Hands on help: Watching TV on a PC

Q I have a small PC that I would like to use to record and play back television. I have no special hardware, just a plain system with a graphics card and a hard drive. I don’t have any version of Linux installed yet, but I am quite familiar with the OS. What hardware and software do I need to get this working?
Matthew Sanders

A First of all you will need a device to capture the video. These are available as PCI cards or USB sticks (see our group test).

Second, you need to decide whether you want to record digital or analogue terrestrial TV, as you will need a different device for each. It is probably best to go for digital since it gives you more channels as well as a few radio stations.

Unfortunately manufacturers of these capture devices rarely, if ever, give any advice about support beyond Windows. A good place to start is linuxtv.org/wiki for some details on supported hardware.

Support in Linux is generally quite good for the hardware, though you will need to be running an up-to-date distribution to stand any chance of getting it going easily. Digital receivers deliver the video in mpeg2 format (the same as on a video DVD), and can easily be recorded and played back on a modestly powered computer.

The cheaper analogue receivers need the computer to convert the video format, and thus require a more powerful CPU.

When you have tested the hardware and confirmed that it is working, have a look at MythTV. This is an application that can do just about anything you would want with a TV receiver, and turns your PC into a full multimedia unit.