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1 | Documentation for dvb-usb-framework module and its devices |
2 | |
3 | Idea behind the dvb-usb-framework |
4 | ================================= |
5 | |
6 | In March 2005 I got the new Twinhan USB2.0 DVB-T device. They provided specs and a firmware. |
7 | |
8 | Quite keen I wanted to put the driver (with some quirks of course) into dibusb. |
9 | After reading some specs and doing some USB snooping, it realized, that the |
10 | dibusb-driver would be a complete mess afterwards. So I decided to do it in a |
11 | different way: With the help of a dvb-usb-framework. |
12 | |
13 | The framework provides generic functions (mostly kernel API calls), such as: |
14 | |
15 | - Transport Stream URB handling in conjunction with dvb-demux-feed-control |
16 | (bulk and isoc are supported) |
17 | - registering the device for the DVB-API |
18 | - registering an I2C-adapter if applicable |
19 | - remote-control/input-device handling |
20 | - firmware requesting and loading (currently just for the Cypress USB |
21 | controllers) |
22 | - other functions/methods which can be shared by several drivers (such as |
23 | functions for bulk-control-commands) |
24 | - TODO: a I2C-chunker. It creates device-specific chunks of register-accesses |
25 | depending on length of a register and the number of values that can be |
26 | multi-written and multi-read. |
27 | |
28 | The source code of the particular DVB USB devices does just the communication |
29 | with the device via the bus. The connection between the DVB-API-functionality |
30 | is done via callbacks, assigned in a static device-description (struct |
31 | dvb_usb_device) each device-driver has to have. |
32 | |
33 | For an example have a look in drivers/media/dvb/dvb-usb/vp7045*. |
34 | |
35 | Objective is to migrate all the usb-devices (dibusb, cinergyT2, maybe the |
36 | ttusb; flexcop-usb already benefits from the generic flexcop-device) to use |
37 | the dvb-usb-lib. |
38 | |
39 | TODO: dynamic enabling and disabling of the pid-filter in regard to number of |
40 | feeds requested. |
41 | |
42 | Supported devices |
43 | ======================== |
44 | |
45 | See the LinuxTV DVB Wiki at www.linuxtv.org for a complete list of |
46 | cards/drivers/firmwares: |
47 | |
48 | http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB_USB |
49 | |
50 | 0. History & News: |
51 | 2005-06-30 - added support for WideView WT-220U (Thanks to Steve Chang) |
52 | 2005-05-30 - added basic isochronous support to the dvb-usb-framework |
53 | added support for Conexant Hybrid reference design and Nebula DigiTV USB |
54 | 2005-04-17 - all dibusb devices ported to make use of the dvb-usb-framework |
55 | 2005-04-02 - re-enabled and improved remote control code. |
56 | 2005-03-31 - ported the Yakumo/Hama/Typhoon DVB-T USB2.0 device to dvb-usb. |
57 | 2005-03-30 - first commit of the dvb-usb-module based on the dibusb-source. First device is a new driver for the |
58 | TwinhanDTV Alpha / MagicBox II USB2.0-only DVB-T device. |
59 | |
60 | (change from dvb-dibusb to dvb-usb) |
61 | 2005-03-28 - added support for the AVerMedia AverTV DVB-T USB2.0 device (Thanks to Glen Harris and Jiun-Kuei Jung, AVerMedia) |
62 | 2005-03-14 - added support for the Typhoon/Yakumo/HAMA DVB-T mobile USB2.0 |
63 | 2005-02-11 - added support for the KWorld/ADSTech Instant DVB-T USB2.0. Thanks a lot to Joachim von Caron |
64 | 2005-02-02 - added support for the Hauppauge Win-TV Nova-T USB2 |
65 | 2005-01-31 - distorted streaming is gone for USB1.1 devices |
66 | 2005-01-13 - moved the mirrored pid_filter_table back to dvb-dibusb |
67 | - first almost working version for HanfTek UMT-010 |
68 | - found out, that Yakumo/HAMA/Typhoon are predecessors of the HanfTek UMT-010 |
69 | 2005-01-10 - refactoring completed, now everything is very delightful |
70 | - tuner quirks for some weird devices (Artec T1 AN2235 device has sometimes a |
71 | Panasonic Tuner assembled). Tunerprobing implemented. Thanks a lot to Gunnar Wittich. |
72 | 2004-12-29 - after several days of struggling around bug of no returning URBs fixed. |
73 | 2004-12-26 - refactored the dibusb-driver, splitted into separate files |
74 | - i2c-probing enabled |
75 | 2004-12-06 - possibility for demod i2c-address probing |
76 | - new usb IDs (Compro, Artec) |
77 | 2004-11-23 - merged changes from DiB3000MC_ver2.1 |
78 | - revised the debugging |
79 | - possibility to deliver the complete TS for USB2.0 |
80 | 2004-11-21 - first working version of the dib3000mc/p frontend driver. |
81 | 2004-11-12 - added additional remote control keys. Thanks to Uwe Hanke. |
82 | 2004-11-07 - added remote control support. Thanks to David Matthews. |
83 | 2004-11-05 - added support for a new devices (Grandtec/Avermedia/Artec) |
84 | - merged my changes (for dib3000mb/dibusb) to the FE_REFACTORING, because it became HEAD |
85 | - moved transfer control (pid filter, fifo control) from usb driver to frontend, it seems |
86 | better settled there (added xfer_ops-struct) |
87 | - created a common files for frontends (mc/p/mb) |
88 | 2004-09-28 - added support for a new device (Unknown, vendor ID is Hyper-Paltek) |
89 | 2004-09-20 - added support for a new device (Compro DVB-U2000), thanks |
90 | to Amaury Demol for reporting |
91 | - changed usb TS transfer method (several urbs, stopping transfer |
92 | before setting a new pid) |
93 | 2004-09-13 - added support for a new device (Artec T1 USB TVBOX), thanks |
94 | to Christian Motschke for reporting |
95 | 2004-09-05 - released the dibusb device and dib3000mb-frontend driver |
96 | |
97 | (old news for vp7041.c) |
98 | 2004-07-15 - found out, by accident, that the device has a TUA6010XS for |
99 | PLL |
100 | 2004-07-12 - figured out, that the driver should also work with the |
101 | CTS Portable (Chinese Television System) |
102 | 2004-07-08 - firmware-extraction-2.422-problem solved, driver is now working |
103 | properly with firmware extracted from 2.422 |
104 | - #if for 2.6.4 (dvb), compile issue |
105 | - changed firmware handling, see vp7041.txt sec 1.1 |
106 | 2004-07-02 - some tuner modifications, v0.1, cleanups, first public |
107 | 2004-06-28 - now using the dvb_dmx_swfilter_packets, everything |
108 | runs fine now |
109 | 2004-06-27 - able to watch and switching channels (pre-alpha) |
110 | - no section filtering yet |
111 | 2004-06-06 - first TS received, but kernel oops :/ |
112 | 2004-05-14 - firmware loader is working |
113 | 2004-05-11 - start writing the driver |
114 | |
115 | 1. How to use? |
116 | 1.1. Firmware |
117 | |
118 | Most of the USB drivers need to download a firmware to the device before start |
119 | working. |
120 | |
121 | Have a look at the Wikipage for the DVB-USB-drivers to find out, which firmware |
122 | you need for your device: |
123 | |
124 | http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB_USB |
125 | |
126 | 1.2. Compiling |
127 | |
128 | Since the driver is in the linux kernel, activating the driver in |
129 | your favorite config-environment should sufficient. I recommend |
130 | to compile the driver as module. Hotplug does the rest. |
131 | |
132 | If you use dvb-kernel enter the build-2.6 directory run 'make' and 'insmod.sh |
133 | load' afterwards. |
134 | |
135 | 1.3. Loading the drivers |
136 | |
137 | Hotplug is able to load the driver, when it is needed (because you plugged |
138 | in the device). |
139 | |
140 | If you want to enable debug output, you have to load the driver manually and |
141 | from within the dvb-kernel cvs repository. |
142 | |
143 | first have a look, which debug level are available: |
144 | |
145 | modinfo dvb-usb |
146 | modinfo dvb-usb-vp7045 |
147 | etc. |
148 | |
149 | modprobe dvb-usb debug=<level> |
150 | modprobe dvb-usb-vp7045 debug=<level> |
151 | etc. |
152 | |
153 | should do the trick. |
154 | |
155 | When the driver is loaded successfully, the firmware file was in |
156 | the right place and the device is connected, the "Power"-LED should be |
157 | turned on. |
158 | |
159 | At this point you should be able to start a dvb-capable application. I'm use |
160 | (t|s)zap, mplayer and dvbscan to test the basics. VDR-xine provides the |
161 | long-term test scenario. |
162 | |
163 | 2. Known problems and bugs |
164 | |
165 | - Don't remove the USB device while running an DVB application, your system |
166 | will go crazy or die most likely. |
167 | |
168 | 2.1. Adding support for devices |
169 | |
170 | TODO |
171 | |
172 | 2.2. USB1.1 Bandwidth limitation |
173 | |
174 | A lot of the currently supported devices are USB1.1 and thus they have a |
175 | maximum bandwidth of about 5-6 MBit/s when connected to a USB2.0 hub. |
176 | This is not enough for receiving the complete transport stream of a |
177 | DVB-T channel (which is about 16 MBit/s). Normally this is not a |
178 | problem, if you only want to watch TV (this does not apply for HDTV), |
179 | but watching a channel while recording another channel on the same |
180 | frequency simply does not work very well. This applies to all USB1.1 |
181 | DVB-T devices, not just the dvb-usb-devices) |
182 | |
183 | The bug, where the TS is distorted by a heavy usage of the device is gone |
184 | definitely. All dvb-usb-devices I was using (Twinhan, Kworld, DiBcom) are |
185 | working like charm now with VDR. Sometimes I even was able to record a channel |
186 | and watch another one. |
187 | |
188 | 2.3. Comments |
189 | |
190 | Patches, comments and suggestions are very very welcome. |
191 | |
192 | 3. Acknowledgements |
193 | Amaury Demol (ademol@dibcom.fr) and Francois Kanounnikoff from DiBcom for |
194 | providing specs, code and help, on which the dvb-dibusb, dib3000mb and |
195 | dib3000mc are based. |
196 | |
197 | David Matthews for identifying a new device type (Artec T1 with AN2235) |
198 | and for extending dibusb with remote control event handling. Thank you. |
199 | |
200 | Alex Woods for frequently answering question about usb and dvb |
201 | stuff, a big thank you. |
202 | |
203 | Bernd Wagner for helping with huge bug reports and discussions. |
204 | |
205 | Gunnar Wittich and Joachim von Caron for their trust for providing |
206 | root-shells on their machines to implement support for new devices. |
207 | |
208 | Allan Third and Michael Hutchinson for their help to write the Nebula |
209 | digitv-driver. |
210 | |
211 | Glen Harris for bringing up, that there is a new dibusb-device and Jiun-Kuei |
212 | Jung from AVerMedia who kindly provided a special firmware to get the device |
213 | up and running in Linux. |
214 | |
215 | Jennifer Chen, Jeff and Jack from Twinhan for kindly supporting by |
216 | writing the vp7045-driver. |
217 | |
218 | Steve Chang from WideView for providing information for new devices and |
219 | firmware files. |
220 | |
221 | Michael Paxton for submitting remote control keymaps. |
222 | |
223 | Some guys on the linux-dvb mailing list for encouraging me. |
224 | |
225 | Peter Schildmann >peter.schildmann-nospam-at-web.de< for his |
226 | user-level firmware loader, which saves a lot of time |
227 | (when writing the vp7041 driver) |
228 | |
229 | Ulf Hermenau for helping me out with traditional chinese. |
230 | |
231 | André Smoktun and Christian Frömmel for supporting me with |
232 | hardware and listening to my problems very patiently. |
233 |
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