What’s all this then?

In the UK (and many places throughout the world) there are digital TV platforms available via satellite (or sometimes Terrestrial transmitters) which allow you to receive their programming with no subscription using standard DVBs/DVB-S (or DVB-T) equipment. Many set top boxes that can access these platforms are ‘closed’ and do not offer much in the way of choice, add-ons or upgrades not to mention the fact many have no High Definition capability. This is a guide to how to turn your linux box into a fully fledged HD digital TV reception platform with recording, pausing, rewinding of live TV as well as many other features such as commercial break removal, access to interactive content and electronic program guide (EPG). You can watch TV (live or recorded) from any networked PC in your house, as well as run a web interface to allow you to schedule, view, watch and delete recordings from any PC in your house (or to the web if you have the bandwidth and a way to forward your web server IP to the public internet). While this guide is based around the UK Freesat platform, using a different tuner card (such as a DVB-T card instead of DVB-S) it can easily be adapted to Terrestrial broadcasting.

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