GP2X Tv Tuner Drivers

[Red_Z]

I've stumbled onto the GP2X while researching possibilities for a portable DVR. It seems like a very versatile and cool little handheld. I'm wondering how difficult it would be to add a USB tuner and turn this thing into a handheld portable DVR?

I'm thinking that with the USB break-out board that we should be able to add a USB MPEG-2 HW Encode TV tuner and record live video directly into the GP2X. The HW encode should offload any burden from the GP2X, so I wouldn't think it would have trouble keeping up.

So my questions is given that MPEG-2 USB encoders are readily available and assuming I find one with Linux drivers....How difficult would it be to get this working under the GP2X? Would I have to have drivers written specifically for the GP2X or could generic linux drivers work?

Thanks in advance.
Dave

 

[hal9000]

Theoretically, any driver for Linux should work on the GP2X, if you can recompile it for ARM, which should not be a problem if sources are available. Then making it work under a GP2X should be possible, too.

However, if nobody has tried that before, it sounds risky to buy a GP2X just for that, especially if you are not an expert.

Furthermore, I am not too optimistic on the existence of linux 2.4 drivers for any USB TV tuner.

Think about the USB power supply problem, too.

 

[Lithosphere]

I've stumbled onto the GP2X while researching possibilities for a portable DVR. It seems like a very versatile and cool little handheld. I'm wondering how difficult it would be to add a USB tuner and turn this thing into a handheld portable DVR?

I'm thinking that with the USB break-out board that we should be able to add a USB MPEG-2 HW Encode TV tuner and record live video directly into the GP2X. The HW encode should offload any burden from the GP2X, so I wouldn't think it would have trouble keeping up.

So my questions is given that MPEG-2 USB encoders are readily available and assuming I find one with Linux drivers....How difficult would it be to get this working under the GP2X? Would I have to have drivers written specifically for the GP2X or could generic linux drivers work?

Thanks in advance.
Dave

Hi,

You could use the generic linux drivers. I used such drivers to get my webcam working on the gp2x. Keep in mind that usb host functionality is only USB 1.1 => 12Mbps. So the USB tuner needs to compress things.

I tried connecting an analog USB Hauppauge TV Go! tuner. The drivers loaded and registered a device on the gp2x. However when trying to fetch images the program hang (I used a slightly modified version of the program for my webcam). But this can be caused by using power from my gp2x directly instead of using a power adapter for the USB hub. I will try this later when I have a powered hub. Another reason is maybe the compression in the driver was not finished yet.

You need the kernel sources and the gph toolchain and then you need to compile some driver modules for it. You could try this before buying a gp2x.

 

[Red_Z]

Thanks guys. Sounds doable, but will take a little work. Thats ok, I'm not opposed to a little bit of tinkering around. I didn't realize the GP2X was only USB 1.1. Looks like the new F200 will be USB 2.0. Maybe I should wait for that and avoid any potential performance issues.
Dave

I've stumbled onto the GP2X while researching possibilities for a portable DVR. It seems like a very versatile and cool little handheld. I'm wondering how difficult it would be to add a USB tuner and turn this thing into a handheld portable DVR?

I'm thinking that with the USB break-out board that we should be able to add a USB MPEG-2 HW Encode TV tuner and record live video directly into the GP2X. The HW encode should offload any burden from the GP2X, so I wouldn't think it would have trouble keeping up.

So my questions is given that MPEG-2 USB encoders are readily available and assuming I find one with Linux drivers....How difficult would it be to get this working under the GP2X? Would I have to have drivers written specifically for the GP2X or could generic linux drivers work?

Thanks in advance.
Dave

Hi,

You could use the generic linux drivers. I used such drivers to get my webcam working on the gp2x. Keep in mind that usb host functionality is only USB 1.1 => 12Mbps. So the USB tuner needs to compress things.

I tried connecting an analog USB Hauppauge TV Go! tuner. The drivers loaded and registered a device on the gp2x. However when trying to fetch images the program hang (I used a slightly modified version of the program for my webcam). But this can be caused by using power from my gp2x directly instead of using a power adapter for the USB hub. I will try this later when I have a powered hub. Another reason is maybe the compression in the driver was not finished yet.

You need the kernel sources and the gph toolchain and then you need to compile some driver modules for it. You could try this before buying a gp2x.

 

[Blah]

Both the F100 and the F200 have a USB 2.0 client port and a USB 1.1 host port. (edit--scratch that, the F200 does not have a USB 2.0 client port, the replaced it with a card reader. STUPID GPH!) There also is a USB 1.1 client interface on the EXT port.

Its kind of silly though, the USB 1.1 ports are probably faster than the 2.0 port. The 2.0 port is on a chip external to the SoC, whereas the 1.1 ports are on the SoC. Either way, the latencies of the other devices involved (RAM, SoC) probably limits all three interfaces to below their nominal performance anyway.

GPH aren't exactly the best at engineering