oops, now: bsd question: how to record a tv stream?

[Da Rock]

On 03/15/12 05:30, Gary Kline wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 02:58:30PM +1000, Da Rock wrote:
>> Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:58:30 +1000
>> From: Da Rock<freebsd-questions at herveybayaustralia.com.au>
>> Subject: Re: oops, now: bsd question: how to record a tv stream?
>> To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
>>
>> On 03/14/12 13:09, Polytropon wrote:
>>> On Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:19:46 -0700, Gary Kline wrote:
>>>> 	i have heard about the "848" or whatever cards for years.
>>>> 	should i have my sister's technician add one?  i understood
>>>> 	everything but your last paragraph.  please do send me the
>>>> 	links....offline i f you think it wise to spare the
>>>> 	bandwidth.
>>> Just to make a note: This is the card I'm using. The model
>>> name is "Haupauge WinTV" and the tuner chip is Brooktree 878.
>>> It is well supported by FreeBSD (and has been for many years).
>>> A "problem" may be that it is a PCI card.
>>>
>>> The programs mplayer and mencoder can be used to address the
>>> tuner and video-in functions of that card, as well as displaying
>>> and storing the received content. You need a HF line to the
>>> card (or an antenna maybe), except you provide the video feed
>> >from a satelite receiver via video-in. In that case, you also
>>> need to provide the audio signal from the receiver to your
>>> sound card's line-in. With mencoder, both sources can be
>>> "combined" and the result can be stored as a video file in
>>> any format and container you want.
>>>
>>> This is the card:
>>>
>>> bktr0 at pci0:0:9:0:       class=0x040000 card=0x13eb0070
>>>                          chip=0x036e109e rev=0x11 hdr=0x00
>>>      vendor     = 'Conexant (Was: Brooktree Corp)'
>>>      device     = 'Bt878/Fusion 878A Mediastream Controller'
>>>      class      = multimedia
>>>      subclass   = video
>>>
>>> The card provides HF-in both for TV and radio, video-in,
>>> audio-out and... not sure what it is. :-)
>>>
>>> You need the kernel modules loaded per
>>>
>>> 	bktr_load="YES"
>>>
>>> in /boot/loader.conf, and the card will work out of the box.
>>> No need to manually and interactively install a "driver". :-)
>>>
>>> The player command is something like
>>>
>>> 	% mplayer tv://1 -vo x11 -ao sdl -tv driver=bsdbt848:device=/dev/bktr0
>>>
>>> and similarly mencoder can be used (-ovc and -oac need to be
>>> adjusted accordingly) to encode to a file.
>>>
>>> I'm not sure how to handle TV ("antenna") input as I've always
>>> been using a raw video feed (from VTR or camera). However, there's
>>> documentation that may help:
>>>
>>> 	http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/tv-input.html
>>>
>>> It also contains an example to "record to file", which will
>>> implement the "software video tape recoder" functionality.
>> Brooktrees would be nice - if you could find them. Given the move to
>> DVB is nearly over, there aren't many analog cards available - or
>> need for them.
>>
>> The new cards use incompatible chipsets (learnt the hard way),
>> including analog and especially DVB; you have to use the cx88 port
>> to use them. Or if you come across a different chipset ensure the
>> card is USB based and use webcamd.
>>
>> Following all that, FBSD works beautifully as a HTPC.
>
> 	GAAWK! This is far, far out of my comfort zone thst i wsill
> 	just skip it for now.  i have my feed from my local telco,
> 	not an antenna....
>
> 	thanks for all the datapoints, guys, but i can vedry well
> 	live without the card.
>
> 	gary
Sorry Gary; It wasn't entirely for your sake that this came up.

For your instance I'd suggest becoming very familiar with 
mplayer/mencoder and friends. You can then pick up the stream and 
re-encode to your liking. There are some addons in web browser that can 
help grab the video as well.