KWorld ATSC 120
The Kworld ATSC 120, also known as the KWorld PlusTV HD PCI 120, is an ATSC PCI add-in card which can receive standard analog television signals (NTSC, PAL, possibly others), as well as standard and high definition digital ATSC broadcasts up to 1920x1080 interlaced. The ATSC 120 features composite and s-video inputs on the back, an analog FM radio, and an infrared remote control. Television audio may be received via an internal PCI/DMA device that is handled by ALSA (e.g. as /dev/dsp1), and via a line-out connector on the back of the card.
This device is identical to the Geniatech HDTV Thriller X8000A.
Note: This article is a work in progress.
Status
As of 27 Mar 2008 and revision 7448 of the main v4l-dvb repository, this card can be used in both analog and digital ATSC modes via a set of experimental drivers. The FM radio, composite video, and S-Video inputs all work when the card is initialized into analog mode. The remote control is not currently supported in any mode, yet. Due to a resource conflict in the driver caused by this card's architecture, a reboot is necessary to switch between analog and ATSC modes. The cause of this issue has been located, and work is ongoing to fix it.
PCI Information
The ATSC 120 has a PCI subsytem ID of 17de:08c1. The complete details of this card, as reported by lspci -vvnn are:
00:05.0 Multimedia video controller [0400]: Conexant CX23880/1/2/3 PCI Video and Audio Decoder [14f1:8800] (rev 05)
Subsystem: KWorld Computer Co. Ltd. Unknown device [17de:08c1]
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64 (5000ns min, 13750ns max), Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 21
Region 0: Memory at fa000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Capabilities: [44] Vital Product Data
Capabilities: [4c] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI+ D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
00:05.1 Multimedia controller [0480]: Conexant CX23880/1/2/3 PCI Video and Audio Decoder [Audio Port] [14f1:8801] (rev 05)
Subsystem: KWorld Computer Co. Ltd. Unknown device [17de:08c1]
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64 (1000ns min, 63750ns max), Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 21
Region 0: Memory at fb000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Capabilities: [4c] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI+ D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
00:05.2 Multimedia controller [0480]: Conexant CX23880/1/2/3 PCI Video and Audio Decoder [MPEG Port] [14f1:8802] (rev 05)
Subsystem: KWorld Computer Co. Ltd. Unknown device [17de:08c1]
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64 (1500ns min, 22000ns max), Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 21
Region 0: Memory at fc000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Capabilities: [4c] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI+ D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Major components used
- Xceive XC3028 (tuner & analog IF demodulator)
- Samsung S5H1409 (digital demodulator, Conexant CX24227 compatible)
- Conexant cx23880 (A/V Decoder & PCI bridge)
Making it Work
The ATSC 120 is a fairly routine card to set up, and selecting the desired default mode is accomplished by simply loading the proper module after a reboot, as described below.
Step by Step
Note: Distribution-specific support for the ATSC 120 is unclear, however, the drivers are currently part of the v4l-dvb staging repository, and thus in line to be included with the kernel at some point in the near future. When that happens, many of these steps may no longer be necessary.
- If you have connected a set of speakers or headphones to the external line-out jack, disconnect them. The drivers' handling of the audio connector is still a little unstable, but the internal ALSA/DSP digital feed works fine, so it's best to use that for now.
- Most users will need to start by downloading a new kernel from The Linux Kernel Archive, in particular, the "latest stable version" (look for the "F" link on the right in that line). Instructions for configuring, compiling, and installing a Linux kernel can be found in this How-to. If your distribution provides a means and instructions for doing this via their official software repositories, it is recommended that you use their method instead.
- While you are configuring the kernel, be sure to turn the entire "Video For Linux" and "DVB for Linux" trees off, as they will be supplied by the LinuxTV repository. For the "menuconfig" and "xconfig" programs, you can find them by navigating to Device Drivers -> Multimedia devices.
- After you turn those trees off, continue exploring, configuring, etc. at your discretion. When you are finished, exit from the config editor, let it save the new configuration.
- Return to the aforementioned how-to to build and install your new kernel, and to prepare your system to reboot with it. Once you've rebooted, be sure everything works properly before continuing.
- Acquire the xc3028 firmware file and place it in /lib/modules , as directed by the XC3028/2028 info page here on the LinuxTV wiki.
- Acquire Mercurial and install it. This can probably be found in your distribution's software repository.
- Acquire the v4l-dvb repository from linuxtv.org, build, and install it (the exact figures below will change over time, as the repository is updated):
# hg clone http://linuxtv.org/hg/v4l-dvb destination directory: v4l-dvb requesting all changes adding changesets adding manifests adding file changes added 8567 changesets with 22668 changes to 1556 files updating working directory 1138 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved # cd v4l-dvb # make
- ...various build messages will appear here. Watch the first screen full of the output carefully and take note of the version of the kernel that the v4l-dvb repository is being built against - it must state that it is using the new kernel you just installed.
# make install
- In order to have more precise control of what modules get loaded, and exactly when, create a new file to blacklist the new modules from being auto-loaded:
# nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-misc
blacklist cx8800 blacklist cx8802 blacklist cx88-alsa blacklist cx88-dvb
Note: Some Debian systems will have trouble the blacklist. Modules may refuse to load from within any of the rc scripts, but will still load if done manually.
- Save the file out. If so desired, reboot your system and do an lsmod, to verify if the drivers were successfully blacklisted.
- Decide which mode you wish to use as the default: NTSC and the various analog sources, or digital/ATSC mode. To make digital/ATSC the default (for Debian, Ubuntu, and similar):
# nano /etc/rc.local
modprobe cx88-dvb modprobe cx88-alsa
- If you want to default to analog mode instead, replace "cx88-dvb" above with "cx8800". If there is an "exit 0" or similar command in the script, be sure your changes precede it.
- MythTV users: Be sure you configure your system to start the MythTV backend after the modules above have been loaded, perhaps by editing the above local script to explicitly terminate and restart it after the modprobe commands.
- Last but not least, reboot the computer. Your capture card should now be ready to use.