VLC with tv tuner

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Яadiøaktive TΣknik
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VLC with tv tuner

#1 Post by Яadiøaktive TΣknik »

I love my FD64 and I'm writing from it now. I was amazed when I opened VLC and then Media>Capture Devices>PVR. Whalla! A television program played! I had big problems getting this to work in Ubuntu and Fedora but it worked instantly out-of-the-box with FD64.

Only problem is that I can't change the channel in VLC. I read in some forums that you have to define the channels and their frequencies in a config file somewhere. The instructions were for Windows and I couldn't see how to apply them here. Anybody know?

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pemasu
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#2 Post by pemasu »

I use dvb-t tuner stick. Here is my written some tips and link to my older post. I think you get the idea.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 339#636339

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Яadiøaktive TΣknik
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#3 Post by Яadiøaktive TΣknik »

Thanks pemasu in Finland. I think I understand now that all I need for this to work fully is a 'channels.conf' which contains the channel numbers and frequencies I want to tune. I found some examples but all contain entries for DVB because most people using tv tuners with Linux are in Europe.

In the US, our cable companies send ATSC/QAM signals but they also send the antiquated, obsolete NTSC conceived in the fifties. My Hauppauge PVR-150 is just such a tuner and is not capable of decoding any digital signals. Found the frequencies and I'm trying to manually enter some favorites into VLC.

Sadly, all the best tools to scan for channels and generate 'channels.conf' used by most linux tv tuner programs - are made for newer cards and digital signals. I think this is because of Europe's ten year lead on digital broadcast and the prevalence of Windows users here, where the tuner works fine.

Any further assistance or advice would be appreciated. I'm still very happy that Fatdog64 was able to use my tuner and it does work sort of, showing only NBC, which is a major network so it's better than nothing. I just need to find or make a working channels.conf and put it in the right place, which I also don't know.

I tried to use Mplayer to scan for NTSC channels and generate a channels.conf but got some errors. I may have lost patience a little and moved on to something else for a while but I can post that exact error if it helps resolve the issue. Thanks.

:?: :?: :?:

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pemasu
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#4 Post by pemasu »

Forum member Billtoo has the same Hauppauge 150 and he uses VLC wiht pvr and he has managed it to show TV channels. I think you could pm him and ask how he do it. It might be the easiest way to get needed information.

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Яadiøaktive TΣknik
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#5 Post by Яadiøaktive TΣknik »

pemasu wrote:Forum member Billtoo has the same Hauppauge 150 and he uses VLC wiht pvr and he has managed it to show TV channels. I think you could pm him and ask how he do it. It might be the easiest way to get needed information.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Thanks for the quick response. I want to talk with Billtoo about the PVR 150 but I already came up with a workaround on my own. It's also posted in 'Fatdog64 600 Final Released' thread. But I polluted the forum with a mucked up chart [sorry].

For anyone having trouble getting their PVR or other tv tuner cards to work in VLC [find and tune channels] I've got a few tips that could help. I found a chart of NTSC frequencies. Frequency tuning control is available in VLC>Media>Capture Devices...

You may need an ATSC or QAM chart, depending on your tuner and cable company or air broadcast standards. Simply enter the frequency number of your favorite channel and it will play! In my case, I have to add a zero because chart is in MHz, VLC uses KHz,

In this case, I enter 337250 KHz to get Channel 43 The History Channel. I think I can make a playlist or something and this way, channels.conf is not necessary. People with NTSC cards cannot use the newest DVB tools to generate one. This is the workaround.

NTSC Frequency Chart: http://hamradio.arc.nasa.gov/ntscfreq.html

- Writing from Fatdog64 600 Final
Best Regards,

Яadiøaktive TΣknik Яøøssell
***** Электроника ******

jamesbond
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#6 Post by jamesbond »

Яadiøaktive TΣknik wrote:It's also posted in 'Fatdog64 600 Final Released' thread. But I polluted the forum with a mucked up chart [sorry].
Don't worry about it, it's a very useful info for others too and is much appreciated! :D
Fatdog64 forum links: [url=http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=117546]Latest version[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/ke8sn5H]Contributed packages[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/se8scrb]ISO builder[/url]

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Яadiøaktive TΣknik
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#7 Post by Яadiøaktive TΣknik »

There seems to be some interest amongst the Fatdog64 devotees to fully setting up their TV Tuner in VLC. I received a private message on the subject so I thought it would be cool to continue this thread.

Billtoo allegedly has made his usable. For now, I'm able to manually enter the frequency of any channel my card can decode. I can even use Ctrl-Z [undo] to toggle two favorite channels in the freq enter box.

I'd like to make a playlist for VLC. From web reading, I think it can be done. VLC can even start in TV mode and go to a specified channel. It's very powerful but also has many switches, buttons and options.

I'm a little lost on how to make this playlist of NTSC frequencies and corresponding channel numbers. I'm not a dummy and have decent skills but it would be nice to use a playlist Billtoo already made?

You can still get NTSC signals in Canada? That's cool.

- Written from Fatdog64 - 600 Final
Best Regards,

Яadiøaktive TΣknik Яøøssell
***** Электроника ******

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Billtoo
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#8 Post by Billtoo »

Яadiøaktive TΣknik wrote:
I'm a little lost on how to make this playlist of NTSC frequencies and corresponding channel numbers. I'm not a dummy and have decent skills but it would be nice to use a playlist Billtoo already made?

You can still get NTSC signals in Canada? That's cool.

- Written from Fatdog64 - 600 Final
I don't have any playlist, I use the remote from my satellite reciever to change channels.
I could use the programmer in the reciever to auto tune to a night's worth of viewing but it's usually tuned in to the golf channel :)
I've got cable running from the reciever, down the hall, to my computer room so I have to get out of this chair if I want another channel, life is tough :)

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Яadiøaktive TΣknik
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#9 Post by Яadiøaktive TΣknik »

I'm working on a playlist now. If it works for me, I'll announce it. You could run raw cable to your PVR 150 and have control of the channels at your console with the added benefit of DVR and rewind, pause, etc.

I get about 95 channels NTSC here. There's like 300 more ATSC/QAM but I need a new tuner for those. Waiting for a bargain on the one I want - PCIE 1x, the only slots free now. Loaded development box.

Thanks for the response.
Best Regards,

Яadiøaktive TΣknik Яøøssell
***** Электроника ******

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Яadiøaktive TΣknik
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#10 Post by Яadiøaktive TΣknik »

I've got cable running from the reciever, down the hall, to my computer room so I have to get out of this chair if I want another channel, life is tough :)[/quote]

Here's a playlist I made to work with VLC and my Hauppauge PVR-150. It works. I commented out channels 100-125 because they aren't offered here. I've read that the 650-800 MHz equipment is expensive and NTSC is being phased out anyway, so many cable companies don't have it.

If any channels don't work, do a websearch for your local broadcast or cable frequencies. I searched for "brighthouse freq" to find the variations posted by some other techno geek. NTSC is very old and has been reworked many times. As a result it's a mess and there are three major variations, STD, HRC and IRC. Cable companies often use a mix of all three!

This playlist can be edited for other uses. It'll give someone a start to getting their device working well. I wish I could have found something similar to use as a template but wasn't successful, so I just did a little reading and made one. Hope it helps someone. Wasn't able to find a satisfactory fix anywhere, so this is it. Happy Puppying!

Copy text below and paste into a blank file called: ntsc.m3u
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#NTSC standard playlist - Яadiøaktive TΣknik Яøøssell
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=73003,bitrate=-1 #1
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=55250,bitrate=-1 #2
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=61250,bitrate=-1 #3
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=67250,bitrate=-1 #4
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=77250,bitrate=-1 #5
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=83250,bitrate=-1 #6
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=175250,bitrate=-1 #7
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=181250,bitrate=-1 #8
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=187250,bitrate=-1 #9
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=193250,bitrate=-1 #10
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=199250,bitrate=-1 #11
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=205250,bitrate=-1 #12
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=211250,bitrate=-1 #13
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=121262,bitrate=-1 #14
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=127262,bitrate=-1 #15
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=133262,bitrate=-1 #16
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=139250,bitrate=-1 #17
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=145250,bitrate=-1 #18
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=151250,bitrate=-1 #19
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=157250,bitrate=-1 #20
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=163250,bitrate=-1 #21
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=169250,bitrate=-1 #22
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=217250,bitrate=-1 #23
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=223250,bitrate=-1 #24
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=229262,bitrate=-1 #25
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=235262,bitrate=-1 #26
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=241262,bitrate=-1 #27
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=247262,bitrate=-1 #28
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=253262,bitrate=-1 #29
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=259262,bitrate=-1 #30
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=265262,bitrate=-1 #31
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=271262,bitrate=-1 #32
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=277262,bitrate=-1 #33
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=283262,bitrate=-1 #34
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=289262,bitrate=-1 #35
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=295262,bitrate=-1 #36
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=301262,bitrate=-1 #37
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=307262,bitrate=-1 #38
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=313262,bitrate=-1 #39
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=319262,bitrate=-1 #40
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=325262,bitrate=-1 #41
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=331275,bitrate=-1 #42
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=337262,bitrate=-1 #43
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=343262,bitrate=-1 #44
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=349262,bitrate=-1 #45
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=355262,bitrate=-1 #46
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=361262,bitrate=-1 #47
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=367262,bitrate=-1 #48
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=373262,bitrate=-1 #49
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=379262,bitrate=-1 #50
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=385262,bitrate=-1 #51
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=391262,bitrate=-1 #52
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=397262,bitrate=-1 #53
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=403250,bitrate=-1 #54
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=409250,bitrate=-1 #55
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=415250,bitrate=-1 #56
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=421250,bitrate=-1 #57
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=427250,bitrate=-1 #58
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=433250,bitrate=-1 #59
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=439250,bitrate=-1 #60
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=445250,bitrate=-1 #61
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=451250,bitrate=-1 #62
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=457250,bitrate=-1 #63
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=463250,bitrate=-1 #64
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=469250,bitrate=-1 #65
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=475250,bitrate=-1 #66
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=481250,bitrate=-1 #67
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=487250,bitrate=-1 #68
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=493250,bitrate=-1 #69
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=499250,bitrate=-1 #70
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=505250,bitrate=-1 #71
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=511250,bitrate=-1 #72
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=517250,bitrate=-1 #73
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=523250,bitrate=-1 #74
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=529250,bitrate=-1 #75
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=535250,bitrate=-1 #76
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=541250,bitrate=-1 #77
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=547250,bitrate=-1 #78
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=553250,bitrate=-1 #79
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=559250,bitrate=-1 #80
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=565250,bitrate=-1 #81
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=571250,bitrate=-1 #82
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=577250,bitrate=-1 #83
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=583250,bitrate=-1 #84
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=589250,bitrate=-1 #85
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=595250,bitrate=-1 #86
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=601250,bitrate=-1 #87
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=607250,bitrate=-1 #88
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=613250,bitrate=-1 #89
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=619250,bitrate=-1 #90
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=625250,bitrate=-1 #91
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=631250,bitrate=-1 #92
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=637250,bitrate=-1 #93
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=643250,bitrate=-1 #94
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=91250,bitrate=-1 #95
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=97250,bitrate=-1 #96
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=103250,bitrate=-1 #97
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=109275,bitrate=-1 #98
pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=115275,bitrate=-1 #99
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=649250,bitrate=-1 #100
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=655250,bitrate=-1 #101
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=661250,bitrate=-1 #102
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=667250,bitrate=-1 #103
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=673250,bitrate=-1 #104
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=679250,bitrate=-1 #105
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=685250,bitrate=-1 #106
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=691250,bitrate=-1 #107
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=697250,bitrate=-1 #108
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=703250,bitrate=-1 #109
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=709250,bitrate=-1 #110
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=715250,bitrate=-1 #111
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=721250,bitrate=-1 #112
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=727250,bitrate=-1 #113
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=733250,bitrate=-1 #114
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=739250,bitrate=-1 #115
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=745250,bitrate=-1 #116
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=751250,bitrate=-1 #117
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=757250,bitrate=-1 #118
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=763250,bitrate=-1 #119
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=769250,bitrate=-1 #120
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=775250,bitrate=-1 #121
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=781250,bitrate=-1 #122
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=787250,bitrate=-1 #123
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=793250,bitrate=-1 #124
#pvr://dev/video0,norm=0,frequency=799250,bitrate=-1 #125
#end of playlist - Яadiøaktive TΣknik Яøøssell

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Billtoo
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Location: Ontario Canada

#11 Post by Billtoo »

Яadiøaktive TΣknik wrote: Here's a playlist I made to work with VLC and my Hauppauge PVR-150. It works. I commented out channels 100-125 because they aren't offered here. I've read that the 650-800 MHz equipment is expensive and NTSC is being phased out anyway, so many cable companies don't have it.

If any channels don't work, do a websearch for your local broadcast or cable frequencies. I searched for "brighthouse freq" to find the variations posted by some other techno geek. NTSC is very old and has been reworked many times. As a result it's a mess and there are three major variations, STD, HRC and IRC. Cable companies often use a mix of all three!

This playlist can be edited for other uses. It'll give someone a start to getting their device working well. I wish I could have found something similar to use as a template but wasn't successful, so I just did a little reading and made one. Hope it helps someone. Wasn't able to find a satisfactory fix anywhere, so this is it. Happy Puppying!
I tried your playlist on my Hauppauge PVR-250 but it didn't work for me, just a snowy screen each time I advanced to the next channel.

I'll try it on my 150 later on but likely the same I think.

Thanks

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Яadiøaktive TΣknik
Posts: 22
Joined: Sun 01 Jul 2012, 21:49
Location: Orlando, FL USA

#12 Post by Яadiøaktive TΣknik »

You should run a raw cable connection directly to the PVR tuner card. You mentioned that you were using a DVR or cable box ahead of it. That would limit you to the channel the box is delivering.
Best Regards,

Яadiøaktive TΣknik Яøøssell
***** Электроника ******

User avatar
Billtoo
Posts: 3720
Joined: Tue 07 Apr 2009, 13:47
Location: Ontario Canada

#13 Post by Billtoo »

Яadiøaktive TΣknik wrote:You should run a raw cable connection directly to the PVR tuner card. You mentioned that you were using a DVR or cable box ahead of it. That would limit you to the channel the box is delivering.
I'll need to buy a splitter before I can try that, I don't have one on hand but I'll get one next time I venture out and try it.

Thanks

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