New Linux PVR option

[dave at math.mit.edu (David Backeberg)]

This sounded promising at first. I pulled down the SDK to take a look.

If it really does support V4L2, it will support mythtv or mythtv will 
support it, however you want to think about it. Unless Plextor releases 
their own PVR software solution, this device is just a recording device: 
it doesn't have it's own file management or storage. The USB controller 
needs to grab an IRQ. I guess this device doesn't grab an IRQ that isn't 
already in use. In fact, if this thing is really going to do serious video 
encoding, it will probably require USB 2.0.

In other news, their firmware upgrades appear to require Windows.

http://www.plextor.com/english/support/LinuxSDK.htm
Their sdk file is in zip format, and the filename contains spaces. A good 
way to show they understand linux developers. So I unzipped the file, 
which has a gzip tarball inside. Inside the tgz is (among other things) a 
firmware directory, containing go7007fw.bin and PX-402U.bin

They appear to be offering the source for those firmware files, so this 
has a chance of making the mainstream kernel. GPL's prominently placed at 
the top of the source. And there's a clue of what's inside the box: I 
noticed the saa7115 driver, which is also used by the Hauppauge PVR x50 
series cards.

-- 
David Backeberg (dave at math.mit.edu)
Network Staff Assistant
MIT Math Dept.
Rm. 2-332            (617) 253-4995

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005, David Kramer wrote:

> On Thu, 10 Mar 2005, Derek Atkins wrote:
>> It's nothing new..  There have always been a set of Video cards that work quite
>> well.  I've got a bunch of Hauppauge PVR-250 cards that contain onboard mpeg
>> encoders.  They work quite well with MythTV using the IvyTV drivers.
>>
>> So this hardware isn't anything all that special, it's just yet another option.
>
> It *is* something new.
>
> It's external.
> It can be moved from machine to machine.
> It will work with a laptop.
> It doesn't take up an IRQ.
> It has built-in divx encoding.
>
> What hardware was available for Linux that could do all these things
> previously?
>
>