Firmware

Definition of 'Firmware' at wikipedia:Wikipedia:Firmware). In conjunction with VDR, firmware is used as:

VDR as Firmware

Like Firmware of a video recorder or DVD recorder any complete VDR distribution can be used as firmware for an digital video recorder using a pc. This approach uses some VDR distributions, i. e. LinVDR.

Firmware for DVB and DXR3 cards

All DVB extension cards need firmware. For most of them this firmware is included in the driver package, for some other you have to copy the firmware on your computer where the driver can find it.

Firmware for DVB-T Budget cards

For Technotrend based Budget DVB-T cards (Nova-T, Lorenzen DVB-T PCI, TT1300) the firmware has to be extracted from the Windows driver package, renamed and copied to a folder depending on your linux dvb driver package and distribution. Usual places for the firmware:

• /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/tda1004x.bin
• /etc/dvb/tda1004x.mc

If the driver cannot find the firmware for your card you will see messages in the logfiles:(tail -n 400 /var/log/messages) A detailed instruction how to extract the microcode from the the Windows driver package you will find in the linux driver package.

Firmware for DXR3

Any Dxr3 card needs firmware, sometimes here called microcode. A detailed instruction how to extract the microcode from the the Windows driver package you will find in the linux driver package.

Firmware for DVB fullfeatured cards with 4MB memory

After Memory Mod of a full-featured DVB card a patched firmware for the cards is needed. It will work with the old one, but the meory is only with the new firmware available.

Heise has a compilation and downloads with different firmwares. You will firmware for Nova-T, HauppaugePVR 350/250, MediaMVP.