Hauppauge WinTV MiniStick on Linux – Digital TV in Uganda

As Uganda prepares to migrate to digital TV broadcasts in 2012, I have been testing some of the pilot broadcasts out there. I’m using Linux i.e. Fedora 12 – Kernel version: 2.6.32.21-168.fc12.i686 and an off-the shelf USB Hauppauge WinTV MiniStick.

– The first major task is to get the DVB-T USB stick to be recognized.
– Open the terminal: run the command ‘tail -f /var/log/messages’

The first time you insert the USB Stick. It will not be recognized out of the box as shown in the following errors:

firmware: requesting sms1xxx-hcw-55xxx-dvbt-02.fw
firmware.sh[4212]: Cannot find firmware file ‘sms1xxx-hcw-55xxx-dvbt-02.fw

– Remove WinTV USB stick

– cd /lib/firmware/

– wget -c http://www.steventoth.net/linux/sms1xxx/sms1xxx-hcw-55xxx-dvbt-02.fw

– Plug in Stick again

– This time it is recognized and you’ll see the following in the log:

kernel: DVB: registering new adapter (Hauppauge WinTV MiniStick)
kernel: DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Siano Mobile Digital MDTV Receiver)…

– OK, time to scan for some channels. I have whipped up a quick and dirty script that will allow you to scan for free view channels in your area.

– Download the script at: My DVB-T Scan Script
NOTE: For this script you need to first install w_scan utility i.e. In Fedora, yum -vy install w_scan

– Run the script i.e. sh vb_scan_ug.sh (You may need to first make it executable – chmod 755 vb_scan_ug.sh)

– After a successful run, the script will place your channels file to the appropriate location.

– Time to play. Open your favorite media application. I am using xine.
Run the command: xine dvb:// (You can also use the GUI – click on DVB)

Enjoy