USB TV Card

[c_f_v]

Hi everyone. I'm new on Linux and I found this great site reading a group of news. I have a question: I have a USB 2.0 TV card and I want to know if someone knows how to make it work under Linux. I've tried with Mandriva and KUbuntu, but they don't detect the card. Any suggestion? Thanks very much for the help!

[colo]

To get any valueable output, you need to provide us with useable input first

I suggest you boot up a recent version of a GNU/Linux LiveCD (a Ubuntu Edgy Eft Release Candidate for example), stick in your card, open a terminal, run `lsusb` there, and paste its output here. Then we might be able to tell you if and possibly how you'll be able to get it to work.

Cheers, and have fun!

[Michael]

Hi everyone. I'm new on Linux and I found this great site reading a group of news. I have a question: I have a USB 2.0 TV card and I want to know if someone knows how to make it work under Linux. I've tried with Mandriva and KUbuntu, but they don't detect the card. Any suggestion? Thanks very much for the help!

Welcome to the forums.

We first need to know what the USB TV unit actually is, since there are many popular chipsets. What is the manufacturer and model of your USB TV card? Like colo said, providing the output of lsusb would also be helpful.

[c_f_v]

Thanks for your answer!
The card is a Compro Action Mate USB 2.0. I've just downloaded the Ubuntu suggested, and tonight at home, I'll run the command "lsusb" as you mentioned.
Thanks!

[Michael]

From a quick search it looks like it might be the saa7134 based. The kernel module is included with recent 2.6 kernels, so you may want to try modprobe'ing saa7134 and then dmesg | grep "saa713". If you need help or have additional questions, just post. I have lots of experience with the saa7134.

[c_f_v]

Great! To be honest, I'm not a Linux expert. Could you be more explicit about the steps that I have to perform?.
Thanks in advance.

[Michael]

For Ubuntu it should be something like this... With the TV card connected, boot up Ubuntu Edgy Eft into GNOME.

In the terminal enter:

 sudo modprobe saa7134

then

dmesg | grep "saa"

and post the output...

[c_f_v]

Hi!. I'm here again.
I'm very happy because the Ubuntu appears to recognize the card!.

See lsusb output

cfv@cfv-laptop:~$ lsusb
Bus 005 Device 004: ID 0930:6533 Toshiba Corp. 512M USB Stick
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 185b:3000 Compro
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0a5c:201e Broadcom Corp.
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

and....

cfv@cfv-laptop:~$ sudo modprobe saa7134
Password:
cfv@cfv-laptop:~$ dmesg|grep "saa"
[17179726.548000] saa7130/34: v4l2 driver version 0.2.14 loaded
[17179726.580000] saa7134 ALSA driver for DMA sound loaded
[17179726.580000] saa7134 ALSA: no saa7134 cards found

so, now? What do you suggest? What app can I use to watch tv?
Thanks very much for your help!!

[Michael]

Actually, it didn't exactly find it:

[17179726.580000] saa7134 ALSA: no saa7134 cards found

Try

sudo modprobe saa7123 i2c_scan=1

Otherwise your USB tuner may actually not be the saa7134 Chipset.

[c_f_v]

That´s too bad!

sudo modprobe saa7134 ic2_scan=1

result: FATAL: error inserting saa7134 (/lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/kernel/drivers/media/video/saa7134/saa7134.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
FATAL: Error running install command for saa7134.