mediafocusII -	Video4Linux driver for Satellite TV card
		TechniSat MediaFocus II

- Still experimental -

Copyright (C) 2000 Rolf Siebrecht <rolf.siebrecht@t-online.de>


BASED ON
- Linux driver for TechniSat Mediafocus I card, TechniSat-0.3.13.tar.gz
  by Peter Schlaf <peter.schlaf@org.chemie.uni-giessen.de>,
  http://www.uni-giessen.de/~gej2/
- Linux driver for cards utilizing Philips SAA7146, saa7146-0.5.tar.gz
  by Michael Hunold <michael@mihu.de>, http://www.mihu.de/linux

LICENSE
  GNU General Public License, as specified in the file COPYING.

PREREQUISITIES
- Linux kernel version 2.2.x.
- enhanced IC modules ("Simon Vogl driver").
- modified TV application "xawtv".

INSTALLATION
  as described in the file INSTALL.

XAWTV
  As for the mediafocusI driver, the only TV application which can
  currently be used for viewing satellite TV programs with the
  MediaFocusII card is a modified "xawtv" (www.strusel007.de/linux/bttv).
  The modification is necessary to get xawtv enabled to handle satellite
  TV channels additional to terrestrial TV frequencies. Switching of
  LNB's V/H polarity and generation of a needed 22kHz signal is realized
  likewise.
  Modified xawtv plus mediafocusII driver are mainly intended for
  viewing TV programs from the Astra Satellite system.

  xawtv-2.46 and xawtv-3.24 were tested. xawtv-2.46 can be used as is
  after the satellite modification has been applied. xawtv-3.24 needs a
  patch to remove some little bugs. Change to your xawtv-3.24 source
  directory and enter
    patch -p1 < {mfII-dir}/xawtv-patch/patch-3.24
  {mfII-dir} is the actual directory of the (unpacked) mediafocusII
  driver packet.

  To teach xawtv - now v. 2.46 *and* 3.24, both - to support satellite
  channels copy the file xawtv-patch/frequencies.c to your xawtv source
  directory. It is advisable to rename the old file frequencies.c to 
  something like frequencies.c.orig before. Then 'make' xawtv again.

  After starting xawtv the frequency table "sat-astra-zap" is preset.
  "sat-astra-zap" is suitable for zapping TV channels by cursor keys.
  In that case the full names of the TV programs are displayed in the
  TV window's top bar.
  In contrast frequency table "sat-astra" is intended to support xawtv's
  hot-keys for selecting TV channels, which are specified in the config
  file ~/.xawtv. Now only short-cuts "Ann" are displayed; but these are
  able to be read and recognized in the config file. 

  With <Cursor-up> and <Cursor-down> keys you can change among the TV
  channels. Contrary to the mediafocusI driver the channels are sorted
  by Astra transponder numbers here. That means it begins with TV
  stations RTL2, RTL,... and ends with ...tm3. After the last channel
  the series returns to the first and vice versa. At least one stroke
  of the above mentioned keys is necessary to tune in a TV channel
  after xawtv is started.
  V/H polarity as well as 22 kHz switching per TV channel is coded into
  the frequency table. The 22kHz signal serves as a switch between Lo-
  and Hi-band of the LNB; it does not select among two LNBs here.
  Because the analog transmitted Astra TV programs are in the Lo-band
  only, the 22 kHz signal is not activated as long as the frequency
  table "sat-astra" remains selected.

  If your Linux distribution has an own user group for video and TV
  applications, adjust the binary files xawtv, v4l-conf,... after
  compiling. It may also be necessary to include your account to this
  user group to get xawtv properly started.

HOTBIRD/EUTELSAT
  Additional to viewing Astra TV programs mediafocusII driver plus
  modified "xawtv" are prepared for receiving TV stations from Eutelsat/
  Hotbird satellites at 13 East, too. Select frequency table
  "sat-eutelsat" in that case.
  Because Hotbild/Eutelsat partly utilize different audio subcarriers
  some more flags are coded into the frequency table. Therefore select
  the right audio mode "audio->mono" resp. "audio->stereo" after every
  change of stations. Some stations support Mono and Stereo, some Stereo
  only; the remaining support Mono only.

TELECOM2C
  Viewing TV programs from Telecom 2C satellite at 5 West is also
  possible. This satellite has some of the last remaining TV stations
  which sre using the SECAM modulation scheme.
  After starting xawtv choose "frequency table->sat-telecom2c" and
  "norm->SECAM". (But "TV 5 France" is using PAL!) Again, click on
  "audio->mono" after every change of channel to set up the correct
  audio subcarrier.

  Numbers and values of every frequency table used here come from
  http://www.transponder-liste.de.

SOUND PLAYING
  To get the TV sound audible connect the MediaFocusII card with your
  sound card by a fitting audio cable. Use an external or the accessory
  cable from the card's box. Line-in or CD audio inputs at the sound
  card are suitable. Take a mixer application to enable and "boost" the
  used audio channel.
  xawtv's service window has a slider to control the volume of the TV
  sound. If xawtv finds an OSS compatible sound driver, it uses the
  mixer of the sound card to execute this function. Else the sound chip
  of the MediaFocusII itself is accessed by xawtv to do it. The second
  case is present if you use the ALSA sound driver, but without OSS
  emulation.

  Active loudspeakers (with integrated amplifiers) and headphones with
  sufficient impedance can be connected directly to the card, too. In
  this case don't load any OSS sound drivers in order to let the volume
  control take place really on the card itself. (Caution with headphones:
  By starting xawtv *maximum* volume is preset.)

  Autodetect of mono/stereo mode is not working. Ignore the info from
  xawtv which is displayed some seconds after every change of channels.
  If you want to listen in mono or stereo mode explicitly select
  "audio->mono" resp. "audio->stereo" from xawtv's service panel.

  Regarding TV sound "Mono" mode doesn't mean that the two stereo
  channels are comprised electrically to a common signal. For the
  satellite thing it means that (as long as viewing Astra stations) the
  "Mono" audio carrier at 6.5 MHz is demodulated and played insted of
  the "Stereo" carriers at 7.02/7.2 MHz.

  The settings "audio->Language1" and "audio->Language2" can be used,
  but currently they are only useful for the TV channel "Eurosport".
  Here the (mono) signals from the 7.38 MHz resp. 7.56 MHz carriers are
  played.

INTERNAL AUDIO EQUIPMENT
  After unloading the mediafocusII driver the card's internal audio
  input is passed thru to the audio outputs. For example, a CDROM drive
  which is connected via audio cable to the card can be listened to this
  way. To reach this mode the driver modules have to be loaded and
  unloaded again.

EXTERNAL EQUIPMENT
  If you are owning the needed adapter cable, external gear like
  decoders, VCRs, etc. can be plugged to the MediaFocusII card. To play
  from these sets select
    "Video Source->SatTuner+Decoder"  or 
    "Video Source->Composite-Video"  resp.
    "Video Source->SVHS-Video"
  in xawtv.

  The special control signal on SCART connectors which causes an
  automatic selection of the play channel can not be utilized here.

UTILS
  In the subdirectory utils there are helper applications for the
  mediafocusII driver. They were already compiled by calling "make" from
  the base directory. You can execute
    cd utils
    su -c "make install"
  to copy the binaries to a proper directory. This process is controlled
  by the keywords OWNER, GROUP, MODE and BINDIR in utils/Makefile. Adapt
  them to your needs.

ASTRARADIO
  With utils/astraradio you may listen to radio stations and the sound
  of TV stations from the Astra satellite. It is a simple application
  based on ncurses that is called from a text console. The further
  operation should be self-explaining when you have started astraradio.
  The same transponder table as for xawtv is used: After start (the TV
  sound of) RTL2 is tuned in.
  Some ADR stations transmit in mono mode and use only one of the two
  stereo channels. So, one audio carrier has two (different) programs.
  astraradio's settings "ADR-L" and "ADR-R" have been created to let
  them sound separately.

  As long as astraradio is running it waits for key strokes. That means
  a certain CPU load is caused.

  Not working features of astraradio up till now:
  - MP2 recording.

MFIIRADIO
  utils/mfIIradio is a command line tool for controlling the radio part
  of the MediaFocusII card. "mfIIradio -h" resp. "mfIIradio --help"
  show the available commands. For example, to tune in to "Klassik Radio"
  being behind the "Vox" transponder say:
    mfIIradio --freq=11.27375 --polarity=hor --audio=stereo
        --carrier=7.74 --volume=52428                 (on *one* line!)
  Shorter:
    mfIIradio -f 11.27375 -p hor -a stereo -c 7.74 -v 52428

  Or, ADR broadcast "hr2" with an unchanged volume level:
    mfIIradio --freq=11.0675 --polarity=vert --audio=adr --carrier=6.3

  Turn off with:
    mfIIradio --mute=on

  Polarity and (if needed) 22kHz-signal settings can't be stored
  anywhere. So you have specify them every time you select another
  transponder frequency.

MFIIINFO
  utils/mfIIinfo displays Video4Linux data about the mediafocusII driver.

DUMPEE
  utils/dumpee shows a hexdump of the EEPROM content from the
  MediaFocusII card. But only the first 256 of 2048 bytes can be read
  out.

BUGS/OBSERVATIONS
- TV window becomes freezed when still image captures are requested.
  (Fix: click Capture->off + Capture->overlay.)
- Switching between X Desktop and text console lets X hang in most cases.
  (Fix: click Capture->off + Capture->overlay.)
- TV window becomes black when returning from VideoSource->xyz-Video to
  VideoSource->SatTuner.
- After changing channels only one of the two scan line fields is
  displayed for nearly a second. (-> Synchronizing behaviour of the
  SAA7146.)

TO DO
- Grabbing of still images plus AVI recording.
- MP2 recording (MPEG1 Layer 2).
- VBI/Teletext/Videotext.
- Test of NTSC mode.
- Test of the Mini-DIN jack.
- Support of Mediafocus remote control.
- Support of Video4Linux-2.
- Use of xawtv's channel hotkeys.
- (The future will show.)

COMMENTS/HINTS
mailto:rolf.siebrecht@t-online.de

http://home.t-online.de/home/rolf.siebrecht/mfII_e.html

