Tools for Timeshifting

Make use of your TV

This is the directly related to the current focus of some of our work.

Note: Timeshifting is defined (in the UK), along the lines of as being you recording something at your home off the TV for you to watch (probably once) at a more convenient time. One of the spin offs from some existing internal work will be that it provides a number of tools that make timeshifting easier. Please note, this page won't contain any legal advice, and these tools are only provided for legal timeshifting! If you've any doubt what these terms mean, or think you might get it wrong, please consult a lawyer ! If you're located in a country where timeshifting isn't protected by law, don't use these tools.

The simplest PVR possible

Use cron to run and kill the following program at an appropriate point in time:

#!/usr/bin/python

from Kamaelia.DVB.Simple import DVB_Channel_Tuner
from Kamaelia.File.Writing import SimpleFileWriter

multiplex_frequency = 538 # In MHz. This will vary for your area
video _pid = 701 # Channels are multiplexed and video streams are given a programme id (pid)
audio_pid = 702 # Audio is separated out from video in DVB multiplexes.
recording_filename = "programmge.mpg"

pipeline(
      DVB_Channel_Tuner(multiplex_frequency, [video _pid, audio_pid]),
       SimpleFileWriter(recording_filename)
).run()

The resulting file might then need some conversion for playback by your favourite media player (obviously you'll delete the programme after watching it).

Michael, 28 January 2006