Linux Multimedia Hacks

Install a TV Tuner

Turn your Linux computer into a television set.

So you want to make your own digital video recorder (DVR) under Linux, or maybe you just want to watch TV on your computer. As long as the hardware is Linux-compatible, TV tuner installation under Linux really isn’t too difficult for most cards. This hack fills you in on what you need to know to install a TV tuner under Linux.

Tip

Installation of the popular Hauppauge WinTV cards is covered in “Create a DVR with MythTV” [Hack #77] .

The first step is to identify the chipset and Linux module your tuner card uses. If you have a copy of the Linux kernel source tree on your system, look in its Documentation/video4linux directory. Here you will find CARDLIST.bttv and CARDLIST.saa7134 files. Most common TV tuner cards will use the bttv driver, but check both lists and see if you can find your card. The lspci command can give you a clue about which card you have. For instance, here is the output for a machine with a bttv-compatible card:

	# lspci
	…
	0000:00:0d.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878
	Video Capture (rev 11)
	0000:00:0d.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio
	Capture (rev 11)

Most modern distributions ship with very modular kernels, so there’s a good chance that the bttv and saa7134 modules are already compiled if you are using a stock kernel. If you built your own kernel, go to the Video For Linux section of your kernel config and make sure that Video For Linux support is enabled ...