Sharpee’s Space

Guide to using the USB ATI TV Wonder 600 device with Ubuntu “Lucid” 10.04 (probably applies to other versions as well)

The easy way:
sudo apt-get install me-tv

Run Me-Tv:
me-tv

Select the “US NTSC xxxxxx” frequency file and do a scan.

Tada…

The hard way

From: http://linuxhacksandfixes.blogspot.com/2009/11/watch-tv-with-ati-tv-wonder-600-usb.html

Install the Linux Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) applications:
sudo apt-get install dvb-apps w-scan vlc mplayer

Change into the /lib/firmware folder:
sudo wget http://steventoth.net/linux/hvr1400/xc3028L-v36.fw

Create Channels for USA:
scan /usr/share/dvb/atsc/us-NTSC-center-frequencies-8VSB -o zap -a 0 | tee ~/channels.conf

You will get a bunch of “WARNING” messages.. Dont panic this is just the program letting you know it couldnt find content on that channel (it scans all known US frequencies for TV channels)

Watch HDTV!
vlc ~/channels.conf

Just a quick note here as using this device was actually my first time watching Broadcast HDTV. Using the included antenna is absolutely terrible and you will find the video breaking up constantly unless you are sitting on the transmission tower. Unlike analog television of years ago, you will either get crystal clear picture or nothing at all. If you are serious about using this for on the go tv, get a good portable antenna (if you find one let me know).

Noticed a problem with the XBMC box I have in the family room that the audio / video appeared slightly too fast. I took out my watch and timed a minute of video and found it to off by almost 10 secs. Searching on the internet led me to find that the sample rate of the HDMI interface of 48000Khz was not being handled correctly by the default XBMC config.

Doing the following fixed the problem:
-Setup an ALSA plugin to resample the audio
– Create a file /etc/asound.conf file (make sure the card and device numbers are correct for your system.. Run aplay -l to find the right settings)

hdmi {
type hw
card 1
device 3
}
pcm.hdmiconv {
type plug
slave {
pcm "hw:1,3"
rate 48000
}
}

- In XBMC -> Settings -> System -> Audio -> Device -> Custom -> enter ‘hdmiconv’

- Reboot
- Fixed!