Over the air TV

[Moose On The Loose]

Before I start the project, I figured I should check that I am not repeating someone else's effort. A search on TV showed nothing.

I intend to make a US over the air TV adapter of some kind work on Puppy 528. My experiences should apply to other puppy versions to some degree.

[dancytron]

This will help you find which ones have linux drivers.

https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/ATSC_USB_Devices

You probably already know this, but U.S. television is ATSC.

[Moose On The Loose]

This will help you find which ones have linux drivers.

https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/ATSC_USB_Devices

You probably already know this, but U.S. television is ATSC.

Yes, but thanks for the effort.

Right now I think I have MythTV 0.28 compiling in the background. So far I have had to do a lot of stuff to get it to compile. It appears you can't compile it without the openGL no matter how much you turn off the use of openGL. Hopefully, it is just a case that it compiles in code it doesn't use. I am hoping to not absolutely need high performance graphics.

[peterw]

Hi

I will watch your progress with much interest.

I have been a user of Mythtv for many years. Started with Mythdora, then Mythbuntu and also Mythtv on PCLinuxOS. On some of the earlier Puppies based on Ubuntu, using the PPM got you a working Mythtv frontend, however, I never got a backend working on Puppy. I know that smokey01 was also trying this a while ago but (I think) settled on MeTV. I think my problem was lack of compiling skills and lack of understanding the data base set up. However, the feature that eventually made me think that a Puppy Backend was not a good idea was that it operates as "root" and since to make full use of Mythtv it needs to be networked which is a risk.

Graphic wise, I have not had any issues. These days I use low electrical power boards such as an Asrock E350M which has an HDMI connector. HDMI gives much better graphics than VGA. Also, I have used one of the early Raspberry Pi's as a front end and that worked well for picture and sound. If you have a SMART TV then you can connect that over the network to your backend and the display is as good as the TV.

Let us hope all goes well.

[melon688]

Linux + VLC + channels.xspf + USB TV dongle = watch over the air TV

.xspf example : (6Mhz DVB-t in Taiwan)

2017_02_03_tw_DVB-T.xspf

[Moose On The Loose]

Linux + VLC + channels.xspf + USB TV dongle = watch over the air TV

.xspf example : (6Mhz DVB-t in Taiwan)

2017_02_03_tw_DVB-T.xspf

Could you explain further about xspf?

I already have VLC and saw no ability to do over the air with it. If I am wasting my time on a problem that has been solved, it would be good to know.

I am so far along I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Soon I will be able to see past the light and see more tunnel

[peterw]

Hi Moose On The Loose

Over the air TV can be done in various ways. I originally used this method:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 27&t=30566
About 12 replies in you will find me answering my own question.

The method still works and a channels.conf file works in most media players and I still use it in Puppy: but vlc have moved on and uses xspf files. If you have vlc installed then if all the dependencies are available it can scan and produce a xspf file of the TV channels that it finds and vlc then uses these.

I must admit that Mplayer works fine for me with channels.conf. Others exteded what I did and devised script a way to enable recording. It is referenced in the topic above.

[melon688]

Linux + VLC + channels.xspf + USB TV dongle = watch over the air TV

.xspf example : (6Mhz DVB-t in Taiwan)

2017_02_03_tw_DVB-T.xspf

Could you explain further about xspf?

I already have VLC and saw no ability to do over the air with it. If I am wasting my time on a problem that has been solved, it would be good to know.

I am so far along I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Soon I will be able to see past the light and see more tunnel

google:2017_02_03_tw_DVB-T.xspf , you can download it.

then modify frequency,bandwidth,program ID...,suitable to your country.

<vlc:option>dvb-frequency=533000000</vlc:option>
<vlc:option>dvb-bandwidth=6</vlc:option>
<vlc:option>program=100</vlc:option>

[peterw]

Hi Moose on the Loose

A little bit more information on VLC and the xspf files. Both channels.conf and xspf are list of over the air TV stations that you have in your area. melon688 refers to a list of TV channels and I am not sure that they apply to your region. However, a better way of scanning for channels that are available is to use w_scan. This works without any prior knowledge of frequencies, etc. There is more information on this at:

https://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/VLC_media_player

I am not sure if your version of Puppy has w_scan. I have just tried it in Mint with the code "w_scan -ft -c UK -L > beaconhill.xspf" and the file appeared in my Documents but you can place it where you want. Opening VLC and pointing it to the file bought up the over the air channels and they played.

This works in Europe and I suspect it will work in USA. I think w_scan is what Mythtv uses.

AND having generated that xspf file you can use in Puppy or any other system. It is portable.

[melon688]

puppy linux tahr 6.0.5

1.
Menu > Setup > Puppy Package Manager > (find w-scan and install it)

2.
w_scan -h

[Moose On The Loose]

puppy linux tahr 6.0.5

1.
Menu > Setup > Puppy Package Manager > (find w-scan and install it)

2.
w_scan -h

I think I am abandoning my attempt to compile MythTV. I am at least going to leave the effort as it stands and look at other options.

I think I got a good compile for V4L2.

I think QT5 is compiled OK

I discovered that MythTV code uses templates for something that they didn't do right. Other bits I was able to work on because I could trace where the issue was being caused by getting stuff wrong in the configure script etc. Templates make the layers of abstraction hiding the mistake just a bit more than I can deal with.

I will book mark this thread so I can come back and add when I get something that works