1 Documentation for dvb-usb-framework module and its devices
3 Idea behind the dvb-usb-framework
4 =================================
6 In March 2005 I got the new Twinhan USB2.0 DVB-T device. They provided specs and a firmware.
8 Quite keen I wanted to put the driver (with some quirks of course) into dibusb.
9 After reading some specs and doing some USB snooping, it realized, that the
10 dibusb-driver would be a complete mess afterwards. So I decided to do it in a
11 different way: With the help of a dvb-usb-framework.
13 The framework provides generic functions (mostly kernel API calls), such as:
15 - Transport Stream URB handling in conjunction with dvb-demux-feed-control
16 (bulk and isoc (TODO) are supported)
17 - registering the device for the DVB-API
18 - registering an I2C-adapter if applicable
19 - remote-control/input-device handling
20 - firmware requesting and loading (currently just for the Cypress USB
22 - other functions/methods which can be shared by several drivers (such as
23 functions for bulk-control-commands)
25 The source code of the particular DVB USB devices does just the communication
26 with the device via the bus. The connection between the DVB-API-functionality
27 is done via callbacks, assigned in a static device-description (struct
28 dvb_usb_device) each device-driver has to have.
30 For an example have a look in drivers/media/dvb/dvb-usb/vp7045*.
32 Objective is to migrate all the usb-devices (dibusb, cinergyT2, maybe the
33 ttusb; flexcop-usb already benefits from the generic flexcop-device) to use
36 TODO: dynamic enabling and disabling of the pid-filter in regard to number of
39 Supported devices USB1.1
40 ========================
42 Produced and reselled by Twinhan:
43 ---------------------------------
44 - TwinhanDTV USB-Ter DVB-T Device (VP7041)
45 http://www.twinhan.com/product_terrestrial_3.asp
47 - TwinhanDTV Magic Box (VP7041e)
48 http://www.twinhan.com/product_terrestrial_4.asp
50 - HAMA DVB-T USB device
51 http://www.hama.de/portal/articleId*110620/action*2598
53 - CTS Portable (Chinese Television System) (2)
54 http://www.2cts.tv/ctsportable/
56 - Unknown USB DVB-T device with vendor ID Hyper-Paltek
59 Produced and reselled by KWorld:
60 --------------------------------
61 - KWorld V-Stream XPERT DTV DVB-T USB
62 http://www.kworld.com.tw/en/product/DVBT-USB/DVBT-USB.html
64 - JetWay DTV DVB-T USB
65 http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/product/lcd-tv/DVT-USB/dtv-usb.htm
67 - ADSTech Instant TV DVB-T USB
68 http://www.adstech.com/products/PTV-333/intro/PTV-333_intro.asp?pid=PTV-333
73 - Ultima Electronic/Artec T1 USB TVBOX (AN2135, AN2235, AN2235 with Panasonic Tuner)
74 http://82.161.246.249/products-tvbox.html
76 - Compro Videomate DVB-U2000 - DVB-T USB (2)
77 http://www.comprousa.com/products/vmu2000.htm
80 http://www.grand.com.tw/
82 - AVerMedia AverTV DVBT USB
83 http://www.avermedia.com/
85 - DiBcom USB DVB-T reference device (non-public)
88 Supported devices USB2.0-only
89 =============================
91 http://www.twinhan.com/product_terrestrial_7.asp
94 http://www.twinhan.com/product_terrestrial_8.asp
96 - DigitalNow TinyUSB 2 DVB-t Receiver
97 http://www.digitalnow.com.au/DigitalNow%20tinyUSB2%20Specifications.html
100 http://www.globalsources.com/si/6008819757082/ProductDetail/Digital-TV/product_id-100046529
103 Supported devices USB2.0 and USB1.1
104 =============================
105 - Typhoon/Yakumo/HAMA/Yuan DVB-T mobile USB2.0
106 http://www.yakumo.de/produkte/index.php?pid=1&ag=DVB-T
107 http://www.yuan.com.tw/en/products/vdo_ub300.html
108 http://www.hama.de/portal/articleId*114663/action*2563
109 http://www.anubisline.com/english/articlec.asp?id=50502&catid=002
111 - Artec T1 USB TVBOX (FX2) (2)
113 - Hauppauge WinTV NOVA-T USB2
114 http://www.hauppauge.com/
116 - KWorld/ADSTech Instant DVB-T USB2.0 (DiB3000M-B)
118 - DiBcom USB2.0 DVB-T reference device (non-public)
120 - AVerMedia AverTV A800 DVB-T USB2.0
122 1) It is working almost - work-in-progress.
123 2) No test reports received yet.
126 2005-04-17 - all dibusb devices ported to make use of the dvb-usb-framework
127 2005-04-02 - re-enabled and improved remote control code.
128 2005-03-31 - ported the Yakumo/Hama/Typhoon DVB-T USB2.0 device to dvb-usb.
129 2005-03-30 - first commit of the dvb-usb-module based on the dibusb-source. First device is a new driver for the
130 TwinhanDTV Alpha / MagicBox II USB2.0-only DVB-T device.
132 (change from dvb-dibusb to dvb-usb)
133 2005-03-28 - added support for the AVerMedia AverTV DVB-T USB2.0 device (Thanks to Glen Harris and Jiun-Kuei Jung, AVerMedia)
134 2005-03-14 - added support for the Typhoon/Yakumo/HAMA DVB-T mobile USB2.0
135 2005-02-11 - added support for the KWorld/ADSTech Instant DVB-T USB2.0. Thanks a lot to Joachim von Caron
136 2005-02-02 - added support for the Hauppauge Win-TV Nova-T USB2
137 2005-01-31 - distorted streaming is gone for USB1.1 devices
138 2005-01-13 - moved the mirrored pid_filter_table back to dvb-dibusb
139 - first almost working version for HanfTek UMT-010
140 - found out, that Yakumo/HAMA/Typhoon are predessors of the HanfTek UMT-010
141 2005-01-10 - refactoring completed, now everything is very delightful
142 - tuner quirks for some weird devices (Artec T1 AN2235 device has sometimes a
143 Panasonic Tuner assembled). Tunerprobing implemented. Thanks a lot to Gunnar Wittich.
144 2004-12-29 - after several days of struggling around bug of no returning URBs fixed.
145 2004-12-26 - refactored the dibusb-driver, splitted into separate files
146 - i2c-probing enabled
147 2004-12-06 - possibility for demod i2c-address probing
148 - new usb IDs (Compro, Artec)
149 2004-11-23 - merged changes from DiB3000MC_ver2.1
150 - revised the debugging
151 - possibility to deliver the complete TS for USB2.0
152 2004-11-21 - first working version of the dib3000mc/p frontend driver.
153 2004-11-12 - added additional remote control keys. Thanks to Uwe Hanke.
154 2004-11-07 - added remote control support. Thanks to David Matthews.
155 2004-11-05 - added support for a new devices (Grandtec/Avermedia/Artec)
156 - merged my changes (for dib3000mb/dibusb) to the FE_REFACTORING, because it became HEAD
157 - moved transfer control (pid filter, fifo control) from usb driver to frontend, it seems
158 better settled there (added xfer_ops-struct)
159 - created a common files for frontends (mc/p/mb)
160 2004-09-28 - added support for a new device (Unkown, vendor ID is Hyper-Paltek)
161 2004-09-20 - added support for a new device (Compro DVB-U2000), thanks
162 to Amaury Demol for reporting
163 - changed usb TS transfer method (several urbs, stopping transfer
164 before setting a new pid)
165 2004-09-13 - added support for a new device (Artec T1 USB TVBOX), thanks
166 to Christian Motschke for reporting
167 2004-09-05 - released the dibusb device and dib3000mb-frontend driver
169 (old news for vp7041.c)
170 2004-07-15 - found out, by accident, that the device has a TUA6010XS for
172 2004-07-12 - figured out, that the driver should also work with the
173 CTS Portable (Chinese Television System)
174 2004-07-08 - firmware-extraction-2.422-problem solved, driver is now working
175 properly with firmware extracted from 2.422
176 - #if for 2.6.4 (dvb), compile issue
177 - changed firmware handling, see vp7041.txt sec 1.1
178 2004-07-02 - some tuner modifications, v0.1, cleanups, first public
179 2004-06-28 - now using the dvb_dmx_swfilter_packets, everything
181 2004-06-27 - able to watch and switching channels (pre-alpha)
182 - no section filtering yet
183 2004-06-06 - first TS received, but kernel oops :/
184 2004-05-14 - firmware loader is working
185 2004-05-11 - start writing the driver
190 Most of the USB drivers need to download a firmware to start working.
192 for USB1.1 (AN2135) you need: dvb-usb-dibusb-5.0.0.11.fw
193 for USB2.0 HanfTek: dvb-usb-umt-010-02.fw
194 for USB2.0 DiBcom: dvb-usb-dibusb-6.0.0.8.fw
195 for USB2.0 AVerMedia AverTV DVB-T USB2: dvb-usb-avertv-a800-01.fw
196 for USB2.0 TwinhanDTV Alpha/MagicBox II: dvb-usb-vp7045-01.fw
198 The files can be found on http://www.linuxtv.org/download/firmware/ .
200 We do not have the permission (yet) to publish the following firmware-files.
201 You'll need to extract them from the windows drivers.
203 You should be able to use "get_dvb_firmware dvb-usb" to get the firmware:
205 for USB1.1 (AN2235) (a few Artec T1 devices): dvb-usb-dibusb-an2235-01.fw
206 for USB2.0 Hauppauge: dvb-usb-nova-t-usb2-01.fw
207 for USB2.0 ADSTech/Kworld USB2.0: dvb-usb-adstech-usb2-01.fw
208 for USB2.0 Yakumo/Typhoon/Hama: dvb-usb-dtt200u-01.fw
212 Since the driver is in the linux kernel, activating the driver in
213 your favorite config-environment should sufficient. I recommend
214 to compile the driver as module. Hotplug does the rest.
216 If you use dvb-kernel enter the build-2.6 directory run 'make' and 'insmod.sh
219 1.3. Loading the drivers
221 Hotplug is able to load the driver, when it is needed (because you plugged
224 If you want to enable debug output, you have to load the driver manually and
225 from withing the dvb-kernel cvs repository.
227 first have a look, which debug level are available:
230 modinfo dvb-usb-vp7045
233 modprobe dvb-usb debug=<level>
234 modprobe dvb-usb-vp7045 debug=<level>
239 When the driver is loaded successfully, the firmware file was in
240 the right place and the device is connected, the "Power"-LED should be
243 At this point you should be able to start a dvb-capable application. I'm use
244 (t|s)zap, mplayer and dvbscan to test the basics. VDR-xine provides the
245 long-term test scenario.
247 2. Known problems and bugs
249 - Don't remove the USB device while running an DVB application, your system
250 will go crazy or die most likely.
252 2.1. Adding support for devices
256 2.2. USB1.1 Bandwidth limitation
258 A lot of the currently supported devices are USB1.1 and thus they have a
259 maximum bandwidth of about 5-6 MBit/s when connected to a USB2.0 hub.
260 This is not enough for receiving the complete transport stream of a
261 DVB-T channel (which is about 16 MBit/s). Normally this is not a
262 problem, if you only want to watch TV (this does not apply for HDTV),
263 but watching a channel while recording another channel on the same
264 frequency simply does not work very well. This applies to all USB1.1
265 DVB-T devices, not just the dvb-usb-devices)
267 The bug, where the TS is distorted by a heavy usage of the device is gone
268 definitely. All dvb-usb-devices I was using (Twinhan, Kworld, DiBcom) are
269 working like charm now with VDR. Sometimes I even was able to record a channel
270 and watch another one.
274 Patches, comments and suggestions are very very welcome.
277 Amaury Demol (ademol@dibcom.fr) and Francois Kanounnikoff from DiBcom for
278 providing specs, code and help, on which the dvb-dibusb, dib3000mb and
281 David Matthews for identifying a new device type (Artec T1 with AN2235)
282 and for extending dibusb with remote control event handling. Thank you.
284 Alex Woods for frequently answering question about usb and dvb
285 stuff, a big thank you.
287 Bernd Wagner for helping with huge bug reports and discussions.
289 Gunnar Wittich and Joachim von Caron for their trust for providing
290 root-shells on their machines to implement support for new devices.
292 Glen Harris for bringing up, that there is a new dibusb-device and Jiun-Kuei
293 Jung from AVerMedia who kindly provided a special firmware to get the device
294 up and running in Linux.
296 Jennifer Chen, Jeff and Jack from Twinhan for kindly supporting by
297 writing the vp7045-driver.
299 Some guys on the linux-dvb mailing list for encouraging me
301 Peter Schildmann >peter.schildmann-nospam-at-web.de< for his
302 user-level firmware loader, which saves a lot of time
303 (when writing the vp7041 driver)
305 Ulf Hermenau for helping me out with traditional chinese.
307 André Smoktun and Christian Frömmel for supporting me with
308 hardware and listening to my problems very patient.