Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD model 1595 does not find channels (missing firmware?)

[johni]

Hi all! I am setting up MythTV for the first time. When I do a channel scan,
it barely finds 3 channels. There is good signal strength but lousy s/n ratio.

Using the same card and antenna in the same location under Windows with the
Hauppauge supplied software finds about 15 channels.

Here is an excerpt from kernel messages via 'dmesg' (note errors on last 2 lines):
[ 6.361760] em28xx 1-1.2.1:1.0: Identified as Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD 01595 ATSC/QAM (card=100)
[ 6.374198] tveeprom: Hauppauge model 204201, rev C2I6, serial# 14073502
[ 6.374211] tveeprom: tuner model is SiLabs Si2157 (idx 186, type 4)
[ 6.374225] tveeprom: TV standards PAL(B/G) NTSC(M) PAL(I) SECAM(L/L') PAL(D/D1/K) ATSC/DVB Digital (eeprom 0xfc)
[ 6.374235] tveeprom: audio processor is None (idx 0)
[ 6.374246] tveeprom: has no radio, has IR receiver, has no IR transmitter
...
[ 8.154225] lgdt3306a 8-0059: LG Electronics LGDT3306A successfully identified
[ 8.281954] si2157 11-0060: Silicon Labs Si2147/2148/2157/2158 successfully attached
[ 8.282057] dvbdev: DVB: registering new adapter (1-1.2.1:1.0)
[ 8.282092] em28xx 1-1.2.1:1.0: DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (LG Electronics LGDT3306A VSB/QAM Frontend)...
[ 8.293507] em28xx 1-1.2.1:1.0: DVB extension successfully initialized
[ 8.293525] em28xx 1-1.2.1:1.0: Binding DVB extension
<similar messages for other si2157 and lgdt3306a>
[ 732.712621] si2157 11-0060: found a 'Silicon Labs Si2157-A30'
[ 732.763562] si2157 11-0060: firmware version: 3.0.5
...
[ 1366.409391] lgdt3306a: error (addr 0e reg 0002 error (ret == -110)
[ 1366.409405] lgdt3306a: error -110 on line 200


Here are the details and other hopefully useful information.

Hardware and software setup:
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 4GB
Raspian Buster, kernel version 4.19.66-v7l+ (from 'uname -r')
Myth version v30.0-60-gb9c1b41a6c (from 'mythbackend --version')
Dual OTA tuner (Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD model 1595) attached via powered USB hub
Hard drive attached via a powered USB hub
I plan to run both back and front end on same hardware

WinTV-dualHD model 1595
On support list as of kernel v4.17, so this should work.
[linuxtv dot org/wiki/index.php/ATSC_USB_devices]
Using Hauppauge supplied software, both tuners work fine under
Windows and finds over 15 channels (in the Boston, MA area).
Doing channel scan using 'mythtv-setup' has 100% signal strength
and signal/noise varying from 0-6% and finds only 3 channels.
Contains dual Si2157 tuners and dual LG DT3306a demodulators

Kernel messages
Example working kernel output from [www dot linuxtv dot org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-dualHD]
appears to be for the model 1590 since it references the Si2168.
The Si2168 is the demodulator used in the 1590 (UK model).
The 1595 (US model) uses the LG DT3306a demodulator.
There are many external forum references to channel scanning problems
with the model 1590. These were solved by adding 2 Si2168 firmware files to /lib/firmware.
https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-linux-hau ... d/197382/2
https://forums.plex.tv/t/solved-wintv-q ... k/200459/2
http://palosaari.fi/linux/v4l-dvb/firmware/

So the kernel error messages along with similar problems folks had with the
model 1590 makes me think there is some missing firmware, but I cannot find
anything on the web about this. I would appreciate any pointers on how to
resolve this channel scanning problem.
As far as I can tell, this is the only USB connected dual tuner,
so it seems like the obvious choice for use with a Raspberry Pi.

[blm-ubunet]

You can use windows to load the firmware for linux.

I'm not sure your SBC PI thing can do a warm start but..
Cold start/run windows & use the tuner then warm start/warm reboot linux.

If the tuner works then the problem was latest firmware missing in linux-firmware pkg.
If does not work need to try latest v4l-dvb media drivers & firmware.

Easy way to get both is to use Hauppauge ppa
http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/support/ ... linux.html
https://launchpad.net/~b-rad/+archive/u ... es_filter=

BUT.. I don't think they build an ARM kernel.
You can just use their PPA for firmware.

You could try compile media backports of v4l-dvb from LinuxTV.
https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/ ... ce_Drivers

This is easy on a normal amd64/x86_64 architecture. Could be rabbit hole on an ARM platform.

Can you return the product for a different (older) version?

[johni]

Thank you for your ideas.
I realize know I could have been clearer in my note. The Raspberry Pi is my target device for MythTV. Getting Windows to run on this would be a challenge. Therefore, the Windows testing I did was on my x86-64 laptop. However, I did look on the Windows machine for any files with '3306' in the name (and a few other guesses) in the hope that it might be firmware that is portable to the RPi. Unfortunately, I did not find anything. I believe I already have the latest v4l-dvb since I set all this up less than a month ago, but I will doublecheck that. The PPA files are for Ubuntu which, like the Raspian I am running, is based on Debian. I have found some references on converting PPAs for use with Raspian. It looks like that is a bit of project for a Linux newcomer, but I will try that next to see if that solves the kernel errors regarding the lgdt3306a, which hopefully is the root of the channel scan problem.

As for trading back to an older tuner version or another tuner - I am not aware of any other dual USB based tuners (Hauppauge or otherwise, or older versions). The only other model that is similar is the 1590, but that is for the UK (I assume the different demodulator is due to the UK using COFDM vs 8VSB in the US).

[blm-ubunet]

Your kernel contains the v4l-dvb modules & that is not so new.
Only the firmware is in a package.

Install Ubuntu on the x86-64/amd64 platform & try the warm start experiment there.
Is also easier to try the later kernel & HWE kernel & Hauppauge PPA

[enchesss]

Can you scan channels and watch TV using Kaffiene on Ubuntu with the tuner card?

[blm-ubunet]

The same tuner & demod chips are in the HVR-1255 & those ICs have had support from about kernel 3.19/3.20? (4 years ago?)

[enchesss]

Using a Hauppagge quadHD

Adding this line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="cx23885.debug=8"

to

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

results in tuner cards working, however, it also results in extremely large log files at:

/var/log

[johni]

Thank you Myth community for all the responses! Here is some feedback and more data.

First, a puzzling change. 'dmesg' now does not give the lgdt3306a error that was in my first post anymore. I am not sure exactly when this went away, since I did not check it each of my many reboots. I get 6 channels on the scan now and I can actually view them in the front end for the first time. While I did not see this improvement after doing an update and upgrade, that is the only thing I changed that I can imagine improved things (thanks blm-ubunet). I need to do more testing to validate that the errors continue to be fixed, and that the channel scanning continues to work better.

TV watching is very choppy, I will be looking into speeding things up also. Splitting the front end off onto a separate Raspberry Pi is one experiment.

Oct 25, blm-ubunet:
I have not had time to try installing Ubuntu for experiments there.
Just to be sure, I did a 'sudo apt-get update' and then 'sudo apt-get upgrade'
Nothing obviously related to the project got updated, and the behavior did not change (still only 3 channels that sort of work). However, I am now getting channels a few days after doing this, so I am crediting this as somehow fixing it with a delayed reaction.

Oct 26, enchesss:
I do not have a Ubuntu setup to try this yet. My only linux setup is running Raspian on the Raspberry Pi (arm cpu).

Oct 28, blm-ubunet:
I see the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-955Q also uses the same Si2157 tuner and LG DT3306a demodulator, so it is encouraging that these should work.
However, the WinTV-dualHD is the only device in the [https://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/ATSC_USB_devices] chart that uses the Empia EM28274 bridge chip.

Oct 28, enchess:
That is an interesting datapoint. The Conexant CX23885 is the bridge chip between the demodulators and the PCI express interface, so unfortunately I do not think that fix applies to the WinTV-dualHD since it uses a Empia EM28274 chip to bridge from the demodulators and a USB interface.