DVB-TV USB Stick on Linux (Fedora 10)
on a Dell Latitude D610 Laptop
Aaron Sloman
Running Fedora 10.
(Kernel: 2.6.27.30-170.2.82_1.cubbi_tuxonice.fc10.i686)

What I did:

I managed, after some false starts, to get it working on my laptop running fedora 10.

Crucial steps:

• Get the firmware

      wget http://www.wi-bw.tfh-wildau.de/~pboettch/home/linux-dvb-firmware/dvb-usb-dib0700-1.10.fw
  

• copy into /lib/firmware
• Plug in usb stick, and check that it is recognized, in /var/log/messages

  This is what I got in /var/log/messages, minus stuff at the beginning of each line:

      usb 1-5: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6
      usb 1-5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
      dvb-usb: found a 'Pinnacle PCTV 72e' in cold state, will try to load a firmware
      firmware: requesting dvb-usb-dib0700-1.10.fw
      dvb-usb: downloading firmware from file 'dvb-usb-dib0700-1.10.fw'
      dib0700: firmware started successfully.
      dvb-usb: found a 'Pinnacle PCTV 72e' in warm state.
      dvb-usb: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer.
      DVB: registering new adapter (Pinnacle PCTV 72e)
      DVB: registering frontend 0 (DiBcom 7000PC)...
      DiB0070: successfully identified
      input: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-5/input/input12
      dvb-usb: schedule remote query interval to 150 msecs.
      dvb-usb: Pinnacle PCTV 72e successfully initialized and connected.
      usb 1-5: New USB device found, idVendor=2304, idProduct=0236
      usb 1-5: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
      usb 1-5: Product: Pinnacle 72e
      usb 1-5: Manufacturer: LITEON
      usb 1-5: SerialNumber: 8UQ
  

• Do scanning to get the channels avaiable:

          w_scan -f t -A 1 -c GB -X > channels.conf
  

  It took a long time (about 8 minutes??) but found 64 channels (TV and radio), using rooftop tv aerial rather than the indoor aerial that came in the box.
• Run vlc, using the channels list:

          vlc channels.conf
  

I had actually installed mythtv, thinking I might need it, but that turned out to be unnecessary.

I have not yet tried using the remote control that came with it. I don't know whether there's any hope of it working without the manufacturer's windows software.

Next I tried plugging in the little indoor aerial supplied with the stick, in my study upstairs instead of the external aerial cable available only downstairs.

I could get it to work upstairs, but only near a window with the aerial suspended in a very specific location near the top of the window!

(w_scan worked there too.)

However not all the listed channels seemed to work.

I shall try with an amplified indoor aerial, later.

Maintained by Aaron Sloman A.Sloman@cs.bham.ac.uk
First Created: 17 Oct 2009
Last Updated: 17 Oct 2009