Hauppauge HVR-2250 With Mythbuntu

**paulin** · October 9th, 2008

Hello everyone.

Well I've finally decided to try and build my first PVR. Anyway I'm still in the early research phase and I'm stuck on the Capture Card. Anyway I found the Hauppauge HVR-2250 which seems like a good option. However I've been searching around to see if it is supported by Linux and MythTV.

Is anyone using it and how is it working?

Thanks
steve

**paulin** · October 9th, 2008

I did find this

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/list...v/users/343983

Re: Need a Dual turner Capture card for myCable, WinTV-PVR 500 is discontinued* CONFIRMED * so what do you recommend ?

well I started the thread so I will close it, I finally ended up buying the hauppauge 2250, linux drivers are on their way ( it is even stated on hauppauge webpage ), basically this will be the replacement for the PVR 500, since they are getting a lot of heat from FCC to not sell any cards that can't decode digital, as I said on a post before, I think this card will serve 2 purposes, first the intended one and second I could help do a lot of beta testing ( or even dust my old C knowledge and work a bit on the driver )

Thank you all for your responses.
Roberto.

But I'm still not sure if this answer if it fully works or not.

Thoughts or anyone using it?
steve

**agamotto** · October 13th, 2008

Originally Posted by paulin

I did find this

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/list...v/users/343983

But I'm still not sure if this answer if it fully works or not.

Thoughts or anyone using it?
steve

No drivers as of today. I contacted Hauppauge about this a month or two back, and they don't do any in-house linux support for any of their product.

**pompeyjohn** · October 24th, 2008

according to the mythtv wiki work is preceding on getting this to work.

I have one of these cards, and I'll be using it for mythtv - until the, mediaportal it is...

**pompeyjohn** · November 5th, 2008

anybody have an update on this?

**smgendler** · January 10th, 2009

Development is on ice...which is very disappointing because it does look like the perfect tuner card. See http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.drivers.dvb/46504

**janascii** · March 3rd, 2009

The development may be starting up again. http://www.steventoth.net/blog/hvr-2250/ this is the blog of the developer that originally started the driver for the hvr-2250. Apparently enough people have been bugging him to start on the 2250 that he is accepting donations to work on the project. I'm keeping an eye on this before I buy the card. Thought others would want to know.

**LowSky** · May 24th, 2009

there seems to be a beta driver, but I have no idea how to install it, anyone care to help, http://www.steventoth.net/blog/products/hvr-2250/

I would live to get mythtv up and running.
I'm not really happy with Win7 media center

**squidboy** · May 24th, 2009

Use this to understand how to setup and build the drivers-

http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.ph...Device_Drivers

then this is where you get the drivers

http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.ph...WinTV-HVR-2250

Tell me if you have any luck!!
Thanks

**LowSky** · May 25th, 2009

Hello Mythbuntu users. Here is a new EDIT for 11.04 and 11.10.

I want to give credit to Sketchy's post: #420 I'm pretty sure this works

No one should need to upload any kernel drivers using 11.04+, only the firmware is needed.

I created a link on my server to host all of the firmware versions made a while back and will host as long as possible. I may move them to a public dropbox location later. I will update if needed.

Grab the firmware.

Code:

wget -c http://www.robotbeard.com/hvr-2250/HVR-2250_firmware.zip

Unzip the files

Code:

unzip HVR-2250_firmware.zip

copy the files to the /lib/firmware folder

Code:

sudo cp *fw /lib/firmware

Now check if the card can be located and what value the system has given it

Code:

dmesg | grep saa7164

on the 3rd or 4th line you should see what you are looking for it will look like this

Code:

[card=8,autodetected]

What this says is my HVR-2250 was detected at card 8, you may (probably will) get a diferent number. If your card says "unknown" choose the last option, usually 8.

Now we need to enter this card number into modprobe.d/options.conf file (I like to use gedit)

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/options.conf

place this line of code in the file

Code:

options saa7164 card=x

*x = your card's number*

Reboot and check mythtv backend to see if it is listed correctly.

Here are the older instructions if still needed for users still using older distros.

EDIT: I have updated this tutorial for use with 10.04, here is a direct link:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=212

OK here is the awesome news, I got it working, but it took forever as I had to go through miles of web pages just to get this to work! I'll list my sources at the bottom if I missed something and you need to look through it for answers.

So I'm going to be nice and do some people some favours and post what I did to get it working in MythTV.

This driver is a BETA and only works on digital side of the tuner,

NO ANALOGUE and please be careful using.

I am not responsible for the outcome of you using my tutorial.

As I think my tutorial is rather crude and may miss an important step, please see the sources listed below. This is not for people new to Linux, as it might break (and it might, I've only had this running for about 30 minutes, so fingers crossed).

If you really need to use this card for analogue and need a free OS, try the Windows 7 MCE, the free RC is currently available and should work until May 2010 before MS make you purchase a real copy and works completely with this tuner card.

Instructions for using HVR-2250 in MythTV (also works on HVR-2200 or any video capture card using the SAA7164 chipset)

EDIT:this has been updated for Mythbuntu 10.04 but will work for versions of *buntu 8.10 and higher

Enter this into your Terminal it is the code for the firmware and to install it

Code:

wget http://www.steventoth.net/linux/hvr22xx/22xxdrv_27086.zip
wget http://www.steventoth.net/linux/hvr22xx/HVR-12x0-14x0-17x0_1_25_25271_WHQL.zip
wget http://www.steventoth.net/linux/hvr22xx/extract.sh

Code:

sh extract.sh
sudo cp *fw /lib/firmware

you need to install mercurial and build essential for the next steps

Code:

sudo apt-get install mercurial libncurses5-dev

then we need the driver using this command to fetch

Code:

hg clone http://kernellabs.com/hg/saa7164-stable/

now change to the directory

Code:

cd saa7164-stable

then run make

Code:

make CONFIG_DVB_FIREDTV:=n

that will take some time, go grab a drink and wait it out, when it completes run this command

Code:

sudo make install

wait for that to complete and reboot
from the command line

Code:

sudo reboot

Note that an application like TVtime will not work, TVtime only works on Analog signals, and so far this driver only gets the digital stuff working.

then install MythTV using whatever method you like, I personally went into synaptic and installed the frontend and backend and extra plug-ins

once installed and you set up your passwords go to
System> administration> MythTV backend setup

once there go to Capture Cards, Should be choice #2
choose new capture card, you will ave to do this step twice (this card has two tuners)
At card Type, pick DTB DTV
the first will be device number 0,
repeats choosing capture card to add the second tuner
the second device will be #1 (Linux starts counting at 0, good thing to know, especially for hard drives)

then go to video sources, pick your options, will vary so mine will not work with yours most likely, so I dont want to post something I dont know)

then go to Input Connections, again you will have 0 and 1, configure both

then edit channels and directories as needed.

close let it fill database, for some reason mine keeps running in a loop, just exit after you see it finish the first or second time

now go to Applications > Sound & Video > MythTV Frontend

And you should be able to watch TV

I must say the Linux HTPC community is way too technical for most people, they need to make these things simpler, Windows 7 MCE is 10 times better at setting up these things.

Notes
I used Ubuntu 9.04, results should work for anyone using *buntu 8.10 releases, including Mythbuntu
I must say the configuring MythTV is exhausting so if I missed something or it doens't work please post better steps.
Special thanks to Steven over at KernelLabs, the person who made the drivers.

Sources

http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.ph...Device_Drivers
http://www.kernellabs.com/blog/?page_id=17
http://kernellabs.com/hg/saa7164-stable/
http://parker1.co.uk/mythtv_ubuntu.php
http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.ph...sing_Mercurial
http://www.steventoth.net/blog/products/hvr-2250/
http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Ha...WinTV-HVR-2200