Nemosoft Unv. writes: > Greetings, > > On Friday 14 December 2001 11:59, mocm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > > Nemosoft Unv. writes: > > > There seems to be a new maintainer, though. Latest update was on > > > November 14 at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pvr/ > > > > > > Hmm. A friend of mine is contemplating buying such a card; I might be > > > able to borrow it from him, *if* I can get proper specs of that kfir01 > > > chip. > > > > The kfir chip in the PVR is the same as in the card sold by > > BMK-Elektronik. At least it was in the PVR that I saw. > > There are Linux > > drivers for the BMK board (see http://www.linuxtv.org/mpeg2/kfir.xml). > > Yup, I found that after my post. But are you sure it's the same chip? > Because in the mailinglists there is mention of the Kfir2 chip on this > board, while the PVR seems to have a Kfir1 (maybe it's downwards > compatible, like most of the bt8*8 series). No, both cards definitely have a Kfir1. I am not aware of any cards using the Kfir2 yet. Too bad since it was supposed to support AC3 encoding and the Kfir2A even MPEG2/AC3 decoding on the same chip. The chips also would not be downwards compatible. The Kfir2 has everything (Kfir1+PCI bridge+MPEG sound encoder) integrated into one chip. > To me it looks like an interesting board, except for one thing: it has no > tuner. Okay, for pure grabbing that doesn't really matter, but it would be > so much easier if I could just watch TV and hit 'Record' (I don't think any > tool out there right now supports the concept of watching with one device > and grabbing with another. But I digress) > > > The Problem with the PVR is that the kfir is connected via the bt878 > > and you have to figure out how. > > I am a programmer with a soldering iron. So that's the easy part :) Well, there is additional "fun" involved because there is an Altera chip between the Bt878 and the Kfir. So, the wiring depends on the firmware of the Altera. > > I think the sourceforge project has > > gotten quite far with that. Don't expect any information from > > Visiontech, the manufacturer of the kfir chip. Since they have been > > bought by Broadcom, we haven't gotten any useful information out of > > them, > > I noticed. They applied rule #1 in dealing with competition: "If you can't > outsmart them, buy them". I find some old (broken) links to the Visiontech > website, and they swept the Visiontech products under the rug quite > effectively. > > > other than some threats about posting their firmware which they > > had allowed earlier. > > It's probably too embarassing, should someone ever disassemble it :-) Hmm, are there free diassemblers for the Altera chips? If you want to disassemble the Kfir code you will of course also have to figure out their command set. > > You can get the MPEG encoder card from BMK directly, there is a > > contact form on the website I mentioned above. It's a little more > > expensive than the PVR, though. > > Getting sligthly off-topic here, but exactly then what is the point in > buying the BMK card, if I can get the PVR which also includes a tuner and > overlay support? Granted, the PVR drivers aren't done yet, but that hasn't > stopped us before. If you want a parallel DVB interface (which is on the BMK card) you might prefer that card. But I don't know if this works with our drivers (no hardware to test it with ...). Ralph
