Linux, TBS6982, North America

[KirkWallace]

Hello, I have a Linux Ubuntu 10.04 system with a TBS6982 that I'm trying to get working with AMC21 and AMC1 on the Ku band. I was able to get the TBS driver installed. After much fiddling I got szap-s2 to work and get something like this:

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kwallace@Jupiter:~/tbs_driver/szap-s2$ ./szap-s2 -H -S 1 -l 10750 "COZI TV;NBC"
reading channels from file '/home/kwallace/.szap/channels.conf'
zapping to 7 'COZI TV;NBC':
delivery DVB-S2, modulation QPSK
sat 0, frequency 11840 MHz H, symbolrate 30010000, coderate auto, rolloff 0.35
vpid 0x0203, apid 0x030d, sid 0x0000
using '/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0' and '/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0'
status 00 | signal  44% | snr 100% | ber 0 | unc 0 |
status 1f | signal  75% | snr  83% | ber 18 | unc 0 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal  75% | snr  83% | ber 4352 | unc 0 | FE_HAS_LOCK
status 1f | signal  75% | snr  83% | ber 0 | unc 0 | FE_HAS_LOCK


After a lot more fiddling, I got scan-s2 to work:

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kwallace@Jupiter:~/tbs_driver/scan-s2$ ./scan-s2 -c
API major 5, minor 3
using '/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0' and '/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0'
>>> parse_section, section number 0 out of 0...!
service_id = 0x0
service_id = 0xE
pmt_pid = 0x34
service_id = 0x10
pmt_pid = 0x35
service_id = 0x11
pmt_pid = 0x36
service_id = 0xFFFE
pmt_pid = 0x12C
service_id = 0x7
pmt_pid = 0x23
>>> parse_section, section number 0 out of 0...!
  VIDEO     : PID 0x0203
  AUDIO     : PID 0x030D
  AUDIO     : PID 0x030E
>>> parse_section, section number 0 out of 0...!
  OTHER     : PID 0x01F5 TYPE 0xE0
>>> parse_section, section number 0 out of 0...!
  VIDEO     : PID 0x02CA
  AUDIO     : PID 0x03CB
  AUDIO     : PID 0x03CC
  AUDIO     : PID 0x03CD
  AUDIO     : PID 0x03CE
  OTHER     : PID 0x1FE6 TYPE 0x06
  OTHER     : PID 0x0402 TYPE 0xF1
>>> parse_section, section number 0 out of 0...!
  VIDEO     : PID 0x02C9
  AUDIO     : PID 0x03C1
  AUDIO     : PID 0x03C2
  AUDIO     : PID 0x03C3
  AUDIO     : PID 0x03C4
  OTHER     : PID 0x1FE5 TYPE 0x06
  OTHER     : PID 0x0402 TYPE 0xF1
>>> parse_section, section number 0 out of 0...!
  VIDEO     : PID 0x02C8
  AUDIO     : PID 0x03B7
  AUDIO     : PID 0x03B8
  AUDIO     : PID 0x03B9
  AUDIO     : PID 0x03BA
  OTHER     : PID 0x1FE4 TYPE 0x06
  OTHER     : PID 0x0402 TYPE 0xF1
>>> parse_section, section number 0 out of 0...!
0x0003 0x000E: pmt_pid 0x0034 NBC -- Ch14 NBC Occasional (running)
0x0003 0x0010: pmt_pid 0x0035 NBC -- Ch16 NBC Occasional (running)
0x0003 0x0011: pmt_pid 0x0036 NBC -- Ch17 NBC Occasional (running)
0x0003 0xFFFE: pmt_pid 0x012C NBC -- DL Service (running)
0x0003 0x0007: pmt_pid 0x0023 NBC -- COZI TV (running)
dumping lists (5 services)
Ch14 NBC Occasional;NBC:1090:hM2O35S0:S0.0W:30010:712:951=aaa,952=aac,953=aae,954=aag:0:0:14:1:3:0
Ch16 NBC Occasional;NBC:1090:hM2O35S0:S0.0W:30010:713:961=aaa,962=aac,963=aae,964=aag:0:0:16:1:3:0
Ch17 NBC Occasional;NBC:1090:hM2O35S0:S0.0W:30010:714:971=aaa,972=aac,973=aae,974=aag:0:0:17:1:3:0
COZI TV;NBC:1090:hM2O35S0:S0.0W:30010:515+510:781=eng,782=fre:0:0:7:1:3:0
Done.
kwallace@Jupiter:~/tbs_driver/scan-s2$

I haven't been able to get any further. It seems that the local osc. frequency setting of 10750 needs to be set with each application program and is not handled well at all. What I would like to do is just get the most basic system to get video to play from the TBS card, maybe with VLC or mPlayer.

I studied this link:
http://www.mlug.org.au/doku.php/tutoria ... d_line_dvb

which let me get the output above, but the cat command
'cat /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0'

returns nothing while I have the szap command running and returning 'FE_HAS_LOCK'. I would appreciate any help with getting this cat command to work and with getting North American DVB-S working.

I also studied this link:
http://www.linuxtv.org/docs/dvbapi/Intr ... 0000000000

I am wondering how the component diagram would be drawn for the TBS6982 and what components are on the card and which need to be handled in software.

Thank you for any help.

[KirkWallace]

Well, it looks even a blind squirrel can find a nut every once in a while. I got some scan-s2 output like this:

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COZI TV;NBC:1090:hM2O35S0:S0.0W:30010:515+510:781=eng,782=fre:0:0:7:1:3:0

which needed to be changed to:

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COZI TV;NBC:11840:hM2O35S0:S0.0W:30010:515+510:781=eng,782=fre:0:0:7:1:3:0


in the ~/.szap-s2/channels.conf file. The upper line had a frequency of 11840 - 10750 or (Transponder frequency) - (Local Osc. Freq.). The channels.conf needed the transponder frequency.

I also didn't know that the szap-s2 command:

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./szap-s2 -H -S 1 -l 10750 -r "COZI TV;NBC"

needs the '-r' flag which is pointed out in the -h help output:

-r : set up /dev/dvb/adapterX/dvr0 for TS recording

I only have one channel playing so far, but at least something is working now.

[KirkWallace]

(Mostly recording what I did)
I've played with this some more. It seems the big idea with szap-s2 and scan-s2 is to make channel.conf entries that are close to channels you are interested in, such as just:

text title : a transponder frequency : polarity : lnb number : symbol rate

for example:

125g:12112:v:0:8700:0:0:0
(125g = this reminds me that this is the sat. at 125 degrees, seventh transponder)

I got theses values from Lyngsat: http://www.lyngsat.com/AMC-21.html
and global: http://www.global-cm.net/mpeg2central.html

This gets us a transponder tuned in when we run szap-s2. Now with szap-s2 still running, we can run scan-s2 which should find the channels within the transponder stream. What I missed at first was that the basic channel.conf entry is not enough to play anything in mPlayer. One needs the full channel description for each channel on a transponder returned by szap-s2 using the basic entry. So the above entry using scan-s2 returns:

[0006];:12112:vM2O35S0:S0.0W:8706:65:68,71:0:0:6:0:0:0
[0007];:12112:vM2O35S0:S0.0W:8706:81:84,85:0:0:7:0:0:0
[0008];:12112:vM2O35S0:S0.0W:8706:97:100,101:0:0:8:0:0:0
[0005];:12112:vM2O35S0:S0.0W:8706:49:52:0:0:5:0:0:0

I added these to my channels.conf file (btw in ~/.szap/channels.conf) so I can do both; scan the basic entry for channel descriptions and use the detailed description to zero in on a particular channel. There are a couple of gotchas though -- scan-s2 seems to think the polarity is always 'h' so if a channel doesn't work I check the actual polarity and change the entry, such as ':hM2O35S0' to ':vM2O35S0'. scan-s2 also returns an adjusted frequency, due to the -l 10750 mess, so I needed to change for example '[0006];:1362:vM2O35S0...' to '[0006];:12112:vM2O35S0' (12112 = 10750 - 1362). I tried fixing the '-l STANDARD' option in the lnb.c file, but it seems any -l option other than '-l 10750' fails, so I gave up.

So now, I have both basic and detailed entries in channels.conf. I run szap-s2 with a detailed entry and while it is running, I bring up mPlayer: 'mplayer /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0' which should return the attached screenshot.

I still have some (a lot of) channels that will not play. In comparing the Lyngsat and Global data, it looks like mPlayer only plays channels labelled as mpeg2 or mpeg2/HD, otherwise mPlayer sits waiting to get something it likes.

[KirkWallace]

Mr. Google suggested, for dvb-s2, adding '-demuxer lavf':

mplayer -ao sdl -demuxer lavf /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0

which after many error messages actually plays about a second of audio and video, then crashes back to the terminal prompt. It must be a decoding thing, of which I know next to nothing.

I also found ffplay which does the same thing.