Axel, before I start don't get me wrong here I can appreciate that Hauppauge
might be giving a lot of support to the ivtv (and other) driver
Projects.  

I am *very* grateful for all the hard work that lots of people have
put into this project but from a _user_ pov it is very awkward to have 
incompatible revisions.

One of the main reasons for this is linked to your comment:

> Did you order you PVR-x50/Nova-T by model? There _is_ a model 
> number attached to the cards.

Yes there is a model number and no I didn't order by it, hindsight 
(being the perfect science that it is) tells me that I should have 
found exactly which model card would work with the kernel I was 
planning to use and order that appropriately.

I didn't because while I did do some research I didn't do enough and 
while that is no ones fault but my own, what *would* have helped in 
this would be if there was a simple list somewhere such as:

Hauppauge PVR-350 model xxx fully supported ivtv v0.x.x onwards (uses tuners
x,y,z)
Hauppauge PVR-350 model xxx partly supported ivtv v0.x.x onwards (uses
tuners x,y,z) 
Hauppauge PVR-150 model xxx very basic support ivtv v0.x.x onwards (uses
tuners x,y,z)
Hauppauge PVR-250 model xxx fully supported ivtv v0.x.x onwards (uses tuners
x,y,z) 

Etc.

Instead of that there are lists of what chips are supported, which is
great *once* you have got the card and plugged it in, not a lot of use 
when you are ordering it.

<snip>

> > Hauppauge's only get out is they don't claim that their cards work
> > with Linux so any "it doesn't work" complaints can be met with
> > "well we never said it did".
> 
> Well, in the case of the new Nova-T, the author has a 
> hauppauge.com address, so this definitely not true. He also 
> submitted the driver into Open Source last summer almost at 
> the same time the cards hit the shelves.

Axel, it is true, I have the box here for the Nova-T and it says:

Sxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (xxx's are where Scan placed the 'Warranty void if
removed sticker')

PC with xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(min.800MHz) or compatible CPU

Microsoft Windows XP
<snip>
Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher
<snip>

A quick look at the Hauppauge website
http://www.hauppauge.com/Pages/products/data_novatpci.html says:

System Requirements 
 PC with PentiumR III Processor - 733Mhz or faster, 64MB RAM and 64MB disk
space minimum recommended 
 MicrosoftR WindowsR XP/Me/2000/98SE 
<snip rest>

Please prove me wrong and point out where in that it says Linux is
supported!

Ok so someone from Hauppauge very nicely (and I am *very* grateful for that
fact)
provided the driver but Hauppauge *themselves* don't say they support Linux
so no one has a
*right* to a refund (although most companies would replace the card on a
goodwill
basis they would not *have* to as it would work as it was advertised).

> And while there has been no direct involvement in PVR x50 
> driver development by Hauppauge, Hauppauge has been 
> supporting ivtv as good as possible for the company 
> (including going to Conexant to ask for releasing NDA'd 
> documentation to the developers of ivtv).
> 
> IMHO Hauppauge is doing much better than some other N times 
> larger companies that officially support Linux, and had Linux 
> users wait for _years_ to get support (like Intel for centrino).

As I said before this was *NOT* started as a go at Hauppauge just a
statement that due to Hauppauge changing the model it was awkward.
 
> > > The same thing happens a couple of decades with VW Golf ;)
> > Yes but you didn't order a Golf expecting to get one model
> > and get a totally different model that you couldn't drive without a 
> > whole load of extra training and a load more grief did you. ;-)
> 
> If it were possible to order "a Golf" w/o any further 
> specifications, chances are that you would expect an 
> automatic red Golf running on normal gas, and you might get a 
> manual geared pink coloured Golf running on Diesel and would 
> probably sit on the wrong side of the car ;)

Hehe, the problem comes when you thought there was only one
type of golf and that was the red one, drive it to the forecourt
and stick 40l of unleaded in.... ;-)
 
> I agree with you that rebranding the same label is not nice 
> from a technical POV, but that's the market system we live 
> in, and neither we, nor Hauppauge gives the rules of this 
> game. 

Well that's it at the end of the day isn't it.

Regards

David





-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email is sponsored by: IntelliVIEW -- Interactive Reporting
Tool for open source databases. Create drag-&-drop reports. Save time
by over 75%! Publish reports on the web. Export to DOC, XLS, RTF, etc.
Download a FREE copy at http://www.intelliview.com/go/osdn_nl
_______________________________________________
ivtv-devel mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ivtv-devel

Reply via email to