Re: tv/radio card
> > There are a lot of TV tuner cards that work
> in Linux, either with native
> > drivers or with drivers like ivtv. I
> have a Debian Etch box running
> > MythTV with two TV tuner cards in it, a
> Hauppauge PVR-350 and a Hauppauge
> > PVR-150, both of which use the ivtv
> drivers. The PVR-350 supports MPEG
> > encoding and decoding, so it can be used for
> recording and playback. It
> > also comes with a remote control and IR
> sensor which work very well using
> > lirc, and it has an on-board FM tuner which
> I have not personally used,
> > but I believe does work under Linux.
> The PVR-150 is only an encoder and
> > can only be used for recording. These
> two cards are fairly old, though,
> > and I'm sure there are better options out
> there now. I have read a lot of
>
> Would you have any reason not to buy a PVR-350 card? Since from
> if I
> understand you correctly, it will both record and allow me to
> watch tv?
> Is this a usb or a card you put in your motherboard?
>
The PVR-350 and PVR-150 are both internal PCI cards. In my experience, the PVR-350 works very well and would be a good choice if you need both recording and playback functionality. The encoder and decoder on the card are separate, which means you can record one show and watch an already-recorded show at the same time. With the PVR-150 in the box, I can simultaneously record two things and watch something else, which is really nice.
I have been very happy with these cards, but they fell out of favor with the maintainers of MythTV a while ago because of the lack of vendor support for Linux. My understanding is that the first few versions of MythTV explicitly supported and recommended these cards, but in later versions they ran into some glitches while implementing new features, and Hauppauge would not provide any support for the cards under Linux. The ivtv drivers are generic drivers for the Conexant chipset used on the Hauppauge cards, so they aren't supported by the vendor. Nvidia came out with a series of hardware encoding/decoding chipsets and also provided native Linux drivers and support for them, so the MythTV devs started recommending those instead. I have only used the two Hauppauge cards, though, so I don't know much about the other options.
> Ok. If I got remote support working, would I be able to do most things
> just with the remote eg, change channel, adjust volume, and
> enable recording?
Yes. If you are using lirc, you can create a config file which maps the buttons on the remote to functions in the software you are using. MythTV comes with a stock config for the Hauppauge remote, and I'm sure other such projects do as well. Channel selection, volume control, playback functions (play, pause, fast-forward, rewind, stop) all work.
> > The MythTV forums might be a good place to
> look, since tuner cards are a
> > big topic of discussion, and a lot of people
> mention other TV and radio
> > programs, too.
>
> Cool I'll take a look.
>
> Thanks very much for the reply,
No problem.
- Dave
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