Re: tv tunner and Linux

[Frank Carmickle <frankiec@braille.uwo.ca>]

Hi Greg

On Fri, 10 Aug 2001, Gregory Nowak wrote:
> I just got a hand me down bt878 tv tuner from
> a friend. Since the driver names on the cd for it
> begin with "bt848" and since I saw an option
> for that device right after
> the sound card options in make config, I did something probably dumb
> and thoughtless by choosing that option.
> The dmesg output says that mixer support for bt848 is registered.
> However, I'm not sure where to go from there,
> as I'm new to tv tuners in general.

If you are using a 2.4 kernel the support for the bttv cards is
current.  If you are using a 2.2 kernel then get the bttv package from
the bttv sight.  

> I guess my first question is do I need x to watch tv in Linux, or is
> there console software for that?

There is console software.  You will probably want to have a framebuffer
device if there are going to be sightlings around who will actually turn
on the monitor.  If not then you can just listen to the audio by using
v4lctl.  

> If I don't need x, did I do the right  thing by choosing the bt848 option
> during make config?
> Does anyone know if there are drivers for bti78 under Linux 

Well there is one driver for all of the cards based on the
bt848/849/878/879.  You will want to make sure that you have the modules
i2c-core
videodev
tvaudio
tuner
msp3400

Unfortunately there are lots and lots of options and it is not a walk in
the park to configure.  You will become very familiar with modutils I can
assure you.

you will have to do an 'lspci' to find out exactly what card you have and
then read read read read the docs.  I will throw in an example config
that will help you but it probably won't work for your card.

#i2c
alias char-major-89 i2c-dev

#bttv
alias char-major-81 videodev
alias char-major-81-0 bttv
options bttv card=2 radio=1
options tuner type=2
options tvmixer tea6300=1


HTH

-- 
     Frank Carmickle
phone:     412 761-9568
email:     frankiec@dryrose.com