TV Card no audio, don't know what the problem is... [solved?

[bluerabbit4210]

Hey all,

I have a tv card (asus pvr-416 rev1.05)installed, sound has been a real issue. if i run 'mplayer /dev/video1' i get (crappy) picture and sound! (changing channels with a 'v4lctl setstation ###' command kills the sound, and makes mplayer complain that my computer is "too SLOW to play this"

what is stumping me is that while pointing mplayer at my /dev/video1 yields ok results, 'mplayer tv://' (and many different options and switches) yields a (better) picture, but NO sound. ( all the while complaining that it /dev/dsp is locked) [edit: i think this was due to immediatemode not being set]

Now like I said, if someone could just identify what MIGHT be the problem, I'll have an easier time figuring it out. I've been up all night and I'm just starting to poke at random buttons, so to speak. i've given up on figuring this out by myself, so hopefully one of you kind folks has an idea for me.

for the record, mint 9, all updates, fresh fresh install.

is this a pulse audio thing?

$ lspci -nn | grep media

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00:08.0 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: ALi Corporation M5455 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device [10b9:5455] (rev 20)
04:07.0 Multimedia video controller [0400]: Conexant Systems, Inc. CX23880/1/2/3 PCI Video and Audio Decoder [14f1:8800] (rev 05)
04:07.2 Multimedia controller [0480]: Conexant Systems, Inc. CX23880/1/2/3 PCI Video and Audio Decoder [MPEG Port] [14f1:8802] (rev 05)

the tv card has a conexant cx23880 decoder and a cx23416 mpeg encoder. I'm not sure really how to access this stuff, i'm just kind of poking in the dark now.

$ lsmod

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Module                  Size  Used by
binfmt_misc             6587  1 
nfsd                  238935  13 
exportfs                3437  1 nfsd
nfs                   264702  0 
lockd                  64849  2 nfsd,nfs
nfs_acl                 2245  2 nfsd,nfs
auth_rpcgss            33735  2 nfsd,nfs
dm_crypt               11331  0 
sunrpc                193181  12 nfsd,nfs,lockd,nfs_acl,auth_rpcgss
snd_intel8x0           25588  2 
cx88_blackbird         14222  0 
cx2341x                12469  1 cx88_blackbird
tuner_simple           13577  1 
tuner_types            14233  1 tuner_simple
snd_ac97_codec        100646  1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus                1002  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss            35308  0 
snd_mixer_oss          13746  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                70662  3 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
tda9887                 9589  1 
snd_seq_dummy           1338  0 
tda8290                12092  0 
snd_seq_oss            26726  0 
tea5767                 5950  0 
snd_seq_midi            4557  0 
snd_rawmidi            19056  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event      6003  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
tuner                  20412  2 
snd_seq                47263  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
cx8800                 27188  1 cx88_blackbird
snd_timer              19098  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
cx8802                 12841  1 cx88_blackbird
usblp                  10481  0 
nvidia               9932176  38 
cx88xx                 72596  3 cx88_blackbird,cx8800,cx8802
v4l2_common            15431  5 cx88_blackbird,cx2341x,tuner,cx8800,cx88xx
ir_common              38875  1 cx88xx
snd_seq_device          5700  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
i2c_algo_bit            5028  1 cx88xx
videodev               34361  5 cx88_blackbird,tuner,cx8800,cx88xx,v4l2_common
tveeprom               11102  1 cx88xx
v4l1_compat            13251  1 videodev
btcx_risc               3624  3 cx8800,cx8802,cx88xx
videobuf_dma_sg        10782  4 cx88_blackbird,cx8800,cx8802,cx88xx
snd                    54148  14 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
videobuf_core          16356  5 cx88_blackbird,cx8800,cx8802,cx88xx,videobuf_dma_sg
ppdev                   5259  0 
k8temp                  3024  0 
i2c_ali15x3             5050  0 
i2c_ali1535             4725  0 
soundcore               6620  1 snd
i2c_ali1563             5438  0 
parport_pc             25962  1 
psmouse                63245  0 
joydev                  8708  0 
uli526x                13126  0 
snd_page_alloc          7076  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
shpchp                 28820  0 
hid_logitech            7388  0 
ff_memless              4093  1 hid_logitech
serio_raw               3978  0 
lp                      7028  0 
parport                32635  3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
dm_raid45              81647  0 
xor                    15028  1 dm_raid45
usbhid                 36110  1 hid_logitech
hid                    67032  2 hid_logitech,usbhid
ohci1394               26950  0 
fbcon                  35102  71 
tileblit                2031  1 fbcon
font                    7557  1 fbcon
bitblit                 4707  1 fbcon
usb_storage            39425  0 
amd64_agp               7025  1 
softcursor              1189  1 bitblit
ieee1394               81181  1 ohci1394
pata_ali                7900  5 
ali_agp                 3717  0 
agpgart                31724  3 nvidia,amd64_agp,ali_agp
vga16fb                11385  1 
vgastate                8961  1 vga16fb

$ uname -a

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Linux freekbox 2.6.32-21-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 16 08:10:02 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

and I don't really know what else to post...?

[edit] cleanup, clarified title

[ArcherSeven]

First off... You're having more TV card luck then I am. But that aside, I can throw a couple ideas out there.

It could be pulse audio. But I find that unlikely.And, being as the encoder is on the card itself, I don't understand the "your computer is too slow" bit, and I wonder why it would do that.

A few things I would try... first and foremost, go into Menu > Administration (?) > Users and Groups, unlock it (button that at one point it time was on the bottom), edit your user, and make sure you're in all groups. If you change anything in there, either reboot or log all the way out and back in. That might fix the permissions thing.
You might also check mplayer flags, to see what outputs you can specify. If you can specify a different audio output format or driver, it may not need to access /dev/dsp using a different hardware device or even software.

If you could give me information on how you got the card THAT far, i'd be grateful, I believe I have conexant encoders on mine as well, but I haven't put the time needed into fixing it yet.

[bluerabbit4210]

Hey cool, thanks for the reply! I'm out and about right now, but when I get home I'll post a couple useful (to me at least) links that i've dug up during this whole episode.

as far as manually directing mplayer's audio output, that's where i'm kind of drawing a blank. If i do manage to pipe it directly to my souncard, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of having pulseaudio in the first place? (sorry if the questions are inane, but I know very little about how linux manages a/v/ streams)

like i said, I'll be back home later and can post links to the stuff i've been reading.

thanks!

[ArcherSeven]

Yes, it would defeat the purpose of pulseaudio at least for mplayer. But that's considered ideal according to most people I talk to anyways :). I'm one of the heaviest supports I know of Pulse Audio... and I don't use it by choice. *shrug* bypassing it is, as a general rule, a good way to save CPU, Pulse has nice frill, not always good performance. I would try, first, to manually send it to Alsa, then use alsamixer to make sure alsa doesn't hold you up.

[bluerabbit4210]

Yeah, i've had mixed feelings about pulse but it definately seems more stable in lucid.
I was looking over my bookmarks and I came to the conclusion that I probably have very little info to be of use to the greater mint community. They're all either too general (a la the mythtv wiki) and are thus easily found, or they are waaay to specific to my particular hardware. The most useful things I learned were exactly what card I had, the kind of chips used, etc. and hoping that it showed up in this list. Various random attempts at blind modprobes and editing modules.conf (or whatever) may have been useful, but then again...
I ended up using cabextract && dd to pull binaries out of a driver .exe (although I don't think this was necessary, as the kernel version mentioned in the tutorial was a bit old) and most everything else has just been a matter of honing my google-fu. and luck.

how do you recommend piping mplayer to alsa? I'll say again, I have a murky-at-best idea of how linux handles /dev interfaces and frankly 'man mplayer' gives me a headache just thinking about scrubbing it again. Is there a better reference than the man page?

[ArcherSeven]

Better? Maybe online somewhere. A man page is comprehensive and really where the answers lie. If there's a better solution I don't know it. I might mess with mplayer later to see what I can find.

[bluerabbit4210]

$ man alsa (line 1541)

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       Audio output drivers are interfaces to different audio output facilities.
  The syntax is:

       -ao <driver1[:suboption1[=value]:...],driver2,...[,]>

heh, it's amazing what a nap will do for one's ability to grind through a man page. I'll play with this after dinner...

[edit] cleanup

[bluerabbit4210]

I'm just gonna keep adding as much info as i can here in the hopes that some kind soul will come along and notice something i'm overlooking

Code: Select all

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: M5455 [ALi M5455], device 0: Intel ICH [ALi M5455]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: M5455 [ALi M5455], device 2: Intel ICH - IEC958 [ALi M5455 - IEC958]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

$ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: M5455 [ALi M5455], device 0: Intel ICH [ALi M5455]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: M5455 [ALi M5455], device 1: Intel ICH - MIC ADC [ALi M5455 - MIC ADC]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

so no, my capture card is not being picked up by alsa (but like I said, 'mplayer /dev/video0' does produce audio, so it's there)

$ mplayer -ao alsa:device=hw=0,0 -tv driver=v4l2:immediatemode=0:norm=NTSC-M tv://

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...
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
MPlayer SVN-r1.0~rc3+svn20090426-4.4.3 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing tv://.
TV file format detected.
Selected driver: v4l2
 name: Video 4 Linux 2 input
 author: Martin Olschewski <olschewski@zpr.uni-koeln.de>
 comment: first try, more to come ;-)
Selected device: ASUS PVR-416
 Tuner cap: STEREO LANG1 LANG2
 Tuner rxs: MONO STEREO
 Capabilites:  video capture  VBI capture device  tuner  read/write  streaming
 supported norms: 0 = NTSC-M; 1 = NTSC-M-JP; 2 = NTSC-443; 3 = PAL-BG; 4 = PAL-I; 5 = PAL-DK; 6 = PAL-M; 7 = PAL-N; 8 = PAL-Nc; 9 = PAL-60; 10 = SECAM-B; 11 = SECAM-G; 12 = SECAM-H; 13 = SECAM-DK; 14 = SECAM-L;
 inputs: 0 = Television; 1 = S-Video;
 Current input: 8
 Current format: BGR24
v4l2: current audio mode is : STEREO
v4l2: ioctl set format failed: Invalid argument
v4l2: ioctl set format failed: Invalid argument
Audio block size too low, setting to 16384!
open: No such file or directory
[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid
open: No such file or directory
[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid
[VO_TDFXFB] Can't open /dev/fb0: Permission denied.
[VO_3DFX] Unable to open /dev/3dfx.
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [raw] RAW Uncompressed Video
VDec: vo config request - 640 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Packed UYVY)
VDec: using Packed UYVY as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
VO: [xv] 640x480 => 640x480 Packed UYVY 
Selected video codec: [rawuyvy] vfm: raw (RAW UYVY)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [pcm] Uncompressed PCM audio decoder
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 1411.2 kbit/100.00% (ratio: 176400->176400)
Selected audio codec: [pcm] afm: pcm (Uncompressed PCM)
==========================================================================
AO: [alsa] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
v4l2: 993 frames successfully processed, 0 frames dropped.0.8% 0 0 

Exiting... (Quit)

and still hearing nothing...

just for fun (don;t know anything about the v4l2 driver but saw it mentioned in `mplayer -ao help`)
$ mplayer -ao v4l2 -tv driver=v4l2:immediatemode=0:norm=NTSC-M tv://

Code: Select all

...
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
MPlayer SVN-r1.0~rc3+svn20090426-4.4.3 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing tv://.
TV file format detected.
Selected driver: v4l2
 name: Video 4 Linux 2 input
 author: Martin Olschewski <olschewski@zpr.uni-koeln.de>
 comment: first try, more to come ;-)
Selected device: ASUS PVR-416
 Tuner cap: STEREO LANG1 LANG2
 Tuner rxs: MONO STEREO
 Capabilites:  video capture  VBI capture device  tuner  read/write  streaming
 supported norms: 0 = NTSC-M; 1 = NTSC-M-JP; 2 = NTSC-443; 3 = PAL-BG; 4 = PAL-I; 5 = PAL-DK; 6 = PAL-M; 7 = PAL-N; 8 = PAL-Nc; 9 = PAL-60; 10 = SECAM-B; 11 = SECAM-G; 12 = SECAM-H; 13 = SECAM-DK; 14 = SECAM-L;
 inputs: 0 = Television; 1 = S-Video;
 Current input: 0
 Current format: BGR24
v4l2: current audio mode is : STEREO
v4l2: ioctl set format failed: Invalid argument
v4l2: ioctl set format failed: Invalid argument
Audio block size too low, setting to 16384!
open: No such file or directory
[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid
open: No such file or directory
[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid
[VO_TDFXFB] Can't open /dev/fb0: Permission denied.
[VO_3DFX] Unable to open /dev/3dfx.
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [raw] RAW Uncompressed Video
VDec: vo config request - 640 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Packed UYVY)
VDec: using Packed UYVY as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
VO: [xv] 640x480 => 640x480 Packed UYVY 
Selected video codec: [rawuyvy] vfm: raw (RAW UYVY)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [pcm] Uncompressed PCM audio decoder
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 1411.2 kbit/100.00% (ratio: 176400->176400)
Selected audio codec: [pcm] afm: pcm (Uncompressed PCM)
==========================================================================
Failed to initialize audio driver 'v4l2'
Could not open/initialize audio device -> no sound.
Audio: no sound
Starting playback...
v4l2: 304 frames successfully processed, 0 frames dropped.

Exiting... (Quit)

at this point it feels like theres something REALLY obvious that i'm missing!!

and here is the only way I can get audio so far:
$ mplayer /dev/video1

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...
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
MPlayer SVN-r1.0~rc3+svn20090426-4.4.3 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing /dev/video1.
...
Cannot seek backward in linear streams!
Seek failed
MPEG-PS file format detected.
VIDEO:  MPEG2  720x480  (aspect 2)  29.970 fps  8000.0 kbps (1000.0 kbyte/s)
open: No such file or directory
[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid
open: No such file or directory
[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid
[VO_TDFXFB] Can't open /dev/fb0: Permission denied.
[VO_3DFX] Unable to open /dev/3dfx.
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Mpeg PES)
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
Try appending the scale filter to your filter list,
e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.
VDecoder init failed :(
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Unsupported PixelFormat -1
Selected video codec: [ffmpeg2] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-2)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 224.0 kbit/14.58% (ratio: 28000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
==========================================================================
AO: [pulse] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [xv] 720x480 => 720x540 Planar YV12 
A:  39.4 V:  38.7 A-V:  0.633 ct: -0.539 1129/1129 11%  0% 10.1% 50 0 

           ************************************************
           **** Your system is too SLOW to play this!  ****
           ************************************************

Possible reasons, problems, workarounds:
- Most common: broken/buggy _audio_ driver
  - Try -ao sdl or use the OSS emulation of ALSA.
  - Experiment with different values for -autosync, 30 is a good start.
- Slow video output
  - Try a different -vo driver (-vo help for a list) or try -framedrop!
- Slow CPU
  - Don't try to play a big DVD/DivX on a slow CPU! Try some of the lavdopts,
    e.g. -vfm ffmpeg -lavdopts lowres=1:fast:skiploopfilter=all.
- Broken file
  - Try various combinations of -nobps -ni -forceidx -mc 0.
- Slow media (NFS/SMB mounts, DVD, VCD etc)
  - Try -cache 8192.
- Are you using -cache to play a non-interleaved AVI file?
  - Try -nocache.
Read DOCS/HTML/en/video.html for tuning/speedup tips.
If none of this helps you, read DOCS/HTML/en/bugreports.html.

A:  52.6 V:  52.6 A-V: -0.001 ct: -0.282 1544/1544 11%  0% 12.5% 78 0 
Exiting... (Quit)

a steady stream of these lines:
...
Cannot seek backward in linear streams!
Seek failed
...
has been truncated

as an aside the line(s) (which also show up multiple times at launch):
...
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
...
are just helpfully reminding me that I don't have any bluetooth devices, yes?

$ dmesg | grep cx88

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[    7.837105] cx88/2: cx2388x MPEG-TS Driver Manager version 0.0.7 loaded
[    7.841616] cx88[0]: subsystem: 1043:4823, board: ASUS PVR-416 [card=12,autodetected], frontend(s): 0
[    7.841621] cx88[0]: TV tuner type 43, Radio tuner type -1
[    8.093819] cx88/0: cx2388x v4l2 driver version 0.0.7 loaded
[    8.507551] tuner 1-0060: chip found @ 0xc0 (cx88[0])
[    8.735345] tuner 1-0043: chip found @ 0x86 (cx88[0])
[    8.952840] cx88[0]/2: cx2388x 8802 Driver Manager
[    8.952857] cx88-mpeg driver manager 0000:04:07.2: PCI INT A -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 22
[    8.952866] cx88[0]/2: found at 0000:04:07.2, rev: 5, irq: 22, latency: 32, mmio: 0xfc000000
[    8.952874] IRQ 22/cx88[0]: IRQF_DISABLED is not guaranteed on shared IRQs
[    8.952945] cx8800 0000:04:07.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 22
[    8.952952] cx88[0]/0: found at 0000:04:07.0, rev: 5, irq: 22, latency: 32, mmio: 0xfd000000
[    8.952962] IRQ 22/cx88[0]: IRQF_DISABLED is not guaranteed on shared IRQs
[    8.953040] cx88[0]/0: registered device video0 [v4l2]
[    8.953067] cx88[0]/0: registered device vbi0
[    8.953095] cx88[0]/0: registered device radio0
[    9.006375] cx88/2: registering cx8802 driver, type: blackbird access: shared
[    9.006379] cx88[0]/2: subsystem: 1043:4823, board: ASUS PVR-416 [card=12]
[    9.006383] cx88[0]/2: cx23416 based mpeg encoder (blackbird reference design)
[    9.006603] cx88[0]/2-bb: Firmware and/or mailbox pointer not initialized or corrupted
[    9.015886] cx88-mpeg driver manager 0000:04:07.2: firmware: requesting v4l-cx2341x-enc.fw
[   11.596448] cx88[0]/2-bb: Firmware upload successful.
[   11.607149] cx88[0]/2-bb: Firmware version is 0x02060039
[   11.615579] cx88[0]/2: registered device video1 [mpeg]
[   20.697842] cx88[0]/2-bb: VIDIOC_TRY_FMT: w: 720, h: 480, f: 4
[20802.075670] cx88[0]/2-bb: VIDIOC_TRY_FMT: w: 720, h: 480, f: 4
[20833.312578] cx88[0]/2-bb: VIDIOC_TRY_FMT: w: 720, h: 480, f: 4
[21065.958006] cx88[0]/2-bb: VIDIOC_TRY_FMT: w: 720, h: 480, f: 4
[31254.568025] cx88[0]/2-bb: VIDIOC_TRY_FMT: w: 720, h: 480, f: 4
[41888.054142] cx88[0]/2-bb: VIDIOC_TRY_FMT: w: 720, h: 480, f: 4
[42709.686827] cx88[0]/2-bb: VIDIOC_TRY_FMT: w: 720, h: 480, f: 4

and for those of you playing along at home, this page has provided the meat and potatoes of what I know about my card (asus pvr-416)

[edit] added mplayer /dev/video1 output
[edit] just keep adding system infos!

[bluerabbit4210]

So, uh, I guess the fact that either my psu or my motherboard were secretly in the process of commiting suicide makes my above issue invalid/irrelevant. Thanks for your help!

[flon]

Hey!

I haven't read all posts here, but maybe it brings some help to you:

Have you tried to load a module for pulseaudio loopback sound from your TV card to your sound system?
I suppose your TV card have a cable to do this. But pulse must know ...

First, test this on a terminal:

Code: Select all

pactl load-module module-loopback

If it works, to make the solution permanent you must add (as root)

Code: Select all

load-module module-loopback

to the end of these two files:

/etc/pulse/system.pa
and
/etc/pulse/default.pa

goodluck!
f