Medion MD8800 Questions and Answers

[Martin Møller]

If you have any questions related either to my MD8800 guide or other stuff that relates the the MD8800 PC, this is where you should post. I'll do my best to get back to you as fast as possible.

[indexx]

hi, thanks for your great guide for tv configuration.

unfortunately, it didnt do it for me. (ubuntu dapper amd64).

compiling the drivers runs flawlessly.

after installing dmesg | grep tuner tells:

[   44.210300] tuner 0-004b: chip found @ 0x96 (saa7133[0])
[   44.237288] tuner 0-004b: setting tuner address to 60
[   44.264065] tuner 0-004b: type set to tda8290+75a
[   44.427490] tuner 1-004b: chip found @ 0x96 (saa7133[1])
[   44.456386] tuner 1-004b: setting tuner address to 60
[   44.481372] tuner 1-004b: type set to tda8290+75a

a dmesg | grep saa tells me:

[   44.043923] saa7130/34: v4l2 driver version 0.2.14 loaded
[   44.044058] saa7133[0]: found at 0000:02:01.0, rev: 209, irq: 217, latency: 32, mmio: 0xfdeff000
[   44.044064] saa7133[0]: subsystem: 16be:0007, board: Medion Md8800 Quadro [card=95,autodetected]
[   44.044081] saa7133[0]: board init: gpio is 0
[   44.166664] saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 00: be 16 07 00 54 20 1c 00 43 43 a9 1c 55 d2 b2 92
[   44.166676] saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 10: 00 ff 86 0f ff 20 ff 00 01 50 32 79 01 3c ca 50
[   44.166686] saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 20: 01 40 01 02 02 03 01 00 06 ff 00 23 02 51 96 2b
[   44.166696] saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 30: a7 58 7a 1f 03 8e 84 5e da 7a 04 b3 05 87 b2 3c
[   44.166706] saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 40: ff 28 00 c0 96 10 03 00 c0 1c fd 79 44 9f c2 8f
[   44.166716] saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 50: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
[   44.166726] saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 60: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
[   44.166736] saa7133[0]: i2c eeprom 70: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
[   44.210300] tuner 0-004b: chip found @ 0x96 (saa7133[0])
[   44.307045] saa7133[0]: registered device video0 [v4l2]
[   44.307064] saa7133[0]: registered device vbi0
[   44.307176] saa7133[1]: found at 0000:02:04.0, rev: 209, irq: 225, latency: 32, mmio: 0xfdefc000
[   44.307182] saa7133[1]: subsystem: 16be:0008, board: Medion Md8800 Quadro [card=95,autodetected]
[   44.307199] saa7133[1]: board init: gpio is 0
[   44.427490] tuner 1-004b: chip found @ 0x96 (saa7133[1])
[   44.538291] saa7133[1]: i2c eeprom 00: be 16 08 00 54 20 1c 00 43 43 a9 1c 55 d2 b2 92
[   44.538304] saa7133[1]: i2c eeprom 10: 00 ff 86 0f ff 20 ff 00 01 50 32 79 01 3c ca 50
[   44.538314] saa7133[1]: i2c eeprom 20: 01 40 01 02 02 03 01 0f 0f ff 00 3c 02 51 96 2b
[   44.538324] saa7133[1]: i2c eeprom 30: a7 58 7a 1f 03 8e 84 5e da 7a 04 b3 05 87 b2 3c
[   44.538334] saa7133[1]: i2c eeprom 40: ff 28 00 c0 96 10 03 01 c0 1c fd 79 44 9f c2 8f
[   44.538344] saa7133[1]: i2c eeprom 50: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
[   44.538354] saa7133[1]: i2c eeprom 60: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
[   44.538364] saa7133[1]: i2c eeprom 70: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
[   46.489207] saa7133[1]: registered device video1 [v4l2]
[   46.489316] saa7133[1]: registered device vbi1
[   46.523488] saa7134 OSS driver for DMA sound loaded
[   46.523608] saa7133[0]: registered device dsp1
[   46.523620] saa7133[0]: registered device mixer1
[   46.523721] saa7133[1]: registered device dsp2
[   46.523732] saa7133[1]: registered device mixer2

so everything seems to be ok but i get no picture in tvtime, just distorted green screens.

how did you configure your tv software?

greetings from austria
rudolf

[Martin Møller]

Actually, that is exactly what I got in tvtime as well. I didn't try it without Xgl active so I can't be sure if it's the same thing with 'plain' X. KwinTV gave me a nearly usable picture when not using Xv overlay. I seem to recall getting nice and crisp pictures without any special maneuvers needed when I did *not* use Xgl (which wasn't long ).

It works very well with MythTV and I think you can make it work everywhere else as well, if you can disable Xv overlay.

Are you trying to use analog or DVB-T signals? If you are using DVB signals, there's an extra module you need to load. I think it's called saa7134-dvb. It may or may not have firmware loading issues. One of the reasons why the patch is not yet committed to either tree.

So, to summarize. Please check that:

1) You are *not* using Xgl
2) You *are* using analog signals (cable/antennae)

Everything else looks like it should, to me.

What version of X are you running? 6.9 or 7.0?

[indexx]

hi martin,

i *do* use xgl and still *try* to receive an analog signal with my md8800.

so i started playing around with mythttv. but still no success.

i configured two cards /dev/video0 and /dev/video1 as "Standard V4L capture card" in mythtv but then got stuck in the somewhere in the config. i cannot scan for channels. the option for scanning in the channels menu in mythtv-setup is inactive.

desperate

how did you configure mythtv?

greetings
rudolf

[Martin Møller]

Well, this is not my first mythbackend and thus all the setup is already taken care of.
Initially, on my first backend, I used XawTV to look for channels and then typed in those values in the channel editor.
In my case, TDC KabelTV actually has a list of the channel positions that mostly match the syntax expected by V4L.
I.e. 43 is 43 but S9 is SE9. If you are on Cable, maybe someone else have posted a list of frequencies online?

I would like you to disable Xgl just long enough for KwinTV, XawTV or (what's the successor called again.... XdTV!) to work properly. They *should* be able to scan for channels then. That is probably the easiest way of doing it. I'm not sure scanning works on analog signals as yet. It seems to have mostly been tested on DVB signalling.

One more thing. Remember to configure both MythTV and any other TV program you use to use PAL-BG standard or you may have issues with the sound.
In MythTV you also must make sure that /dev/video0 gets it's sound from /dev/dsp1 and so on (given your dmesg info).

I'm still hoping the Xv issues I have seen will be gone when I install SUSE 10.1 final with Xgl....

I actually think I *did* get tvtime running right when not in Xgl mode, but it was always green with Xgl running. I seem to recall I got the channels scanned...

(checking)... HMm... No, the scanning I have is incorrect. I made it before I had all options in tvtime correctly configured.. Bummer.

It may well be that the scanning option is busted, then.

A few other settings to try are given below:

modprobe saa7134 i2c_scan=1 card=12 tuner=33 oss=1

- or -

modprobe tuner pal=b
modprobe saa7134 card=81 oss=1
modprobe saa7134-oss

Maybe either of these have better luck scanning. If so, hopefully we can get the patch updated.

The above attempts are listed here: http://kristof.willen.be/?q=node/546

Some it seems to work for, others, not so much...

Keep me informed 

[indexx]

hi,

finally i found the time to continue my configuration-orgy.

after disabling xgl i managed tvtime to get working...

even the sound problem could be fixed using sox.

thx for your help
rudolf

[Martin Møller]

Good to hear! I have made a poor mans substitute for tvtime via mplayer in the mean time. It can be run in watch or record mode. In record mode you may loose synchonization of video and sound. I haven't yet tried running it at less than 720x576, but I'm pretty sure that if you run it at 352x288 it will keep synchronization (at least better than what is did for me at 720x576).

You can get it here: http://www.martinm-76.dk/md8800/scripts/ - It's the one called 'mplayer-tv.sh'.

You need to change the CHANNELS line to fit your own setup. Hopefully you can get a clue from the tvtime channel file. If not, try a scan with xawtv. It uses the same nameing conventions as used here..
Read up on the TV part of mplayer via 'man mplayer'. There's quite a bit of information there.

Normal use of the script would be: CHAN=mychannel /usr/local/bin/mplayer-tv.sh

If you have doubts about how to utilize the script better, don't hesitate to write again

/Martin.

PS: The most important part: mplayer in this configuration *works within Xgl*!

[snizzle]

First off thanks a LOT for your work! My question is: how do I get the card reader to work in Linux (or more specifically, Suse 10.1)?

[Martin Møller]

Thank you for the kind words snizzle.

Unfortunately the attempts I've made at getting the cardreader functioning in Linux have so far been to no avail.

Problem 1: The device does not report itself as mass storage and is thus not picked up by the usb-storage module.

Problem 2: When you try to coax the kernel into using the usb-storage module for the cardreader it still doesn't respond. This leads me to believe that they are going their very own way in this module, unfortunately.

I have tried booting up on a live DVD of Ubuntu, just to be fairly sure that it wasn't SUSE related. It is the same problem there.

I think someone will have to either get the windows drivers to load in Linux or figure out how they work and write a driver in Linux.

I feel lucky that the other two Medion machines I have are plain Mass Storage devices in their card-readers but that doesn't really help with this situation...

[KEITH]

If you have any questions related either to my MD8800 guide or other stuff that relates the the MD8800 PC, this is where you should post. I'll do my best to get back to you as fast as possible.

[/quote
i have a medion md8800 connected to lcd tv via component leads have set up nvida card with hd tv settings and picture is great , but dvds wont play error message say tv out is not turned off and when playing games display is only a small sqaure in centre of the screen

[Martin Møller]

Hi Keith.

I need some more information.

if the TV viewed as a monitor or as a TV in this case? Are you using TV-out or DVI? Something else?

I would think a HD-TV would be connected as a monitor and I'm not sure what resolutions would be supported besides the native one.

I haven't heard of any TV-Out that would do more than 1024x768 at least...

Could you send me your xorg.conf (/etc/X11/xorg.conf) in a private message, please?

[hOORST1]

Hello Martin,

I've discovered your site today and your "How-Tos" were really helpful to me. Thanks to you, I have now a Running LCD with my Ubuntu 7.04. I've taken your LCDd.conf and your lcdproc.conf with the lcdproc vers. 05-3 out of Ubuntu Feisty repositorys. And I've got a visual feedback. The LCD Server is Running. Sadly the Amarok scripts does only show the title, played when the script has started, it causes an CPU usage of 29% and... it made freeze my Ubuntu several times, that's why I do now run only the lcdproc.conf file with MiniClock. The other features as CPU frequency are of no use for me. (I guess it's caused in the reason, that I'm using Gnome as Window Manager and not KDE)

The reason why I am writing this text is that my LCD does always jump from showing the time to the status of the LCD server. Not really a big deal. But somehow disgusting (just want to say it's getting on my nerves^^) Maybe you have an idea how I can fix it. Because I haven't found any other configuration for the MD 8800 LCD Display.

With greetings from Germany
Yours sincerely,
 hOORST

[Martin Møller]

Hello hOORST1.

I'm sorry to hear that the LCD display daemon is giving you grief. I have just tested it again myself on my openSUSE 10.2 EM64T system and I do not have the problem you mention.
The amarok script has been made so that it minimizes the calls for refresh of the display... You are using the version from kde-apps.org, right?
If not you can find it here: http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php/lcdproc_amarok?content=39109

I am using lcdproc 5.1 which I have compiled myself. I haven't seen LCDd or lcdproc use much CPU at all...

I think the only way to avoid seeing the status display is to run a client with a reasonable large value. My Amarok script is currently pouncing everything else when music is playing and on startup and if you pause Amarok it's priority will be really low so you can see the other stuff the display is alternating through.

If for some reason this really bogs down your system you could fetch my shell library and run something like this:

. /usr/local/bin/lcdlib.sh
set_clock "$(date +%H:%M\ %d.%m.%Y)"

That will give you todays date and time which will auto-update -- no daemon required. If that seems too static you can follow up with:

clock_move

Strangely enough, the clock will then move...

Running in KDE or not really shouldn't be a factor, except for the fact that you will load some KDE libraries when Amarok starts. It should have no impact on the LCD display script at all...

I haven't tested any of this on Ubuntu, but my current guess is that since Feisty Fawn is still in beta there may be some issues they need to look at before this runs like it should...

All LCDd, lcdproc and liblcd.sh functions do are write to a serial port. That ought to be well supported in any distribution...

Let me know if I can help you further. 

I have one issue with my MD8800 machine (well, two actually)

1) For some reason it started saying I may have a bad USB cable. This is related to an internal USB hub. It wasn't there in the beginning (at least the distro I used at the time didn't show it). This causes a fairly high load in itself. I luckily managed to get a kernel developer to make me a patch that would allow me to disable this port on this specific hub and after that all is well.
The only other way I could fight this would be to disable USB 2.0 either in the BIOS or my blacklisting ehci-hcd.

2) The card reader doesn't show up. Not sure if it's related to 1). Windows doesn't seem to have any problems so I wonder if the card-reader is implemented in a funky way.

I am montioning this mainly because you may or may not have a similar situation. If you have kernel messages about not being able to activate a specific USB port and probably the cable is bad, that might explain the load issue you mention.

[hOORST1]

Hello again,

I've made another try this morning and I've made some screenshots for you. The first one is just running the Amarok script. The second shows all processes and the last one show, CPU usage falling down when ending the script.

http://www.gwebspace.de/start/Bilder/Bildschirmfoto.png
http://www.gwebspace.de/start/Bilder/Bildschirmfoto-1.png
http://www.gwebspace.de/start/Bilder/Bildschirmfoto-2.png

I wanted thumbnails, but don't know how to post them (I can only do that with pure html).

Versions:
lcdproc -v
LCDproc 0.5.1

amarok -v
Qt: 3.3.7
KDE: 3.5.6
Amarok: 1.4.5


Amarok script started in Terminal
'/home/hoorst/Desktop/lcdproc_amarok/lcdproc_amarok.pl'
Name "main::novol" used only once: possible typo at /home/hoorst/Desktop/lcdproc_amarok/lcdproc_amarok.pl line 87.

Strangely CPU usage is now, started in terminal, down^^

And LCD is showing: *(streaming) - [0/18] (moving fast from left to right and back)
and in the lower line: 02/04 - 10:17:00 (the time is alright)

I do know that Ubuntu Feisty, has become BETA only some days ago, so this might be the source of all evil. Next I will try your ideas this evening.

All the best,
hOORST

[hOORST1]

Once again me,

sadly I wasn't able to get the script running (but otherwise, I've got a new PC table, so I don't have to see it at all^^). So I guess I'll have to live with the fact that LCD does not work properly. After all thank you for your help and if something will change, I'll be back

see you soon
hOORST