Hi Spectrum / All,

This may be slightly controversial but here goes...

I would like to explore the possibility of getting the Spectrum Twinhan source code (if you would be so kind) in an attempt to try and fudge support for the AverMedia 771 card.
More specifically the Tuner driver to work with the AverMedia's MT352 demodulator and Samsung Tuner.
This could also possibly add support for other Conexant 878A based DVB-T cards out there with differing tuner types...

What do you reckon???

DMAN

DMAN,

Both yourself and Craigp were interested in this. If you still are then maybe we should have a crack at it. Let me know and I'll see what I can find out about the hardware and how easy it would be to put something together.

Spectrum

Hi Spectrum,

Hardware wise the A771 has the same Samsung tuner and front-end (Samsung TDTC9251DH0 and Zarlink MT-352) as the Technisat Airstar 2 with the only difference being that the Airstar2 uses the B2C2 PCI bridge chipset, while the Avermedia A771 uses the common BT878A chipset (as used on the VisionPlus, from memory).

There is Linux support for this card and hopefully the I2C is reasonably well documented (if needed for initialisation etc).

Jasoroony had previously done a lot of work dissassembling the official Avermedia drivers for Windows for the A771 and he mentioned to me that he thought BDA driver should hook into the WDM quite easily.

Unfortunately there is no SDK for this card from Avermedia, as the usage of the BT878A (and the NDA Philips have with their vendors) appears to have locked them from releasing any programming info.

I have some testing tools and a couple of snippets of general code which may/may not be of use - and I can loan you an A771 card for testing as well if you're interested. Please PM me and I'll organise sending it to you.

Any other help I can give, please ask.

CraigP

If we could get BDA driver for both Avermedia and TechniSat AirStar 2 of course it would be terrific, as there are many AirStar 2 users waiting worldwide. I would be happy to assist of course in anyway I can.

Cheers

Renura

Well let's concentrate on the Avermedia for now as it does use the CN878A and it doesn't look like the manufacturer will release a proper driver anytime soon. I'll make my Twinhan BDA Capture driver generic to work with any CN878A based PCI card. Then specific front-ends (Tuner drivers) can be written to go with it. I'm still gathering information on the MT352 but it looks quite straight-forward to programme (he says after 2 years of working on the Twinhan product ).

I might have to buy one to do proper testing - I wouldn't want to hold on to a loaned one for too long. Anyone know where to get one cheaply? Otherwise I'll need some pretty dedicated Alpha-testers.

Spectrum

I am sure craigp/gizmomelb, would be happy to arrange for one to be given to you for free

Hi Renura,

Yup, I've offered to give Spectrum one of my own A771's to keep for testing, as I no longer work for Multimedia Technology, or indeed in the computer hardware or DVB-T related businesses.

I'd use 'gizmomelb' as my account name on here if only I could remember the sodding password (the email address is at MMT, so I cannot access it)!

Cheers,

CraigP / Gizmomelb

No worries, I am sure the avermedia owners will be be pleased

Well hopefully if Spectrum does author some BDA drivers for the a771 then they will be easy to mod for supporting the Skystar 2 as well - so then everyone is happy with BDA support (except for the Nebula owners! )

Very droll.

As it turns out, the amount of work to be done to convert Spectrum's VP drivers over to work with the old revision DigiTV PCI card (BT878A, Nxt6000, ALps tuner) card would likely be very small - and in fact most, if not all of the information required to do so (such as the stuff related to the Alps tuner) would be available in the Nebula public SDK and/or the Linux drivers (see V4L CVS for bttv.h/c, LinuxDVB CVS for dvb-bt8xx.c).

Similarly the extension of any solution for the MT352 based A771 would equally carry over to the new revision DigiTV PCI card (BT878A, MT352, Alps tuner).

Spectrum, if you'd have open sourced the drivers previously, I probably would have had a crack at modifying them a while ago - though I suppose that, given that Nebula have publicly stated that they will release BDA drivers soonish, whereas Avermedia have stated that they dont ever intend providing them for their earlier cards, the best bang for the buck would be in spending time on Aver drivers.

Spectrum, if you do decide to tinker with some "independent" BDA drivers for the old (or new) revision DigiTV PCI as a side project, we're happy to provide any assistance you may need (or if you are willing to share the source under an appropriate license, I can have a crack at it myself).

heheh, no offence meant HyperReality, just having some fun

Gizmomelb

Guys - awesome it would be fantastic if you could pull this off.
Craigp has provided good info - let me know if you need anything else.

DMAN

No offence taken.

How's the new job? Missing MMT yet?

Spectrum, on further reflection, if you dont want to open up your code, how about publishing an API for frontend and tuner modules, so that anyone can provide code for specific cards that you can then incorporate into your driver?

Hey guys...nice to see someone still working on the a771...any progress?...details plz..

bye

I've been working to make my Twinhan drivers generic so that adding A771 specific code will be fairly easy. I've never stopped working on the drivers for the Twinhan side - I just haven't released it to the public as there are now official drivers from the manufacturer. I'm on leave this week so I'll try to find a few blocks of time to sit down and code.

Spectrum

Hi Spectrum,

Your BDA drivers were the first that I know of, and while TwinHan did release BDA drivers (eventually) to fulfill its obligation and promise to customers (and me), your drivers were made out of passion and love (perhaps also necessity), I am sure they are very much appreciated by users all over the world, so if you wish to share your latest versions, I am very certain users will appreciate them also.

Cheers

Renura

Just registered to say thanks for trying to get these drivers up and going..
Even though those pathetic avermedia people should be the ones creating one..

Keep up the good work... be nice to actually be able to use my HDTV card..

Great news....we have been waiting since release for a bda driver....whats is a few more days/weeks.

Any word on how progress is going?? If at all?

<Post removed.>

Nevermind.

I've now got BDA drivers for the AverMedia A771 card. For a small fee, I'll supply the instructions needed to make them, for anybody interested...

I am interested in the BDA drivers for AverTv 771.
Thanks. You are the best!!

I`m interested
HOW SMALL

how stable is the bda software
remote?

Hello, please forgive me if i'm posting in the wrong place.

I need to install a BDA DVB-S Tuning Space, to use with ProgDVB with a pinnacle 400e (USB). I've installed ProgDVB in one computer and everything went fine, that BDA was in the device list. When i tried to install the same program in other computer the BDA DVB-S Tuning Space did not appeared. How can i install (or register) that BDA in that computer.

Regards

Take a look in the registry on the working computer
Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tuning Spaces\ you should find the DVB-S tuning space. Just copy these registry settings to the other computer.

See tuningspace.zip for an example of the DVB-T tuning space.

Jasoroony

you rock

771 get those bda drivers

Ok, I've been all over the place reading hacks and patches and downloads and finally ended up here. I'm after something to allow me to use the Avermedia 771 with MediaPortal. Am I right in thinking the BDA driver will allow me to do that?

If so.... how do I get it? I'm happy to make a modest contribution to the cost of development, but I'd like to be confident it is going to work first.....

Any advice gratefully received......... and how d'yall get to be so clever!

Regards
Paul - UK

Jasoroony,

I'm interested in the bda fix let us know asap thanx.

also does anyone know if the remote that comes with the card can be used with mediaportal, if so r there any instructions on how to set it up???

Jasoroony im am also interested in the bda drivers for the 771

very interested here

Jasoroony!
-Im am also very interested in the 771 bda driver.
Please inform me how I may get one as well as your required fee ...

Best regards
//A

I don't mean to sound a bit dense, but where are these drivers? Or do we have to pay for them?

contact Jasoroony the author of the drivers
http://forums.dvbowners.com/index.php?s=&s...indpost&p=43563

Jasoroony seems to have gone away, I am also waiting for a reply to a PM to him.

Anyway, have not found any postings confirming successful implementation? Anyone?

Helli

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=22198&st=140#