Suggest a Linux supported TV card?

jareth0205 · n00b Joined: 19 Jun 2003 Posts: 4

I want to get a TV card for my machine, so I can install something like mythTV and use it for watching and recording TV. (I have an Athlon XP 2200+) I've been looking at Video 4 Linux, but there seems to be no concensus on what the best cards and most supported cards are. I've heard very good and bad things about the Hauppage WinTV cards, for instance.

Does anyone have any experience of getting TV cards to work under Gentoo? What's good?

Thanks!

...Carl

irasnyd · Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2003 8:49 pm Post subject:

I'm using a Leadtek Winfast TV2000XP Deluxe TV/FM. I got it to work very easily with the bttv kernel module.

It's about $50 at newegg.com, so it's not as expensive as the Hauppage ones.

jch · Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2003 8:32 am Post subject: Recommendation.

I recommend a Pinnacle PCTV--either the Pro model, or the standard model (which is what I have).

My card came with an IR remote and reciever, and I get a good picture using bttv with Xawtv. The remote allows me to change channels or execute other commands using LIRC.

chrispy · Apprentice Joined: 10 Nov 2002 Posts: 228 Location: Tokyo

Out of ignorance, I bought a 100bucks card with a conexant 23881 chip.

I discovered after that this chip is not yet fully supported, and therefore currently unusable.
I went out again and bought a $30 card (no brand) with a bt878 chip, downloaded the latest bttv driver from http://bytesex.org/bttv and it runs like a charm if you read the instructions carefully.

However nicely supported, Mythtv isn't exactly super optimized and is quite a hog when it comes to live encoding/tv watching.

I switched to a 2.5.7x mm-sources kernel, and now it runs much much smoother, even at higher res (i was grabbing at 352x352 for livetv). But that's another topic.

hjlane3 · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2003 7:05 pm Post subject:

Ben2040 · Guru Joined: 07 May 2003 Posts: 445 Location: UK

Hi
I'm using a Hauppage WinTVGo card (£30 on the high street) in a 1.3Ghz, and all the TV functions work great. No noticable lag, and I have it a the second screen (not allowed a standalone TV in the study, and Linux fills in fine - Windows of course wouldn't work with one piece of software and would with another?????)

[EDIT:Using KWinTV BTW
Ben

mmealman · Guru Joined: 02 Nov 2002 Posts: 348 Location: Florida

I have a Hauppage PVR350, which is basically a PVR250 with decoder for output, and it'll capture up to 720x480 very well. The 250/350's have an mpeg2 encoder chip on the card so you don't max out your CPU usage.

Development on the driver for the above can be found at http://ivtv.sourceforge.net/ and the PVR250 functions seem to be pretty stable. There's a mailing list you can browse for more information on it's development.

Right now I'm just waiting on the tv-out support for the 350 before I turn my firewall/router into a MythTV box.

Delphiki · Guru Joined: 04 Oct 2002 Posts: 337 Location: A2

I have an ATI TV-Wonder that works quite well in Linux.
_________________
Excellent..

prolific · Apprentice Joined: 19 Apr 2002 Posts: 237

I was thinking about getting a tvcard as well.. However I need one that will work with DirecTV Satellite. I don't have cable and only satellite.. I guess the way it would work is Satellite Dish >>> Directv Receiver >>> TV Card.. All using coax cable...

Also I'm not sure how good the quality would be.. Also if you make if full screen would the quality degrade significantly.. I would like to see some screenshots with tv capturing taking place so I can see how the quality is..

Does anyone here use a TV Card with DirecTV??? Maybe its not even possible since DirecTV is a digital broadcast system,..

Pythagoras1 · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2003 11:23 pm Post subject:

I'd suggest to inform yourself at www.linuxtv.org before buying a TV card.
In your case http://www.linuxtv.org/dvb/market.xml would be worth reading.

EDIT: These pages are only for DVB television (digital) and not for old-school TV.

stustill · Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2003 12:16 am Post subject:

Well, my Hauppauge WinTV card is just dandy, although it would be nice if I had a digital TV card instead. Might buy one soon!

Stu

prolific · Apprentice Joined: 19 Apr 2002 Posts: 237

Do these DTV cards bypass the need for a directv receiver or something? If I want my setup like this.. directv satellite dish --> directv set-top receiver --> tv card , then woud i still need these digital tv cards or can i just use the regular ones that are used for cable tv like the hauppage wintv basic one.. ?

Ben2040 · Guru Joined: 07 May 2003 Posts: 445 Location: UK

Hi
I'm not sure but I would think so as the Sattelite image would need decoding etc, much like a DVD.

Ben

Yarrick · Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2003 11:30 am Post subject:

i have an hauppauge card with bt848. it works great with 2.4 kernels and ok with 2.6.0-test1

binny · Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2003 11:31 am Post subject:

I've got a Pinnacle PCTV with IR and it works great (about 50?)

qlat · n00b Joined: 17 Jul 2003 Posts: 26

jaska · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2003 1:07 am Post subject:

@ prolific

Digital receivers for satellite don't exist for usa market yet, the only digital pc receivers they have are for hdtv but thats yet again different. linuxtv.org deals with dvb, which is not very common in the us.

So all you can really do now is this dish -> satellite receiver -> tv card with s-video in to get best quality