Pegasos ODW Project
IVTV - Linux MPEG2 Capture Card Kernel Module - PPC Supportin category Applications & Software
proposed by ricardolugo on 3rd November 2006
Project Proposal
BackgroundOpen-Source Digital Video Recording programs such as MythTV have become a popular use for computers, and increasing number of people are turing to MythTV as a free alternative to cable-company provided DVRs / TiVos. However, these Linux-based DVR softwares depend on TV-capture cards, and their drivers to record video.
IVTV is a maturing open-source kernel module for many popular MPEG2 capture cards including the Hauppauge PVR 150/250/350/500 models.
Problem
While x86 support for IVTV is provided by many developers, recent versions fail to load on PPC hardware, and none of the developers have PPC hardware to test it on. Furthermore, DMA access by the PCI card fails to function on PPC, causing a large performance hit on PPC hardware.
Recently, I found a solution that allows the driver to load on PPC hardware. Fortunately, a member of the mailing list was able to test it for me. But, if I were to try and fix all the PPC bugs, including DMA access, I would require a PPC machine of my own.
Qualifications
Since I am a Graduate Student at Boston University, I hardly have the finances necessary to purchase hardware for an open-source project. But, as a Honors Computer Science graduate (Bachelor\'s) from the University of Central Florida, I have a solid technical knowledge of software design and can recognize endian-related issues. If I were given the opportunity to work on PPC hardware, I am confident that I would be able to bring this kernel module up to par with the x86 version, and enable PPC hardware to be used for Linux-based DVR purposes. Additionally, I already own a card supported by IVTV :-).
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