i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

I don't watch much tv. At my remote location, I've got this old black & white tv, one of those digital converters, and some rabbit ears.

...

I've also got a Kworld pvr 305u usb tuner, which I got some time ago -- about the time I gave up on Windows viable operating system.

It would therefore seem if I hooked up rabbit ears>digital converter> pvr 305u> old computer, I would have an instant color tv instead of pathetic black and white one. My old laptop is a 17" one, so that would seem reasonable.

Thus began the "issues". Well, first of all, I cannot find the firmware for the Kworld device in order to run it in Linux. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying.

Nextly, I seldom boot the old computer into Windows, due to the fact it is an HP laptop with a defective video system. It works fine in Linux, but booting to windows is an Ordeal, due to it dying BSOD repeatedly upon encountering one of the drivers. But, for a few times only, it decided to humor me and boot.

This led to 46 Windows XP updates and an entirely new non-booting scenario. In the interim while it was actually booted I installed VLC and thusly I could watch color tv via the Kworld device. There were some "unfortunatelies" to append to that statement. Not the least of which is that I do not get any audio feed, I don't know why (with either VLC -or- the software that came with the Kworld device). However, I did not notice the audio for some time since I was using a cable splitter and had audio from the actual tv. There is also another potential work-around, since the digital converter offers a line-out audio feed directly from the box. But, that adds more wires and additional complications.

Another unfortunately is that I do not understand the various VLC options. The feed is in a rather strange aspect ratio and then there is some echo feed below that. So, I use the "crop" option to cut things down to size, but I seem to lose some of the top of the feed as well. Even worse, every time I start VLC I have to go through the same nonsense. But, as far as I know, the software that came with the Kworld device will not expand to full screen, so thus my dilemma.

And then again, once the 46 Windows XP updates installed, the computer slowed down the the official "Microsoft Crawl" that is required of aging computers foolish enough to run Windows. And then again, worse, the system locked up, crashed and I have thereafter been unable to boot into Windows at all. I got past the normal BSOD one time, but it refused to load anyway and then crashed sometime later while I was out and about. (I thought maybe it was repeating the XP-SP3 install since it had crashed without a normal shutdown after doing it the first time -- which took a long time in the first instance.)

So, I am back to no color tv. Maybe I can just find an obsolete non-digital one at a yard sale somewhere. The other option is to purchase a dvb device that is actually supported in linux, but that seems to be a $150 investment.

We are not having fun yet.