OpenSolaris and Hauppage PVR-150/250/305/ ... TV/Tuner Cards support

Hi All,
 I was looking for "multimedia-discussion-like
community on OpenSolaris, however
 I thought the device-drivers discussion here would also be
the place to post this question.
 Well not necessarily hauppage, since there are many other
TV-card (analog/digital/HD, external USB tv/tuners, ...)
vendors out there, (its primarily 'cause I have a Hauppage
PVR-350 (non-MCE) with Remote   but
are there any TV-cards that anyone got working on
OpoenSolaris. (for x86/AMD PC) ? , or even on native Sun
hardware ? if not,  will there be any plans too?

thanks ahead for any insight.

Rick.
solaruxhotmail.com
 
 
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If there are any currently supported, a bit of googling
isn't finding them for me.

Looks like that card sometimes works on certain versions of
FreeBSD, but the
driver is not open source, plus it may need firmware images
or the like.

If you think about it, to do an unsupported driver takes:

* either open specs on the hardware, or an open source
(preferably BSD license) driver
* the time of a skilled person to port the driver (which
will likely not be trivial)

To do a supported one would probably need the open specs (so
you're not just guessing),
or it would have to be closed source under NDA.  And there'd
need to be a reason to use
limited resources for that purpose rather than any of a few
hundred other things people want
that might be more likely to produce a return on the
investment.

I mean, I wouldn't mind something like that (although I'd
prefer USB 2.0 or FireWire based,
which could also work on a laptop).  But I wouldn't spend a
few hundred hours working on it
to have it; I don't know that I'd spend a couple hours of
testing if someone else was doing
most of the work.

So...possible?  Sure.  Heck, ISTR a video capture card for
Suns existed at one time (no tuner,
I think).  Likely?  It would take someone with a lot of time
and talent, or a lot of money, to
get it done.  And a reason to go there.
 
 
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> Hi All,
> I was looking for "multimedia-discussion-like
>  community on OpenSolaris, however
> I thought the device-drivers discussion here would
> also be the place to post this question.
> Well not necessarily hauppage, since there are many
> other TV-card (analog/digital/HD, external USB
> tv/tuners, ...) vendors out there, (its primarily
> 'cause I have a Hauppage PVR-350 (non-MCE) with
>  Remote   but
> re there any TV-cards that anyone got working on
> OpoenSolaris. (for x86/AMD PC) ? , or even on native
> Sun hardware ? if not,  will there be any plans too?
> 
> thanks ahead for any insight.
> 
> Rick.
> solaruxhotmail.com

I have put together a couple of FC6-based MythTV boxes using
various Hauppage PVR cards (150/250/350).  It was quite
exciting initially (that it can do so many things), but I
eventually found myself overwhelmed with problems.

I am very interested in exploring the possibility of putting
together a Solaris-based PVR.

Also, since I have a digital cable box, analog TV turner
cards do not do me much good, as most of the channels I
watch do not come from the regular cable outlet.  What I
need are: (1) a plain vanilla video capture card to receive
analog signals from the digital box and not directly from
the cable, and (2) an IR blaster (to control the digital tv
settop box).

Since it is much easier to program an IR blaster, what is
required, as far as building a Solaris-based PVR is
concerned, boils down to whether we can find a video capture
card that has a Solaris driver.

I have not been able to find a TV turner card that is
compatible with Solaris.  I don't know if anyone has a
better answer, but, as I indicated above, this may not be
what we need.  The solution for a Solaris-based PVR may be
much simpler than we had thought--we do not need a TV turner
card, but a video capture card plus an IR blaster.
 
 
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