Linux Community Magazine

Ubuntu Linux is a great basis for a general purpose MythTV Media Centre and has the latest version of MythTV (0.22) ready to install from its DVB software repositories. This guide shows you how to get MythTV working for free-to-air digital satellite channels in the UK with the new TBS 6925 card. However, much of it will be applicable to anyone using a DVB-S/s2 tv card.

HardwareFreesat currently uses the DVB-S standard for all channels, but the HD channels may be changing to use DVB-S2 at some point in the future. For that reason, it may be worth investing in a DVB-S2 card such as the TBS 6925. Different from the other Linux TV card, TBS 6925 is intended for professional use. It can support 16APSK/32APSK transponders, DVB s2 CCM, DVB s2 VCM and DVB s2 ACM mode. The key feature of this sat pc card is to capture multiple Transport Stream and Generic Stream up to 190 Mbit/s channel bit rate and support a Wide range symbol rates from 200Ksps to 45Msps. It works seamlessly with Linux system and supports Mythtv well. It has updated the latest Linux driver which supports all kernels up to 2.6.38. No double it is the best mythtv supported card. MythTV can record and play the HD channels as long as your PC is capable.

Installation MythTV on Ubunt

You have two choices when installing MythTV on Ubuntu. You can either install from the standard Ubuntu, Kubuntu or Xubuntu CD and then add the additional packages or try the ready made Mythbuntu distribution.Mythbuntu contains all the packages you need for Ubuntu and MythTV on one CD. It is especially recommended for beginners when installing from scratch. However, it uses the Xfce desktop which, in my opinion, is not as polished as the standard Gnome desktop. For this reason I prefer to install from the standard Ubuntu CD and then load the MythTV packages on top.You can download the latest Ubuntu CD image from here. The Desktop Edition is probably the one to go for. This is a live CD, so may take a while to boot up before you can click the "install" icon on the desktop. Follow the steps you will be easily to setup Mythtv on Ubunt.

Installing TBS 6925Turn off your computer and unplug it from the wall. Open up the case and look for a short, white card expansion connector on the motherboard. Next to it should be at least two more white connectors that look similar but are longer. If this connector is already being used by another card, you can still install your tuner in a long connector. The PCIe card with TV tuner for Linux will still run as a PCIe x1 when installed into the longerx4/ x8 or x16 connector.The next is to install the Linux drivers for TBS 6925. You can find it the latest Linux kernel on the attaching CD or download it directly from buydvb.

Run TBS 6925 Tuner card on Linux and Ubuntu

To configure Myth, you run the mythtv-setup utility and step through the options. Select it from the menu: System->Administration->MythTV Backend Setup.Once you have logged in again, run MythTV Backend Setup once more. Click OK to stop the mythbackend process and and the mythtv-setup utility should run. Select TBS 6925 DVB S2 card, change the Card Type to "DVB s2 capture card (v3.x)". It should detect it and show your card details. It is possible to use "virtual tuners" to record more than one channel on a single tuner as long as they are on the same multiplex. Select the "Recording Options" button and set "Max Recordings" to >1. This governs how many simultaneous recordings can be made from theTBS 6925. There are currently up to 20 channels broadcast on a Freeview multiplex. See here for more details.If you have two cards or a dual tuner, repeat the above steps, changing the DVB Card Number to 1.

After finding the DVB S2 card with the video source, A good Display Name would be "Freeview". Set the Video source to the one we've just defined, "EIT".Hit "Scan for channels" and set the correct country. Hopefully, this will find a load of channels and radio stations. Go here and check you have all the channels you need. If there are any you don't want, uncheck the "Visible" box.On the latest versions of MythTV there is a button on here to download the channel icons.

Now you can exit the setup utility. It will ask you if you want to run mythfilldatabase. Answer NO because we're using the EIT. Now run a MythTV Frontend from the menu: Applications->Sound & Video->MythTV FrontendAt this point you should finally be able to watch Freesat HD TV!

As we know, TBS 6925 is a professional satellite card. Many unknown or locking satellite frequency and transponders can be scanned under 16APSK/32APSK .More surprises would be waiting for your with this amazing Linux TV card .