 

Re: [mythtv-users] Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

[Lawrence Rust]

On Mon, 2011-08-15 at 06:19 -0400, Andy Walls wrote:
> One of the bigger problems with the cx23885 driver and hardware was that things don't appear to work well with MSI enabled in the driver.  Hack your version of the driver to make sure MSI is not enabled for CX2388[578] chips.
> 
> As far as the unclearable IR interrupt with MSI disabled, I've only seen that with the CX23885 on nonHauppauge cards; the CX23888 seems to be ok.  I'm sure the problem on nonHauppauge cards is simply me no knowing for sure how some of the pins on the CX23885 were wired up.

Thanks for your pointers on the pitfalls and CX25840 similarity.  That
helps considerably.

Progressing well at present.  Will keep you posted.

How would it stand legally etc if I posted a patch to this list to
support the tbs6981?  Two possible scenarios:

1. Referencing, but not requiring, a blob module built from from TBS's
tuner FE object file that they distribute.
2. Using a reversed engineered FE driver.

-- 
Lawrence

Re: [mythtv-users] Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

[Harald Gustafsson]

On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 8:11 PM, Simon Hobson <linux@thehobsons.co.uk> wrote:
>>Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2011 22:08:30 +0300
>>From: Turbosight Europe <euro_support@tbsdtv.com>
...
>>also, in case of TBS 6280 there is something else you should know -
>>currently we keep two separate Linux drivers: one that support DVB-T
>>only and another that supports DVB-T2 only. that's because we want
>>more people to test those two drivers before we merge them and it's
>>more efficient to locate the problem in case a customer report such.
>>so, the driver for TBS 6280 you can find on our website supports
>>DVB-T only, but it can be switched to support DVB-T2 very easy. so,
>>single driver that supports DVB-T and DVB-T2 will be released after
>>we're sure both codes are bug-free. so, far feedback we received
>>doesn't reveal any serious bugs and reported problems were fixed -
>>as i mentioned we already have customers in UK that are Linux users
>>and use the card to watch DVB-T2 signal in UK.

OK so this states that the current drivers don't support both DVB-T
and -T2 simultaneously. This is good to know since this would be my
common usage, going to record DVB-T2 on one of the tuners while
recording DVB-T on the other.

/Harald

Re: [mythtv-users] Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

[Simon Hobson]

Harald Gustafsson wrote:

>OK so this states that the current drivers don't support both DVB-T
>and -T2 simultaneously. This is good to know since this would be my
>common usage, going to record DVB-T2 on one of the tuners while
>recording DVB-T on the other.

Ditto - no point having two T2 tuners in the UK since we only have 
one T2 mux at the moment.

But I can see their point - keep things separate and simplify 
debugging. Definitely confirms my thoughts that this device is still 
too "bleeding edge" for most people (but then so were DVB-T tuners 
once !)

-- 
Simon Hobson

Visit http://www.magpiesnestpublishing.co.uk/ for books by acclaimed
author Gladys Hobson. Novels - poetry - short stories - ideal as
Christmas stocking fillers. Some available as e-books.

Re: [mythtv-users] Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

[Jarod Wilson]

On Aug 14, 2011, at 11:50 AM, Harald Gustafsson wrote:

> Thanks for sharing your experience.
> 
> On Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 11:08 AM, Lawrence Rust <lvr@softsystem.co.uk> wrote:
>> The stock v4l sources supplied are old (from around 2.6.35) and don't
>> contain many current fixes.  This isn't a problem per-se unless you
>> intend to use the card with another v4l card.  In this case your brand
>> new, bug fixed drivers are replaced by TBS's version which may or, as in
>> my case, may not work.
> I have 2 other older cards that I intend to use it with, but currently
> I'm using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS which have a 2.6.32 kernel, so this would
> not be a problem, but later when I upgrade to 12.04 LTS and a newer
> kernel this will be problematic. Since I can't trust that TBS will
> deliver newer drivers.
> 
>> I repeatedly mailed TBS support at support@tbsdtv.com to ask how I could
>> only install the 6981 driver but never got an answer.  In desperation I
>> setup a git tree of 2.6.35 and merged it with the TBS drivers in order
>> to separate their changes.  Finally after many hours I have a set of
>> patches that I can apply to 2.6.39 that produce a working driver.
> Is it possible to mix modules based on different versions of v4l? To
> me that looks like it will work as long as the core infrastructure is
> the same, but as soon as some common data structure that is used by
> the obj files is changed it will break and you might not notice
> directly. Just as you say with the IR changes, but also more subtle
> changes by adding/removing elements in structures.
> 
>> Be warned that if you run a 2.6.38 or later kernel then the IR RC won't
>> work because of significant changes to the RC architecture that TBS
>> don't like (see http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=929 and
>> http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=110&start=90#p2693 )
> 
> In the links you refer to the driver author (at least he seems to be
> the author) states that he has not upgraded to the latest IR code due
> to compatibility issues between the CX23885 and IR.

Someone please inform TBS that it would nice if they'd actually report
issues upstream. Nobody from TBS every said boo about their issues,
which, I'm 99% certain, have *absolutely* nothing to do with supposedly
rewriting ir-core to rc-core. (It was a transition to a new name of the
same code). This probably fixed all their issues:

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=d7515b8866b60c9526d2d7af37ebcd16c3c5ed97

Similarly, just booting with pci=nomsi on an unpatched kernel should
achieve the same effect. Sigh.

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod@wilsonet.com

Re: [mythtv-users] Anyone tested the DVB-T2 dual tuner TBS6280?

[Andy Walls]

Jarod Wilson <jarod@wilsonet.com> wrote:

>On Aug 14, 2011, at 11:50 AM, Harald Gustafsson wrote:
>
>> Thanks for sharing your experience.
>> 
>> On Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 11:08 AM, Lawrence Rust
><lvr@softsystem.co.uk> wrote:
>>> The stock v4l sources supplied are old (from around 2.6.35) and
>don't
>>> contain many current fixes.  This isn't a problem per-se unless you
>>> intend to use the card with another v4l card.  In this case your
>brand
>>> new, bug fixed drivers are replaced by TBS's version which may or,
>as in
>>> my case, may not work.
>> I have 2 other older cards that I intend to use it with, but
>currently
>> I'm using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS which have a 2.6.32 kernel, so this would
>> not be a problem, but later when I upgrade to 12.04 LTS and a newer
>> kernel this will be problematic. Since I can't trust that TBS will
>> deliver newer drivers.
>> 
>>> I repeatedly mailed TBS support at support@tbsdtv.com to ask how I
>could
>>> only install the 6981 driver but never got an answer.  In
>desperation I
>>> setup a git tree of 2.6.35 and merged it with the TBS drivers in
>order
>>> to separate their changes.  Finally after many hours I have a set of
>>> patches that I can apply to 2.6.39 that produce a working driver.
>> Is it possible to mix modules based on different versions of v4l? To
>> me that looks like it will work as long as the core infrastructure is
>> the same, but as soon as some common data structure that is used by
>> the obj files is changed it will break and you might not notice
>> directly. Just as you say with the IR changes, but also more subtle
>> changes by adding/removing elements in structures.
>> 
>>> Be warned that if you run a 2.6.38 or later kernel then the IR RC
>won't
>>> work because of significant changes to the RC architecture that TBS
>>> don't like (see http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=929
>and
>>> http://www.tbsdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=110&start=90#p2693
>)
>> 
>> In the links you refer to the driver author (at least he seems to be
>> the author) states that he has not upgraded to the latest IR code due
>> to compatibility issues between the CX23885 and IR.
>
>Someone please inform TBS that it would nice if they'd actually report
>issues upstream. Nobody from TBS every said boo about their issues,
>which, I'm 99% certain, have *absolutely* nothing to do with supposedly
>rewriting ir-core to rc-core. (It was a transition to a new name of the
>same code). This probably fixed all their issues:
>
>http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=d7515b8866b60c9526d2d7af37ebcd16c3c5ed97
>
>Similarly, just booting with pci=nomsi on an unpatched kernel should
>achieve the same effect. Sigh.
>
>-- 
>Jarod Wilson
>jarod@wilsonet.com
>
>
>
>--
>To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-media"
>in
>the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
>More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Jarod,

Well that might not solve the problem for genuine CX23885 chips in non-Hauppauge designs.  Long before the patch that enabled MSI in the cx23885 driver, Igor had an unclearable IR interrupt with his TeVii S470 that I could never figure out.

(Reliably clearing the interrupt from the I2C connected Mako A/V core on  those chips is a real pain without detailed engineering data on the chip and the board.)

I've never had a problem with the IR interrupt on CX23888 based boards with MSI disabled though. 


Regards,
Andy