[linux-dvb] cx2388x support - 90002

[Steve Toth]

Can we do better?

Back in may/jun '04 when I was bringing the Nova-T 90002 driver to life, 
I wrote a standalone PCI bridge DVB module, to support the cx22702 
module. At that time, v4l didn't fully support the 2388x in mpegts mode.

In effect, to get the product working, you did not required the 
complexity of V4l, you only needed to load the two new modules. Simple.

Later, after some concern from Gerd, I decided not to release the pci 
driver and instead rely on v4l. (As does Chris P for the Fusion work).

Things appear to have changed.

We get lots of frustrated traffic on the list from people who can't get 
the product to work, or only works if you want to build the kernel and 
repatch with DVB and the latest V4l. The V4l project itself, no longer 
has a maintainer. A good number of users are confused, that's bad for 
the product.

I'm almost finish the drivers for a new DVB-S design, which will be 
released real soon, also based on the cx2388x pci bridge. This is 
currently based on the V4l patches and a seperate frontend demod driver, 
but could work equaly as well using the standalone pci driver.

My long term preference is to have _ALL_ of the required software for 
the existing Nova-T 90002 and the new DVB-S design, under the linux DVB 
project, not v4l. This will make life for non-kernel guru's a lot easier 
when configuring the hardware.

Does anyone have a good reason why the standalone PCI bridge driver 
should not be submitted for inclusion into the linux dvb tv project, to 
simplify DVB product support?

Clearly, V4l will deal with the cx2388x products that have external 
analogue inputs. To some degree, if the user is only interested in DVB 
support, they load the much simplified DVB project drivers. Otherwise, 
if they also want external analog/video support, they can chose to use 
V4l for BOTH DVB and analog.

Both mechanisms work equally as well for DVB, but one approach will 
significantly make the 90002 and future designs easier to configure quickly.

Any comments?

Also, how does everyone see the V4l/DVB relationship for some DVB products?

Regards,

Steve