Setting up TV tuner card in GNU/Linux

This post is an account of how I got my PixelView PlayTV Pro tuner card to work in GNU/Linux (Arch Linux). It shall work for bt848, bt878 or Fusion 878A chip based cards. I hope it may be of help to all.

Kernel version: 2.6.26.5

I had to compile the kernel atleast thrice to get it right. Everytime, I missed the menu where I was to select the tuner as well as the card. This was because I was stripping down the kernel for my system and did not compile I2C(I-square-C) support. However, I2C had to be compiled-in.

[alanhaggai@archer ~]$ sudo lspci | grep Multimedia 06:02.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 11) 06:02.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 11)

Relevant kernel options:

Device Drivers --->
    <*> I2C support --->
        <*> I2C device interface
        [*] Autoselect pertinent helper modules
            I2C Hardware Bus support --->
                <*> Intel 82801 (ICH)
    Multimedia devices
        <M> Video For Linux
        [*] Enable Video For Linux API 1 (DEPRECATED)
        -*- Enable Video For Linux API 1 compatible Layer
        [*] Load and attach frontend and tuner driver modules as needed
        [*] Customize analog and hybrid tuner modules to build --->
            <M> Simple tuner support
            -M- TDA 9885/6/7 analog IF demodulator
        [*] Video capture adapters --->
            [*] Autoselect pertinent encoders/decoders and other helper chips
            <M> BT848 Video For Linux
            <M>     SAA6588 Radio Chip RDS decoder support on BT848 cards

This is the setup for my system. It may be different for your system. All the above may be compiled as modules. Compile and install the kernel.

Add the following to /etc/modprobe.conf

options bttv card=37 options bttv tuner=5 options bttv radio=1

The values may be different for your card. Refer cardlist to find out the values for your tuner card. Trial and error may help, if you are not sure about your card.

Reboot to the new kernel. Install tvtime. Run tvtime-scanner to scan for channels. Run tvtime. There are many other software for television viewers in GNU/Linux.

That is it. Good luck!