Me TV
Me TV is a digital television viewer for GNOME.
Me TV was developed for the modern digital lounge room with a PC for a media centre that is capable of normal PC tasks (web surfing, word processing and watching TV). It is not designed to be a full-blown media centre such as MythTV but will integrate well with the existing GNOME desktop.
- Me TV Screenshots Version 0.3 Under DVB-T (Australia)
Standard Viewing
Context Menu
Showing EPG description
Recording
- Me TV Screenshots Version 0.3 Under DVB-C (Spain)
Context Menu
Showing EPG
Showing EPG
Standard Viewing
(More screenshots from earlier releases)
Features
Me TV's features currently include:
- Completely mouse driven
- Current and future program information
- Instant Record
- Double-click fullscreen
- DVB-T and DVB-C support
- Very simple installation and set up
Why Me TV?
The name Me TV (technically pronounced "Mi TV") comes from Australian slang for "My TV". Hence, "it's TV for me computer" is Australian slang for "it's TV for my computer". The pattern can be followed for all instances of "My", such as "Me dog", "Me ute" and of course "Me beer".
I've tried quite a few DVB solutions but none of them seemed to suit my particular needs for varying reasons. [Please note that my comments about the following applications are not meant as criticism, as my intention is not to insult the excellent work that many projects have done -- indeed, as I've directly copied/used concepts from those works for my own! Rather, this is merely a list of why these applications didn't suit my purpose] :
- GXine - No scheduled recordings, can't double-click fullscreen
- Kaffeine - It's KDE based (hence no fantastic under GNOME) has a very complicated UI that can't be trimmed down to be DVB specific
- Klear - Awesome except, it's KDE based and crashes on mouse wheel and doesn't release DVB device immediately, ouch!
- MPlayer - Not mouse driven, doesn't show events
- Xine - The best even though DVB support is experimental, recording is not intuitive (Menu 2), UI doesn't resize properly with Beryl (this is probably Beryl's fault), can't set recording directory
- XdTV - Mutli-window, X based (so the controls are primitive) and couldn't get it to work
- VDR - No mouse support
- MythTV - Full Media centre, no mouse support and I can't really type up a doc while watching TV
- Freevo - Doesn't officially support mouse/pointer, designed as a full media solution.
- GeeXboX - Full distribution
If these issues resonate with you then Me TV might just be what you're looking for.
Using Me TV
Tips:
Video Window
- Double left click the video window to go to fullscreen, this will automatically close the EPG if it was open
- Use the middle button to toggle the display of the EPG window
- Right click on the video window to bring up the video context window
- Show/Hide EPG: toggles the display of the EPG window
- Mute: mutes the Me TV internal amplifier. Useful if you want to watch a recording.
- Record Now: records the currently playing station. You cannot change channels while recording (this will change shortly).
EPG Window
- Right click on a channel to see the description of the currently playing program (event).
- At the start of every channel line there's a small triangle that you can click to expand the channel so that you can see the upcoming programs (events)
- Right click on an event to see the description of the event.
- There a small close button at the top/right of the EPG window. This will hide the EPG window.
- You can resize the EPG window. There's a small handle just between the video window and the EPG window.
Notes:
- The status bar is normally hidden when in fullscreen but is visible when the EPG window is open
- The status bar displays the current channel or will tell you where Me TV is recording to
- While Me TV is running it will inhibit the screen saver.
- Me TV fetches EPG data in the background while you are watching TV
- Me TV will remember the last program that you watched when starting up
- Me TV will remember if it was muted when it was last exited and will try to restore that state
- Me TV will start "Always on top" unless configured otherwise
- Me TV will not purge the events from the EPG until you restart the program. This may change in the future.
- Me TV has not been tested with radio stations.
- Me TV can be configured to record to a different directory
- Recorded Me TV files can be viewed with many applications such as Xine, GXine, totem-xine and MPlayer.