UK DVB channel Info
This page contains my assembled info for receiving free to air uk DVB channels via a PC.
This page is by no means a full install guide for mythtv/xmltv/dvb but more a collection of info and scripts on my ongoing experiences.
Please refer to the mythtv installation guide and wiki.
These notes are for setting up Mythtv for both DVB live TV and PVR.
Hardware
I have next to my tv a Shuttle SS51G p4 based mini-pc. I have a usb-based IR remote control which i have mapped to my philips universal controller. I added a PCI-based Hauppauge nova-t card and a Hauppauge nova-s usb device. A NEC 2500A (flashed to dual layer) DVD writer. I leave this on permanently to record/watch tv, and act as a mp3/ogg and video jukebox. After 6 months of usage, i've now go the shuttle extreamly stable and highly functional. It records many hours of tv a day and i use it to play xvids/dvds and music. I use the optical out of the shuttle (AC3 or PCM) as a input into my pioneer VSC-300a receiver for 5.1 surround sound. For video output, i started with a ati video-out card which was crap, and i ended up with a VGA-scart raw RGB convertor which is pretty good.
DVB cards
Despite what a lot of people say, i find the hauppauge cards the best.
DVB-T stands for Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial
DVB-S stands for Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite
DVB-C stands for Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable (not many people use)
The advantage of using linux, is that for all these cards you use the same driver set and access the cards in a very similar way.
Linux DVB Support
Linux support for DVB cards is relatively mature.
I prefer to use the latest cvs drivers.
Ensure you have a recent 2.6 kernel with module support, and perform the following operations:
cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@linuxtv.org:/cvs/linuxtv login
cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@linuxtv.org:/cvs/linuxtv co dvb-kernel
cd dvb-kernel/build-2.6
./getlinks
make
In order to utilise the kernel modules you must insert them each time system boots.
I use Gentoo Linux and the simplist way to do this is to put the following commands in /etc/conf.d/local/start.
cd /usr/src/cvs/dvb-kernel/build-2.6
./insmod.sh load
Depending where you installed the modules (/usr/src/cvs/dvb-kernel for me).
You should now get devices present in /dev/dvb/.
For example if you have a dvb-t card you will get a device at /dev/dvb/adapter0.
LR6650
A lot of people have bought (including me) the lr6650 card which has been going cheap on ebay lately (30 quid). This is a great card, with a solid tuner, and a useful RF passthrough. I've had a lot of trouble getting this to work, as have a lot of people, but the bytesex people have done a great job of providing a driver...All you need to do is make sure you have dvb enabled in your kernel and run the following:wget http://dl.bytesex.org/cvs-snapshots/video4linux-20041217-141849.tar.gz tar xzvf video4linux-20041217-141849.tar.gz cd video4linux make DVB=1 cd .. insmod video4linux/btcx-risc.ko insmod video4linux/video-buf-dvb.ko insmod video4linux/dvb-pll.ko insmod video4linux/tveeprom.ko insmod video4linux/cx88xx.ko insmod video4linux/cx8802.ko insmod video4linux/cx22702.ko insmod video4linux/cx88-dvb.koYou should probably get a newer snapshot than above, but i know for a fact that this one works with itv1/2/3 which has never worked on this card before.
Mythtv
I install Mythtv from cvs every week or so (very unstable).
I run the following script:, i have to enter the mythtv CVS password, which is "mythtv".
cvs -d :pserver:mythtv@cvs.mythtv.org:/var/lib/mythcvs login
cvs -z3 -d :pserver:mythtv@cvs.mythtv.org:/var/lib/mythcvs checkout mythtv cvs -z3 -d :pserver:mythtv@cvs.mythtv.org:/var/lib/mythcvs checkout mythvideo cvs -z3 -d :pserver:mythtv@cvs.mythtv.org:/var/lib/mythcvs checkout mythdvd cvs -z3 -d :pserver:mythtv@cvs.mythtv.org:/var/lib/mythcvs checkout mythmusic cvs -z3 -d :pserver:mythtv@cvs.mythtv.org:/var/lib/mythcvs checkout mythweather cvs -z3 -d :pserver:mythtv@cvs.mythtv.org:/var/lib/mythcvs checkout mythweb cp settings.pro mythtv #my settings.pro cd mythtv ./configure --enable-mp3lame --enable-vorbis qmake mythtv.pro make make install cd .. cd mythmusic ./configure --enable-all qmake mythmusic.pro make make install cd .. cd mythvideo qmake mythvideo.pro make make install cd .. cd mythdvd ./configure --enable-transcode --enable-vcd qmake mythdvd.pro make make install cd .. cd mythweather qmake mythweather.pro make make install cd .. cp -r mythweb/* /var/www/localhost/htdocs/mythweb
Channel Scanning
Under linux it is relatively simple to perform a channel scan using the dvb-tools provided by linuxtv.
Download the tools like this:
cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@linuxtv.org:/cvs/linuxtv login
cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@linuxtv.org:/cvs/linuxtv co dvb-apps
You'll need to scan for your own channel frequencies rather than using mine for DVB-T listed below for the Winter Hill transmitter. You can however use my frequencies for DVB-S listed below.
To scan for DVB-T perform the following operations:
./dvbscan dvb-t/uk-WinterHill | tee freeviewchannels.conf
To scan for DVB-S perform the following operations:
./dvbscan dvb-s/Astra-28.2E | tee skychannels.conf
Here is a recent scan of Astra 28.2E from my DVB-S card.
Testing card
Now you have your card detected and have got channel data you can test tune your card.You can use the dvb-apps you downloaded from cvs.
Use szap for dvb-s and tzap for dvb-t and czap for dvb-c. For a dvb-s card in the uk you can perform the following action:
./szap -a 1 -c skychannels.conf "CNN" phoenix -r This tunes the card to the specified channel.
You can then test the stream using:
cat /dev/dvb/adapter1/dvr0
If your getting some garbage, then your card probably works.
You can play the stream in xine using:
xine stdin://mpeg2 < /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0 -f
You can use all sorts of tools to play the stream, but mythtv works well so i just use that.
XMLTV
XMLTV is a mechanism for downloading and corrolating xml based tv data from websites for use in building a program database.
In the UK the only available xml program data online is provided by the radio times.
For Using radio times grabber On Gentoo, just emerge xmltv, then run tv_grab_uk_rt --configure.
For example, my dvb-t xmltv config file is:
channel north-west.bbc1.bbc.co.uk
channel north-west.bbc2.bbc.co.uk
channel granadatv.co.uk
channel channel4.com
channel channel5.co.uk
channel itv2.itv.co.uk
channel choice.bbc.co.uk
channel knowledge.bbc.co.uk
channel travel.sky.co.uk
channel ukhistory.tv
channel the-hits.emap.com
channel ukbrightideas.tv
channel ftn.tv
channel tmf.nl
channel cbbc.bbc.co.uk
channel cbeebies.bbc.co.uk
channel news-24.bbc.co.uk
channel itn.co.uk
channel sky-news.sky.com
channel news.sports.sky.com
channel parliament.bbc.co.uk
The commands i run for dvb-t are: tv_grab_uk_rt --days 12 --slow --get-categories --config-file /root/tv_grab_uk_rt.conf --output tvdata.xml /usr/local/bin/mythfilldatabase --file 3 -1 tvdata.xml
In addition to the web-based xml program data, the uk is currently broadcasting a 8 day program guide on dvb-t.
Get the latest version from the guys website Here.
As a side note, the latet dvb patches will hopefully soon support this inside myth with no-config.
After downloading, tune to the multiplex you want perform the following:
tv_grab_dvb [-t timeout] > whatson.xml
You can then import this program data in the same manner as the radio times data.
DVB-S
A complete list of channels and their corresponding info is available here.
For Mythtv the only important details needed to tune dvb-s channels are:
Frequency, symbol rate, polarity, VID, AID and PID.
DVB-T
For mythtv the only important details needed for dvb-t channels are:
Frequency, symbol rate, polarity, FEC, Modulation, LP, HP, VID, AID and PID.
Bandwidth is always 8MHz.
Inversion is always AUTO.
Trans is always 2K.
Hierachy is always none.
So for example BBC1 and BBC2 for the uk-Lancaster relay of uk-Winterhill is:
| Callsign | xmltv | frequency | FEC | Modulation | Consellation | LP | HP | VID | AID | PID |
| BBC1 | north-west.bbc1.bbc.co.uk | 530166670 | FEC_3_4 | QAM_16 | QAM_16 | FEC_3_4 | FEC_3_4 | 600 | 601 | 4168 |
| BBC2 | north-west.bbc2.bbc.co.uk | 530166670 | FEC_3_4 | QAM_16 | QAM_16 | FEC_3_4 | FEC_3_4 | 610 | 611 | 4232 |
Setup of MythTV
Follow the mythtv documentation and wiki, they are very good.Links
DVB Mailing List Archive
MythTV Mailing List Archives
MythTv wiki
Mythtv Forum
