Digital TV on Linux? Easy!

Not too long ago, getting a DVB-T Terrestrial Digital Television card to work with the Linux operating system was a time consuming, technically involved and frustrating task.

Thanks to a team of dedicated developers and enthusiasts, all of whom donate their time and efforts to the Linux community, getting Digital TV to work with Linux is becoming mainstream.

Most Digital TV cards and USB receivers for the PC are designed to work with Windows and the manufacturers and their software developers care little about the relatively small market of Linux users.
This is changing, as each successive Linux distribution is an improvement on the last.
More users are reaping the benefits of an amazing pool of free software applications, many of which offering better performance and functionality than their commercial Windows based counterparts.

MythTV is a free Linux based Digital TV and Media Center application that can be added to an existing Linux distribution, such as Ubuntu, or as a distribution in its own right. The popular Ubuntu based derivative is MythBuntu.

There are also basic Digital TV Viewer add-ons like MeTV that can be installed using Ubuntus software manager.

So, how to get a digital TV device up and running in Ubuntu/Mythbuntu?

Here's how.

Probably one of the easiest device of all is the Leadtek Winfast Dongle Gold.

These can be sourced from specialist online digital TV sites like DPandA

Get the latest version of Ubuntu (version 9.10 - Karmic Koala) from here :-
http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download

If trying Ubuntu for the first time, you can install to spare hard drive. It is recommended you disconnect any other drives in the PC so that you can be sure you are installing to the correct drive and that other drives are unaffected by the installation.

Once the installation is finished, plug your Winfast Dongle Gold into a spare USB 2.0 port and boot into Ubuntu 9.10.

In the menu system go to System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers

The system will connect to the internet to check for drivers and then display a list of those that it finds.

Look for an entry that says "Firmware for DVB Cards"

Select the entry by clicking on it the "Activate" button.

You could also install the recommended restricted video drivers for your Video Adaptor at this stage, if they are listed under hardware drivers.

Once activated, the drivers will be available to any viewer application that supports DVB-T, such as MythTV, MeTV, Xine, Mplayer and more.

Choosing and configuring a player is something we'll cover in another post.

Digital TV Breathes New Life Into Older PC’s

Brisbane firm DPandA (David Porter & Associates Pty Ltd) has come up with a novel idea to extend the useful life of older desktop & laptop PC’s.

C.E.O. David Porter says, “People tend to be largely unaware that there is a lot more to the world of computers than Microsoft Windows. Every release of Windows requires more powerful PC’s and people get caught up in the cycle of upgrading to new PC’s and discarding the old ones.
“We specialise in two areas; Digital Television and Linux. Marry these together and voila! : you end up with a powerful, high definition digital TV receiver with a hard disk recorder (PVR/Media Centre) at a fraction of the price and with many more features than those you can buy “off-the-peg”

“We know about digital TV, because we were the very first Australian company to offer a digital TV receiver card for the PC. We partnered with a German company and launched the product under the DPandA brand in 2003.”

“Apart from Digital TV, older, sluggish PC’s can be given a whole new lease on life when converted to run free, Linux based, office productivity applications. Many of these applications are equal or better than their Windows based commercial counterparts, costing thousands of dollars. They can run on the same network as Windows PC’s, being able to work with the same files, printers and Internet connections. And the bonus is that Linux based systems are more secure and less vulnerable to viruses and malicious software. Not only is it good for the environment, it’s great for the hip pocket, as well.”

The company also offers set top boxes and non-pc based digital TV solutions through their website: www.dpanda.com.au