TV for super-dummies.

[1clue]

Hi,

I'm a TV/webcam novice, to the point I haven't even started to read about it until recently.

I got a web cam, and an HDHomeRun. I dove into the HOWTO here.

I got the webcam working except that the part which automatically tracks me with the camera doesn't work. I'm fine with that, unless somebody knows the problem. That's not what I'm emailing about.

I want to watch TV. I would like to do so in 2 modes: First, as full screen, as though it were a real TV. Second, I want to get a signal in a window that I can watch while doing something else.

MythTV is probably wonderful for those of you who want 14 different tuners in your house and you want precise control over which ones get what channels, and other options I have never imagined before. I've messed with this damn thing for hours now and I can't get the @#$%@#^ TV to work.

I'm willing to work through documentation if I know it's going to get me where I want to go. MythTV looks like it wants to be an entertainment center and nothing else, meaning I can't work while watching TV. It looks to want extreme control over everything. I don't, I just want the TV to work. I want to be able to press up/down arrows to cycle channels, or type in a channel, and MAYBE record.

Is it true that you have to record something before you can watch it? There are settings which seem to talk about "live TV" but no matter what, I try to watch TV and it complains that there are no recordings.

I'm totally lost. Please help.

Thank you.

[marc.verwerft]

Hi,

I'm a TV/webcam novice, to the point I haven't even started to read about it until recently.
...
I want to be able to press up/down arrows to cycle channels, or type in a channel, and MAYBE record.
...
I'm totally lost. Please help.

Thank you.

I think you want something like tvtime before you switch to mythtv.

[Ringi]

You can use VLC.

[1clue]

I'll look closer at these. I tried VLC, but didn't figure out how to hook it to the hdhomerun server yet.

Haven't heard about this other one yet.

I don't mean to disrespect mythtv, there is definitely a place for it. It's just not what I want.

Thanks.

[zenkaon]

I highly recommend tvtime. It's very very good.

I've played with most tv apps for linux and some for windows and I have to say that if you just want to watch tv or play a Wii then it's great.

Are you sure you have you TV card setup correctly?? open a terminal and type:

dmesg | less     (this pipes the output into less - a useful tool for looking at files)
/bttv     (this searches less for bttv)

scroll through (Page Down or down arrow) and look for bttv, does it give any errors?

Could you copy and paste the output surrounding bttv. q will exit less

[MountainX]

I've been messing with TV lately. The easiest solution I found was to install openSUSE 11.2 KDE. Kaffeine comes with it and I was watching TV in no time.

The next easiest solution I have used is SageTV for Linux. It costs $79, but it includes a free US/Canadian program guide. The same thing for MythTV costs $20/year, so after a while the cost is probably about the same.

I have both Kaffeine and SageTV working right now.

I just watched the season-ending MotoGP race on my TV using a MediaMVP frontend and SageTV running on a Ubuntu server in my garage. It worked great. I can watch SageTV recordings on any TV anywhere in my house, or I can watch on the computer (and my wife can watch on her Windows computer).

I've also been trying to install Mythbuntu, but I can't get it working. The other two choices are much easier. MythTV is probably the most powerful, but SageTV does a lot of the same things with a lot less setup skill. One of these days I hope to get MythTV working just because I like a challenge.

[1clue]

I highly recommend tvtime. It's very very good.

I've played with most tv apps for linux and some for windows and I have to say that if you just want to watch tv or play a Wii then it's great.

Are you sure you have you TV card setup correctly?? open a terminal and type:

dmesg | less     (this pipes the output into less - a useful tool for looking at files)
/bttv     (this searches less for bttv)

scroll through (Page Down or down arrow) and look for bttv, does it give any errors?

Could you copy and paste the output surrounding bttv. q will exit less

hdhomerun is an external network-based dual TV tuner. You hook it up to cable and then (somehow) log in to it from any computer on the network. So I don't think there's a local device, unless I were to configure one somehow.

Maybe that's what is missing?

[MountainX]

hdhomerun is an external network-based dual TV tuner. You hook it up to cable and then (somehow) log in to it from any computer on the network. So I don't think there's a local device, unless I were to configure one somehow.

Maybe that's what is missing?

I didn't read the part about you having an hdhomerun. That is a cool device!

It should work with SageTV. Check this:
http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun...uctions/sagetv
Even though the instructions are for Windows, SageTV runs on Linux. The Linux client is the Placeshifter, so it is different from the Win client. But SageTV might work for you. Only problem is that there is not a trial...

I read through the hdhomerun setup instructions for SageTV and I have all those options available to me with my setup which is SageTV server running on Linux. I use a MediaMVP frontend connected to my TV. I don't use Windows. So maybe SageTV will work for you. Ask on their forums (sage.tv).

The other thing you might want to look into is using just the MythTV frontend... that might be a lot simpler (but I can't say for sure because I've never done it).

Bottom line: you need a compatible software application. Looks like this is the list:
http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/instructions

[1clue]

Darn it.

It's 32-bit only. I'm runnig 64-bit.

BTW, I evidently missed a couple posts in there.

I also have no problems paying for commercial software, but I would rather buy the license outright than deal with a monthly fee. My income is based off of copyright law, so I'm generally pretty fussy about following those rules.

If nothing else, I have a couple more things to try out.

I wonder, do you need to create a sort of localized network device for the HDHomeRun? Am I missing things here? The company web site linked to by the device is a bit scattered, they seem to make assumptions about my video knowledge which I have no idea about.

Thanks.

[MountainX]

Darn it.

It's 32-bit only. I'm runnig 64-bit.

Yes, I prefer 64bit, but for TV stuff, 32 bit is fine. I switched to 32-bit Linux on the computer running the SageTV server. It's no big deal. It works fine.