Example setups

This page lists example software configurations that you might find helpful as a suggestion of what you can do with your system.

For a complete list of programs, see the commented software list page --- here, you'll find solutions, not just simple programs. For testing purposed or small systems, have a look at the First steps with a budget DVB card.

In order to be most useful for the reader, this page is diveded into three sections:

• setups for full featured cards (DVB cards with hardware decoders)
• setups for budget cards (DVB cards without hardware decoders) -- see here for USB DVB adapters
• setups for analog TV cards (hey, shouldn't that sort of stuff rather be in the video4linux wiki?

A sample solution for a system with a budget DVB card

My system is a Twinhan DTV Mini Ter on a cheap HP Pentium 4 1.2GHz. The graphic card is only an on-board Intel 82810E with shared memory, so nothing fancy.

After installing the card drivers, I tried several solutions. I didn't get the VDR Software Decoder Plugin working so I tried xine -- which worked on the first trial and provides much functionality (for watching) on an easy and intuitive interface.

A sample solution for a system with a full-featured card

My system is a Mythtv pc installed with Fedora Core 6 following this howto [1]. I use the Technotrend Premium DVB-C 2300 Hybrid dvb-c card [2]bought from Dvb shop in Germany [3]. I was thinking buying the Technotrend Budget C-1500, but it was out of stock from Dvbshop that time [4].

The Linux 2.6 kernel had already support for Technotrend Premium DVB-C 2300 so the card was autodetected after first time boot. The firmware for the card was not in place so you must download the correct dvb-ttpci-01.fw-2622 (or newer) firmware file from this place [5]. Place this file in the hotplug directory /lib/firmware and rename to dvb-ttpci-01.fw. Change the permission on the file. After a reboot you should get some file in /dev/dvb/adapter0/

Using Fedora, assume root privileges then install the dvb utilities with

  # yum install dvb-apps

Scan will need some idea of where to start searching; for this reasons it takes a file for your location as a starting point. Therefore, you need to find channel information for your locality. Again, the location where they are installed may vary. In the following examples, the directory is /usr/share/doc/dvb-utils/examples/scan/dvb-t/; other installations also use /usr/share/doc/dvb-apps-1.1.1 or /usr/local/share/dvb/scan/dvb-t/. DVB-S users should use the folders /usr/share/doc/dvb-utils/examples/scan/dvb-s/, /usr/share/doc/dvb-apps-1.1.1 or /usr/local/share/dvb/scan/dvb-s/. In each case, the name of the file you're looking for is of the form cc-Ttttt, where cc is a two-letter country abbreviation, and Ttttt is the name of the location of the transmitter. So in Adelaide, Australia, you'd look for a file called au-Adelaide; the following example relates to Oxford in the United Kingdom.

[mythtv@mythpc ~]$ cat dvb-c
# no-oslo-UPC (cable)
C 410000000 6875000 NONE QAM64
C 418000000 6875000 NONE QAM64
C 426000000 6875000 NONE QAM64
C 442000000 6875000 NONE QAM64
C 450000000 6875000 NONE QAM64
C 458000000 6875000 NONE QAM64
C 466000000 6875000 NONE QAM64
C 474000000 6875000 NONE QAM64
C 482000000 6875000 NONE QAM64
C 490000000 6875000 NONE QAM64
C 498000000 6875000 NONE QAM64  

First try

 $ /usr/bin/dvbscan /usr/share/dvb-apps/atsc/us-ATSC-center-frequencies-8VSB

This should produce output saying "WARNING: >>> tuning failed!!!" if a signal was not found on that particular frequency. Eventually, a list of services found should be displayed. Here is a sample list:

 dumping lists (7 services)
 KPAX-DT:177028615:8VSB:49:52:1
 KPAX-CW:177028615:8VSB:65:68:2
 KUFM-HD:551028615:8VSB:49:52:3
 KUFM-DT:551028615:8VSB:65:68:4
 KTMF-DT:605028615:8VSB:49:52:3
 [0001]:605028615:8VSB:49:52:1
 KECI-1:629028615:8VSB:49:52:3

Note that if you are attempting to decode us cable-tv QAM from your cable set top box, you might use the file /usr/share/dvb-apps/atsc/us-Cable-Standard-center-frequencies-QAM256 rather than /usr/share/dvb-apps/atsc/us-ATSC-center-frequencies-8VSB

Next try to create a "channels.conf", a file in a hidden (dotted) directory off your "home" directory.

 $ mkdir ~/.azap
 $ scandvb /usr/share/dvb-apps/atsc/us-ATSC-center-frequencies-8VSB > ~/.azap/channels.conf

Next display the contents of the channels.conf file to make sure the file creation proceeded correctly

 $ cat ~/.azap/channels.conf

Note: For reasons not readily apparent, tzap used in the UK example above didn't work. So try azap instead, picking the first entry from ~/.azap/channels.conf (The KPAX-DT part)

 $ /usr/bin/azap  -r -c ~/.azap/channels.conf "KPAX-DT"

which in turn displays lines similar to (terminate with Ctrl-C)

 using '/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0' and '/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0'
 tuning to 177028615 Hz
 status 1f | signal 0000 | snr ff28 | ber 00000000 | unc 00000000 | FE_HAS_LOCK
 ... (repeated output) ...

Then for some statistics, try

 $ /usr/bin/dvbtraffic

(The budget setup above of course also works for FF cards.)

A sample solution for a system with an analog card

write it down if you have one -- I can't do it cause I haven't

See also

• Commented software list
• First steps with a budget DVB card