Supported TV tuner cards and TV tuner USB sticks?

[xeno74]

Hi All,

We have added support for various TV tuner cards and TV tuner USB sticks to our Linux kernels. That means, it is possible to watch television and listen to the radio with Linux on your X5000 and X1000. It is also possible to record television programs onto a hard disk. There are many TV tuners available for the PCI and PCIe bus. Additionally you can use TV tuner USB sticks with your X5000 and X1000. With a Composite Video input (yellow) you can connect a lot of other devices like video game consoles, video recorders, receivers etc. In this thread, I would like to exchange with you some experiences about various TV tuner devices.

I tested the analog television PCI card WinTV Express with a BT878A chip with my AmigaOne X1000 last week.





The installation was very easy because the new Linux kernels support this TV card without any configuration. Using is very simple with the TV programs TVTime and XawTV on Ubuntu and Debian. I can watch analog cable TV without any problems. I also connected my Nintendo N64 and my Nintendo GameCube via Composite Video to my WinTV PCI card. The performance is very well even if I play fast games on game consoles. You can use Teletext/Videotext with AleVT. It's very fast because it saves all text pages in a cache.

Here are some screenshots:





Please test your TV device and share your experiences in this thread.

Thanks,
Christian

[xeno74]

FYI: The modern digital PCTV tripleStick HD 292e TV Tuner stick (DVB-C/DVB-T2) is Linux compatible. You can watch television with Kaffeine on Linux.

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[    4.220437] em28xx 1-2:1.0: New device PCTV PCTV 292e @ 480 Mbps (2013:025f, interface 0, class 0)
[    4.220449] em28xx 1-2:1.0: DVB interface 0 found: isoc
[    4.220531] em28xx 1-2:1.0: chip ID is em28178
[    6.214766] em28xx 1-2:1.0: EEPROM ID = 26 00 01 00, EEPROM hash = 0xa81bf604
[    6.214778] em28xx 1-2:1.0: EEPROM info:
[    6.214784] em28xx 1-2:1.0: 	microcode start address = 0x0004, boot configuration = 0x01
[    6.221401] em28xx 1-2:1.0: 	AC97 audio (5 sample rates)
[    6.221414] em28xx 1-2:1.0: 	500mA max power
[    6.221421] em28xx 1-2:1.0: 	Table at offset 0x27, strings=0x146a, 0x1888, 0x0a7e
[    6.221635] em28xx 1-2:1.0: Identified as PCTV tripleStick (292e) (card=94)
[    6.221644] em28xx 1-2:1.0: dvb set to isoc mode.
[    6.221982] usbcore: registered new interface driver em28xx
[    6.324127] em28xx 1-2:1.0: Binding DVB extension
[    6.350975] si2168 2-0064: Silicon Labs Si2168-B40 successfully identified
[    6.350980] si2168 2-0064: firmware version: B 4.0.2
[    6.454257] si2157 3-0060: Silicon Labs Si2147/2148/2157/2158 successfully attached
[    6.454303] dvbdev: DVB: registering new adapter (1-2:1.0)
[    6.454314] em28xx 1-2:1.0: DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Silicon Labs Si2168)...
[    6.454329] dvbdev: dvb_create_media_entity: media entity 'Silicon Labs Si2168' registered.
[    6.455426] dvbdev: dvb_create_media_entity: media entity 'dvb-demux' registered.
[    6.458404] em28xx 1-2:1.0: DVB extension successfully initialized
[    6.458418] em28xx: Registered (Em28xx dvb Extension) extension
[   17.088958] si2168 2-0064: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-demod-si2168-b40-01.fw'
[   17.294328] si2168 2-0064: firmware version: B 4.0.11
[   17.299239] si2157 3-0060: found a 'Silicon Labs Si2157-A30'
[   17.347679] si2157 3-0060: firmware version: 3.0.5

[Skateman]

The USB DVB-T stick i am using is the PCTV Nano



Key Features

Ultra-sensitive digital terrestrial TV reception
Watch digital TV in full-screen or scaleable-window mode.
Pause and rewind live TV with timeshifting.
Record what you’re watching or schedule recordings for later.
Record to your hard drive without any quality loss.
Compact design with built-in protective flip-cap doesn’t block other USB ports.
USB powered. Low power consumption saves notebook battery power.
Integrated Electronic Program Guide and ultra-fast Teletext (where Teletext signal is available).
Mini remote and antenna included
Compatible with Windows Media Center (Media Center remote control separately available)
Free trial software included! DistanTV: Stream live TV from your PC to any other PC on your home network

Due to the fact that my Radeon R7 250 is not supported within linux the graphics overlay features do not work. I know the adapter is working. I can scan the channels, and Record them. Recording can be played back so the PCTV NANO is working fine.

[xeno74]

Thank you! Very interesting!

-- Christian

[xeno74]

Hi All,

I tested the analog TV card Typhoon TView RDS + FM Stereo (BT878 chip) in my AmigaOne X5000 today. The automatic configuration doesn't work. You have to set card=53 for the bttv kernel module.

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sudo rmmod bttv

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sudo modprobe bttv card=53

After that it works without any problems.

If you add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/tv_bttv.conf then you don't need the commands above.

sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/tv_bttv.conf

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options bttv card=53

Screenshot of ubuntu MATE 16.04.4 LTS PowerPC with the RC7 of kernel 4.16 and with access to the Typhoon TView RDS + FM Stereo TV card:



Cheers,
Christian

[xeno74]

It's also possible to listen to the FM radio with some TV cards. I tested FM cable radio with my Typhoon TView RDS + FM Stereo TV card today. You can capture the FM radio and save it as a file.

Screenshots:

[xeno74]

Hi All,

I added TV and FM radio support to the MATE PowerPC Remix 2017 today.

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- XawTV 3.103-4 added (X11 program for watching and recording television with a TV tuner)
- AleVT 1.6.2-5 added (X11 program for browsing and searching Teletext/Videotext)
- Radio 3.103 added (A ncurses-based FM radio application)
- tvtime 1.0.2 added (A high quality television application for use with video capture cards)

Cheers,
Christian

[xeno74]

The MATE PowerPC Remix 2017 with a connected N64 to a WinTV PCI card:

[xeno74]

Hi All,

I successfully connected a digital TV cable receiver via composite video to a WinTV Express PCI card today.



Cheers,
Christian

[xeno74]

Screenshot of ubuntu MATE 16.04.5 LTS PowerPC with the RC8 of kernel 4.18 and with access to the Typhoon TView RDS + FM Stereo TV card: