CherryTV For Linux

CherryTV is a simple TV remote implemented as a Web page.

I have had a Bt878-based TV tuner for quite a while.

I have not made good use of it, though.

While it works great both in Linux and Windows, I have some hardware issues... my only PC that can take a PCI card is my file server. Which is tucked away in a corner, and lacks any kind of monitor (or mouse. or keyboard).

Watching TV there was not possible. The obvious solution is a streaming video feed that could be accessed everywhere at home using my wireless network.

But... what could I use?

I decided that the simplest streaming server that could be accessed from windows and linux was VLC.

It is a bit tricky to get the right incantation, but here it is:

vlc -v --color v4l:/dev/video --sout '#transcode{vcodec=DIV3,vb=256,scale=1,acodec=mp3, ab=32,channels=2}:std{access=mmsh,mux=asfh,dst=:9998}'

Then you can access it from windows using mms://192.168.1.2 and from Linux using mmsh://192.168.1.2 (if anyone knows why I have to use different URLs, I'd like to know).

It doesn't work from mplayer, which is my default video app, but well.. it works. Then there is a snag... how can you change channels? Well, you can't, it seems. I wrote a throwaway CherryPy app in an hour or so, and I called it CherryTV.

� You use xawtv to build a list of your TV stations using the channel editor. � Copy your .xawtv file as xawtv in CherryTV�s folder (one example included) � Have v4lctl handy, and make sure it works like this: � v4lctl setstation someStationName � Start CherryTV � Start vlc streaming as mentioned above (change IP as needed) � Change stream URLs in cherryTV.py � Start cherryTV.py � Point your favourite browser to http://whatever:8080 � Choose whether your embedded video player works or not, and whether you use mms:// or mmsh:// URLs � Open your external viewer if needed. � Watch TV and be happy.