Linux Multimedia Hacks

Hacks 73–88: Introduction

If you have multimedia content you want to send to a lot of people (and you don’t want to spam them) one of the best ways is through a broadcast. Traditionally broadcasts have been thought of in terms of television and radio and required expensive equipment and special expertise to set up and maintain. With the advent of the Internet, however, anyone with a fast enough connection can broadcast multimedia content for others with nothing more than a computer, some free software, and content worth broadcasting. The phenomenon of streaming radio over the Internet and more recently podcasting are examples of how low the bar has become for entry into broadcasting.

This chapter has a number of hacks that cover managing broadcast content using tools available under Linux. Both traditional broadcasting and Internet broadcasting are within your reach under Linux, and this chapter contains hacks to set up TV tuners and watch TV, as well as hacks to manage streaming radio and video broadcast to and from your computer. There is even a series of hacks that unleash the true broadcast management power of Linux by turning it into a full-featured personal video recorder, a la TiVo.