Hey folks,

I would like to set up a TV-to-LAN streaming system under Linux. I only have the
TV tuner card for the purpose. Since I have a Pentium I machine, 233 MHz, I'm gonna need
a separate device that encodes what it gets from the tuner. First I would need a hardware-based encoder device, like an MPEG-4
encoder card. The second I need is a software that manages the tuner card and sends
the output of it to the MPEG-4 encoder. Third, I need a streaming software that receives
the encoded MPEG-4 data from the encoder card and streams it through the network.

I'm completely new to the topic, how should I start? What kind of devices/applications
do you recommend?

Thanks in advance
stringZ

Perhaps VLC might bring you one step further?

Yes, I know VLC, but only a little, but what kind of hardware should I use which can handle the video data received from the tuner card?

Or there are tuner cards with built-in MPEG-4 encoders. Can I stream the encoded data in this case with VLC?

Pff..., I don't know man. Maybe this helps?
Hardware to handle the video stream of the video card? Well, I think you need software, not hardware.

Or, what about this: let's say that your situation is that you would like to stream the stuff from one PC to another and that you have on the master-PC a video card which encodes the analog or digital TV to mpeg2 or mpeg4, is this correct(I'm saying this probably because I didn't understand your 3-point requirement, sorry)?
So, as such TV-cards in Linux give out their stream under some kind of /dev/video0-thing, and as in Linux everything is seen as a file, you could even try to simply mount that /dev/video0-thing from the remote PC using NFS or CIFS/SMB. What do you think? I admit that this might be a stupid idea.
But to be honest I don't know if a 233'000'000Hz-PC is able to handle the data transmission and decode an mpeg-video at the same time... .

I wouldn't like to trick around this using file sharing methods. I would like to use the standard method like I play it with windows media player on the client machines.

You understand I meant that when I read the device of the tuner card, /dev/video0, I get a Video For Linux data stream which I forward to /dev/encodercard-input and the Encoder card encodes it to MPEG-4 format video (xvid, divx, etc). So when I read /dev/encodercard-output, I get an MPEG-4 data stream which can be streamed using VLC. Or can VLC do the fowarding between the tuner card and the encoder card too? If not it's also a qestion: what program can I do the forwarding with?

Did you find a card to do the hardware encoding (curious about that myself)?

As to forwarding you could just use cat if you wanted, if it doesn't need any other translation:
cat /dev/video0 > /dev/encodercard-input

If it needs translation say into raw video frames you could use mencoder.

Well, that's what I started with, that I need help also in finding a card with specifications described in my first post. I don't know how to start, because I've never done such a thing. That's why I'm asking for your help, I believe there are some people who have already done this before.

So I'm looking for a low-cost MPEG-4 encoder card or a tuner card that has encoding capabilities. The first the better because I already have a tuner card (TerraTec, bt* standard) working under Linux.

But sorry, I think you're on a wrong track. Most of the TV-cards that are sold today have an in-built mpeg2 or mpgeg4-encorders. I am not aware of any cards which just encode raw video streams to mpeg2 or 4.
So, you could just buy e.g. a WinTV-card, or? And read on the package what kind of out-stream they provide (mpeg2 or mpeg4).