Hi Karel, thanks for your help but unfortunately I don't think it's a firmware problem. I had installed the firmware to /lib/firmware, and from dmesg it seems the firmware is loading ok: [ 16.212006] tda1004x: timeout waiting for DSP ready [ 16.252007] tda1004x: found firmware revision 0 -- invalid [ 16.252011] tda1004x: trying to boot from eeprom [ 18.576006] tda1004x: timeout waiting for DSP ready [ 18.616014] tda1004x: found firmware revision 0 -- invalid [ 18.616019] tda1004x: waiting for firmware upload... [ 18.616024] saa7134 0000:02:07.0: firmware: requesting dvb-fe-tda10046.fw [ 32.072008] tda1004x: found firmware revision 20 -- ok I can scan without problems as you can see from the attached file, I can even tune fine: holden@holden-desktop:~$ tzap "RaiUno" using '/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0' and '/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0' reading channels from file '/home/holden/.tzap/channels.conf' tuning to 482000000 Hz video pid 0x0200, audio pid 0x028a status 00 | signal 0000 | snr 9393 | ber 0001fffe | unc 00000000 | status 1f | signal b8b8 | snr fefe | ber 00000006 | unc ffffffff | FE_HAS_LOCK status 1f | signal b8b8 | snr ffff | ber 00000002 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK status 1f | signal b8b8 | snr ffff | ber 00000002 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK status 1f | signal b8b8 | snr ffff | ber 00000004 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK but when I watch a program with mplayer I still get lots of errors: holden@holden-desktop:~$ mplayer dvb://RaiUno -cache 2000 -cache-min 20 MPlayer SVN-r29237-4.4.1 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team mplayer: could not connect to socket mplayer: No such file or directory Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control. Playing dvb://RaiUno. dvb_tune Freq: 482000000 Cache fill: 18.80% (385024 bytes) TS file format detected. VIDEO MPEG2(pid=512) AUDIO MPA(pid=650) NO SUBS (yet)! PROGRAM N. 0 VIDEO: MPEG2 720x576 (aspect 2) 25.000 fps 10000.0 kbps (1250.0 kbyte/s) open: No such file or directory [MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid open: No such file or directory [MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid [VO_TDFXFB] Can't open /dev/fb0: No such file or directory. [VO_3DFX] Unable to open /dev/3dfx. ========================================================================== Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough VDec: vo config request - 720 x 576 (preferred colorspace: Mpeg PES) Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale... Opening video filter: [scale] The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec. Try appending the scale filter to your filter list, e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp. VDecoder init failed :( Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family Unsupported PixelFormat -1 Selected video codec: [ffmpeg2] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-2) ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3 AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 192.0 kbit/12.50% (ratio: 24000->192000) Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3) ========================================================================== [pulse] working around probably broken pause functionality, see http://www.pulseaudio.org/ticket/440 AO: [pulse] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample) Starting playback... VDec: vo config request - 720 x 576 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12) VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0) Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect. VO: [xv] 720x576 => 768x576 Planar YV12 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]ac-tex damaged at 7 30/ 49 23% 1% 1.6% 0 0 25% [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]mb incr damaged [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]Warning MVs not available [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]concealing 135 DC, 135 AC, 135 MV errors [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]ac-tex damaged at 28 12 53 23% 0% 1.6% 0 0 24% [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]Warning MVs not available [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]concealing 163 DC, 163 AC, 163 MV errors [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 35 34246 22% 0% 1.1% 0 0 26% [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]Warning MVs not available [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]concealing 45 DC, 45 AC, 45 MV errors [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]ac-tex damaged at 12 32312 22% 0% 1.1% 0 0 31% [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]ac-tex damaged at 0 1 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]ac-tex damaged at 0 2 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]concealing 135 DC, 135 AC, 135 MV errors [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]end mismatch left=169290 11F2% 0% 1.1% 0 0 26% [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 12 2 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 14 3 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]ac-tex damaged at 4 4 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]ac-tex damaged at 4 5 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 12 6 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 20 7 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 24 8 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]mb incr damaged [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 42 10 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 3 11 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 17 12 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 1 13 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 19 14 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]mb incr damaged [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 1 16 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 12 17 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 6 18 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]ac-tex damaged at 25 19 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 19 20 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 13 21 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 39 22 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]invalid mb type in P Frame at 9 23 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 13 24 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 34 25 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 4 26 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]ac-tex damaged at 5 28 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]invalid mb type in P Frame at 5 28 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]ac-tex damaged at 25 29 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]invalid cbp at 15 30 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]ac-tex damaged at 37 31 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 23 32 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]ac-tex damaged at 2 33 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 8 34 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]ac-tex damaged at 10 35 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]concealing 1530 DC, 1530 AC, 1530 MV errors [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]skipped MB in I frame at 15 33 0% 1.1% 0 0 26% [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]concealing 45 DC, 45 AC, 45 MV errors [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 15 1/501 24% 0% 1.1% 0 0 23% [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]concealing 180 DC, 180 AC, 180 MV errors [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 37 29510 24% 0% 1.0% 0 0 24% [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]concealing 135 DC, 135 AC, 135 MV errors [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 26 23612 23% 0% 1.0% 0 0 15% [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]concealing 180 DC, 180 AC, 180 MV errors [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 21 5/627 23% 0% 1.0% 0 0 17% [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 14 13 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]00 motion_type at 0 4 [mpeg2video @ 0x1705ae0]concealing 270 DC, 270 AC, 270 MV errors A:11947.2 V:11947.2 A-V: 0.002 ct: -0.084 729/729 23% 0% 1.0% 0 0 25% Exiting... (Quit)