The Hardware

• Product: Hauppauge PVR-150 MCE (NTSC)
• Tuner label: 26552 Rev. B268
• Encoder: CX 23416-12 (iTVC16)
• PCI ID: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

The Status

• Tuner: working at 720x480 for all channels; other resolutions do not work
• Sound: working, good quality
• S-Video: not tested; produces a stable black screen
• Composite: working, good quality
• FM Radio: not tested; is this even supported under Linux?

The Software

• ivtv 0.10.x
• Linux 2.6.18 or newer. Be sure to enable "Cryptographic API."
• MythTV 0.20
• Video firmware 1.8.21.22254.
• Audio firmware 2.0.24.23035.

A vague HOWTO

• Get a 2.6.18 or newer Linux kernel, and configure it to enable the "Cryptographic API." You'll have an easier time if you do not enable bttv (i.e., bt-878 drivers), because ivtv wants to use its own tuner and msp3400 modules. But it's doable.
• Compile, install, and boot said kernel.
• Get the ivtv drivers. I used 0.10.4.
  • NB: the 2.6.22 Linux kernel includes the IVTV drivers. For Linux 2.6.22, you should get ivtv-1.0 package, which includes tuning tools, etc., but not the driver. I haven't tested this yet.
• untar the ivtv drivers. cd ivtv-x.y.z/driver/. make. make install.
• Depending on your kernel config, ivtv may recommend that you delete tuner.ko and/or msp3400.ko from your /lib/modules. Do it.
• Get the firmware files recommended by the IVTV firmware page.
• Extract the video-encoder firmware using utils/ivtvfwextract.pl pvr_NN.NN.NN_inf.zip .
• Copy ivtv-fw-enc.bin to /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/v4l-cx2341x-enc.fw. Your directory may vary according to distribution. Try grep FIRMWARE_DIR `locate firmware.agent` for hints.
• Unzip the audio firmware, preferably into its own directory.
• Copy HcwMakoA.ROM to /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/v4l-cx25840.fw.
• Copy v4l-cx2341x-init.mpg from the ivtv directory to /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/.
• modprobe ivtv. I used to use module parameters to set the tuner type and "no black magic," but they are no longer necessary.
• Check dmesg and see if the module loaded OK. The last few lines will indicate the ivtv error (e.g., no firmware) if there is one.
• cd to ivtv-x.y.z/utils/ and make ivtvctl. You should probably copy it to /usr/local/bin.
• Make the appropriate video devices if they do not already exist:
  • mknod /dev/video0 c 81 0
  • mknod /dev/video1 c 81 1
  • You may also want to chgrp them to video or mythtv, chmod them 660 or 666, etc. Make them accessible to the appropriate non-root accounts.
• Now, the card may or may not be tuned. Mine was tuned to channel 4, so a simple mplayer /dev/video0 got me a signal. You can also cp /dev/video0 foo.mpg and just hit control+C after a few seconds. If the card is untuned, you should get static. If it's set to the wrong input (e.g., s-video), you may get a black screen.
• If you need to switch the inputs, type ivtvctl -d /dev/video0 -n to get a list of the inputs. Find "Tuner 0" (probably #6) and use ivtvctl -d /dev/video0 -p 6 (or whichever number) to set it.
• If you need to switch channels, find the frequency for the desired channel. Here is a list for US cable channels 2 through 125 -- use the "Standard" column. For example, channel 3 is 61.25 MHz. Multiply the frequency in MHz by 16 -- e.g., channel 3 is 980. Now use ivtvctl -r 980 (or whichever) to set the channel.
• Once you've set the tuner and the channels, use mplayer or cp to test your video again.

MythTV configuration

Troubleshooting

• Use lspci to make sure Linux found and identified your card.
• Check the output of dmesg to see if there were errors initializing, tuning, or recording from the card.
• Use ivtvctl -d /dev/video0 -a to see everything ivtv knows about your card.
• If the card works with mplayer but not MythTV, use ivtvtcl -a before and after starting mythbackend to see which settings change.
• Check /var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log to see if MythTV reports any errors.
• More at the ivtv troubleshooting page.

Notes and hints

• MPEG-2 needs a high bitrate to look good, particularly if you have a moderately noisy cable signal. I record at 4.5 Mbps, with a max of 6.0 Mbps. Audio sounds fine at 192 Kbps. You can always transcode later (even automatically) if you want to save space.