The VideoLAN Forums

frankly, i think it is most simple software (and one that works with my theatre 550 pro tv card) to use for watching TV.

is there a way to assign hotkeys to switch tv-tuner channels?

is there a way to make a channel list?
or intergrate free tv-guide options, like Zap2it?

regards,
Leon

You can make a m3u playlist and then switch channel with N and P.

My m3u playlist looks like this when opened in notepad:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1,Viasat Explorer
#EXTVLCOPT:dshow-tuner-channel=1
dshow://
#EXTINF:-1,SVT 1
#EXTVLCOPT:dshow-tuner-channel=4
dshow://
#EXTINF:-1,Kanal 5
#EXTVLCOPT:dshow-tuner-channel=20
dshow://
#EXTINF:-1,SVT 2
#EXTVLCOPT:dshow-tuner-channel=21
dshow://
#EXTINF:-1,TV 4
#EXTVLCOPT:dshow-tuner-channel=23
dshow://
#EXTINF:-1,TV 3
#EXTVLCOPT:dshow-tuner-channel=25
dshow://
#EXTINF:-1,BBC Prime
#EXTVLCOPT:dshow-tuner-channel=26
dshow://
#EXTINF:-1,Eurosport
#EXTVLCOPT:dshow-tuner-channel=28
dshow://

thanks, excellent, that works....but....

for my sound which works through the PCI bus, i had to change my m3u to this to work:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1,Viasat Explorer
#EXTVLCOPT:dshow-adev=ATI AVStream Analog Audio Capture
#EXTVLCOPT:dshow-tuner-channel=1
dshow://
#EXTINF:-1,SVT 1
#EXTVLCOPT:dshow-adev=ATI AVStream Analog Audio Capture
#EXTVLCOPT:dshow-tuner-channel=4
dshow://

the channel switching takes a good amount longer than other PVR programs like chris-tv or gb-pvr, any ideas on a way to improve this? i'm sure it has to do with needless driver reinitiallization for every channel.

thanks,
Leon

If you set up VLC correctly the extra information should not be neccessary. The other way around would be to set every option in the m3u.

I did not notice channel switching take annoying amount of time so I can't help you there.

OK, I'll bite. What is the correct way to set up VLC for a PVR-150 so that you don't have to enter everything into m3u?

Also, what about integration with Zap2It or other program information services? Integration of a remote, perhaps through Girder?

The gist of this question, as for other newbies like myself, is what kind of schemes work for setting up VLC as a PVR? I think most people will agree this is probably the best player around, and it seems to have all the hooks to do what MythTV or GB-PVR does. However, there is no HOWTO that I can find that collects this info in one place. Is there one? If not, and the functionality is there, I'd be willing to put something together if you can point me in right direction to learn what I need to.

To make myself a bit more clear. If you setup your capture device in "Settings -> Preferences" you do not need to enter the information either in the open dialog or in the m3u file.

I never tried combining any scheduling program with VLC, my solutions are quite hacky at most time. I used Windows Task Scheduler and VirtualVCR and made only some small attempts to replace that with Task Scheduler and VLC.