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The "Not Quite Amiga but still computer related category" => Alternative Operating Systems => Topic started by: redrumloa on March 07, 2005, 10:01:43 PM
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I'm using SUSE 9.2 as my primary OS lately. It came bundled with KDETV which would lock up. After some tinkering in Plugger and trying a load of different TV tuner software, I am now able to watch TV but with issues.
1) Sound
I have a Sound Blaster Live value edition. It doesn't always appear to initialize properly when SUSE starts. I have to go into suseplugger and go into volume control. As soon as i do that sound works. Unfortunately whenever I load a TV tuner like KDETV(newer version) or TVTime the sound will work, but when I exit the program the sound never stops until I reboot.
2) Closed captioning
A couple of the tuner software claim to have closed captioning support, but they don't work for me. The readme doesn't give much clues.
3) Recording & screenshots
XawTV supposedly has recording, but doesn't seem to work. I think it must need some manual configuration.
Basically I'm asking if anyone has already done some legwork in this area? I've spent some time surfing various Linux forums and reading up what i can find on searches, but it's hard to find specific info. I'm suspecting the Sound Blaster is the cause of the sound issues. Would I be better of getting a different card, if so which one? What is the best TV tuner software out there? I want closed captioning support, recording support and snapshots would be nice. I'd like to use a single tuner software, and will read up on how to configure it manually if need be, as long as there are reasonable docs.
Suggestions?
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redrumloa wrote:
I'm using SUSE 9.2 as my primary OS lately. It came bundled with KDETV which would lock up. After some tinkering in Plugger and trying a load of different TV tuner software, I am now able to watch TV but with issues.
1) Sound
I have a Sound Blaster Live value edition. It doesn't always appear to initialize properly when SUSE starts. I have to go into suseplugger and go into volume control. As soon as i do that sound works. Unfortunately whenever I load a TV tuner like KDETV(newer version) or TVTime the sound will work, but when I exit the program the sound never stops until I reboot.
This is an unhelpful answer, because a helpful answer would point you to a later version of the software that doubtless fixes the bug. However, in lieu of that, you may (dur) want to try to find some inoffensive way to twang the mixer settings, perhaps in your .xsession/.xinitrc or similar. KDE apps would, I presume, plumb everything through artsd, but if you're going through whatever suseplugger is, that's probably the ALSA mixer it's fiddling with, and there is some sort of standard and generally-provided command line util to do the same thing.
You might also want to see if there's some Linux/ALSA feature to preserve mixer settings that's on or off, because that sounds dimly familiar somehow. Or if artsd itself is bugging things up when it loads?
[Just noticed the "sound never stops" bit there; can you elaborate on what that means? A single sample repeats for ages, or the TV tuner sound keeps coming through 'live'?]
2) Closed captioning
A couple of the tuner software claim to have closed captioning support, but they don't work for me. The readme doesn't give much clues.
I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that either the ATI driver doesn't actually provide or decode the CC data (whether it's supposed to or not), or that the driver supports one version of the software interface and all your tuner software is using or assuming another. Simply because this is "always the problem" in the GNU world.
3) Recording & screenshots
XawTV supposedly has recording, but doesn't seem to work. I think it must need some manual configuration.
MythTV (http://www.mythtv.org/) seems to be the current hotness, and claims to support the TV Wonder, if that's any help. Screenshots probably depend... if your software is able to use a hardware video overlay mode, the ability to retrieve that from a general X screenshot utility may vary. If you (more probably) just want to snap frames to screenshot a C64 or something, "argh, there should be something that does that."
Basically I'm asking if anyone has already done some legwork in this area? I've spent some time surfing various Linux forums and reading up what i can find on searches, but it's hard to find specific info.
Don't look at me, I'm from BSD-land, where relatively few (capture) cards are supported, and the drivers are presumably hairier and less standardized, but maybe work.
I'm suspecting the Sound Blaster is the cause of the sound issues. Would I be better of getting a different card, if so which one?
I'd suspect the drivers are the cause of the sound issues, so part of the decision involves determining how much crap, if any, people are going through to write/maintain the drivers for that chipset versus any other. It's terrifyingly popular, which is usually a good sign, and I think plenty of people are using them without trouble (but don't quote me, I just assume this, because so many people I know have bought them).
If the tuner uses one of those analog link cables to the soundcard, the 'sound keeps coming through' sounds like a stupidity or bug or API-version-conflict between the TV programs and ALSA, where the programs aren't remembering or managing to tell the mixer to mute the TV-card input or the TV card to turn the heck off/mute itself. What or who you want to blame for this is probably up to you.
You may also want to find out what the permissions on the mixer device are (ALSA uses a mixer device, right?), and whether anything's complaining about them... it could be that the software tries to do the right thing but is stymied. Are you having to become root or elsewise authenticate to twiddle the stuff with the SuSE tool?
What is the best TV tuner software out there? I want closed captioning support, recording support and snapshots would be nice. I'd like to use a single tuner software, and will read up on how to configure it manually if need be, as long as there are reasonable docs.
Good question, I'm not in deep enough to know. I would expect to need at least two tools, one for "PVR" features (if required) and one for live viewing/recording/snapshotting... but maybe bumping this will get someone who actually owns a TV card to respond.
Edit: If you paid for SuSE, you might be able to figure out some way to get someone there to at least clear some of this up, in terms of what they would expect to work, how much they hate ATI or not, etc.
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If it were me, I would try Xine, but I know that Xine and Suse don't play well together