DVB-S
From ArchWiki
Article summary |
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Covers the setup and use of DVB-S (sat TV) cards on Arch Linux. |
Important |
This was only tested with the Pinnacle PCTV Sat, and may not work or won't help you with different cards. |
Available in languages |
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English |
Related articles |
MythTV Walkthrough |
Contents |
Load required Modules
You have to lookup the chipset of your specific card; tools like lshwd may help you.
Pinnacle PCTV Sat
This card uses bt878 and cx24110 as chipset.
Load them (under root) with:
# modprobe dvb-bt8xx # modprobe cx24110
If you want Arch to boot them on startup, add both modules to MODULES in /etc/rc.conf.
Setup Permissions
To use your DVB-S card as user add him to the video group:
# gpasswd -a [username] video
Scanning channels
Most applications like szap or xine are needing a channel list created by scan, which is part of dvb-utils. You'll find the dvb-utils package under the name linuxtv-dvb-apps in the Community-Repo.
Using scan
scan needs an channel to initialize scanning. In /usr/share/dvb-utils/scan/dvb-s/ are some files which contain these channels; you will need that one that fits the satellite you are watching from.
The following command will scan all channels and save them to channels.conf:
$ scan -x0 -t1 -s1 /usr/share/dvb-utils/scan/dvb-s/[your satellite] | tee channels.conf
Switching channels
By using zap, which comes with dvb-utils, you can switch channels, so you don't have to rely on the abilities of your player.
szap needs the channel file we created earlier; it will try ~/.szap/channels.conf by default. You can move the channels.conf there or you can use the "-c" command-line option.
Switching channels works like this:
$ szap -r [channel]
You can list all available channels with:
$ szap -q
Now you can watch the stream for example with xine:
$ xine -g stdin://mpeg2 < /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0
or with mplayer:
$ mplayer /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0
Software
Kaffeine
Kaffeine is a really nice player; it supports EPG, time-shifting, and recording. Additionally Kaffeine has built-in channel-searching.
Install it with:
# pacman -Sy kaffeine
Importing channel list
- Linosaw.de provides channels.conf files for VDR
- conv2conf converts these files into kaffeine channel list format
Klear
Klear is also a really nice player; it supports EPG, time-shifting, and recording, videotext. Channel-searching is still missing. Install it from AUR:
Xine
Copy your channel file to ~/.xine/channels.conf.
Watch a specific channel with following command:
$ xine dvb://[channel]
or use the playlist editor in Xine
Additional Resources
TV Cards in general
- Ubuntuusers.de-Wiki (german)
Pinnacle Cards
- PinnacleFanBoard (german, but you can ask in english as well)