Mailing List Archive

> Has anyone found a Linux driver for Creative Lab's Video Blaster Digital
> VCR? This board has an hardware MPEG encoder and CompUSA has them on sale
> for $49.99 for Today only (Saturday November 30). If a Linux driver
> exists this would be a great way to get hardware encoder.
> http://www.americas.creative.com/products/product.asp?maincategory
> =5&category=201&product=222
> http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=290666

For the record, it appears the card is currently not supported in Linux, and
someone is looking for help in developing a driver for it. (See:
http://www.760mp.com/videoblaster/)

Doing an initial scan on the actual MPEG2 codec chip the card uses, it
appears there is no easily obtainable material to get the device up and
running. (Unlike the Zoran chipsets, which have documents all over the
place...)

IMHO, if anyone's going to get a card up and running under Linux, I think
the first we'll see is the WinTV PVR by Hauppauge. There are a lot of
devices in the wild, and I hear the product is selling very well. I think
Hauppauge might be more likely to help out with such a venture, too. Just
my 0.02 CDN (not worth very much to the lot of you... ;)).

Cheers,
Chris

On 30 Nov 2002 at 10:28, John wrote:

> Has anyone found a Linux driver for Creative Lab's Video Blaster Digital
> VCR?

I looked into that during the summertime and couldn't find any linux drivers.
YMMV

--
Harondel J. Sibble
Sibble Computer Consulting
Creating solutions for the small business and home computer user.
help@pdscc.com (use pgp keyid 0x3AD5C11D) http://www.pdscc.com
(604) 739-3709 (voice/fax) (604) 686-2253 (pager)

I have this card. There are no drivers for it for linux.
(not even Tv playback, let alone mpeg encoding)

-Mark


-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-dev-admin@snowman.net [mailto:mythtv-dev-admin@snowman.net]
On Behalf Of John
Sent: Saturday, November 30, 2002 10:28 AM
To: mythtv-dev@snowman.net
Subject: [mythtv] Creative Video Blaster


Has anyone found a Linux driver for Creative Lab's Video Blaster Digital
VCR? This board has an hardware MPEG encoder and CompUSA has them on
sale for $49.99 for Today only (Saturday November 30). If a Linux
driver exists this would be a great way to get hardware encoder.
http://www.americas.creative.com/products/product.asp?maincategory=5&cat
egory=201&product=222
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=290666

Of course it is sold out on the web but my local store still has a few
in stock. John


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Chris Liscio wrote:

>>Has anyone found a Linux driver for Creative Lab's Video Blaster Digital
>>VCR? This board has an hardware MPEG encoder and CompUSA has them on sale
>>for $49.99 for Today only (Saturday November 30). If a Linux driver
>>exists this would be a great way to get hardware encoder.
>>http://www.americas.creative.com/products/product.asp?maincategory
>>=5&category=201&product=222
>>http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=290666
>>
>>
>
>For the record, it appears the card is currently not supported in Linux, and
>someone is looking for help in developing a driver for it. (See:
>http://www.760mp.com/videoblaster/)
>
>Doing an initial scan on the actual MPEG2 codec chip the card uses, it
>appears there is no easily obtainable material to get the device up and
>running. (Unlike the Zoran chipsets, which have documents all over the
>place...)
>
>IMHO, if anyone's going to get a card up and running under Linux, I think
>the first we'll see is the WinTV PVR by Hauppauge. There are a lot of
>devices in the wild, and I hear the product is selling very well. I think
>Hauppauge might be more likely to help out with such a venture, too. Just
>my 0.02 CDN (not worth very much to the lot of you... ;)).
>
>
I bought a WinTV PVR PCI card beacuse at this point it works for
standard TV capture and there is a linux driver for the referance board
for the MPEG chipset it uses. Which means only a mater of time before it
works.

>Cheers,
>Chris
>
>_______________________________________________
>mythtv-dev mailing list
>mythtv-dev@snowman.net
>http://www.snowman.net/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev
>
>
>

On Sat, Nov 30, 2002 at 11:44:50AM -0800, MIchael Proctor-Smith wrote:

> I bought a WinTV PVR PCI card beacuse at this point it works for standard
> TV capture and there is a linux driver for the referance board for the
> MPEG chipset it uses. Which means only a mater of time before it works.

I wouldn't say that it's only a matter of time. I looked into this card
when I was first building my MythTV system, and decided that it was a waste
of money given the lack of driver support.

This project appears to be dead: http://pvr.sourceforge.net/news.html

though there is some information there. Someone did join the list recently
claiming to be a device driver programmer...:-)

--
- mdz

> This project appears to be dead: http://pvr.sourceforge.net/news.html
>
> though there is some information there. Someone did join the
> list recently
> claiming to be a device driver programmer...:-)

Anyone wish to donate some hardware? ;)

That sourceforge project appeared to be pretty dead, yes. IMO, I think it
was because someone found the drivers for the reference card based around
the same chip on the WinTV PVR device. That sounds pretty promising.

The WinTV PVR that is currently "out in the wild" is capable of hardware
encode, but not hardware decode. The next spin of the card appears to
support both encode and decode. I don't know what the benefit of the
chipset on the WinTV is when compared to the NEC chip on the Creative card
but the Creative chip is capable of dual concurrent encode/decode streams.

I'd be surprised if the next WinTV device's chip was not as capable, if not
more so. Given some time, money, etc, I'd love to play with that bad-boy.
I'm in the "make it so that mythTV runs on a cheesy VIA C3 chip" camp. :)

Cheers,
Chris