request list of usb dvb-t devices that work with vanilla 2.6.29 kernel

Hello everybody,

I have been trying for years now to get support for usb based devices that makes it possible to watch FTA dvb-t channels in Europa.

I have bought more then 6 devices already and none of them work with the stock vanilla kernel (or with fedora, debian kernel packages)

I had hopes for the em28xx drivers, and spent a lots of time in the last years to Markus Rechberger. I made documentation did testing, compiled packages, did a lot of mailing and irc chats, etcetera.

I always hoped the code and work would be merged back with the official upstream kernel code so all this work would not be needed anymore and the devices will all just work with the new kernel releases.

I spent time sending emails and talking to developers to see how we could help Markus get his code back into the kernel.

But the situation is just sick, and there are real attitude issues on both sides.

I have gave up my hopes on getting a good healthy development process for the em28xx project. I am kind of said about this, because I don't give up easy and currently slowly feels that the em28xx project maybe hurting the free software community more then its doing good...

I now need new devices that do not need the em28xx code, I gave up hopes on getting analog and dvb-t to work with one usb hybrid devices, so I am going for a dvb-t only device.

Can somebody help me provide a list of devices that i can buy in stores and that are supported in the 2.6.29 stock kernel or have high possibilities to get full support in the future.

I would also like to point out I need a feature that allows scanning the signal strength of a dvd-t channel so I can create an fully automated FTA signal scanning systems that removes weaker supplicated channels.

Best regards, (but kind of disappointed)

Jelle de Jong

Quoted 41 lines · Jelle de Jong

Hello everybody,

I have been trying for years now to get support for usb based devices that makes it possible to watch FTA dvb-t channels in Europa.

I have bought more then 6 devices already and none of them work with the stock vanilla kernel (or with fedora, debian kernel packages)

I had hopes for the em28xx drivers, and spent a lots of time in the last years to Markus Rechberger. I made documentation did testing, compiled packages, did a lot of mailing and irc chats, etcetera.

I always hoped the code and work would be merged back with the official upstream kernel code so all this work would not be needed anymore and the devices will all just work with the new kernel releases.

I spent time sending emails and talking to developers to see how we could help Markus get his code back into the kernel.

But the situation is just sick, and there are real attitude issues on both sides.

I have gave up my hopes on getting a good healthy development process for the em28xx project. I am kind of said about this, because I don't give up easy and currently slowly feels that the em28xx project maybe hurting the free software community more then its doing good...

I now need new devices that do not need the em28xx code, I gave up hopes on getting analog and dvb-t to work with one usb hybrid devices, so I am going for a dvb-t only device.

Can somebody help me provide a list of devices that i can buy in stores and that are supported in the 2.6.29 stock kernel or have high possibilities to get full support in the future.

I would also like to point out I need a feature that allows scanning the signal strength of a dvd-t channel so I can create an fully automated FTA signal scanning systems that removes weaker supplicated channels.

Best regards, (but kind of disappointed)

Quoted 2 lines

Jelle de Jong

I just took one of my devices out ot the storage that did not work with previous kernels but now works out of the box with 2.6.29:
- Afatech AF9015 DVB-T USB2.0 stick http://debian.pastebin.com/d3e942c02

a list of more devices is really helpful.

Hello everybody,

I have been trying for years now to get support for usb based devices that makes it possible to watch FTA dvb-t channels in Europa.

I have bought more then 6 devices already and none of them work with the stock vanilla kernel (or with fedora, debian kernel packages)

I had hopes for the em28xx drivers, and spent a lots of time in the last years to Markus Rechberger. I made documentation did testing, compiled packages, did a lot of mailing and irc chats, etcetera.

I always hoped the code and work would be merged back with the official upstream kernel code so all this work would not be needed anymore and the devices will all just work with the new kernel releases.

I spent time sending emails and talking to developers to see how we could help Markus get his code back into the kernel.

But the situation is just sick, and there are real attitude issues on both sides.

I have gave up my hopes on getting a good healthy development process for the em28xx project. I am kind of said about this, because I don't give up easy and currently slowly feels that the em28xx project maybe hurting the free software community more then its doing good...

I now need new devices that do not need the em28xx code, I gave up hopes on getting analog and dvb-t to work with one usb hybrid devices, so I am going for a dvb-t only device.

Can somebody help me provide a list of devices that i can buy in stores and that are supported in the 2.6.29 stock kernel or have high possibilities to get full support in the future.

I would also like to point out I need a feature that allows scanning the signal strength of a dvd-t channel so I can create an fully automated FTA signal scanning systems that removes weaker supplicated channels.

Best regards, (but kind of disappointed)

Jelle de Jong

Quoted 35 lines · Jelle de Jong

Hello everybody,

I have been trying for years now to get support for usb based devices that makes it possible to watch FTA dvb-t channels in Europa.

I have bought more then 6 devices already and none of them work with the stock vanilla kernel (or with fedora, debian kernel packages)

I had hopes for the em28xx drivers, and spent a lots of time in the last years to Markus Rechberger. I made documentation did testing, compiled packages, did a lot of mailing and irc chats, etcetera.

I always hoped the code and work would be merged back with the official upstream kernel code so all this work would not be needed anymore and the devices will all just work with the new kernel releases.

I spent time sending emails and talking to developers to see how we could help Markus get his code back into the kernel.

But the situation is just sick, and there are real attitude issues on both sides.

I have gave up my hopes on getting a good healthy development process for the em28xx project. I am kind of said about this, because I don't give up easy and currently slowly feels that the em28xx project maybe hurting the free software community more then its doing good...

I now need new devices that do not need the em28xx code, I gave up hopes on getting analog and dvb-t to work with one usb hybrid devices, so I am going for a dvb-t only device.

Can somebody help me provide a list of devices that i can buy in stores and that are supported in the 2.6.29 stock kernel or have high possibilities to get full support in the future.

Quoted 7 lines

I would also like to point out I need a feature that allows scanning the signal strength of a dvd-t channel so I can create an fully automated FTA signal scanning systems that removes weaker supplicated channels.

Best regards, (but kind of disappointed)

Jelle de Jong

Hello Jelle,

I see an email like this every few months, and it continues to sadden me.  I'm not going to write yet another email casting blame on whose fault it is.  But let's look at what today's problems are and what would need to happen going forward.

First off, the problem is not really the em28xx driver itself anymore. The in-kernel driver itself is relatively mature and capable of handling new devices provided a new device profile is created in em28xx-cards.c.  I've pushed something like 45 patches in in the last year, and Mauro has pushed many more.  Empia has provided datasheets for em2860/em2880 and em2874, and the driver is pretty feature complete.  Support for a variety of new devices has been added in the last year.

So what is the problem today?  Why do your devices not work?

I believe the answer is a combination of two problems:

1.  A lack of driver support for Micronas demodulators - this is a sticky issue.  The Micronas demodulator is overly complicated relative to other demods, and there hasn't been an interest in investing the time to reverse engineer it (not when there are so many alternatives available that are much easier to program).  My efforts to get Micronas to allow me to release the reference driver code failed out of concern for "trade secrets and intellectual property concerns". The only reason those devices work in the mcentral.de tree is because he continues to redistribute their source code without a license.  If we had a proper license, I would be more than willing to merge this into the mainline.  With Empia using Micronas more and more in their newer reference designs, we should expect to see more products that fall into this category.

2.  A lack of interest on the part of developers with access to DVB-T. While support for ATSC based em28xx devices has grown considerably in the last year, there doesn't seem to be any developers with DVB-T who are interested in doing the work.  Many of the devices in question could be made to work with relatively little effort, but a developer needs to do the work to add the device profile (including the GPIOs) and iron out any integration bugs.  There haven't been any developers with both the hardware and access to DVB-T interested in stepping up to the task.

There are already some business customers who deployed Micronas based solutions in a legal way.

Quoted 10 lines

2.  A lack of interest on the part of developers with access to DVB-T. While support for ATSC based em28xx devices has grown considerably in the last year, there doesn't seem to be any developers with DVB-T who are interested in doing the work.  Many of the devices in question could be made to work with relatively little effort, but a developer needs to do the work to add the device profile (including the GPIOs) and iron out any integration bugs.  There haven't been any developers with both the hardware and access to DVB-T interested in stepping up to the task.

We currently make use of the crossover driver solution which moves the drivers into userland
and even makes them work with the existing in-kernel as well as with other unix based operating
systems. There are plenty of advantages starting with we can provide one single driver for multiple
kernel versions - as long as the USB ID is in the driver the userland crossoversolution will work with it
and improve its functionality.

Regards,
Markus

Quoted 35 lines · Jelle de Jong

Hello everybody,

I have been trying for years now to get support for usb based devices that makes it possible to watch FTA dvb-t channels in Europa.

I have bought more then 6 devices already and none of them work with the stock vanilla kernel (or with fedora, debian kernel packages)

I had hopes for the em28xx drivers, and spent a lots of time in the last years to Markus Rechberger. I made documentation did testing, compiled packages, did a lot of mailing and irc chats, etcetera.

I always hoped the code and work would be merged back with the official upstream kernel code so all this work would not be needed anymore and the devices will all just work with the new kernel releases.

I spent time sending emails and talking to developers to see how we could help Markus get his code back into the kernel.

But the situation is just sick, and there are real attitude issues on both sides.

I have gave up my hopes on getting a good healthy development process for the em28xx project. I am kind of said about this, because I don't give up easy and currently slowly feels that the em28xx project maybe hurting the free software community more then its doing good...

I now need new devices that do not need the em28xx code, I gave up hopes on getting analog and dvb-t to work with one usb hybrid devices, so I am going for a dvb-t only device.

Can somebody help me provide a list of devices that i can buy in stores and that are supported in the 2.6.29 stock kernel or have high possibilities to get full support in the future.

Quoted 7 lines

I would also like to point out I need a feature that allows scanning the signal strength of a dvd-t channel so I can create an fully automated FTA signal scanning systems that removes weaker supplicated channels.

Best regards, (but kind of disappointed)

Jelle de Jong

Hello Jelle,

I see an email like this every few months, and it continues to sadden me. I'm not going to write yet another email casting blame on whose fault it is. But let's look at what today's problems are and what would need to happen going forward.

First off, the problem is not really the em28xx driver itself anymore.
The in-kernel driver itself is relatively mature and capable of
handling new devices provided a new device profile is created in em28xx-cards.c. I've pushed something like 45 patches in in the last year, and Mauro has pushed many more. Empia has provided datasheets for em2860/em2880 and em2874, and the driver is pretty feature complete. Support for a variety of new devices has been added in the last year.

So what is the problem today? Why do your devices not work?

I believe the answer is a combination of two problems:

1. A lack of driver support for Micronas demodulators - this is a sticky issue. The Micronas demodulator is overly complicated relative to other demods, and there hasn't been an interest in investing the time to reverse engineer it (not when there are so many alternatives available that are much easier to program). My efforts to get Micronas to allow me to release the reference driver code failed out of concern for "trade secrets and intellectual property concerns". The only reason those devices work in the mcentral.de tree is because he continues to redistribute their source code without a license. If we had a proper license, I would be more than willing to merge this into the mainline. With Empia using Micronas more and more in their newer reference designs, we should expect to see more products that fall into this category.

2. A lack of interest on the part of developers with access to DVB-T. While support for ATSC based em28xx devices has grown considerably in
the last year, there doesn't seem to be any developers with DVB-T who are interested in doing the work. Many of the devices in question could be made to work with relatively little effort, but a developer needs to do the work to add the device profile (including the GPIOs) and iron out any integration bugs. There haven't been any developers with both the hardware and access to DVB-T interested in stepping up to the task.

With this being a volunteer organization, there isn't really any well to compel developers to work on devices they don't have any interest in.

In my case personally, I am highly familiar with the em28xx family of devices, but I don't have access to any of the products in question or a DVB-T signal to test with (which is why I focus on the em28xx based ATSC and analog products).

Regards,

Devin

Thanks for the quick response, I am aware of the situation and the specifics of the Micronas case. I talked with Marcus several times about ways to handle this to make the driver available for the gpl compliant upstream kernel.

I can also confirm that the analog part of most of my em28xx devices do work, so currently I am recommending customers two buy two usb devices one for analog and one for dvb-t.

If you want I can sent you an em28xx device with dvb-t and analog i got tree of those lying around here.

Best regards,

Jelle de Jong

Quoted 9 lines · Jelle de Jong

Thanks for the quick response, I am aware of the situation and the specifics of the Micronas case. I talked with Marcus several times about ways to handle this to make the driver available for the gpl compliant upstream kernel.

I can also confirm that the analog part of most of my em28xx devices do work, so currently I am recommending customers two buy two usb devices one for analog and one for dvb-t.

Quoted 6 lines

If you want I can sent you an em28xx device with dvb-t and analog i got tree of those lying around here.

Best regards,

Jelle de Jong

Hello Jelle,

Once I receive the Terratec device you mentioned, I will see if I can get it up and running in the mainline kernel (at which point I will mail it back to you).

Cheers,

Devin

The devices have been sent to you yesterday, so you can expect them to arrive soon (depending on US postage speeds).

Best regards,

Jelle