From owner-freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jun 18 01:31:25 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 037A6106566B for ; Mon, 18 Jun 2012 01:31:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dieterbsd@engineer.com) Received: from mailout-us.gmx.com (mailout-us.gmx.com [74.208.5.67]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 9A80A8FC0C for ; Mon, 18 Jun 2012 01:31:24 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail 2714 invoked by uid 0); 18 Jun 2012 01:31:18 -0000 Received: from 67.206.185.231 by rms-us002.v300.gmx.net with HTTP Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2012 21:31:16 -0400 From: "Dieter BSD" Message-ID: <20120618013118.303420@gmx.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org X-Authenticated: #74169980 X-Flags: 0001 X-Mailer: GMX.com Web Mailer x-registered: 0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-GMX-UID: seGsb+IX3zOlNR3dAHAh3SJ+IGRvb4CJ Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: how to turn my computer into a TV X-BeenThere: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Multimedia discussions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 01:31:25 -0000 [ Added multimedia@ as that is a more appropriate list than hackers ] > I just moved into a very cramped apartment > we are using a broadcast signal only [current US {NYC} standards] You'll need to know if you have any NTSC (analog) stations you care about or if everything is ATSC (digital).  Hopefully your building has a good antenna system. Next, select your tuner(s).  You have a choice of tuners that connect via Ethernet (HDHomeRun, pros: small external box, doesn't need a slot, works with any OS, better diagnostic info than others. cons: I've seen a *lot* of postings with people saying that various other tuners get better reception, digital only no NTSC analog), Firewire (if they are still available?), USB, PCIe cards (needs a slot), PCI cards (needs a slot). Some cards also do FM radio. > 2. What ports to install Depends on what tuner(s) you select. Cards based on cx88 need multimedia/cx88 and multimedia/libtuner http://corona.homeunix.net/cx88wiki has a list of supported cards. Some cards are supported by bktr(4). Make sure the tuner you select is supported by FreeBSD. Recording ATSC takes very little CPU.  Recording NTSC takes either a lot of CPU or hardware compression.  Decoding either takes a lot of CPU (or hardware decoding which AFAIK FreeBSD doesn't have). You can use at(1) for automated recordings.  A full ATSC channel is 19.3 Mbps. Some tuners allow filtering by PID, which saves disk space. For playback you can use mplayer or any of several similar programs.