Irish DTT (SAORVIEW) on Linux
- Introduction
- Get the DVB device working
- Install the scan utility
- Irish DTT tuning data files
- Perform a scan, create channels.conf
- Desktop TV viewer - Me TV
- Media Center - MythTV
Introduction
For this tutorial I will be using Ubuntu 9.10. Most of the commands and methods below will be usable in other Linux distributions. We will use the terminal for installing software but you can use the package manager or Ubuntu software center if you wish.
If you are purchasing a DVB-T device select one that is known to work under Linux. The V4L-DVB (video 4 linux) wiki has a non-exhaustive list of supported and unsupported DVB-T devices.
Get the DVB device working
Before you install any TV viewing software you need to determine whether your DVB-T device has been found by Ubuntu and is functioning properly. A quick way to see if the device has been loaded is to copy and paste the following into the terminal... (Applications > Accessories > Terminal)
ls /dev/dvb
For each DVB tuner you have on your system you should see a folder called adaptern, where n is the adapter number. Example...
ls /dev/dvb adapter0 adapter1
The above shows a DVB-T and a DVB-S card detected and loaded on my system.
If your card does not show up under /dev/dvb, you can try to install the latest video-4-linux drivers which may have added support for your device.
Even if a card appears to be detected and loaded, it may fail tuning if it is missing a working firmware. Firmware can be downloaded, if available, for individual cards from the V4L Wiki. Firmware need to be copied to /lib/firmware...
sudo cp xxxx.fw /lib/firmware
or you can download a package of firmware which will be automatically installed with...
sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree
The system must be rebooted if you have installed a firmware or updated the video-4-linux drivers.
Install the scan utility
So your DVB-T device is working, we now need to install dvp-apps which includes the scan utility.
sudo apt-get install dvb-apps
Irish DTT tuning data files
The scan utility requires an "initial tuning data file" which contains a list of frequencies to be scanned. You can download a tuning files below.
- Irish DTT transmitter tuning files (tuning files for each individual transmitter, based on allocated frequencies)
- "Wideband" tuning file (a tuning file to scan the entire UHF range)
Perform a scan, create channels.conf
You pass scan the adapter number of your DVB device and the initial tuning file. The utility will scan the frequencies listed in the tuning file and create a channel list from any channels found. For this example assume I have downloaded the tuning file and placed it on to the desktop and the adapter number of my DVB-T device is 1 (adapter1). If you only have one DVB device installed on your system you can omit the -a n switch.
cd ~/Desktop scan -a 1 ire-mt-leinster | sed s/É/E/ > channels.conf
Using the > symbol we write the channel list to a file called channels.conf. This file can then be used to import channels into apps like Me TV and MythTV.
Providing your DVB-T card is working fully under Ubuntu, your aerial is set up correctly, and the DTT transmissions are being broadcast on the frequencies you have scanned, you should see what channels have been found in the terminal, and your channels.conf file will be populated with a channel listing.
Not working? Try the wideband tuning file, or tweak the tuning files. See the readme.txt in the which comes with the tuning files. Your DVB device may need updated drivers or a firmware, see above. If all else fails, your DVB device my not be fully supported by Linux.
Desktop TV viewer - Me TV
So now that we know our DVB-T device is working and is picking up channels, we can install TV viewing software. A good desktop TV viewer for gnome is Me TV.To install Me TV...
sudo apt-get install me-tv
When installation is complete, launch Me TV from Applications > Sound & Video > Me TV. On the first run of Me TV it will ask you to perform a scan. You can provide Me TV with an initial tuning file or the channels.conf file you have just created.
Me TV has built in video decoders so when the channels have been imported you can start viewing TV.
Not working? If you have multiple DVB devices, make sure the proper one is selected when importing channels for that type of adapter (View > Devices). There seems to be a bug in Me TV where it defaults to adapter0 every time, not matter what you select in View > Devices. This can be overcome by opening up Me TV, select the first adapter, then opening a new instance of Me TV from Applications > Sound & Video > Me TV. This instance will only see the remaining adapter, so you can go through the channel import process and it should work.
Media Center - MythTV
A full installation guide for MythTV can be found at here or at the MythTV wiki.
Here's a quick run through...
sudo apt-get install mythtv
During installation you will be asked a few questions. When asked to choose a MySQL password the easiest option is to leave it blank.
Once installed, the next step is to run the MythTV setup, found in System >Administration > MythTV Backend Setup.
The first time you run this you will be prompted to add yourself to the MythTV group, click OK and restart the session by logging out and back in again.
Back to System > Administration > MythTV Backend Setup and click OK to stop the backend process. Using the keyboard arrows and enter key for navigation, select Capture Cards > New Capture Card.
- For “Card Type” we want DVB DTV capture card (v3.x)
- For "DVB Device Number" select your device (adaptern)
- Hit finish to save the card, repeat to add more cards
Back to the main menu (ESC to go back) and select Video Sources > New Video Source. This defines where MythTV will get its EPG data.
- Give the video source a name
- Listings Grabber” choose “Transmitter guide only (EIT)”.
- Hit finish
Back to the main menu and select Input Connections, then select the capture card you set up earlier.
- Give the “Display Name” something appropriate, like SAORVIEW
- Select the video source you have just created.
Now hit “Scan for Channels”. Here you can do a full scan, a single frequency scan, or you could import the channels.conf file you created earlier. When the scan has been completed and you have imported the channels, you can edited them in the Channel Editor.
When finished, exit the MythTV backend setup and click OK to populate the database.
To view TV, start the MythTV frontend from Applications > Sound & Video > MythTV Frontend.
Note: The MythTV backend starts automatically on system boot, this can mean that it will "hog" any DVB devices on the computer so applications like Me TV will no longer work. To kill the MythTV backend service, try...
sudo service mythtv-backend stop