DIY, How to get HDTV on your Linux PC
By Richard Lawler 
posted Dec 27th 2005 3:48PM
posted Dec 27th 2005 3:48PM
Because Windows Media Center owners shouldn't have all the fun. The instructions are a little complicated but dude, if you're running Linux that should be par for the course. The EFF recommends you build your own HD PVR while you still can, since for the moment at least the "Broadcast flag" legislation is DOA.
Any HDBeat readers currently getting HDTV on their non-Windows/Mac box?
[Via digg]
I can't say it was easy, but I have a HDTV tuner card in a linux 2.6 (gentoo) box, hooked up to an smallish antenna (1 1/2 ft x 4 ft) in my attic. I'm using a 2.8 GHz machine, which is just powerful enough to render a 1920x1088 (1080i) video stream. I use a 42" plasma TV for my monitor.
Capturing a full HD data stream ("ts" format) is about 8 gigabytes for an hour; you definitely want plenty of disk space to make your own HD PVR.
So, after all the work, I definitely think it's worth it to watch "free" HDTV, but then, I enjoy a challenge.
I've been running MythTV on Gentoo linux for almost two years now. At the time, none of the Windows software came anywhere close, and I think that's still the case even though the Windows solutions have been getting much better.
I have a linux server setup with multiple tuners (SD and OTA HD) and a drive array. I then have a driveless, fanless frontend HTPC connected to my 42" HDTV. I use the pcHDTV card for over the air HDTV reception.
It's definitely been some work to get everything up and running, and it's still a work in progress. Overall I'd say it's definitely worth it, but to me the tinkering around is half the fun of a HTPC setup. The biggest drawback right now is digital cable, but this is a problem for HTPCs of any platform.
I have been struggling with MythTV and Fedora core 4, but I have my PC HDTV card tuning qam cable broadcasts. It isn't fully functioning, mostly due to time contraints. I plan to hook it to my hdtv via a Roku Photobridge running MythRoku, that piece is coming today.
I can't stress how difficult it is to do this and I'm a very experienced unix user. I have a SA 8300-HD that is great, but there's no way to archive anything in HD (It doesn't have a fire wire port).
I worked for a little while on getting MythTV setup on Fedora Core 4. I had part of it up and running but I don't have a HDTV tuner card at the moment so I kinda ran out of steam. Now with having the Xbox360 in my house I really would rather have WMCE going to take advantage of that. Or I could be ambitious and get MythTV back up and running and work on writing some code to send data to the 360 (ie, spoofing being a MCE). That would be my first choice as it would help a number of people in the community out. Then again, I don't have a lot of free time at the moment to work on that.