MythTV

[aaron]

Anyone else running MythTV? I've been using it as my primary PVR/HTPC for about two years now and I love it. My winter project is to upgrade to the latest version and add HDTV recording capabilities via the new HDHomeRun tuner. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping TWC does not encrypt all of the HD channels available on QAM.

Don't be afraid if you're not experienced with Linux, I had zero experience with it when I started, and I was able to get Myth up and running very easily using KnoppMyth, a specialized version intended to simplify the install process. If you choose the right hardware it's as simple as booting from the CD, answering a few questions, and you're ready to go. I've experimented a little bit with Windows MCE, and I definitely like Myth better. It's just a lot more flexible when it comes to configuration and customization, and there's a great community of coders always adding new features. The hardware requirements are also much lower; you can run MythTV just fine on an old P3 or Celeron machine (unless you want to playback HD, that takes a little more horsepower).

If anyone else already uses/plans to try MythTV, I can post some scripts I wrote for managing a movie library. I have 50 or so of my favorite movies ripped to Xvid files on my main PC, all of the others on DVD. Myth has an extension called MythVideo for managing a video library, and I wanted to browse all of the movies from the same place, so I numbered all of my DVDs (I keep them in a book instead of the cases, takes up less space) and automatically generate text files with the disc number. So as I browse my movies in Myth, if I select one that's on the hard drive it just starts playing, if it's on disc a window pops up saying "Insert Disc #XXX". Comes in very handy, and I'm glad I no longer have to try and keep my DVDs in alphabetical order. What a pain!

[waterhead]

I've been using MythTV since I bought a pcHDTV HD-3000 in 2005. If you want to watch HDTV in Myth, you can buy one of the older model Air2PC cards off of eBay for $39.99. You may need a beefier PC for that, Also a good video card is needed too.

I tried knoppmyth, but could not get it to install to the correct hard drive. The default drive to install to turns out to be the DVD drive on my computers. I gave up and used Fedora and Jarod Wilson's excellent HOW-TO guide. Even then it was a PITA to set up. I finally got it working good, then I did something stupid. I upgraded the kernel.
If you know Linux, the modules won't work with a new kernel. Also my nVidia driver (version 7676) will not compile on the newer kernel. AARRGGHH!

I lately had it working really good with MythTV 0.20 and SuSE Linux (currently my favorite Linux distro). All of a sudden, one day MythTV would not work anymore. AARRGGHH!

I have traced it down to a bad mySQL database. I tried to fix it, but no luck yet. Luckily I still had the Fedora Core 5 installation on another hard drive. I have a few bugs with it, like when watching live HDTV it will cut out after a 2 or 3 hours and I have to restart live TV. I think that is a video card problem.

When I record a HD show, I have it set to automagically transcode it to save disk space. It makes a .nuv file that is only watchable with MythTV, Linux apps or VLC (in windows).

Paul

[jkane]

Haven't looked at Myth TV since it's inception.  It wasn't actually a tool yet then.  

Does it do "name based" recording?  Can I tell it part of a show name and it'll jsut record every show that matches that name no matter what channel or time it's on?

[LoadStar]

I bought one of the HDHomeRun boxes, and I just started playing with MythTV and Ubuntu. I'm still in the very early stages.

I had hoped to use my P4 2.6 box with a a gig of RAM for both frontend and backend, but in early tests, I was getting odd stuttering problems with the video. It might be my video... I still have to try using the ATI official drivers and see if that helps.

Otherwise, I've got a bunch of older PCs that I could probably setup one of as a backend server. Seems a waste for JUST HD broadcast channels though.

[waterhead]

Does it do "name based" recording? Can I tell it part of a show name and it'll jsut record every show that matches that name no matter what channel or time it's on?

I don't use it that way. But looking at the recording setup, You can search for shows just by providing a single word. It looks like you would have to then manually schedule the shows that it finds. There are options on the frequency to record (once, every day, every week, all shows etc)

in early tests, I was getting odd stuttering problems with the video

I had this until I got a working nVidia driver, also the deinterlacing setup is very important for a smooth display. If you can't pass off the video to the hardware on the video card, the cpu has to do all the work. With HDTV, that is alot. Check the cpu usage when you're getting stuttering, if it's around 100%, that's the problem. I haven't tried ATI with Linux, so I can't help you much.
 
Paul

[JRel]

I just started playing with MythTV a few weeks ago.  So far things are going ok, but it is a learning curve for me.  I have some linux experience, but I have been doing a lot of searching and reading lately.

I started out by installing MythDora (Fedora Core 5 + MythTV put together) just to see what I could get working.  It worked ok, but I decided to do a full install instead.  I installed Fedora Core 5 and then used Jarod Wilson's guide to install MythTV.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be to get it running, but there are minor things that still need to be worked out.  

My eventual setup:
1 backend system to do all of the recording and to hold all music / pictures / archived dvds / etc.
2 HDTV frontend systems - 1 for theater room, 1 for bedroom
1 SDTV frontend system for kitchen

Currently I have the backend and 1 HDTV frontend in the "configure for production" stage.  MythTV is installed and I can watch live tv and recordings, but some config still needs to be done.  I need to get LIRC working so I can use a remote control on the frontend, and I need to hook it up to the HDTV and configure the display settings.

For the backend I bought 2 older Air2PC cards on eBay wich work great and I already had a Avermedia A180 which isn't working so good.  I also have a PVR150 that will be used for the SDTV frontend.  

My favorite part of MythTV so far:  Automatic skip of commercials!

Jerel

[LoadStar]

Well, the stuttering isn't as bad, once I got the ATI binary drivers loaded up instead of the MesaGL drivers... and I finally figured out where the font settings are (man, the freeserif font was driving me insane). Now the only thing I have to figure out is interlacing... 720p broadcasts look fine, great even, but 1080i look hideous.

I still will probably try setting up a backend server seperate from my desktop anyway... I can always use it for dual purpose, file server and Myth backend.

[waterhead]

The settings are probably different, depending on the display, but here's what I have. I'm usind an old Sony Triniton SD TV:

Deinterlace: Bob (2x framerate)
MPEG Decoder: libmpeg2

Enable OpenGL
Enable Realtime...

Paul

[LoadStar]

I'm still watching this on my LCD display on my computer, and will eventually (once I figure out dual head setup with Linux) view it on my LCD HDTV.

[waterhead]

My SuSE setup does the Dual Head setup for you. SuSE is very good at recognizing and configuring hardware.

Now if I could only get my SuSE MythTV database fixed...

[jofficer]

Just thought I'd join the thread, and give it a little bump.

I'm currently running a myth setup, with a PVR-500 and an pcHDTV-5500.  The pvr-500 is a analog dual tuner setup, works quite nicely, and the HD card works without flaw. This is running on a 2.8ghz p4 (not hyperthreading) with 1gig of ram (good deal on it at the time).  I've also got just a minimum amount of space, 2 40gig drives total, with about 10 towards the OS.  So far so good

I have the extra cpu/mobo/ram available but have not yet built my dedicated front-end system.  I am planning on making it as quiet as possible, and will be attempting to perform a linux-terminal server.

If/when I get that setup, I'll share some more details.  An alternative would be to use a solid-state disk for boot up of the front-end system, and have it reference the back-end.

my thoughts...

joey