Over the past couple of weeks I have gotten comfortable with Me-TV. Now with a fresh install of Mint 12, I downloaded three TV packages (via Mint Software Manager): TV Time, XAWTV, and Me-TV. That might be a good topic for another post. thunderbird old folders (from backup) into the new Mint file structure. So I am happy.īy the way, getting my Firefox and Thunderbird configurations set up again the way I had them was amazingly fast and simple in Linux. I really cannot see a difference between how the displays are now (default Mint drivers) versus how the displays were before (NVidia proprietary drivers). And instead of installing the NVidia graphics card drivers, I simply used the default drivers in Mint 12 to configure my dual monitor set up. So, I backed up everything, reinstalled the TV card, booted with the Mint DVD, and reinstalled Mint 12 from scratch. I suspected the NVidia drivers I installed. For kicks, I booted my computer (with the WinTV card installed) using the Mint 12 DVD (for a live session) - and the TV worked! This caused me to conclude that some configuration I did with my permanent install of Mint was creating the problem. Well, my Mint 12 computer would not boot up with the card installed! I did more research I tried lots of things and nothing worked.

In theory, I should be able to power down the computer, install the WinTV in a PCI slot, power up the computer, and start watching TV. Linux Mint (and Ubuntu) have the drivers for this WinTV card built into the OS. The next challenge was to actually install it and get it to work! This turned out to be a challenge, and maybe a needless challenge had I done things in a different order. This is a card that fits in a PCI expansion slot in a desktop computer. I believe Hauppauge sells these directly from their web site for $79. In my case I located the Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1600 (model 1178 / version 74021) on Craig’s List for $40. It contains lots of detailed information about each of their products, including photos, manuals, and even tips for using their products under Linux: The Hauppauge company web site is excellent. The leading manufacturer of TV reception devices for computers appears to be Hauppauge: I found this web site very helpful for compatibility research: The first step was to do some research into the TV devices that would have the features I want *AND* work in a Linux environment. conversion to digital television I have been wanting to try integrating TV reception into my desktop computer.

Wintv hvr 850 linux