tv tunner and Linux

tv tunner and Linux

[Gregory Nowak]

Hi folks,

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.
I guess my first question is do I need
x to watch tv in Linux, or is there
console software for that?
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 
(there weren't any on the cd that came with the tunner)?
Hope somebody can provide some answers
and excuse my ignorance (grin).
Thanks for any help.
Greg

Re: tv tunner and Linux

[Frank Carmickle]

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

Re: tv tunner and Linux

[Brian Borowski]

You can check in linux/Documentation/video4linux/bttv, read the information
there, go to the web site(s) mentioned there, obtain the latest bttv (if
you wish), and also you should get xawtv which contains some command-line
utilities which will help you use the card.  You can do just audio, or you
can (if you use X), watch the thing, (don't know why you'd want to do that,
but some do), and you can also do video-capture/frame-grabbing...

Brian Borowski


On Fri, 10 Aug 2001, Gregory Nowak wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> 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.
> I guess my first question is do I need
> x to watch tv in Linux, or is there
> console software for that?
> 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
> (there weren't any on the cd that came with the tunner)?
> Hope somebody can provide some answers
> and excuse my ignorance (grin).
> Thanks for any help.
> Greg
>
>
>
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