Conexant FusionTM 878A x 4 Card

Blazer · Post by **Blazer** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 2:33 pm

Can you please advise if this would be a good purchase? I am trying to find a decent (4 chip, 4*30fps) card that will work well with ZM.

Specs:
PCI Single Universal Board
Plug and Play, 4 channel video capture card
Analog Video Capture Engine
Conexant FusionTM 878A x 4
NTSC/PAL/SECAM Video Decoding

Multiple Video Resolutions
NTSC: 720x480, 704x480, 640x480, 352x240, 320x240, 176x112
PAL: 720x576, 704x576, 640x576, 352x288, 320x288, 176x144
Capture Frame Rate - Max 120 fps for 4 channels
Support Video Loss Detection
Multi-screen support
Support image brightness, contrast, and saturation adjustment
LED for card ID configuration and identification
Software Support
Provide WDM driver and SDK for developer

I also found this info page: http://www.ap-accessgrid.org/linux/ivc.html
Which also states that it is a bt878 compatible card.

Post by **cordel** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 5:48 pm

It has 878A chips so the odds are good that it will work. The only thing would be if the manufactures ID and Card no need to be in the kernel so that it configures the driver for the card correctly. Worst case is it may take some tinkering in the kernel source to get it to function. If you want to take the chance I'd be willing to work with you to make it work should you run into the worst case.
Opp's hang on...
From the link you provided.

Note! As of kernels 2.4.22 and 2.6.0-test3, this patch is incorporated into the kernel source code. No more patching required.

Should be good to go then. If the kernel supports it then it should have no problems in ZM

Regards,
Cordel

Blazer · Post by **Blazer** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 5:18 am

Excellent...that's what I was thinking as well. I will go ahead and purchase one for my system and report how it turns out. Thanks for the advice!

Post by **cordel** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 6:24 am

Heres an good example of how I have added cards into the kernel. The following is for the 878 chip sets for the cards most of us use

Code: Select all

The top portion of the file bttv.h the first thing you have to do is define the card
 #define BTTV_IVC200         0x62
BTTV_IVC200 is the variable that we call it through the rest of the code and 0x62 is it revision to identify the card.

In the bttc-cards.c now we set the card ID 0xa1555 and the CardVenderID 0000 to 0003 (I'm not sure why the vendor has a range like this but this is what scanpci shows), the name of the setting that discribe the card funtions that we will use IVC-200, and the referance to our original variable set BTTV_IVC200
+         { 0xa1550000, BTTV_IVC200,       "IVC-200" },
+         { 0xa1550001, BTTV_IVC200,       "IVC-200" },
+         { 0xa1550002, BTTV_IVC200,       "IVC-200" },
+         { 0xa1550003, BTTV_IVC200,       "IVC-200" },
  
Now here is where we tell the driver how to use the card
 + 	.name           = "IVC-200",
+ 	.video_inputs   = 1,
+ 	.audio_inputs   = 0,
+ 	.tuner          = -1,
+ 	.tuner_type     = -1,
+ 	.svhs           = -1,
+ 	.gpiomask       = 0xdf,
+ 	.muxsel         = { 2 },   For mutiple input cards this tells the driver what order to use the inputs so that they go in order on the back of the card no matter how the chip is wired.
  	.pll            = PLL_28,

Just in case anyone is interested I thought I would add this note and hope it makes since. Also some of the terms I use maybe incorrect since I'm for the most part self educated so feel free to correct me on them

Regards,
Cordel

Blazer · Post by **Blazer** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 9:02 pm

Cordel,

Your reply leads me to believe that the IVC-200 won't be supported by the default bttv driver? Will I have to recompile kernel to get it to work? Have you any experience with the IVC-200?

Thanks

Post by **cordel** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 4:43 am

No it is in the kernel... er at least it is inthe Fedora kernel and I didn't notice any patchs to put it there. I just thought that that example was a great oppertunity to share how to go about adding and configuring a 878 card if it was not supported. I have done this a couple times in the past but had forgot to share the info so I took the time to do it here.

Your card is already in there

Regards,
Cordel

wkstill · Post by **wkstill** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 3:12 pm

I am running the IVC-200 card just fine. I posted this about a year ago, must have kernal v2.6.7 or greater.

I am still looking for a US distributer, webcam watchdog sells them with there "Software" and its $499.. I found one company once

BWI (never heard of) has them for $293
http://bwi.com/product/5604

JimNoble · Post by **JimNoble** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 9:31 pm

Another IVC-200 (G) success here.

Sourced mine in the UK from www.wordsworth.co.uk for about £150 all in...

Jim[/url]

Blazer · Post by **Blazer** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 5:27 pm

I ordered one from icpamerica.com, for a cost of $173.00 USD. It should arrive today, so I will be installing it this weekend. I will post more info once I get a camera attached and do some real testing.

Blazer · Post by **Blazer** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 7:38 am

Hmm well latest update is I am sort of stuck...when I install the card, the system won't boot anymore (locks up at Grub: Loading Stage 2...". From the look at the IRQ list it seems that its hogging the IRQs. I tried moving things around etc to no avail. The motherboard I am using is an older one that has a single ISA slot (in addition to the PCI slots). I guess I am going to try a newer motherboard. So much for getting to test out the card this weekend!