Watch tv using a hauppauge pvr usb 2 and ubuntu 11.10
From Linuxintro
Revision as of 12:55, 10 December 2011 by imported>ThorstenStaerk (→Switching channels)
To watch TV using my Hauppauge PVR USB 2 tuner and Ubuntu 11.10
- install Ubuntu 11.10
- install vlc
- find out which video devices you have. Video devices can come e.g. from your webcam and - when we have it connected - from your TV tuner:
$ ls /dev/video* ls: cannot access /dev/video*: No such file or directory
- in this case we do not have a webcam or any other video device seen by the system.
- plug your tuner into a USB slot, connect the antenna cable and connect power
- find out which video device has been added:
$ ls /dev/video* /dev/video0
- in this case, /dev/video0 is our video device
- kill all processes that block your video device:
$ lsof | grep video nautilus 1769 bootstick mem REG 8,34 46824 3691 /usr/lib/libgstvideo-0.10.so.0.24.0
- ok, there is a process nautilus blocking the video device. Kill it
$ killall nautilus
- verify it is killed
$ killall nautilus nautilus: no process found
- verify there is no other process
$ lsof | grep video $
- good
- install a video viewer
sudo apt-get install mplayer
- now it is time to see if there is any video signal at all from the TV tuner. Expect to see snow or a TV channel with this command:
mplayer /dev/video0
Contents
What can go wrong
It happens sometimes that you see nothing but a green screen after starting
mplayer /dev/videox
In this case it helped me to reboot my computer.
Switching channels
You can now switch TV channels if you know the frequency of your stations. For example if i want to watch hr in Germany I use
echo "55250000" > /sys/class/pvrusb2/sn-8567330/ctl_frequency/cur_val
What can go wrong for switching channels
sudo echo "104300000" > /sys/class/pvrusb2/sn-8567330/ctl_frequency/cur_val
bash: /sys/class/pvrusb2/sn-8567330/ctl_frequency/cur_val: Permission denied