Hi all folks,

Is there a software TV turner available to replace hardware TV turner card?

Thanks

B.Regards
satimis

where you going to plug in the coax?

Hi,

To plug the TV turner card on motherboard slot

B.R.
satimis

I'm sorry, but I don't follow what you're after. You want a TV tuner that connects to the motherboard? As part of another device, like a Graphics card with built-in tuner? Or a device separate from the graphics card that plugs into the PCI slots?

If it is the latter, then many, many cards are supported. The best ones use the BTTV chips.

you could get a usb tuner - google for it with linux to see if it is supported first though

Hi Thymox,

Thanks for your response.

I already have a graphic card with 32MB RAM installed. For economic reason a TV tuner card will be sufficient. But I aslo will consider TV tuner card combined with graphic card if it works better.

Could you please give me some recommendation?

Are you aware if there is software TV tuner?

Thanks in advance.

B.R.
satimis

The software used to view TV from a TV tuner card is calles XawTV. There are other programs around, but this is (IMO) the best one around.

As for the hardware side of things - there are many, many cards supported by Linux. More info can be found at the video4linux website. Almost anything with the Brooktree TV (BTTV) chips are well supported.

Hi Thymox

Is it following the official website of video4linux???

http://www.exploits.org/v4l/

Another question
Is there a software available on Linux World which can replace the TV tuner card-hardware. I don't mean RealRadio, mplayer, etc. because some TV stations don't maintain website

Thanks

B.R.
satimis

no of course not... that's already been said a dozen times. do you really think cards would exist if that was possible?? no idea how a digital system is meant to recieve and decode a complex RF analog signal without any analog hardware....

In order that we do not misunderstand your intentions, can you please explain, in general terms, what you are referring to by, and mean by

TV tuner card-hardware

Could you elaborate on what exactly you mean? As said quite a bit above, how would you plug it into the PC? Where would the interface for the TV be if it was a software based application?

Cool

maybe just glue it onto your tinfoil hat??

If I might just speculate, I fear that the poster of the question has heard about

hardware and software MPEG2 decoding of DVDs

for which you can use either MPEG2 decoder card (DXr3, RealMagic etc) or software packate (WinDVD etc), and is therefore under the delusion that you can by analogy, have software or hardware decoding of broadcast tv signals.

And if you really wanted a turner (sic) card, would that not have to be a satellite card in order to receive CNN and TBS? :+)

Please remember that for people with very little understanding of the technology and for whom English is not their mother tongue, expressing one's request for information can be very imprecise and difficult.

Hi all,

Thanks for your response/comment.

Originally I was seeking for advice about the software controlling the TV tuner card plugged on PCI slot. Most TV tuner cards available on markets are provided with soltware running on Windows including capture features. Changing stations on screen and capture feature will satisfy my need. I am not seeking for a hardware TV turner completed with switches otherwise I prefer to have a TV set. (remark: inhouse satellite antena is already provided)

For curiostiy I am trying to hear whether there is software that can replace the hardware TV tuner card. A folk on this list already advised it is impossible.

Additional information sought : recommendation on a reliable hardware TV tuner card for PCI

Thanks in advance.

B.Regards
satimis.

No, there is no software tuners that changes the computer into TV receiver without using a TV tuner. Its a gimmick, like using your computer monitor to take snap shots of your computer desk.

On TV tuner cards there are two components. One is the analog tuner (shiny metal box). The second component is the video grabber chip. The card can include other chips too such as MPEG encoder chips so you can do on the fly recording, freezing, rewinding, and forwarding of your TV shows. The software like Xawtv sends signals to the TV tuner card to change the channels or other settings of the card.

AGP Video cards with built in video capture are better than PCI video capture cards but it comes at price if the OS supports it or not. If the OS supports it, you can take advantage of AGP. Also the AGP bus is not accessing or fighting with other devices so less latency and be able use raw codecs with out dropping frames.