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I would like to watch television with my TV-Tuner. All I want is someone give me some steps to follow so I can find a driver. I am searching for several months but nothing. Also which application should I use for TV in Linux?

BuZZ-dEE
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gabriel
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1 Answers1

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If the upstream Linux master your kernel was built from supports your TV tuner, the driver is already installed. If there is no support in your Linux kernel, but out-of-master support elsewhere, I'd advise you not to bother trying until it gets committed to master. There is a reason it is not in master yet.

Digital TV

If you are in Europe, you need to use software supporting the DVB standard.

DVB apps (in order of decreasing user friendliness):

  • Kaffeine
  • Totem
  • Me-TV
  • Mythtv
  • Mplayer

If you are in North America, you need to use software supporting the ATSC standard.

Digital TV standards worldwide, as of April 2012

Analogue TV

Use tvtime or a similar program.

Identifying a PCI card or USB dongle

A lot of products share the same chips for receiving i.e. DVB content. If your chip is supported in Linux, usually any card with that chip will work. Your marketing product identification information is often of no use.

To find out more information about the chip in your computer and what level of support it has, use lspci if it is a PCI card, use lsusb if it is a USB dongle.

Usually if you Google the PCI ID with the word "Linux" you'll get relevant results.

I.e. if you have a device with the PCI ID 15a4:9016, Google it, and you will find the relevant chip name and information.

See also

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Janus Troelsen
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  • Ok, i am in Europe, So i should take another TV-TUNER? I think that we could find a firmware or something and start with a procedure for installing the device. But how exactly can i understand if the driver is there or not? – gabriel Apr 21 '12 at 09:24
  • Simply launch Kaffeine or similar and check if it has the DVB menu options and they are available. If they are available, try to use them. If they are not available, DVB is probably not supported using your hardware. – Janus Troelsen Apr 21 '12 at 09:26
  • Check if Kaffeine has a Digital TV option like here: http://www.downloadatoz.com/howto/200811/tag/kaffeine.jpg – Janus Troelsen Apr 21 '12 at 09:30
  • Although i disagree with this yes/no in the support of a device. I think that a solution will come with lot of searching, so i will post results and we will see about further solutions – gabriel Apr 21 '12 at 09:30
  • Also, i had to ask if you have any knowledge of [this](http://linuxtv.org/downloads/) and if you can tell me what exactly is and if it helps my situation, thanks! – gabriel Apr 21 '12 at 09:33
  • I have. It is a site for organization of the Linux TV stack. It doesn't concern everyday users, only power-users and programmers. – Janus Troelsen Apr 21 '12 at 09:35
  • What does that mean?What exactly is?I think that all this about kernel and staff and the drivers of devices might concern me! – gabriel Apr 21 '12 at 09:49
  • I don't think so. Are you a kernel driver developer? No. If you are a power-user to the extent that you want to build unstable kernel modules, then I don't need to help you with that, you're smart enough to figure that out yourself. But if your goal is just to have a system to watch DVB television on, it is not worth the time compiling your own kernel modules. – Janus Troelsen Apr 21 '12 at 09:58
  • Ok, you were clear enough!Maybe in future i will become smarter so i will not ask about all this staff :-$....Anyway i will post the results – gabriel Apr 21 '12 at 10:04
  • Well, you said if my kaffeine shows me the digital tv button! Well, yes!But NO channels have added!So please tell me what should i do? – gabriel May 02 '12 at 17:46
  • well you have to scan. i think kaffeine can do that too. there should be guides online if you google for it using the right keywords – Janus Troelsen May 02 '12 at 19:07