What you need

1. PC running linux, 2.2.X or greater kernel
2. BT8x8 based tv tuner, capture card
3. Sound card if you want to capture sound

What to do

1. Get your capture card working with xawtv. You can get xawtv here. Don't move on until you can watch and hear TV on your linux box.
2. Download the AVIfile library from here. Get the source tarball and the Win32 codec binaries. Follow instructions in the README and INSTALL files to build and install. This will build aviplay too.
3. Make sure the aumix program is installed. It comes with Redhat so you can check to see if you have it: rpm -qa | grep aumix.
4. Download and build the VCR program. Follow the directions.
5. Copy your .xawtv file to .vcrrc. Add VCR specific options, see my .vcrrc for reference.

Using VCR

• I used xawtv to tune in the station that I wanted to record. Since I had set the codec and bitrate in the rc file I could run this command to capture 10 minutes of TV:
  vcr -t 10m test.avi