I got a bt878 card too, knoppix 3.4 and kernel 2.6.5.

I don't need to pass a parameter to the i2c-... but to the bttv-module:
Code:
modprobe bttv card=42 tuner=1
Of course card will differ on your system, and tuner maybe too.
Since my desktop is shutdown and closed, I can't tell you the manufactor.

Benlau: It needs 20 min to boot your system??? How fast is your processor?
It needs 30 sec to boot mine!