TV card & Ubuntu

[david]

On Mon, 2004-12-06 at 04:51 +0100, Emil Oppeln-Bronikowski wrote:
>  Hi there.
> 
>  Im going to buy a Canal Plus sattellite dish and watch some sports events. ;-) Dose anyone has a TV card plugged into his box and can share opinion on what's worth to buy and how dose Ubuntu dealing with sutch cards?
> 
>  ps. I'd like to hello again for all Ubuntu developers and users. Im back on the list after being stuck at work. :-)
> 
> -- 
> ,'''.  | Emil Oppeln-Bronikowski, TPnets.com departament of software
> : :' : | http://opi.pegasos.pl      
> `. `'  |       
>   `-   | Debian GNU/Linux on desktop ;-)
> 

TV Cards can be a nightmare. The problem being that some manufacturers
are using Conexant chipsets either for the picture or audio. I bought
myself a wintv go based on the reviews and praise from the Linux
community, only to discover it doesn't work. It didn't work when I
bought it last December and despite trying it with at least 8 or 9
distros and kernels ranging from 2.4 - 2.6.9 and it still does NOT work.
At work I was asked to put a system together using Linux that had a TV
card and we tried 4 and all of them took us to the same place.
Manufacturer just changed to conexant chipset and now whatever the
conexant chipset does doesn't work with Linux.(And no, I don't see why I
should learn how to write my own device drivers just so I can watch a
bit of telly now and then.) In the end at work we bought an external box
to use that plugs into a monitor. 
So, if you find a card that Linux sites appear to say works, check it
first to make sure the chipset hasn't recently changed.
And if you do find a "guaranteed to work" card that really does work,
please post the model/make here cus I been waiting for a year now and
still all I see is snow and white noise.

regards

David