User interface

Before getting the Hero, the only touch-screen phones I had tried were the iPhone and the Nokia N97. I really hoped that the Hero could live up to the iPhone that I couldn’t get. Just turning on the phone and seeing the screen, and going through the setup wizard showed that HTC had done a really good job with this phone. They have built a coherent look and feel to the entire experience, called Sense UI. In my opinion, Sense UI is very intuitive. Most functions can be found where you’d think they are. The user interface is really polished and professional looking, unlike the N0kia N97 I had tried earlier.

The initial firmware supplied with the phone was a bit laggy, especially when running many applications. One of my biggest surprises when I moved to Android was that there wasn’t any kind of task manager to kill apps with. Fortunately, there are several applications in the Android Market to help out with this problem. The one I liked the best was Advanced Task Killer Free. It allows you to check applications that you want to kill and then kill them with one tap. The Task Killer remembers which applications you have previously selected, so once you have selected the apps you always want to keep running, you can quickly just tap “Kill all selected apps” and have all the unnecessary apps shut down.

A firmware update came out later and made the phone significantly faster. It eliminated animations from some widgets, like the default clock/weather applet, but made the Hero much more pleasant to use.

What impressed me the most during the setup was that by entering my Google account details, the phone had set up all my contacts and calendar events. Even the correct internet APN was provided,  so I could get to surfing immediately. By entering your Facebook login information, you can have the phone match your contacts to Facebook friends and pull their photos to your contact list.

HTC has extended the number of home screens to seven. All home screens are completely customizable with widgets and icons. Comparing this to the iPhone makes the iPhone’s static grid of icons seem very outdated. For example, my home screen shows me at a glance the time, weather, next calendar appointment and shortcuts to my most used applications.

Browser

The browser on the Hero is WebKit based like the iPhone’s Mobile Safari. This, along with the same screen size, makes most iPhone web apps, like Facebook, work flawlessly on the Hero. Unlike most other Android devices, the HTC Hero has multi touch support with the familiar pinch-to-zoom gestures. The browser is fast and really makes it possible to view full web pages on the phone. Even though the Hero has Flash-support in the browser, it makes browsing a lot slower. This is because most of the Flash content on web pages is ads that don’t add any value to the content. By turning off the Flash plugin from the settings menu, the browser becomes even faster.

Google Maps

Another essential application in a smart phone is the map/navigation app. Google maps works very well on the Hero, even though it still seems to miss a couple of features. One of the missing features is the multi touch support that is used by most other applications on the phone. By not supporting pinch-zooming, the application feels out of place on the phone. Google maps does not either take advantage of the compass in the Hero to orient the map.

What I really miss from Google Maps, though, is navigation support. I hope that the rumored Android 2.1 update will bring navigation support also to the Hero (and to Finland).

One of the uses of Google Maps: finding food.

Email

The Hero comes with two mail clients, which is kind of confusing. One mail client is the default Android Gmail client. In addition to that, HTC have supplied an own email client that supports multiple mailboxes. I needed my phone to check all of my email accounts, so I chose the HTC email client.

In order for the client to display HTML emails, I had to change the maximum message size limit to more than 5kb (text only), which was the default option. I also had to disable Android’s Gmail syncing as I would get two notifications for every Gmail I received.

The mail client itself is quite nice. It displays HTML emails in the same way the browser would, and supports multitouch gestures. It allows you to choose how much mail you want to automatically download and you always have to manually download attachments, so there is no risk that the phone will start downloading huge attachments by itself.

Calendar

The calendar on the HTC Hero uses Google Calendar and automatically syncs events to and from Google Cal. By default, however, it uses a local calendar for some reason. I found it easiest to just hide the local calendar and use my Google calendars instead.

The Calendar application shows each different calendar with the same color coding as on the web. This makes it very convenient to have shared calendars and set up meetings from your phone that will automatically be synced to all those you share your Google calendar with.

Syncing

Syncing the Hero is dead simple. All you have to do is add a contact or calendar appointment, either from the phone or from the web and they will automatically sync over the air. This was a huge improvement form my previous Nokia and Windows Mobile phones that required manual syncing. In my experience, manual syncing = no syncing.

Other applications

There are also a whole lot of other smaller applications included in the phone. The phone will always stay logged on to Google Talk, which is a handy and cheap alternative to SMS for those who have your gtalk username.

The SMS/MMS application collects all messages to one person into a chat-like thread. It makes it simple to keep track of the discussion even if it has been a while since the last message.

Another nice touch on the Hero is that all communication with a contact can be seen from their contact page in the contacts app. It lists all messages and email correspondence you’ve had with that contact in one easy to find location.

In addition to all these apps, you can choose and install from tens of thousands of applications from the Android Market. You can see some of my favorite apps in my earlier post.

Build quality and battery life

The biggest weakness of the Hero is the same weakness that plagues all large-screened smart phones – battery life. During normal use, the battery lasts about a day and a half, but in real life you will want to charge it daily. On a positive note, I’ve never had the battery die on me during a day of usage.

The build quality of the device is fairly solid. I have still not got any scratches on the screen, and the screen stays easily clean as it is oil-repellant. A minor complaint about the build is that the back cover gets a bit loose after being taken off a few times. It squeaks a little if pressed near the volume button.

It was also nice to notice that iPhone headsets worked on the Hero, allowing me to both talk and control music.

Conclusions

I can honestly say that this is the best phone I’ve owned. Even though I got it because I couldn’t buy an iPhone, I’m more than happy with my choice. I wouldn’t trade it for an iPhone anymore, it offers me much more functionality and I like the openness of the Android plattform. Even though the phone is starting to get old in gadget-years, I can easily recommend that you get one if you find one cheap.

Note: This post is from my earlier site. I moved it over here because I see that a lot of people are trying to access it without finding it. It is written in 2007, so all content may not be up to date. You can report successes/failures in the comments so I know if it needs to be updated.

I found a really cheap refurbished Pinnacle PCTV USB DVB-T receiver in my local computer store and after googling to make sure it supported Linux I bought it. Here’s how I made it work in Linux.

The USB stick itself is fairly small, although it is just wide enough to block the other USB port on my laptop. It came with a small antenna with a magnetic stand and a tiny remote. The antenna is connected to the USB stick with a regular antenna connector, you can easily connect it to a better antenna if needed.

In this article I’ll show you how I first set up the drivers for the tuner, then setting up kaffeine for viewing TV and lastly configuring the remote. The steps should be fairly easy to follow if you’ve used the console before – if not, just copy n paste and you should be fine.

This article is about the Pinnacle PCTV USB Stick DVB-T receiver, but the same steps should work for any device using the em2880 driver. According to the em28xx wiki, these devices should also work:

Digital devices:

• Pinnacle/800e|Pinnacle HD Pro Stick (North American version, NTSC/ATSC)
• Kworld 350 U DVB-T
• Kworld 310 U
• MSI DigiVox A/D (USB2.0)
• Hauppauge HVR 950 (NTSC/ATSC)
• Hauppauge WinTV HVR 900 M/R: 65008/A1C0
• Terratec Cinergy Hybrid T XS – ZL10353
• Terratec Cinergy Hybrid T XS – MT352
• Terratec Cinergy Hybrid T XS France
• Terratec Prodigy Hybrid T XS
• Terratec Cinergy T XS – xc3028
• Terratec Cinergy T XS – mt2060
• Pinnacle PCTV USB Stick
• DNT DA2 Hybrid
• Pinnacle PCTV Hybrid Pro Stick
• Empire USB 2.0 Pen Dual TV
• BestBuy Easy TV USB hybrid

Analog devices:

• Usbgear VD204v9
• Leadtek Winfast USB II deluxe
• SIIG AVTuner-PVR
• Prolink PlayTV USB 2.0
• Terratec Cinergy 250 USB
• Pinnacle PCTV USB 2
• Hauppauge WinTV USB 2
• MSI VOX USB 2.0
• Pinnacle Dazzle DVC 90
• Kworld PVR TV 2800 RF
• Hercules Smart TV USB 2.0
• MSI Movie Vox
• D-Link DUB-T210 TV Tuner
• Gadmei UTV 330
• Gadmei UTV 310
• Supertronindia Supercomp TV USB 2.0

Programs needed

You will need the following programs for this to work, we’ll install everything up front so we can concentrate on the more interesting stuff later.

• a recent kernel with sources, 2.6.15 and newer should be fine (install kernel-sources in SuSE)
• Hg from http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/ (in SuSE you should find a package named mercurial)
• kaffeine with the xine engine (in SuSE, add packman and guru repositories and install kaffeine, libxine and libxine-dvb)
• lineak with kde plugin (on SuSE, install lineakd, lineakd_kde and lineak_defaultplugin)
• gcc compiler, is included on most distros by default
• dvb package (dvb in SuSE)

For Ubuntu (Edgy) you’ll need the following packages:

All should be available from the default repositories, make sure to have the “Universe” repositories enabled (under System>Administration>Software Sources).

• mercurial
• gcc
• build-essential
• linux-source
• linux-headers-`uname -r` (the linux headers for your specific kernel version)
• kaffeine (version 0.8 or above. Other dvb watching applications will work as well but only kaffeine will be covered here)

Otherwise the install works the same as for SuSE.

Downloading and compiling the driver

Some users will need a firmware file to make their devices work, if you see your device listed here follow the directions, if not continue on to installing the driver.

These devices need firmware version 1:

• Terratec Cinergy Hybrid T XS (french edition)
• Terratec Cinergy T XS
• DNT DA2 Hybrid
• Kworld 350U

These devices need firmware version 2:

• MSI DigiVox A/D
• Kworld 310U
• Terratec Cinergy Hybrid T XS (USB ID=0ccd:005e)

These devices need firmware version 3:

• HVR 900 B2C0(sticker on the dev.)
• HVR 900 A1C0
• Terratec Cinergy Hybrid T XS
• Pinnacle PCTV Hybrid Pro
• Pinnacle PCTV Hybrid Pro Stick (320e) (USB ID=eb1a:2881)

These devices need firmware version 4:

• Pinnacle HD Pro Stick (North American version, NTSC/ATSC)

These firmware files can be obtained from here.

IMPORTANT: Download the file into /lib/firmware, then extract them with “sudo tar zxvf filename.tar.gz”
Getting and installing the driver

Create a folder somewhere convenient.

mkdir driver

Now, go into that directory and type

hg clone http://mcentral.de/hg/~mrec/v4l-dvb-kernel

Which will download a copy of the driver sources to your directory.

Compiling the driver varies a bit depending on if you had to download the firmware or not. If you had to download it keep reading here, if not skip on to part b.

Compiling:

cd v4l-dvb-kernel/v4l
make
sudo make install

You now need to reboot (bookmark this page so you’ll find it again).

The fun part

Hi and welcome back, I hope the boot didn’t take too long.

If everything has gone well you should be a few short steps away from viewing tv on your computer.

We still need to load the driver we compiled earlier, as root type in the following.

modprobe em28xx

You shouldn’t get any messages, just be returned to the prompt.

Open up kaffeine either from the menu, or from the console by typing ‘kaffeine’. It should recognize that you

have a dvb adapter and ask you for some additional info.

Select your location and check that everything else is in order and then continue.

In kaffeine you have in the menu bar a DVB menu, select channels from that. Now just press scan and hope. If all went well you’ll soon start seeing all the channels that have been found. If you can’t find any channels its most likely because of the tiny little antenna that came with the tuner, either try going to some place with better reception, or plug the antenna cable to a roof-top antenna.

If you’re happy controlling your viewing with a mouse and keyboard, you’re done. If you want to get the remote to work as well stay with me for a little while longer.

Setting up the remote

The remote is just another input device to the system, just like the extra buttons on newer keyboards, so I decided to use lineak for the task.

I used xev to get the different key codes the buttons on the remote are sending, unfortunately not all of them sent anything. I don’t know if this is just something that’s wrong with my remote, or a “feature”.

Anyway, here is the section to that I added to /etc/lineakkb.def:

#### Pinnacle PCTV USB Stick Remote ####

[PCTV]

  brandname = "Pinnacle"

  modelname = "PCTV USB Stick Remote Control"

  [KEYS]

    Mute             = 160

    Record           = 177

    Power            = 222

    Rewind           = 152

    Stop             = 232

    Play|Pause       = 110

    Forward          = 233

    VolumeUp         = 176

    VolumeDown       = 174

  [END KEYS]

[END PCTV]

#### END Pinnacle PCTV USB Stick Remote ####

If you find the missing key codes, please leave a comment and I’ll update this.

Save the lineakkb.def file and as a regular user type:

lineakd -c PCTV

It will create a configuration file for your keyboard in ~/.lineak/ named lineakd.conf

In this file you can set up what you want all the buttons to do, below is a mine as a sample:

 # LinEAK - Linux support for Easy Access and Internet Keyboards

#  Copyright (c) 2001,2002, 2003

#     Sheldon Lee Wen <leewsb@hotmail.com> (Current Maintainer)

#      and Mark Smulders <Mark@PIRnet.nl>

#  http://lineak.sourceforge.net

#

# lineakd configuration file

#

# example key configuration:

#     play    = "xmms --play-pause"

#     eject    = EAK_EJECT

#

# Lineakd supports the following modifier keys:

#    control alt shift mod2 mod3 mod4 mod5

CdromDevice = /dev/cdrom

Display_align = center

Display_color = 0aff00

Display_font = -adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-*-240-*-*-p-*-*-*

Display_hoffset = 0

Display_plugin = internal

Display_pos = bottom

Display_soffset = 1

Display_timeout = 3

Display_voffset = 50

KeyboardType = PCTV

MixerDevice = /dev/mixer

RAWCommands = 

Screensaver = 

conffilename = /home/marcus/.lineak/lineakd.conf

keystate_capslock = 

keystate_numlock = 

keystate_scrolllock = 

Forward = "dcop kaffeine KaffeineIface posPlus"

Mute = "KMIX_MUTE"

Play|Pause = "dcop kaffeine KaffeineIface pause"

Power = "kaffeine DVB"

Record = "dcop kaffeine KaffeineIface fullscreen"

Rewind = "dcop kaffeine KaffeineIface posMinus"

Stop = "dcop kaffeine KaffeineIface stop"

VolumeDown = "KMIX_VOLDOWN"

VolumeUp = "KMIX_VOLUP"

As you see, I had to put the record button to control full screen toggling, as I couldn’t get the key code for the real full screen button. Please check the lineak documentation for additional commands, as well as typing ‘dcop kaffeine KaffeineIface’ to get a list of all the commands you can send to kaffeine.

To start type

 lineakd&

To start lineak automatically with KDE make a symbolic link like this:

 ln -s /usr/bin/lineakd /home/marcus/.kde/Autostart/

So that’s it, now you should be able to enjoy your favorite tv shows on your computer and control it with the remote (although the effective distance on the remote is probably less than the length of your arm

References

The em28xx wiki check this wiki if you have any problems, they are probably solved there.

Lineak documentation