Capture device support (TV tuner) for linux

[Dutchloki]

Boxee looks very good to me. But without some kind of support for capture devices it won't make it into my livingroom. I use a htpc (mythTV/mythBuntu) mainly for watching TV and secundaire for the other neat media tricks it can. Given Boxee brings so much more, but no tuner capabilities.

Why not adding a defaul/official plugin for linux based pc's? this will not cost to much time because the opensource code is there. Only need to think about a generic interface en develop a plugin layer for the default backend (others will follow and based upon this). Media information seem to be already there

ps i know there are some unsupported plugins, but come on... i wont invest my time in it knowing it can discontinue any moment. I rather stay with a stable setup. When Boxee has somekind of tuner functionality or activily supports a plugin to add a backend to do this, i'll reconsider. I keep waching this project and hope for coming features.


some suggestions:

Kaffeine (contains most functions but just does not have the looks of boxee/xbmc. I don't thinks the project aims to be a full blown mediacenter, so this could make the perfect partner also).

Edit:
had MythTV as a suggestion, but the channelzapping speed is currently a to slow and seems not to get fixed in the near future. I would recommend other alternatives.

[Gamester17]

See http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=178

Always search BEFORE you post ...a search for "mythtv" shows that you are not the only one who didn't think about searching before posting

[Dutchloki]

Who says i didn't??? The title and keywords didn't seem to cover the request. By the way by implementing an opensource linux based capture device support you might also make it possible for xbox systems to use external (usb/firewire) devices which are also supported recently.

[vulkan]

there's already mythtv integration in place (taken from xbmc) - just not exposed in ui.
take a look at http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php...ghlight=mythtv

hopefully coming versions would make this a lot easier and integrated.

thanks for the post.

[tsella]

continuing what vulkan says - it would be great if you could help the awesome guys at xbmc getting mythtv backend into place.

also, if you're interested in workarounds, you can try streaming from vlc. this will give you realtime tv (no capture though).

[tsella]

p.s. would appriciate it if you could add tags to the post @gamester17 mentioned, which would fit your search, so it helps other people out

[Dutchloki]

continuing what vulkan says - it would be great if you could help the awesome guys at xbmc getting mythtv backend into place.

also, if you're interested in workarounds, you can try streaming from vlc. this will give you realtime tv (no capture though).

capture, timeshifting, scheduling is one of the great benefits... without no deal for me. But I apreciate your suggestion, thanks.

I'll look into helping the other guys around if its purpose is an official plugin. If its just an add-hoc plug-in with a estimated life-span of a one day fly then I'll pass.

[Gamester17]

When there is official support for a capture device i'm willing to invest my time in helping improving/extening by developing soucecode in xbmc/boxee.

You can help with Boxee development today already indirectly by develop XBMC:
http://app.boxee.tv/download/source

The boxee client software is based on the open-source XBMC media center.

As strong supporters of open-source, and specifically this project, we ask that if you are a developer looking to contribute in any way to boxee, you head to the following:

* XBMC project web site - http://www.xbmc.org
* XBMC community forum - http://www.xbmc.org/forum
* XBMC project on sourceforge - http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbmc/
* XBMC project SVN download - http://sourceforge.net/svn/?group_id=87054

The goal for XBMC is an open API that you can write plugins for any 'back-end' as outlined here:
http://www.xbmc.org/wiki/?title=GSoC...d_PVR_Frontend

Alcoheca has his own branch in the XBMC SVN which you checkout and have a play with:
http://www.xbmc.org/wiki/?title=Appe...elopment_Notes
http://www.xbmc.org/wiki/?title=HOW-...om_source_code

Getting the XBMC source code from Alcoheca branch:

For the first time:

# sudo apt-get install subversion
# cd $HOME
# svn checkout https://xbmc.svn.sourceforge.net/svn...-alcoheca/XBMC

In order to update the source code (and clean old make files):

# cd $HOME/XBMC
# svn up
# make clean

You can follow the progress in the XBMC forums (dicussion is spead out over several topic-threads as per the API concept design):
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=28918
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=32212
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=34186

Just a few of the suggested plugins (Team-XBMC will of course not be able to develop/maintain all of these ourselves):
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2297 <= MythTV
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5376 <= MediaPortal
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=951 <= Linux VDR
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6636 <= Microsoft Windows Media Center
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3548 <= SageTV
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=31582 <= EyeTV
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=31567 <= HTS TVheadend
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=23834 <= Dreambox/Dbox2
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=25099 <= HDHomeRun
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=26151 <= HAVA Wireless HD

[Dutchloki]

When the xbmc team chooses one as their default to support (or more) then I'll jump in. I'll take a look at xbmc later this week. Thanks for the pointers

[Gamester17]

As told before, I only consider to help when xbmc chooses an default backend system.

We, Team-XBMC, have already choosen MythTV as the reference back-end, so that will be the 'default'