tv on linux ????

skinpainting · 03-09-2004, 07:01 PM

i'm wondering if it's possible to watch my cable television on my computer... i also have a cable internet connection through the same company... would i have to install a special card or is it possible to pull the signal from the cable modem?

thank you in advance...

Thymox · 03-09-2004, 07:08 PM

You will need a special TV-in card. If you get a plain-ol TV-in card then you can connect it up to the TV-out part of your cable TV box. If, however, you want to be able to control the channels from your PC, then you'll need to get a very special PCI card. Without knowing more about your cable company, I cannot recommend a card.

Lord C · 03-09-2004, 07:17 PM

All you will need is a TV-card.
These can be bought from as little as £10 / $15 and you get the nessacary connections with it.
They are usually plug&play as far as most Linux distributions are consirned.

XawTV is one of the most popular programs for viewing TV in Linux.

If you're on RedHat or Debian run:

Code:

$ apt-get install xawtv motv fbtv ttv radio xawtv-tools webcam alevtd tv-fonts

If you're using SuSe run:

Code:

$ yast2 -i xawtv motv alevtd v4l-tools

Once installed run:

Code:

$ xawtv -hwscan

And this will scan your PC for devices which can use the packages. Such webcam/TV/Digital Radio.
Then when you know which device you want to run, simply start it with:

Code:

$ xawtv -device /dev/video0

Accordingly.

I hope this helped.

Thymox · 03-09-2004, 08:09 PM

If you're using cable, digital RF or satellite then you can indeed use most standard TV tuner cards, however, you will need to pass the signal through your regular 'decoder/set-top-box' in order to get anything because ordinary tuner cards are not designed to work with such signals. You can get cable/digital RF/satellite tuner cards, and some of them even come with nice little card readers so you can get the subscription channels too.

Here's a good place to get info:
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/selector.htm

skinpainting · 03-09-2004, 10:50 PM

thank you for the information. it was very helpfull. i already have xawtv installed i have been thinking about this for some time...

TravisOSF · 03-10-2004, 12:59 AM

the best tuner i have ever seen was on my Matrox Marvel...beautiful daughter card for the decent video card...

Sharpest picture i have ever seen on one...

Since then I have had the one built into the Voodoo 3 3500 and the ATI TVWonder VE...neither are as clear, but quite usable. The ATI is my current and works well in mandrake 9.2, but the colors (even after tweaking) aren't as vivid in windowsxp with ati's software. Either way, it's a cheap card and easy to use, so feel free to try it!