This article deals with the following analogue PCI cards from Miro/Pinnacle:

• Pctv Sound Cards Online
• Cards With Sound
• Sound Cards 7.1

• Miro PCTV
• Miro PCTV Pro
• Pinnacle PCTV
• Pinnacle PCTV Pro

Pctv Sound Cards Online

High-end sound cards provide as high as 24-bit or even 32-bit audio with a sampling rate as high as 192-kHz or 384-kHz in the latest sound cards. These specifications roughly define the audio quality of the sound card, although there are other factors included such as gold-plated connectors, Electromagnetic-Interference shielding, etc. Hope someone can help me a little bit Christian denmark Hey Christian, From what I understand you need to use a SPDIF digital audio conection. This is a 2 wire conection from your video card to your motherboard or your soundcard. I have an Audigy 2 ZS sound card connected to a XFX 6800GT. Hope that helps if you haven't alread got it. Most TV cards that permit recording and PVR functionality - such as the Hauppage 350, available through Amazon - accomplish this with built in hardware MPEG encoders/decorders. Not so the Pinnacle card; it makes use of your computer horsepower, substituting a software program for a hardware chip.

They are supported under Linux.

Cards With Sound

• 1Overview/Feautres
• 2Making it work
  • 2.2Module Options:

Overview/Feautres

These Miro and Pinnacle cards were the original PCTV series, produced from December 1997 onwards. They are based on the Bt848 chip (Also see Bttv devices (bt848, bt878)). The PCTV Pro model includes an FM radio chip.

These cards feature:

• TV input: RF connector for a PAL/NTSC/SECAM ... (Resolution: 768x576 and 720x576 (PAL)) ... ??? with adapter to IEC connector (PAL)
• Video Input: S-Video, Composite Video (RCA socket)
• Audio Outputs: 3.5 mm jack
• FM radio RF signal (PRO only): Internal RC jack with flying wire to IEC connector
• Video composite out (internal)
• These Pinnacle cards are supplied with a remote controller which seems to be the same as for the Pinnacle PCTV 50i.

Components Used

• TV tuner: Temic 4002 FH5 (also possibly Philips on some cards)
• Analog demodulator: MSP3410D-B4 (msp3400)
• FM radio chip (PRO models only): MSP3410
• Video/audio decoder: bt848

Identification

See the lspci output provided below.

Making it work

Connecting the card

• The TV antenna signal is connected to the antenna input.
• The card has no on board sound A/D so a cable (supplied) should be connected from the card audio output connector to a generic sound input (on either your sound card or your motherboard). Sound will needs to be redirected using sox (also see the Talk page for some examples).
• The card itself lacks an input for the remote control. Rather, the remote control sensor cable (supplied) is connected to a 9 pin serial input (usually there is one on your motherboard).

Drivers

Module Options:

card=11

The cards may be detected automatically, but at least for the Pro card is is required to specify options explicitly in /etc/modules.cond (for Fedora, other distributions may do it differently):

Kernel output:

lspci -v

card=39

The card was autodetected by bttv as card=39, but didn't work. However when I added

it started working! Must be some bug, since only 'tuner=33' didn't work either. Pinnacle PCTV Pro bought in Sweden (PAL).

All output from Ubuntu Hardy

Kernel output

lspci -v -nn

Remote control

TODO

• Remote control, needs some configuration, and maybe lirc? See also Remote controllers

External Links

Sound Cards 7.1

• http://linux.box.sk/faq_list.php?subject=Linux%20-%3E%20Hardware (slightly out of date)