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How to guide for streaming digital TV on your local network.

Things you will need

• Windows PC on your network with one or more TV tuner cards installed - this can be pretty much any version of Windows, and it does not need to be one that includes Windows Media Center.
• VLC Media Player - this can be downloaded for free from here: http://www.videolan.org Installing this should be pretty straight-forward
• TV antenna with decent reception - probably goes without saying, but you will need to ensure that the TV tuner(s) in your PC are getting adequate signal to sustain a clear image and sound. The dodgy antenna that came with the tuner cards are probably not going to be good enough!

Find TV network frequencies

This is going to be dependent on your location and what TV services are available in your area, you may need to use Google or other sources to work out which TV networks are broadcasting on which frequencies. In South Australia the TV frequencies are:

Adelaide – Mt Lofty Towers
Name------------Frequency-Bandwidth-Program-Video-Audio/Type--Resolution 
44 Adelaide-----543500----7MHz------3585----100---101/MPG-----720x576i
ABC-------------226500----7MHz------593-----512---650/MPG-----720x576i
ABC2/4----------226500----7MHz------594-----2307--2308/MPG----720x576i
ABC3------------226500----7MHz------596-----2311--2312/MPG----720x576i
ABC News 24-----226500----7MHz------592-----2314--2315/AC3----1280x720p
ABC Dig Radio---226500----7MHz------598-----------2317/MPG
ABC Jazz--------226500----7MHz------599-----------2318/MPG
SBS One---------564500----7MHz------833-----161---81/MPG------720x576i
SBS One HD------564500----7MHz------837-----102---103/MPG-----1280x720p
SBS Two---------564500----7MHz------834-----162---83/MPG------720x576i
SBS Radio 1-----564500----7MHz------846-----------201/MPG
SBS Radio 2-----564500----7MHz------847-----------202/MPG
7 Digital-------177500----7MHz------1364----1281--1282/MPG----720x576i
7TWO------------177500----7MHz------1362----1313--1314/MPG----720x576i
7mate-----------177500----7MHz------1363----1329--1331/AC3----1440x1080i
TV4ME-----------177500----7MHz------1367----1393--1394/MPG----720x576i
Nine Digital----191625----7MHz------1105----512---650/MPG-----720x576i
GEM-------------191625----7MHz------1112----513---651/AC3-----1440x1080i
GO!-------------191625----7MHz------1106----514---652/MPG-----720x576i
TEN Digital-----219500----7MHz------1621----512---650/MPG-----720x576i
Eleven----------219500----7MHz------1624----516---681/MPG-----720x576i
One HD----------219500----7MHz------1617----514---672/AC3-----1440x1080i 

Thanks Whirlpool!

Once you have the TV frequency info for your local area, fire up VLC.

Unicast, Broadcast or Multicast TV Stream

You have a few choices when it comes to the type os stream that you wish to use - Unicast, Broadcast or Multicast. Unicast is the easiest to setup, and you do not need any special or sophisticated networking gear to make it happen. It is also the most inefficient in terms of how it uses the network adaptor in your streaming PC

Setup Unicast

Find broadcast address of your network

http://www.subnet-calculator.com

Optional - enable wireless broadcast on wifi controllers

Disable media center services

Setup VLC to stream  

Create desktop icon for end users

References

http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help

http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/digital_channels

http://www.subnet-calculator.com