how do I even START to create OSX drivers? (satellite stuff)
Hello all,
Im currently on a crusade to have a MacOS X compatible DVB card (USB would be better, but anything would be good at this point). My company deals in satellite data transmission and the ONLY thing that has us from supporting OSX is that there isnt a SINGLE DVB card that MacOS X compatible. We have very close relations with all major DVB vendors and despite giving pretty damn good reasons (as in it makes money) they are all very hesitant and basically really dont care. Even Hauppauge that has a few TV tuner compatible products doesnt want anything to do with it (unless we co-finance the endevor).
Internally everything we do is based on Linux and the guys and girls in our engineering are willing to port our products to OSX as long as we have a DVB box that will work with OS X.
SO... since they suggested that there ARE opensource Linux drivers for some DVB boxes/cards ( <a href="http://www.linuxtv.org/dvb/"; target="_blank">http://www.linuxtv.org/dvb/</a>; and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=open+source+DVB+drivers+linux&spell=1"; target="_blank">http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=open+source+DVB+drivers+linux&spell=1</a>; ) how do I proceed to either get the Mac community interested in porting and or what tools do I need to install on the Mac we have in the office?
We use it for QuickTime Streaming Server testing (MPEG4) but I got a hold of it (god its great to have a Cinema Display!!!) and currently has OS X Server 10.1.5 on it. I was thinking of making 5 partitions. One for Server 10.1.5, one for 10.2.3, one for 10.1.5 (for backwards compatibility testing), one partition with Linux on it (to keep the engineers happy), and a 5th partition for all data storage. Its a 60GB drive, 733Mhz G4 with DVDR 256MB ram (yes it will be upped soon enough).
SO... basically I imagine the very LEAST is install the Developer Tools in 10.1.5 and 10.2.3 (is it necessary to have 10.1.5 or can the dev tools in 10.2.3 make sure that the final product is 10.1.5 compatible?). What tools are specifically needed to create drivers? IO Toolkit or something like that? Can you suggest 3rd party apps?
On another note, our client application is done in XML and Java. It ties in alot with MS-Dos (they mentioned the need for access to terminal for Unix) and has to talk to multihoming IP, dialup commands, etc etc. The engineers expect that they will be able to just recompile and miorly tweak the original source code to make it work with OS X.
What our software does is receive Multicast transmissions as well as manages Unicast internet via satellite. I work for <a href="http://www.eutelsat.net"; target="_blank">www.eutelsat.net</a>
If anyone can help us/me with this I cant promise much but I can definetly get you some free service of 2Mbit internet and access to our Live TV streams and software etc etc.
This would be a FIRST for the Mac community and I really really want to show everyone that Mac is still a contender in this domain as well!
If you are interested in this project in a more serious way, please email me. Otherwise, any reply or suggestion would be great to at least understand what direction to go in!
thanks sooooooooo much
ZO
Im currently on a crusade to have a MacOS X compatible DVB card (USB would be better, but anything would be good at this point). My company deals in satellite data transmission and the ONLY thing that has us from supporting OSX is that there isnt a SINGLE DVB card that MacOS X compatible. We have very close relations with all major DVB vendors and despite giving pretty damn good reasons (as in it makes money) they are all very hesitant and basically really dont care. Even Hauppauge that has a few TV tuner compatible products doesnt want anything to do with it (unless we co-finance the endevor).
Internally everything we do is based on Linux and the guys and girls in our engineering are willing to port our products to OSX as long as we have a DVB box that will work with OS X.
SO... since they suggested that there ARE opensource Linux drivers for some DVB boxes/cards ( <a href="http://www.linuxtv.org/dvb/"; target="_blank">http://www.linuxtv.org/dvb/</a>; and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=open+source+DVB+drivers+linux&spell=1"; target="_blank">http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=open+source+DVB+drivers+linux&spell=1</a>; ) how do I proceed to either get the Mac community interested in porting and or what tools do I need to install on the Mac we have in the office?
We use it for QuickTime Streaming Server testing (MPEG4) but I got a hold of it (god its great to have a Cinema Display!!!) and currently has OS X Server 10.1.5 on it. I was thinking of making 5 partitions. One for Server 10.1.5, one for 10.2.3, one for 10.1.5 (for backwards compatibility testing), one partition with Linux on it (to keep the engineers happy), and a 5th partition for all data storage. Its a 60GB drive, 733Mhz G4 with DVDR 256MB ram (yes it will be upped soon enough).
SO... basically I imagine the very LEAST is install the Developer Tools in 10.1.5 and 10.2.3 (is it necessary to have 10.1.5 or can the dev tools in 10.2.3 make sure that the final product is 10.1.5 compatible?). What tools are specifically needed to create drivers? IO Toolkit or something like that? Can you suggest 3rd party apps?
On another note, our client application is done in XML and Java. It ties in alot with MS-Dos (they mentioned the need for access to terminal for Unix) and has to talk to multihoming IP, dialup commands, etc etc. The engineers expect that they will be able to just recompile and miorly tweak the original source code to make it work with OS X.
What our software does is receive Multicast transmissions as well as manages Unicast internet via satellite. I work for <a href="http://www.eutelsat.net"; target="_blank">www.eutelsat.net</a>
If anyone can help us/me with this I cant promise much but I can definetly get you some free service of 2Mbit internet and access to our Live TV streams and software etc etc.
This would be a FIRST for the Mac community and I really really want to show everyone that Mac is still a contender in this domain as well!
If you are interested in this project in a more serious way, please email me. Otherwise, any reply or suggestion would be great to at least understand what direction to go in!
thanks sooooooooo much
ZO
Comments
apple makes sdks for several types of input, firewire, usb, scsi, and possibly more. that might be a good place to start. <a href="http://developer.apple.com/sdk/index.html"; target="_blank">[list of apple's sdks]</a>
Thanks for the initial link.
BTW, I have seen that VideoLan Client (aka VLC) HAS DVB support (no drivers though) and from their site have a few links
<a href="http://www.videolan.org/vls/sat/index.html"; target="_blank">http://www.videolan.org/vls/sat/index.html</a>;
From the site they have some Linux compatible drivers and whatnot.
For whomeber wants to help in this development, I can FOR SURE get you a free DVB card (PCI/USB) for FREE (if you have a sat dish of course... otherwise kinda hard to develop, but I guess there are still means to see if it works... dunno, TBD)
For info on what a DVB card is (Digital Video Broadcasting) it is necessary to have if you have satellite TV (to decode MPEG 2 transmission, etc).
<a href="http://www.hauppauge.com"; target="_blank">www.hauppauge.com</a> <a href="http://www.technotrends.com"; target="_blank">www.technotrends.com</a> etc have DVB cards. Im most concerned with getting the Hauppage Nova USB box to work with OS X (since its a great card, very popular and well priced). Then again at this point, anything will do.
Thanks in advance. Ill be checking my mail irregularly for the next week or so, but please do write if you are interested in helping. It will be even easier if you live in Europe (for the DVB development).
Seeing there are open-source drivers, it shoudlnt be so hard to do for OSX.. I hope.
The program is still going, so if youre interested in getting a free DVB box and some free service, contact me zo66 at mac dot com
[ 12-24-2002: Message edited by: Defiant ]</p>