[linux-dvb] Help a blind man watch TV ! (Newbie, Hauppauge 2.1,etc.)

["Andreas Mixich" <sp.amix@gmx.net>]

    Hello All together !

I recently purchased an Athlon 1.2GHz, 256mB DDR-RAM system with
Geforce2 Pro, Hercules GameTheater XP (soundcard, no  Linux  drivers  yet,
just an older chipset is supported)  and  Hauppauge  WinTV  DVB-s  2.1  My
chipset is VIA K7t266 Pro on an MSI mobo, Mandrake 8.0

I used the card under WindowsME (until it blew my Win partition to dust,
serious,I have no idea how to repair it so far...!).
I figured out, it might be the shared interrupt 11, which the DVB and  the
GeForce  card  have  in  common.  I reseated the DVB card into another PCI
slot, it still is (according to KDE's system info) at  IRQ  11.  Too  bad.
Maybe you have some advice ?

But now to the real stuff.

I feel completly overpowered by installing the DVB stuff on Linux
(Mandrake 8.0) on my own. This is the main reason I subscribed to this
list. It is not so much the installation itself, rather I have no
overview. I investigated and downloaded the common projects but I see no
real schema.

To me, there is no _visible_ consistency. Are the many  projects  seperate
projects  ?  They are crosslinked anyway... What do I need ? What do I not
need ?

Let me tell you what I want first, it makes things easier :-)

mediaStream -> process -> mediaStream

(the stream could be DVB, DVD,  IP-Multicast,  IP-streaming-media,  localy
recorded movie or whatever, output being the same, route it to a TV-Out, a
network  card,  a  modem or HDD or computer's monitor) Well, that would be
the classical UNIX way, AFAIK.

I see no such possibility. Reading the VDR homepage I get the impression
that the software will only output to TV-Out (I need it  primarily  on  my
computer's monitor and to hard-disk/streamer/VCD).

The best for me would be to get a stream from /dev/dvb  or  /dev/dvd/  and
'cat' it through a piped convertor to, let's say:

    /home/$LOGNAME/videos/soccer/2001/bundesliga/1FCBvs1FCK_SAT1.mpg

Same for sound. I would be happy to be able to get _any_ media stream and
pass it to anywhere on a system or network.

I dislike special solutions (where a program handles all of its own).

I had a look at the Video4Linux and Livid projects. I am still confused
:-( They seem to support the analog cards only. However, I have read on
another place, there is DVB support as well.

So, may I ask you kindly to "guide" me through the process of setting up
what I want or at least to get the DVB and DVD playback working ?

Are there any known issues with the Hauppauge DVB-s and my VIA chipset ?
That I got told at the hotline, though they just assumed it (after I had
to tell them how much I tihnk their software is evilish and underdeveloped
and that I ask myself why they ship a product  with  an  old  manual,  the
video-out is described as video-in on the connector itself, go figure !)

Thanks a lot :-)

P.S. Currently I have a dual boot  system.  I  use  the  DVB  under  Linux
mainly to evaluate what can I do  in  a  future  project  next  year.I  am
planning on building my own home Media&File server year. That server shall
replace  my  A/V devices and also act as a classic LAN/Internet server.
All I will need then is an AC3 Receiver and some speakers.

If you share my interests feel free to mail  me  about  this.  Just  note,
that I am an amateur and quite new to Linux :-)

The system I am planning might consist of a dual G4 MoBo
(http://www.bplan-gmbh.de/english/pegasos/),MicroATX  (3xPCI),onboard-LAN,
Firewire,IRDA etc.)
the Hauppauge  DVB-s
a  Terratec  EWX  24/96
and an ADR-Onstream (50GB SCSI3 streamer speedy enough  to  stream  movies
just like a VCR tape, without the need to store the MPEG on disk first)

OS would be Mandrake-Linux for PPC and/or the new incarnation of the PPC
native AmigaOS.


Good bye,
-- 
Andreas 
<sp.amix@gmx.net>
A day without orange juice is like a day without orange juice.



-- 
Info:
To unsubscribe send a mail to listar@linuxtv.org with "unsubscribe linux-dvb" as subject.