How to Run TBS 6925 Digital Tuner card on Linux and Ubuntu

Ubuntu Linux is a great basis for a general purpose MythTV Media Centre and has the latest version of MythTV (0.22) ready to install from its DVB software repositories. This guide shows you how to get MythTV working for free-to-air digital satellite channels in the UK with the new TBS 6925 card. However, much of it will be applicable to anyone using a DVB-S/s2 tv card.

Hardware
Freesat currently uses the DVB-S standard for all channels, but the HD channels may be changing to use DVB-S2 at some point in the future. For that reason, it may be worth investing in a DVB-S2 card such as the TBS 6925. Different from the other Linux TV card, TBS 6925 is intended for professional use. It can support 16APSK/32APSK transponders, DVB s2 CCM, DVB s2 VCM and DVB s2 ACM mode. The key feature of this sat pc card is to capture multiple Transport Stream and Generic Stream up to 190 Mbit/s channel bit rate and support a Wide range symbol rates from 200Ksps to 45Msps. It works seamlessly with Linux system and supports Mythtv well. It has updated the latest Linux driver which supports all kernels up to 2.6.38. No double it is the best mythtv supported card. MythTV can record and play the HD channels as long as your PC is capable.
Installation MythTV on Ubunt
You have two choices when installing MythTV on Ubuntu. You can either install from the standard Ubuntu, Kubuntu or Xubuntu CD and then add the additional packages or try the ready made Mythbuntu distribution.Mythbuntu contains all the packages you need for Ubuntu and MythTV on one CD. It is especially recommended for beginners when installing from scratch. However, it uses the Xfce desktop which, in my opinion, is not as polished as the standard Gnome desktop. For this reason I prefer to install from the standard Ubuntu CD and then load the MythTV packages on top.You can download the latest Ubuntu CD image from here. The Desktop Edition is probably the one to go for. This is a live CD, so may take a while to boot up before you can click the "install" icon on the desktop. Follow the steps you will be easily to setup Mythtv on Ubunt.
Installing TBS 6925
Turn off your computer and unplug it from the wall. Open up the case and look for a short, white card expansion connector on the motherboard. Next to it should be at least two more white connectors that look similar but are longer. If this connector is already being used by another card, you can still install your tuner in a long connector. The PCIe card with TV tuner for Linux will still run as a PCIe x1 when installed into the longerx4/ x8 or x16 connector.
The next is to install the Linux drivers for TBS 6925. You can find it the latest Linux kernel on the attaching CD or download it directly from buydvb.
Run TBS 6925 Tuner card on Linux and Ubuntu
To configure Myth, you run the mythtv-setup utility and step through the options. Select it from the menu: System->Administration->MythTV Backend Setup.Once you have logged in again, run MythTV Backend Setup once more. Click OK to stop the mythbackend process and and the mythtv-setup utility should run. Select TBS 6925 DVB S2 card, change the Card Type to "DVB s2 capture card (v3.x)". It should detect it and show your card details. It is possible to use "virtual tuners" to record more than one channel on a single tuner as long as they are on the same multiplex. Select the "Recording Options" button and set "Max Recordings" to >1. This governs how many simultaneous recordings can be made from theTBS 6925. There are currently up to 20 channels broadcast on a Freeview multiplex. See here for more details.If you have two cards or a dual tuner, repeat the above steps, changing the DVB Card Number to 1.
After finding the DVB S2 card with the video source, A good Display Name would be "Freeview". Set the Video source to the one we've just defined, "EIT".Hit "Scan for channels" and set the correct country. Hopefully, this will find a load of channels and radio stations. Go here and check you have all the channels you need. If there are any you don't want, uncheck the "Visible" box.On the latest versions of MythTV there is a button on here to download the channel icons.
Now you can exit the setup utility. It will ask you if you want to run mythfilldatabase. Answer NO because we're using the EIT. Now run a MythTV Frontend from the menu: Applications->Sound & Video->MythTV FrontendAt this point you should finally be able to watch Freesat HD TV!
As we know, TBS 6925 is a professional satellite card. Many unknown or locking satellite frequency and transponders can be scanned under 16APSK/32APSK .More surprises would be waiting for your with this amazing sat pc card.
Related Articles
1. Special Satellite Frequency that TBS6925 can receive
2. How to Use TBS6925 watch satellite TV with XBMC and MythTV
3. TBS 6925- Most Professional Satellite TV tuner Card

How to Use TBS6925 watch satellite TV with XBMC and MythTV

To watch satellite TV on your PC with XBMC and MythTV, you'll need at least one satellite TV tuner card or a satellite provider that offers satellite IPTV access. That Linux TV card hardware doesn't have to be installed on the same computer on which you want to watch HDTV. We'll call the computer with the tuner hardware the backend. The computer used to view TV will be called the frontend. The backend and frontend can be one and the same machine. XBMC will be run on the frontend on linux

TBS6925 PCI-E DVB-S2 Card is a new released professional satellite TV tuner card, which is regarded as one of the best TV tuner card for Mythtv or linux. This mythtv TV card can capture 16 APSK and 32APSK Demodulator. It also supports CCM, VCM, and ACM mode at the same time. The key feature is that TBS 6925 can receiver multiple Transport Stream and Generic Stream .it even can support up to 190 Mbit/s channel bit rate capture. TBS has updated Linux tv tuner drivers which supports all kernels up to 2.6.38, which enable users to freely watch or record HD FTA satellite with XBMC and MythTV in Linux, especially the HD Mediaset channels

As far as we know, XBMC currently supports the following backends:

1. HTS Tvheadend
2. VDR
3. MythTV
4. MediaPortal
5. ForTheRecord

So, if you want to run the TV card on Linux, You'll have to install (at least) one of them.

Set up MythTV on Linux

1.    Set up your TV tuner card as DVB type in mythtv-setup's. On the capture card setup page, you will see a button called "DiSEqC." Highlight it and press enter. Start with a blank screen and the word "(Unconnected)." Highlight "(Unconnected)" and press enter. You will see a list of DVB hardware myth can manage. Select "Switch."

2.    On the switch configuration screen, give your switch a name. In the example, the switch is called "DiSEqC Switch." Set the type to "DiSEqc" For "Number of ports," Choose the number of LNB ports your switch has. Choose "Finish."

3.    You will now see your switch represented in the graph, and an "(Unconnected)" node for each port. We will set up an LNB on Port 1. Choose the first port in the list and press enter. Choose "LNB."

4.    Give the LNB a unique name (a good choice would be the name of the satellite it is aimed at). Choose the LNB Preset type for your locale and select "Finish."

5.    Escape out to the top MythTV-setup menu. Enter the "3. Video Sources" menu. Set up a new listings source for each orbital location even if they are all from the same provider. You can use EIT or any normal Myth grabber.

6.    Escape out to the top Mythtv-setup menu. Enter the "4.Input connections" menu. Highlight your TBS6925 card and press Enter. You will see a screen unique to DiSEqC setup. Select the DiSEqC switch port with the LNB we are setting up (in the example, port 1).

7.    Continue to the next page. Set the video source to the source you set up for this orbital location. When you are satisfied with the settings, highlight and select "Scan For Channels."

8.    MythTV will default to the "Tuned Scan." You will need the transponder frequencies, polarities, and symbol rates for each transponder you wish to scan. If the scan fails, check your dish pointing and/or settings and try again. When the transponder has finished scanning, you can press "Back," and attempt a "Full Scan of Existing Transports" scan type.

Set up XBMC on Linux

XBMC Media Center includes a media source that can communicate with a MythTV backend using the Myth Protocol and MySQL database queries to the mythconverg database. This requires that the MythTV configuration is checked to ensure XBMC will be able to communicate with MythTV, which depends on whether XBMC is running on the same machine.

To communicate with a MythTV backend, add a new Source from the Videos section. The source should have a URL that looks like: myth://username:password@i.p.address This URL needs to be specified manually as many skins don't support the ability to configure a MythTV source.

When you select the newly added MythTV media source five folders will be listed:

• All Recordings - to watch anything that has been recorded all in one folder.
• Guide - to view the EPG for a channel
• Live Channels - to display what is currently being aired
• Movies - to list the movies that have been recorded
• TV Shows - to list each series of TV shows that have been recorded

Watching Live TV

After choosing Live Channels a listing of the channels used by MythTV is displayed.

When a channel is chosen, the currently playing TV show on that channel is shown.

Note that channel changes can take some time depending on the DVB-S2 tuner card and configuration being used by MythTV.

Viewing the Electronic Program Guide (EPG)

After choosing Guide a listing of channels used by MythTV is shown.

When a channel is chosen, the listing of upcoming programs on that channel is displayed.

There is a future project to be able to schedule programs to record from the EPG similar to the functionality available in the MythTV frontend.

The last thing is to enjoy the HD satellite programs as you like. That is to say, TBS 6925 would be a perfect TV tuner card for Mythtv .You should never miss it.

Related article: TBS 6925- Most Professional Satellite TV tuner Card

TBS PCI-E TV Tuner Card Comparison