TV cards allow can be used to watch broadcast or cable TV on a computer. Most cards accept composite video via an RCA or S-video input and some cards include a FM radio tuner.

FreeBSD provides support for PCI-based TV cards using a Brooktree Bt848/849/878/879 or a Conexant CN-878/Fusion 878a video capture chip with the bktr(4) driver. Ensure the board comes with a supported tuner. Consult bktr(4) for a list of supported tuners.

In order to use the card, the bktr(4) driver must be loaded. To automate this at boot time, add the following line to /boot/loader.conf:

Alternatively, one can statically compile support for the TV card into a custom kernel. In that case, add the following lines to the custom kernel configuration file:

These additional devices are necessary as the card components are interconnected via an I2C bus. Then, build and install a new kernel.

To test the driver, reboot the system. The TV card should appear in the boot messages, as seen in this example:

The messages will differ according to the hardware. Check the messages to determine if the tuner is correctly detected. It is still possible to override some of the detected parameters with sysctl(8) MIBs and kernel configuration file options. For example, to force the tuner to a Philips SECAM tuner, add the following line to a custom kernel configuration file:

or, use sysctl(8):

Refer to bktr(4) and /usr/src/sys/conf/NOTES for more details on the available options.

To use the TV card, install one of the following applications:

More applications are available in the FreeBSD Ports Collection.

If any problems are encountered with the TV card, check that the video capture chip and the tuner are supported by bktr(4) and that the right configuration options were used. For more support and various questions about TV cards, refer to the archives of the freebsd-multimedia mailing list.