[pvrusb2] Recording from radio

[Rick Macdonald]

Anticipating getting the radio working, I've spent many hours now trying 
to figure out how to record from it.

cat /dev/radioX > file.mpg

works, but gives an MPEG file with no video. I want a wav file or 
something that I can convert to mp3. My motherboard sound (Intel ICH7), 
according to ALSA (amixer), only captures from front and rear Mic, Line 
In and CD. As far as I can tell, the radio signal is in the PCM device, 
but I can't figure out how to record it. I've been trying to understand 
ALSA plugins (for ~/.asoundrc) but nothing has clicked yet.

Here's my amixer output in case there's something I missed.

rickm at timshel:~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC882 Analog [ALC882 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 2: ALC882 Digital [ALC882 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

rickm at timshel:~$ amixer
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback [on]
  Front Right: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 255 [100%]
  Front Right: Playback 255 [100%]
Simple mixer control 'Front',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Surround',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Center',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 19 [61%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'LFE',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 18 [58%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Side',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 21 [68%] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 21 [68%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'CD',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Capture channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on] Capture [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 13 [42%] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 13 [42%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',1
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 15 [48%] [off]
  Front Right: Capture 15 [48%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',2
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 15 [48%] [off]
  Front Right: Capture 15 [48%] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line' 'CD'
  Item0: 'Mic'
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',1
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line' 'CD'
  Item0: 'CD'
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',2
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line' 'CD'
  Item0: 'CD'
rickm at timshel:~$

...RickM...