Twinhan Mantis and Hopper PCI DVB tuner cards
A family of PCI digital TV tuner cards built around Twinhan's Mantis and Hopper bridge chips, sold in the 2000s as VP-1033, VP-1034, VP-1041, VP-2033, VP-2040, VP-3028, and VP-3030 boards for DVB-S satellite, DVB-T terrestrial, and DVB-C cable reception on desktop PCs. The hardware is no longer sold new but still turns up in long-lived HTPC and broadcast-monitoring setups.
recommendation
Worth keeping but documenting its niche, because the hardware is firmly in the legacy era yet a small number of users still probe these cards on current kernels. A 2020 attempt to remove an orphaned Mantis file did not lead to a full retirement, and the code has continued to receive maintenance touches as recently as late 2024, so removal would be premature. Annotating it as legacy-only would set expectations without breaking the handful of remaining installs.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
A 2020 linux-media patch proposed removing an orphan Mantis file, showing some removal interest but not a completed driver retirement.
- cateee.net
LKDDb identifies this as support for Mantis/Hopper PCI bridge based devices and shows the driver still present in current kernel series.
- cateee.net
LKDDb maps the driver to Twinhan Mantis DTV PCI Bridge Controller PCI IDs across several legacy DVB-S/T/C board variants.
- cateee.net
LKDDb shows the related Hopper variant is the same legacy Twinhan PCI DVB bridge family with a narrow hardware set.
- linux-hardware.org
linux-hardware still records modern probes of a Mantis DTV PCI Bridge device, indicating residual real-world use on contemporary Linux systems rather than zero deployment.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local shell inspection of Kconfig and per-board files shows a real PCI DVB driver for legacy VP-1033/1034/1041/2033/2040/3030 and Hopper VP-3028 cards. `lore_file_timeline` on mantis_core.c found a 2020 removal attempt, but the directory was not removed and the task context reports substantive touches through 2024-10-28, so removal is premature. Web search returned LKDDb pages for device scope and linux-hardware for present-day probe evidence. Hardware appears limited to old PCI broadcast cards, likely not sold new in 2025, but lingering legacy installs justify keep-annotate rather than deprecate/remove.