Can analog (via settop box) be played on pc using xine-ui-0.99.5-i686-3.
I tried the commands suggested in the wiki: xine dvb:// and xine DVB:// but those require digital input but they found almost everything also tried xine v4l:// and v4l2:// which ended in failure. But there was enough output that suggests this can be done. Can someone tell me if my xine version is OK for this and if so what are the configuration commands needed to get it running?

I've had problems trying to watch DVB TV. It records ok (provided the signal quality is decent - I'm only using a set-top aerial so it fluctuates) with the http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Zap utils but playback is poor or non-existent. I just haven't had time to investigate it in detail.

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you may want to give an updated xine a shot. I have slackbuilds here for them:

https://github.com/WhiteWolf1776/slackbuilds

I like xine, but the older one included with slackware has issues playing modern videos, i.e. needs updated everything + newer ffmpeg.

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Thanks 2 U both!! That is all great info. I stumbled onto the use of Xine just this weekend as I had always used it for playing DVD/CDs. I am in the midst of grinding out use of mplayer for this purpose and have hit a bump in the road. I get a video frame and a green field and a "no sound" error so was thrashing about for an alternative when I discovered this capability of Xine. Hence am not ready at this point to change Xine now but wanted some help with commands and possibly setting up the channel list to see if it works for even an instant then I'll have more confidence to bear down on mplayer before making changes to Xine. Info I have is make a channel list in .xine/.conf but don't have complete info. Is there a good reference on this that I missed?

I have some experience with this from a few years ago when I tried to set up a media server. Back then, you used "dvb://" for anything digital, including ATSC and ISDB (since its mostly Europeans working on it, it kind of makes sense). One problem is that (almost?) all devices require a channel scan before they start working; there are dedicated V4L2 tools for this, as I recall--though I can't recall the names of those tools. :\

More recently, I remember reading that the analog and digital parts have been merged so you now only need the "dvb://" to access anything, but the part about scanning channels first is part of the hardware (or at least its firmware) itself, and still needs to be done.

I hope this helps, although this info is probably outdated a bit.

P.S. What device do you have? Are you sure its supported?

P.P.S. Main TV software page: http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/TV_Related_Software

The software to scan channels and put them in a file can be found here:
http://slackbuilds.org/repository/14...imedia/w_scan/
It has got multiple options and should allow you to scan your device for channels.
Personally I have had the best results with using Kaffeine to play tv, it's quite easy to set up and will scan for channels also.

I tried Kaffeine and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get up and running. I also installed w_scan, to try with vlc and mplayer which were a bit more work, but not bad either.