Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T-500

WinTV-Nova-T-500

This is a dual tuner DVB-T PCI card from Hauppauge.

It is natively supported under Linux since kernel 2.6.19.

Overview/Features

In actuality, the device's receivers are USB based, but there aren't any USB plugs or sockets involved -- the single PCI card itself sports on board dual USB based receivers that interface with a host USB 2.0 controller (USB to PCI). This unique design is also known as "Bristol".

Components Used

• 2x Microtune MT2060 tuner
• 2x DiB3000P DiBcom DVB-T demodulator & USB controller
• 1x VIA VT8xxx host USB 2.0 controller (USB-to-PCI)
• A single Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) is present for both channels, but needs to be manually activated (see below).

Some further technical details may be found in DiBcom DiB0700 USB2.0 DVB-T based devices.

Identification

You will find the model name and number on the box, under the bar code. Cards known to work have the following:

• WinTV-NOVA-T-500 model 289 SL-289-V2.0-UK (in the UK there is also a model 287 - according to Hauppauge UK support this is identical to the model 289 - it is just a PC World/Dixons specific box)
• WinTV-NOVA-T-500 model 289 SL-289-V2.1-UK ... Note: It would appear that having V2.1 on the box could be either the Nova-T or the unsupported Nova-TD (see below). Most confusing!
• List incomplete, please add

WinTV-NOVA-TD-500

Note: This is an unsupported revision !!

Warning! WinTV-Nova-TD-500

This card appears to have been released, in low volumes, only in the UK, but unfortunately it seems that Hauppauge is shipping the Diversity* card in regular NOVA-T-500 boxes!

[* The "Diversity" option is a hardware based feature that allows for the device's two receivers to be configured in a combined use mode to achieve better reception on a single channel. The diversity feature of the DiBcom demodulators is currently not implemented in the Linux-DVB drivers, so only the dual tuner configuration is presently supported on such devices [1]. ]

This newer revision can be distinguished by:
On the box:

• You will find the model name and number under the bar code:
  • WinTV-NOVA-T-500
  • model 289
  • SL-289-V2.1-UK.
• The box also has a sticker stating it is the diversity option and only suitable for intel cards.
  • To quote one user running the device under Windows: "When i put it in my athlon based XP box it blue screened as soon as i tried to load the drivers. I brought mine from Amazon.co.uk and there was no mention that this card was any different or wouldn't work with non-intel processors."

On the card:

• it is labeled with the 'Diversity' feature stickers and the actual model number on the printed circuit board is NOVA-TD-500 (WinTV-NOVA-TD-500 DVB-T 68109 LF rev C1B5)
• the card has two aerial connectors.
• it uses a DiB0710 host USB controller (USB-to-PCI controller) instead of a VIA controller

The DiBcom DiB0710 controller used by this newer revision was apparently never sold for mass-production and DiBcom has end-of-life'd the chip. Furthermore, DiBcom currently do not plan on providing support for this controller. Consequently, given the low shipping volume and the limited support options, development of a Linux driver for this revision would likely be a waste of effort. [2][3]

Fortunately, for Linux users who have mistakingly received a Diversity variant, Hauppauge are apparently willing to exchange this product to a genuine T-500. Call the UK support line 0207 378 0202 and say you have read this article and bought your product from ebuyer, dabs or wherever.

Making it work

Firmware

August 21, 2008 - New firmware file fixing the last cause for i2c errors and disconnects and providing a new, more modular i2c request formatting.

You will need the dvb-usb-dib0700-1.20.fw firmware file in /lib/firmware or the relevant place for your distribution.

You may need to change the name of the file to dvb-usb-dib0700-1.10.fw or create a link until the driver code reflects that change.

For archival purposes: dvb-usb-dib0700-1.10.fw firmware file

August 29,2008 - Issues with Firmware 1.20. Some issues have been found with the latest version of the firmware. Users may wish to continue to use 1.10 unless they have patched their v4l-dvb code with dib0700_new_i2c_api.patch.

November 15,2008 - Issues with Firmware 1.20.

• The above mentioned dib0700_new_12c_api.patch is not available discretely but is now rolled into the mercurial drivers
• dvb-usb-dib0700-1.20.fw firmware file is now stable for reception, but remote control functionality is broken; any key press is repeated until the next key is pressed. The only way to get remote control functionality presently is to roll back to 1.10 firmware and suffer the occasional disconnect.
• The mercurial drivers have been changed so they now load 1.20 firmware. To revert to 1.10 firmware you need to rename your firmware file to dvb-usb-dib0700-1.20.fw or provide a link of that name.
• To avoid spurious remote control signals with 1.20 firmware, you need to edit /etc/modprobe.d/options or from Ubuntu onwards /etc/modprobe.d/options.confand add:

options dvb_usb disable-rc-polling=1

November 28,2008 - i2c errors. Changes were made to the remote control drivers on November 16,2008 to correct the repeat key problem. The card is generally stable for dual tuner reception and remote control function with Firmware 1.20.

November 10,2009 - mt2060 I2C write failed. Possible regression of a driver bug raised against Ubuntu running 2.6.27-14 and 2.6.31-2.17 causing mt2060 I2C errors in MythTV useage with firmware 1.20. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/397696 Recommend check the kernel extensions listed here for Low Noise Activation and rc_polling are loaded with correct config file name for your distribution, EIT listings information is turned off until a suitable delay (500ms-1000ms)is added to a single card (not both) and the card has correctly been added to the database as two tuners (no additional NULL entries) in the mythtv recordcard table.

Drivers

It requires the dib0700 driver. Just use Mercurial by following the How to install DVB device drivers instructions.

Note: These patches still haven't made it into the tree, and have not received a lot of feedback after the latest official merges. Use at your own risk if you feel that you need them.

Silence unknown keycodes

When an unknown key code is received (from another remote, like the receiver's or the TV's), it is not eaten and the module keeps yelling about it. This patch stops the yelling.

Jonas Anden, Thu Aug 2 00:28:17 CEST 2007

This patch is not cleanly applicable, but it is an easy one-liner to do by hand.

This patch is regarded as not really being the proper fix; it just limits the effect of bad behaviour.

Please report on the list.

Note: the current drivers are close to stable at the moment (2008-01-25). Occasional USB disconnects may still be experienced. The disconnects were caused by disabling the pull-down resistors or unintentional writes from the dib0700 bridge to the usb bus when accidentally hitting the end of a SOF packet. Why and when this happens can only be debugged by the dibcom firmware guys [4] . Other possible reasons for bad behavior could be bad reception (check your aerial, cabling, splitters and low-cost amplifiers) and EIT scanning. Search the linux-dvb mailing list for more information and current problems being experienced.

On-board amplifier

You may want/need to turn on the on-board amplifier:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/options

Add:

options dvb-usb-dib0700 force_lna_activation=1

Disabling the remote control sensor

You may want to disable the remote control sensor if you are using another one and want to avoid error messages in the logs:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/options

Add:

options dvb_usb disable_rc_polling=1

All relevant kernel modules options

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/options

Add:

options [module name] [option name]=[setting]

Get the parameters list using

modinfo [name of kernel module]

dib3000mc

debug: turn on debugging (default: 0) (int)

buggy_sfn_workaround: Enable work-around for buggy SFNs (default: 0) (int)

mt2060

debug:Turn on/off debugging (default:off). (int)

dvb_usb_dib0700

force_lna_activation: force the activation of Low-Noise-Amplifyer(s) (LNA), if applicable for the device (default: 0=automatic/off). (int)

dvb_usb_dib0700_ir_proto: set ir protocol (0=NEC, 1=RC5 (default), 2=RC6). (int)

dvb_usb

debug: set debugging level (1=info,xfer=2,pll=4,ts=8,err=16,rc=32,fw=64,mem=128,uxfer=256 (or-able)). (int)

disable_rc_polling: disable remote control polling (default: 0). (int)

force_pid_filter_usage: force all dvb-usb-devices to use a PID filter, if any (default: 0). (int)

dvb_core

dvb_net_debug: enable debug messages (int)

frontend_debug: Turn on/off frontend core debugging (default:off). (int)

dvb_shutdown_timeout: wait <shutdown_timeout> seconds after close() before suspending hardware (int)

dvb_force_auto_inversion: 0: normal (default), 1: INVERSION_AUTO forced always (int)

dvb_override_tune_delay: 0: normal (default), >0 => delay in milliseconds to wait for lock after a tune attempt (int)

dvb_powerdown_on_sleep: 0: do not power down, 1: turn LNB voltage off on sleep (default) (int)

cam_debug: enable verbose debug messages (int)

debug: Turn on/off debugging (default:off). (int)

dvbdev_debug: Turn on/off device debugging (default:off). (int)

dibx000_common

debug: turn on debugging (default: 0) (int)

Sample kernel output

[   30.965645] dib0700: loaded with support for 5 different device-types
[   30.965925] dvb-usb: found a 'Hauppauge Nova-T 500 Dual DVB-T' in cold state, will try to load a firmware
[   31.008899] dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-dib0700-03-pre1.fw'
[   31.206081] dib0700: firmware started successfully.
[   31.711176] dvb-usb: found a 'Hauppauge Nova-T 500 Dual DVB-T' in warm state.
[   31.711222] dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer.
[   31.711325] DVB: registering new adapter (Hauppauge Nova-T 500 Dual DVB-T)
[   31.831535] DVB: registering frontend 0 (DiBcom 3000MC/P)...
[   31.854890] MT2060: successfully identified (IF1 = 1220)
[   32.388673] dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer.
[   32.388853] DVB: registering new adapter (Hauppauge Nova-T 500 Dual DVB-T)
[   32.394293] DVB: registering frontend 1 (DiBcom 3000MC/P)...
[   32.398790] MT2060: successfully identified (IF1 = 1220)
[   32.959607] input: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /class/input/input4
[   32.959633] dvb-usb: schedule remote query interval to 150 msecs.
[   32.959637] dvb-usb: Hauppauge Nova-T 500 Dual DVB-T successfully initialized and connected.
[   32.959657] usbcore: registered new interface driver dvb_usb_dib0700

Remote control

Grey top, black bottom, 45 buttons, snowboard shape.

Bby looking in the 'dmesg' output for a line similar to:

input: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /class/input/input4

Additionally, the IR receiver will be listed if you execute the command:

cat /proc/bus/input/devices

For example:

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=2040 Product=9950 Version=0100
N: Name="IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver"
P: Phys=usb-0000:07:01.2-1/ir0
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input4
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event4 
B: EV=3
B: KEY=14afc336 284284d00000000 0 480058000 219040000801 9e96c000000000 90020000000ffd

In this example, the remote control gives output into

/dev/input/event4

The event number depends on your particular system and can vary.

Eventually this event number can even vary at every reboot. Complicated udev rules can be used. But recent Linux systems have a nicer way of providing a stable input event name:

$ ls -la /dev/input/by-path/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 140 2008-02-07 20:31 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 280 2008-02-07 20:31 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 2008-02-07 20:31 pci-0000:00:1a.1-usb-0:2:1.0-event-kbd -> ../event1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 2008-02-07 20:31 pci-0000:00:1a.1-usb-0:2:1.1-event-mouse -> ../event2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 2008-02-07 20:31 pci-0000:00:1a.1-usb-0:2:1.1-mouse -> ../mouse1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 2008-02-07 20:31 pci-4-1--event-ir -> ../event4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 2008-02-07 20:31 platform-pcspkr-event-spkr -> ../event3

LIRC will use it without needing a special kernel module. use the dev/input driver and specify the input event device in /etc/lirc/hardware.conf:

# /etc/lirc/hardware.conf
#
# Arguments which will be used when launching lircd
LIRCD_ARGS=""

#Don't start lircmd even if there seems to be a good config file
#START_LIRCMD=false

#Try to load appropriate kernel modules
LOAD_MODULES=true

# Run "lircd --driver=help" for a list of supported drivers.
DRIVER="dev/input"
# If DEVICE is set to /dev/lirc and devfs is in use /dev/lirc/0 will be
# automatically used instead
DEVICE="/dev/input/by-path/pci-4-1--event-ir"
MODULES=""

# Default configuration files for your hardware if any
LIRCD_CONF="/etc/lirc/lircd.conf"
LIRCMD_CONF=""

Here is a proper lircd.conf file:

#
# brand:                       Hauppauge NOVA-T-500
# model no. of remote control: Hauppage Nova-T-500 Snowboard Shape Silver over Black
#

begin remote

 name  NOVA-T500
 bits           16
 eps            30
 aeps          100

 one             0     0
 zero            0     0
 pre_data_bits   16
 pre_data       0x1
 gap          199999
 toggle_bit      0


     begin codes
         Go                       0x0162
         Power                    0x0074
         TV                       0x0179
         Videos                   0x0189
         Music                    0x0188
         Pictures                 0x00E2
         Guide                    0x016D
         Radio                    0x0181
         ArrowUp                  0x0067
         ArrowLeft                0x0069
         OK                       0x0160
         ArrowRight               0x006A
         ArrowDown                0x006C
         BackExit                 0x009E
         Menu                     0x008B
         VolumeUp                 0x0073
         VolumeDown               0x0072
         PrevCh                   0x016B
         Mute                     0x0071
         ChannelUp                0x0192
         ChannelDown              0x0193
         Record                   0x00A7
         Rewind                   0x00A8
         SkipBack                 0x0195
         Play                     0x00CF
         Pause                    0x0077
         Stop                     0x0080
         Fwdwind                  0x00D0
         SkipFwd                  0x0197
         1                        0x0002
         2                        0x0003
         3                        0x0004
         4                        0x0005
         5                        0x0006
         6                        0x0007
         7                        0x0008
         8                        0x0009
         9                        0x000A
         *                        0x0037
         0                        0x000B
         #                        0x0029
         Red                      0x018E
         Green                    0x018F
         Yellow                   0x0190
         Blue                     0x0191
     end codes

end remote

External Links

• Hauppauge UK product page
• A slightly dated user page, but it may still be useful for some
• MythTV wiki page on this card