[wellylug] Freeview DVB-T digital HD TV on Linux

[Stephen Judd]

On Tue, 2009-06-09 at 10:06 +1200, Rob Collins wrote:
> Hi all.
> 
> Is there anyone out there who has managed to get a DVB-T digital TV
> USB stick working on Ubuntu?  J

Yes, I have a Pinnacle nano stick. I use it with VLC quite
satisfactorily for 6, 7, and the radio stations -- my poor little lappy
doesn't have quite enough grunt to keep up with TV3 etc.

Some more details here:

http://bazombo.com/burble/entry/title/digital_tv_on_linux_with_a_pinnacle_usb_stick

although the laptop is now running Jaunty.

The big problem as I understand it is that the Linux implementations of
the codecs used in NZ can't/don't take advantage of any support in
hardware, and are very CPU intensive as a result. So unless you have
some serious CPU power, you will see artefacts on channels that are
sending higher quality video.

I did try Kaffeine but I found the same problems as you. VLC ftw.

Stephen