Most recent kernel where this bug did not occur: 2.6.17-gentoo-r2
Distribution: Gentoo
Hardware Environment: 

01:0b.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture
(rev 11)
        Subsystem: Hauppauge computer works Inc. WinTV Series
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 20
        Memory at dfffe000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: [44] Vital Product Data
        Capabilities: [4c] Power Management version 2

01:0b.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 11)
        Subsystem: Hauppauge computer works Inc. WinTV Series
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 20
        Memory at dffff000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: [44] Vital Product Data
        Capabilities: [4c] Power Management version 2

Software Environment: init=/bin/bash, so nothing special.
Problem Description:
modprobe bttv causes a kernel Oops:

Oops: 0000 [#1]
SMP 
Modules linked in: tuner tvaudio msp3400 tsdev snd_emu10k1 snd_hwdep snd_rawmidi
snd_ac97_codec snd_ac97_bus evdev bttv snd_
da_codec snd_seq_device video_buf pcspkr firmware_class snd_util_mem ir_common
snd_bt87x compat_ioctl32 i2c_algo_bit snd_pcm
art snd_timer btcx_risc uhci_hcd ehci_hcd ohci1394 usbcore tveeprom ieee1394
i2c_i801 snd i2c_core sky2 videodev snd_page_al
 v4l2_common soundcore emu10k1_gp gameport psmouse parport_pc parport
CPU:    0
EIP:    0060:[<c0189367>]    Not tainted VLI
EFLAGS: 00010282   (2.6.18-rc2 #2) 
EIP is at sysfs_add_file+0xf/0x70
eax: 00000001   ebx: f89cfd3c   ecx: 00000004   edx: f89cfd3c
esi: 00000001   edi: f89d6b48   ebp: c2193800   esp: f7f6ddd0
ds: 007b   es: 007b   ss: 0068
Process modprobe (pid: 1003, ti=f7f6c000 task=f7e0c030 task.ti=f7f6c000)
Stack: f8870303 f7fdc624 00000004 00000000 f89d68a0 f89d6b48 c2193800 00000000 
       f89d68a0 f89d6b48 c2193800 f89bd09c f89c5ff8 00000000 00000000 dfffe000 
       00000000 00000001 00000001 40222323 f89cfa4c c2193800 f89cfa20 c03cc220 
Call Trace:
 [<f89bd09c>] bttv_probe+0x4c8/0x78c [bttv]
 [<c022bddf>] pci_device_probe+0x40/0x5b
 [<c028654b>] driver_probe_device+0x3b/0xaa
 [<c028668b>] __driver_attach+0x6c/0x6e
 [<c0285fe4>] bus_for_each_dev+0x3a/0x58
 [<c02864ba>] driver_attach+0x16/0x1a
 [<c0285c96>] bus_add_driver+0x6f/0x122
 [<c022bf1e>] __pci_register_driver+0x47/0x68
 [<c013359b>] sys_init_module+0x12b/0x1a60
 [<c0102b59>] sysenter_past_esp+0x56/0x79
 [<b7f72410>] 0xb7f72410
Code: fe ff 81 ff 00 f0 ff ff 77 b6 8b 77 0c 85 f6 75 b1 89 f8 e8 44 17 fe ff 31
ff eb a6 55 57 56 53 83 ec 1c 89 c6 89 d3 8
 68 54 8b 42 08 66 89 44 24 0c 8b 46 0c 83 c0 74 e8 86 d7 1b 
EIP: [<c0189367>] sysfs_add_file+0xf/0x70 SS:ESP 0068:f7f6ddd0
 <7>usb usb4: suspend_rh (auto-stop)
usb usb5: suspend_rh (auto-stop)

Steps to reproduce:
1. Boot 2.6.18-rc2
2. modprobe bttv