Linux-PVR Distribution LinVDR 0.7 Released 175
Mirko Doelle writes "LinVDR is a very small Linux distribution turning your normal PC with a DVB video card into a rather cool personal video recorder (PVR). 'The Busybox based system requires less than 128 MB disk space and is shipped as compressed bootable CD image (31 MB) with an easy install program. Provided that you have a supported DVB card (Technotrend DVB Premium or Hauppauge Nexus) in your system, you'll get the software up and running running within 15 minutes or less.
LinVDR uses the most recent development version of the Video Disk Recorder software VDR from Klaus Schmidinger. VDR is capable of recording more than one channel per time (as MPEG-2), timeshifting, cutting (with your remote control) and converting the MPEG-2 files into other formats. The 39 plugins delivered in LinVDR extend your PVR to be also a DVD player, DVD recorder, E-Mail reader, Voice mailbox and much more.
Details on the software versions and plugins you can find at the project page. For download, visit the mirror list.'"
Voicemail? (Score:2)
I wonder when MythTV will have that feature.
Re:Voicemail? (Score:2, Informative)
This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember kids, science is NOT a crime.
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:2)
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:5, Funny)
When I last looked at that project it only seemed to apply to Europe and maybe the U.K.
First the Brits get booted from the US, then from India, and now from Europe? Man, I am SO getting modded down for this :)
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:2, Interesting)
And while I'm off topic, why does Sky want to charge me £259 for a Sky+ box when its only £99 for new customers???
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:2)
e.
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:3, Informative)
I don't know about pathetic, but it is a pain in the ass...also not an insurmountable problem. Spend $25 on a IR blaster and
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:3)
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:4, Interesting)
Think about the possibilities... If there WAS a DirecTV PCI card, I could then stream the signal to any other PC in the house, timeshift, or even possibly watch interesting shows on my lunch break at work. If I get a shitty DirecTV Tivo, all I get is what everyone else has: a PVR with limited functionailty.
None of what I want to do "pisses" on their license. Unless their license states, "You will accept the limited functionailty of our equipment because we are monopoly and you can't do anything about that".
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:2)
None of what I want to do "pisses" on their license.
I know, I sympathize, I agree.
DirecTV's Content Providers (Newscorp) are extremely concerned about what you could do, or what others could do. Namely, rebroadcast their content for free to other people that aren't paying for that content.
Of course, you and I as customers want some reasonable functionality for our DVR's and I'm going to whatever lengths I need in order to get that functionality, DMCA be damned. But no, I'm not about to rebroadcast thei
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:2)
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:2)
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:2)
But one of the other posters nailed it on the head, re: the upstream content providers/relationships getting in the way.
You probably won't see DirectTV/Dish/CableCo's come out with it, but hopefully some 3rd party manufacturer can get the chocolate and peanu
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This Doesn't Work for the U.S. Does it? (Score:2)
How come exercising "fair use" is suddenly a crime? I mean, if you can watch DirecTV or other digital TV programming, you already paid for this. So how come that watching it on computer screen or time shifting is suddenly a crime?
Robert
Dish Network and Hi Def (Score:2)
Re:Dish Network and Hi Def (Score:1)
Re:Dish Network and Hi Def (Score:1)
Re:Dish Network and Hi Def (Score:2)
Re:Dish Network and Hi Def (Score:2)
Here's a couple o' links for more detail:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2004
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?&th
Re:Dish Network and Hi Def (Score:2)
Re:Dish Network and Hi Def (Score:2)
Finally! (Score:3, Interesting)
Integration (Score:2, Interesting)
Cool. Stick that on a mini ITX system with an integrated touchscreen and you have a fully integrated home media system. Heck, I might even sink one into the surface of my desk at work and WiFi it to the work network.
Time to start saving for that touchscreen.
Acronym heavy.... (Score:3, Funny)
Ding! We have an acronym winner!
Oh, and by the way, Slashdot's caps filter is annoying... I have to type random noise like this just to get the darn thing to post!
Caps (Score:2)
That's so you CAN'T FUCKING SCREAM!!!!!!
Re:Caps (Score:2)
Re:Caps (Score:2)
Typing gobbledygook to beat the filter isn't hard. It does suggest that the filter is pointless, but I can't see caring that much. Have a beer.
Just as soon as there's some other site half as useful as this one, I'm switching :P
0/2=0. That ties slashdot with a 404 error.
Re:Acronym heavy.... (Score:2)
Digital Only? HDTV at all? (Score:3, Insightful)
Can anyone confirm? Maybe someone who can read the site in it's original German?
Re:Digital Only? HDTV at all? (Score:1, Informative)
I apologize for the bad English on that website.
What I meant is that you defintively need a DVB card, LinVDR supports only digital TV.
Analog TV cards like Hauppauge WinTV Express or so are not supportet by LinVDR, but there is a chance (and a plugin) for VDR so you can use them as signal source.
We're planning support for Hauppauge's PVR 150/250/350, but it's not rock stable yet, sorry.
Best regards, Mirko
Here is a copy of the project page. (Score:4, Informative)
Basically, it's an approach to build a small, cut to the bone, ready and easy to install VDR Linux distribution.
LinVDR is a complete, breathing Linux system smaller than 128 MB with a complete digital Video Disk Recorder (VDR) / Personal Video Recorder (PVR) and several plugins -- listed seperately below.
For easy access we installed additionaly the browser frontend VDR Admin and a Samba share for up- and downloading music or DVD images with Windows clients.
The base system is Debian Woody compatible (only compatible, not Debian Woody itself!) with the DVB driver from Convergence [convergence.de] and Klaus Schmidingers unbeated Video Disk Recorder Software VDR [cadsoft.de].
All this Tom has mixed smoothly together, and I made the install system and installation programme -- suitable for normal users without Linux knowledge.
OK, sounds good. I have a XYZ tv card and a GeForce 10 with TV out. Lets start.
That's nice you have such expensive hardware, but it won't bring you a step closer to a running LinVDR system. We're here at digital TV, there is no purpose for any analog TV cards.
VDR was designed to work with so-called full featured DVB cards. This is a Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) receiver card originally develloped from Technotrend. Hauppauge adopted these cards and labeled them WinTV DVB-s/C or Nexus.
The important point of this cards: Byside the receiving unit, where you can read a MPEG-2-Stream, they're equipped with a DSP chip working as MPEG-2 decoder and OSD creator. This DSP decodes the steam, overlays the menu and put the result to the composite video out of the DVB card.
This means: You don't need a graphic card with TV out, your full featured DVB card already has one (and only this one is used by VDR).
But you need only one of that expensive (> $150) full featured DVB cards. If you want to install a second one, e.g. to enable you to receive more channels at the same time, you can use a so-called budget card.
These buget cards have no TV out and no MPEG-2 decoder, making them a lot cheaper (around $70).
Type Vendor Model Class Price DVB-S Hauppauge WinTV Nexus-s Full Featured abt. $250 DVB-S TechnoTrend DVB-S Sat PCI
Rev. 1.3, 1.5, 1.6 Full Featured abt. $190 DVB-T TechnoTrend DVB-T Rev. 1.2 Full Featured abt. $250 DVB-C Hauppauge WinTV DVB-C Full Featured abt. $300 DVB-C TechnoTrend DVB-C Rev. 2.1 Full Featured abt. $230 DVB-S Hauppauge WinTV Nova-S Budget abt. $125 DVB-S TechnoTrend Budget DVB-S Budget abt. $90 DVB-T TechnoTrend DVB-T 1300 Budget abt. $110 DVB-C TechnoTrend DVB-C Rev. 1.0 Budget abt. $110
To cut it short: You need one full featured card with MPEG-2 decoder (Technotrend style, supported by the DVB driver of Kernel 2.6) and any number of budget cards (supported by the same drivers). No way to use your graphic adapter or analog TV card, if you're looking for an analog PVR, try e.g. MythTV.
VDR Version and Plugins VDR 1.3.17 with enAIO-Patch and this plugins:
Re:Here is a copy of the project page. (Score:2)
Re:Here is a copy of the project page. (Score:2)
Does the Coax go directly into the WinTV DVB-s/C card or do we come out of the Cable Box into the PVR and then to the TV set?
Re:Here is a copy of the project page. (Score:2)
This is nothing: (Score:5, Funny)
- A dedicated development box
- A dedicated server box
- A dedicated "juke" box
- A dedicated "TiVo" box
- A dedicated gaming box
- A dedicated backup box
- A dedicated firewall box
- And a general purpose box
Unfortunately due to all the money wasted^H^H^H^H^H^H spent on this essential equipment, I don't have a home to put them in.
What do you mean wasted? (Score:2, Funny)
Pretty cool (Score:3, Interesting)
You cannot do this with commercial operating systems. Linux has its niche.... to support niche markets. It does it really, really well. Bravo to all.
Good for You (Score:1)
Re:Good for You (Score:2)
Oh well, game over, guess we might as well pack up and go home now. All this wasted time for nothing.
Re:Pretty cool (Score:1, Insightful)
Wait are you complaining about installing multiple packages all the time? Oh come now, you don't have to install on top of another. Haven't you heard of LILO.
****** Does LILO allow you to scroll down on the list of bootable partitions if find? ****** Wait do you really wanna have that many options just to boot up? ******* segmentation fa
Re:Pretty cool (Score:2)
You cannot do this with commercial operating systems. Linux has its niche.... to support niche markets.
Not to burst your bubble, but there's tons of niche use of commercial operating systems. For example, Windows is used underneath many OEM car navigation systems and inside many satellite and digital-cable tuner boxes. My Pioneer digital-cable unit has actually thrown me a standard Windows Application Exception error dialog on more than one occasion (never could figure out how to click the OK or CANCE
Re:Pretty cool (Score:1)
I really think that this puts Linux in a class by itself. It is a great tool for building other tools. This is really one example. My very favorite example is Knoppix. With knoppix, you can create a CD that boots and does whatever you want. To have something that is so customizable is really a tre
Re:Pretty cool (Score:2)
Unfortunately, Tivo is becoming less and less attractive every day. First of all, I feel that $13/month is too expensive, and $299 for the life of the box is no better. And why do I have to pay for a subscription for EACH box?
Then there's the controversy about skipping commercials, and the new commercials that Tivo is [planning?] showing while you skip commercials.
Finally, there's the new restrictions on what you can record and how/where/when/how-long you can save and play it.
I get maybe four to six
Re:Pretty cool (Score:2)
Not quite. In many european countries we have DVB-T and all that is needed is a simple DVB-T card, available cheaply and easily. Where DVB-T isn't in use, it soon will be.
Re:You can, of course, do the same with commercial (Score:2)
The issue isn't whether proprietary OSs are technically capable of being used in this way; of course they are. The key is that any Linux distribution can be freely modified and redistributed by anybody without stepping on anyone's IP rights. If you want to do this with Windows you're going to have to "negotiate" with Microsoft, and you'll be doing it pretty much on their terms.
However (Score:2, Funny)
Is there a mirror of the mirrors? (Score:1)
Re:Is there a mirror of the mirrors? (Score:1)
Hardware Support... (Score:1)
Re:Hardware Support... (Score:1)
Note to slashdot contrib'ers (Score:3, Insightful)
Work with Rogers? (Score:1)
No HD = worthless (Score:4, Interesting)
Fortunately, I hate almost every broadcast out there except for about three shows (and two of them are pay channels).
MythTV allows HD recordings (Score:4, Informative)
Another Linux-based PVR will allow you to record HD. The catch is that it only records HD over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts. So if you live in an area with HD broadcasts (at the least, most major metro areas in the U.S.), and you have an antenna, you can have an HD-capable MythTV PVR.
The card is the pcHDTV 3000, available at http://www.pchdtv.com/ [pchdtv.com].
The MythTV web site is http://mythtv.org [mythtv.org].
For info about HD and MythTV, search the MythTV mailing list archive [gossamer-threads.com] for "hdtv" or "pcHDTV".
Finally, a step-by-step install guide for MythTV is available here [wilsonet.com].
Re:No HD = worthless (Score:1)
Re:No HD = worthless (Score:2)
I use the FusionHDTV with Comcast cable, and it works fine.
I use a MyHD card for OTA programming, it's much better than the Fusion, but doesn't support QAM.
Re:No HD = worthless (Score:2)
It's important to note that the fusion QAM III only does unencrypted QAM... if you cable company encrypts their HDTV content you're hosed (except for OTA, of course).
e.
Re:No HD = worthless (Score:2)
Re:No HD = worthless (Score:2)
Good call, but that'll only work for unencrypted streams.
Mirrors Here - Pages and ISO (Score:3, Informative)
Total Cost of Ownership? (Score:2)
What are the other HW requirements? (site is slashdotted...)
This looks very promising. Might be a nice way to build yourself a non-DRMized, non-broadcast-flagged DVR before the MPAA locks everything down.
Re:Total Cost of Ownership? (Score:1, Informative)
You need at least one DVB card, the cheapest is around $150 (Technotrend DVB-s Premium Rev. 1.3), the one I would advice you is about $190 (Technotrend DVB-s Premium Rev. 1.5).
Everything else you need is a normal PC, so depending on how cool it must look the costs increase.
You can start with an old Pentium 133 or Pentium MMX, no problem -- most of the load is taken by the Full-Featured DVB card and its MPEG-2 decoder. We're using normally a Via Epia ME-6000 and a desktop P4-1700MHz system.
Best regards, M
Re:Total Cost of Ownership? (Score:3, Interesting)
I can't speak to LinDVR, but a decent MythTV [mythtv.org] setup can be built for less than $500.
MythTV has most of the features listed for LinPVR, plus some additional modules. It's really nice to use, and it can handle HDTV in the US. I may be wrong, but I think that LinPVR is based around DVB, which is the digital TV format for much of Europe.
Re:Total Cost of Ownership? (Score:2)
I should clarify. Myth can handle HD over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts.
There is currently no TV card that can be used under Linux to record HDTV from cable or satellite.
About PVR in general (Score:2)
Re:About PVR in general (Score:2)
This is extremely frustrating. I have the same problem. I can find no information on how to fix this problem, or whether it should even be a problem. The vendors provide no help at all.
Re:About PVR in general (Score:2)
Let me know when.... (Score:1, Troll)
Poor, poor server... (Score:4, Insightful)
Right, the first link in the article must be the actual disk image, later maybe a link to the web site (so people can find out about hardware requirements, features, etc.).
The list of mirrors should come last, as the project is unworthy if the server doesn't survive the stampede of the slashdot crowd...
WHY? A little more careful approach would make downloads faster and save the server's admins a lot of trouble...
A "button pusher" would do better (Score:1)
Re:A "button pusher" would do better (Score:1)
It works best if the receiver and the device it's controlling are behind an enclosure, with a sheet of glass, but it's worked relatively reliably for Dish.
The other advantage over the cheaper is that the pay channels, Sci-Fi and a few others are broadcast in AC3 (Dolby Digital), and the 2nd leve
cool...but (Score:2)
Or the HDTV Wonder from ATi?
And no, I haven't able to go to linvdr's site....it's called the
Remote? (Score:2)
Re:Remote? (Score:2)
Mirror of the site (Score:3, Informative)
Here's a Coralized [nyu.edu] copy of the site:
http://linvdr.org.nyud.net:8090/projects/linvdr/i
http://linvdr.org.nyud.net:8090/projects/linvdr/m
DVB-S card for a fair price, and finding channels (Score:2)
This is absolutely WORTHLESS!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
It DOES NOT handle analog signals - No cable/OTA analog channels.
It DOES NOT handle HDTV signals.
AND it DOES NOT decrypt encrypted signals - No DirecTV, Dish, etc.
Okay, what is this software for??? Seems to me this is DOA for US.
Re:This is absolutely WORTHLESS!!! (Score:1)
Possibly, but it's great news for us Europeans who have digital.
Re:This is absolutely WORTHLESS!!! (Score:2, Informative)
You can record HDTV Movies with LinVDR. All you have to do is to add a HDTV Channel to your channel list and set up a timer for it. And, you have to disable processing your output video signal. Your DVB Card can not handle the resolution and will crash. (Reboot of the card needed). If you save the HDTV data stream to your disk without forwarding it to your v/output you can watch the show.
If you do not want to waste disk space you can stream the data to your Local
Re:This is absolutely WORTHLESS!!! (Score:2, Funny)
Nobody outside the US watches TV.
What were they thinking - why did they
waste their time like that?
Those crazy Europeans, huh?
Re:This is absolutely WORTHLESS!!! (Score:2)
You pretty much summed it up there. But it doesn't make it worthless. Works great here with my DVB-C card.
Re:This is absolutely WORTHLESS!!! (Score:2)
You forgot a little fact... it CAN'T PLAY HDTV SIGNALS!!! What good is recording something if you cannot view it?
What channels are available UNENCRYPTED on Dish Network? Last time I checked, it was NOTHING (except DN commercials).
apt-dist (Score:2, Interesting)
s sources.list can points.
NTL Digital (Score:3, Interesting)
the cool part about this project (Score:2)
Alot of windows options don't do DVB... Tvedia does, but I don't think it will do an analog tuner next to the DVB... and Meedio is supposed to be coming up with DVB card support for their MeedioTV product.
e.
Re:Useful for recording video (Score:2, Informative)
nsfw (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Useful for recording video (Score:2, Informative)
Link to tinyurl.com is the goatse.cx image!
Re:Useful for recording video (Score:1)
As a sidenote: Some of us don't wa
Re:Useful for recording video (Score:1)
Re:Useful for recording video (Score:1)
MOD DOWN (Score:4, Funny)
Re:If it doesn't support ATI AIW cards, who cares (Score:1, Informative)
what pills are you taking or are you directly freebasing?
ATI cards are the lowest grade garbage you can get. if you want a decent ANALOG card you need a PVR-350 or PVR-250. both of those cards blow away the absolute best cards that ati has. hell I'll bet a |PVR-350 will blow away what the ATI engineers have on the drawing boards right now.
only complete fools and morons think anything from ATI is anything but low grade dog-food.
even their 3d video cards are crap.
Re:If it doesn't support ATI AIW cards, who cares (Score:2)
Don't spend the extra $100 for AIW however, it isn't worth it...
Re:Myth Distro on Compact Flash (Score:2)