Asus My Cinema P7131 Hybrid Capture Card - No Audio or Digital Reception

[Duchess]

Please be gentle with me. I'm fine on Windoz stuff but a total newbie on Linux but with a thirst to learn.

I have installed Ubuntu Feisty Fawn on my PC (an Asus Pundit PE3) and so far everything seems to work, with one exception. With every TV software I load I can only get the card to work on analogue TV and not on Digital. In addition I get no audio whether I choose TV input or composite input (which I use to capture off my Sky satellite box).

Can some kind person give me any guidance on how I can corrrect this problem? Even if I say pretty please?

[jcp2mill]

Are you sure you have the SAA7134-dvb and SAA7134-alsa modules loaded?

you can check this by typing :
sudo lsmod
at a command prompt
this will list all active modules if the dvb and alsa modules aren't listed type:

modprobe SAA7134-DVB
modprobe SAA7134-alsa

[Duchess]

dvb and alsa modules aren't listed type:

modprobe SAA7134-DVB
modprobe SAA7134-alsa

When I did that I got:

FATAL: Module SAA7134_DVB not found.

I know the card works perfectly in WindozXP as at present that is my only capture option. I want to drop the Microsoft OS, not because it's so unstable (which it is) but because I object to their trying to tell me what I can and can't do. I have a new PC that I have assembled and I do not want to load Vista on it if I can avoid it.

Unfortunately it being an Asus Pundit it will only accept half height cards and the Asus capture cards are the only ones I can get in Europe. Being very much a novice when it comes to Linux I'm not sure if USB units will work with Ubuntu and whether there are drivers available. I really don't need the TV capture since within the next few months I shall be emigrating (I'm coming up to retirement age) and I shall be using satellite receivers to get English television. All I really need is composite/s-video operation complete with sound and all I'm getting at the moment id video and no sound.

Thank you for your help thus far and I look forward to further assistance should you be kind enough to provide it.

[GMaq]

Duchess,
I wish I could help you, unfortunately I'm fairly new to Linux as well. I can tell you that capture card support in Linux is far more limited than Windows to a few specific chipsets, this is a definite area for future growth. I just had to say that your "signature" made me laugh, A real capsule of wisdom there! We've got some really great people here in the Linux forum, hopefully someone with a larger cranium than myself can assist you. Thanks for the laugh!

[Duchess]

Hi GMaq,

Thanks for trying, it may have worked but unfortunately not but you did try which is more kudos to you. As for the 'sig' I must admit that I borrowed it from someone on another forum since I too found it amusing.

Again thanks for trying it really was appreciated.

[jcp2mill]

if you go here http://www.linuxtv.org/v4lwiki/index.php/Main_Page

you can download a patch for your kernel there may also be one in the ubuntu repositories that isn't installed.
you need saa7134
saa7134-alsa and saa7134-dvb

alternatively you might find someone on the ubuntu forums has already created one.

you'll also need to install the tda1046.fw firmware in /lib/firmware/
avaialable through links here: http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Firmware

This card and most others do work under linux they're just a bit of a pain to configure but once you know what you're doing you'll be OK. I now have a media centre running mythtv with one of these cards.

When I've finished I'm toying with the idea of making my own mythtv media distro using this card if I get round to it I'll let you know.

[jcp2mill]

this is another good resource:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_saa7134

( i know it's gentoo but almost all of it still applies)

[jcp2mill]

just noticed it's "saa7134-dvb" not saa7134_dvb

[Duchess]

If that works I'll be your friend for life !!!

I'll give it a try this evening and let you know how I get on. As for the special distro I'll be more than interested, especially if it also includes a 64bit version as the machine I'm building has a core2duo prcessor.

So far I'm finding Linux to be an extremely good OS and now seriously thinking of ditching MS software on any new machines. After all why should I give Bill Gates money when I don't need to!

I'll get back to you as soon as I've had a chance to try what you have suggested.

Many thanks.

[jcp2mill]

if it works you'll want to add your module names (saa7134, saa7134-a;sa, saa7134-dvb) in:
/etc/modules
and they will be started at boot
modprobe will only start them for your current session

[jcp2mill]

sorry bit of a typo there second module should be saa7134-alsa