Yihaa!!

After having tried all possible combinations of kernel module parameters, I have to admit that I had given up. But, then I posted on the ivtv-devel list and got a link to a very simple setup:

I just put
tda9887 pal=B
ivtv ivtv_std=2 tda9887=0
ivtv-fb
lirc_i2c

in /etc/modules.autoload/kernel-2.6

and
alias char-major-81 videodev
alias char-major-81-0 ivtv
alias char-major-61 lirc_i2c

in /etc/modules.d/ivtv
(Have a look at the original post here
Now, I am recording :-)

This is one of these times when you just smile and do not try to understand what just happened....