DVB-T on Linux

One of the excuses I had to not implement DVB-Daemon integration in Rygel was that I didn't have the needed hardware to do so. Some days ago, I decided to get rid of this excuse by buying myself a Hauppauge Nova-T DVB-T stick. After a few days of trying different things, fiddling around and filing ivalid bugs, I finally manged to get it working with both DVB Daemon and Totem. Here is some advice based on my experience so far:


  • If you happen to have the same DVB card as I do, make sure you have the recent enough (>= 2.6.25) Linux kernel that provides the needed driver (dib0700)
    out of the box.


  • Get yourself the latest firmware from here and place it under /lib/firmware. The driver still looks for it by it's old filename so make a symlink in the same directory to this file by the name "dvb-usb-dib0700-1.10.fw".


  • Unless you know exactly what kind of channels file needs to be created, DO NOT use w_scan for creating a channels file. Use gnome-dvb-setup.py (part of DVB Daemon) to do that.


  • If gnome-dvb-setup.py is unable to find your local channels, concider the possibility that the small antenna provided with the DVB-T card might not be big enough to do the trick. I had this problem and I solved it by connecting to the cable from the bigger antenna on the top of my house.



Also, I must say I am very much impressed by how much great work Sebastian 'sebp' Pölsterl has put together in such a short amount of time. This could possibly be one of the best GSoC projects ever. It's not that it just works but the quality (architecture and design) of the code seems to be pretty good as well. Implementing featurefull software in a short amount of time without compromising quality is something even many very experienced developer can't seem to be able to do but Sebastian has done it.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Regarding dib0700 devices, I would strongly suggest not to rely on the code shipped with the kernel, as development has gone forward i the mean time.

Get the latest Mercurial tree from LinuxTV and the 1.20 firmware:

http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_WinTV-NOVA-T-Stick

Nico
December 3, 2008 at 6:07 AM
Tretle said…
dvb-t support in totem rocks but support in elisa would rock so much harder :D :P
December 3, 2008 at 9:37 AM
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