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MythTV 0.20 Released

Posted by Hemos on Mon Sep 11, 2006 10:45 AM
from the build-your-own dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The latest version of MythTV, the open source PVR application for Linux, has been released. New features (as documented in the release notes) include a new menu system, an improved internal DVD player, support for DVB radio channels, and mouse support. There is also a new plugin – MythArchive – which allows recordings be written to DVD. You can download MythTV from MythTV.org."
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[+] MythDora — MythTV 0.2 In a Box 197 comments
peterdaly writes "MythDora 3 is the first MythTV 'in-a-box' style distribution to include MythTV 0.20. Based on Fedora Core 5, MythDora 3 is designed to format your hard drive then install everything needed for a fully functional MythTV System. Here is a walkthrough of the entire MythDora installation process, including screenshots and a screencast."
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  • It (and better TV Tuner drivers) are probably the only things that really make me want Linux over FreeBSD. Still, it's a nice release, even if I can't use it.
  • Questions (Score:4, Interesting)

    by kevin_conaway (585204) on Monday September 11 2006, @10:49AM (#16081432) Homepage

    For you Myth users out there, I have a few questions:

    1. Is it possible to create "playlists" of TV Shows? Say I wanted to rip all my futurama DVDs to a Myth box and play them at random. Could I do that?
    2. Are there any reputable places that will put together a box for me?

    Thanks. Congrats to the MythTV team

    • Re:Questions (Score:4, Informative)

      by mbelly (827938) on Monday September 11 2006, @10:55AM (#16081491)
      http://mythic.tv/product_info.php?cPath=21_29&prod ucts_id=44 [mythic.tv]

      A full system built with HDTV support.
    • Re:Questions (Score:4, Informative)

      by bshensky (110723) on Monday September 11 2006, @11:08AM (#16081608) Homepage

      Playlist of TV shows have been available in 0.19 - works very nicely for my 5 year old!

      (Not that I'm putting him in front of the tube with a playlist and walking away just like that. That would be wrong. But those darned Thomas the Tank Engine episodes are only 4 minutes long apiece!)
    • Re:Questions (Score:5, Informative)

      by ParadoxDruid (602583) on Monday September 11 2006, @11:14AM (#16081665) Homepage
      Is it possible to create "playlists" of TV Shows? Say I wanted to rip all my futurama DVDs to a Myth box and play them at random. Could I do that?
      I don't know about MythTV, but I have all my Futurama DVDs ripped to my Linux box, and have a "Random episode" icon on my desktop that runs this bash script:
      #!/bin/bash
      count=`ls /home/paradox/media_drive/Media/Futurama |wc -l`
      let "pick = $RANDOM % $count"
      let "pick += 1"
      kaffeine "/home/paradox/media_drive/Media/Futurama/`ls /home/paradox/media_drive/Media/Futurama |sed -n "$pick"p`"
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      Having built a few for friends and family I have to say 2 things. One ... give it a go for yourself, it's really not that terribly difficult, especially if you are dedicating a box to it, and starting from scratch. Second, if you really don't want to do it yourself, I'd be happy to build one fore you.

      The biggest costs are the base components, tuner, motherboard/cpu/ram, storage. A case ... well... everyone has their own opinions, but I cannot justify spending 200 to 300 on a decent htpc case, I'd rather
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        One thing I want to know... how well does it support smart "season passes" like TiVo? (I've never used myth, sorry)

        It works very well in this way. You can set fine grained priority settings to each individual recording or entire season recordings. In my experience (and I haven't seen a setting otherwise) the application stores information on shows within the next 2 weeks. If the first conflict arose as described: the high level one would be postponed to a later viewing IFF it has a later viewing (within

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          I _think_ you can run as many as physically possible in your box.

          You can run as many as are physically possible on your _network_. If you were a major cable-hound, or running a PVR service for your entire building, you could stash a room full of back-end servers in the basement with half a dozen tuner cards each and then network them to tiny front-end machines that sat on top of everyone's TV.

          There really is no limit to how many channels of late night porn you can record.

          • Of course, you should make it easy for the police to raid your house without disrupting too much, because you'll be using so much power and generating so much heat that it'll look a lot like you're running a major hydroponic drug-production operation.
      • Yes, absolutely. I've seen a number of shows get recorded at 1 am instead of their first showing in order to ensure that I get everything I have scheduled to record, even if it's not the earliest showing of each episode.
  • new features (Score:5, Informative)

    by samsonov (581161) <(pennacook) (at) (hotmail.com)> on Monday September 11 2006, @10:51AM (#16081457) Journal
    Since the poor mythtv site appears to be slashdotted already:

    Major changes

    * Menus are now drawn by MythUI using OpenGL. This option can be enabled/disabled in the Appearance settings.
    * Improved internal DVD player - now supporting menus and other missing features
    * Added MHEG content implementation (Interactive TV in UK)
    * Added Hotplug support for removable media in Media Monitor and MythGallery
    * Added support for the HDHomeRun encoding device
    * Added support for basic FreeBox recorders
    * Added support for H.264 (aka MPEG-4 AVC) TS decoding
    * Added an MPEG1/MPEG2/MPEG4-AVC IP network recorder
    * Added internal UPnP support for TV and Music
    * Added experimental second commercial detector
    * New socket class for backend communications
    * OSD image cache which improves channel changing speed
    * Fixed program transition while Watching LiveTV
    * Added beginnings of firewire capture support for MacOS
    * Support for DVB radio channels and guide data collected via EIT for them
    * Added mouse support in menus, including gestures

    * Menus are now drawn by MythUI using OpenGL. This option can be enabled/disabled in the Appearance settings.
    * Improved internal DVD player - now supporting menus and other missing features
    * Added MHEG content implementation (Interactive TV in UK)
    * Added Hotplug support for removable media in Media Monitor and MythGallery
    * Added support for the HDHomeRun encoding device
    * Added support for basic FreeBox recorders
    * Added support for H.264 (aka MPEG-4 AVC) TS decoding
    * Added an MPEG1/MPEG2/MPEG4-AVC IP network recorder
    * Added internal UPnP support for TV and Music
    * Added experimental second commercial detector
    * New socket class for backend communications
    * OSD image cache which improves channel changing speed
    * Fixed program transition while Watching LiveTV
    * Added beginnings of firewire capture support for MacOS
    * Support for DVB radio channels and guide data collected via EIT for them
    * Added mouse support in menus, including gestures
    • Re:new features (Score:5, Informative)

      by tji (74570) on Monday September 11 2006, @11:11AM (#16081637)
      MythTV could really use a marketing guy to help with the new releases (actually, there are many open source projects that could benefit from this). The list of highly technical updates to MythTV don't really do justice to where MythTV is today.

      As a MythTV user, here is what I see as important, and having improved in 0.20:

      - MythTV is a free / open source PVR application, with support for analog, digital, and HDTV recording in most international standards (i.e. it's usable in the U.S., Europe, Asia, etc.). It includes many features not available in commercial PVR products.
          - Automatic commercial detection and removal, or manual skip forward/back.
          - Transcode of video to other formats/resolutions -- including DVD export in 0.20.
          - Network based structure, allowing 'backend' recording storage on different machine than the 'frontend' display. (i.e. stick the backend with all the cable connections, antennas, loud fans and tons of disk in the basement, put a small/quiet frontend near your TV for output.)
          - HDTV support: With supported HD capture card, terrestrial broadcast HD and Cable HD are supported (with the exception of encrypted cable HD channels - which cannot be decrypted on any PC PVR)
          - Improved MacOS X support. The 0.20 version has greatly improved the Mac support, especially for the Intel based Macs. Performance optimizations for HD video playback make the Core Duo Mac Minis a great choice for a small/quiet frontend box.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        It's a changelog, not a marketing statement. It lets you know what changed. Plain as that.
        • ...is that MythTV could use a bit of exposure to the great masses of people out there who are completely unaware of this software, yet who could use it to their benefit. The parent understands the purpose of the release notes while observing that something else could help the program more.
            • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

              1) Better software for them to personally use
              2) Experience/enjoyment of devel.

              Neither of these are any better or worse based on number of people using the software,


              That's not strictly true.

              1) The more people using the software, the more likely (though still a low percentage) it is that some of them will contribute back suggestions (or maybe even patches) for improving the software.

              2) That enjoyment is enhanced, at least for some developers, by the knowledge that other people find the software useful.

              If neit
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        HDTV support: With supported HD capture card, terrestrial broadcast HD and Cable HD are supported (with the exception of encrypted cable HD channels - which cannot be decrypted on any PC PVR)

        Maybe not for ATSC (the American standard), but I can watch the encrypted HD test channels on my digital cable connection without problems via my DVB-C (the European standard) card. I did have to add the channels manually though, the channel scanner did not find them automatically (although this is one of the things

    • * Added MHEG content implementation (Interactive TV in UK)

      It should be noted that MHEG-5 is currently only used in the UK on DVB- T , not DVB-S (hopefully this will change when FreeSat gets off the ground next year). ATM all the interactive content on DVB-S is propriatory (not-so-)OpenTV stuff. :(
  • by paganizer (566360) <thegrove1&hotmail,com> on Monday September 11 2006, @10:56AM (#16081506) Homepage Journal
    All I want to know is, is where is the win32 version? this would be SWEET running on WinME!
    (yes, obviously my karma is too good)
    • WinME might be "acceptable" but I'm sure it would run a lot better on Win XP.
    • All I want to know is, is where is the win32 version? this would be SWEET running on WinME!

      I dont understand why the funny mod...

      I have just bought a DVB usb dongle for my Notebook and I would like to try it out. I have Kubuntu installed, however it is very unstable and I usually only log in to "play" with it (wireless does not work, graphics card incompatible, etc etc etc...).

      So I would have the same question, is there any kind of Win32 version?, now that I think about it, MythTV would be excellent for a "
    • this would be SWEET running on WinMCE!

      There, fixed that for you.
        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          No, I think he got the joke and did it one better.

          In case you missed it, WinMCE is Microsoft's lame attempt to make their version of MythTV. It is much less complete, much more annoying, and costs a lot more. Plus, it's counted as a fully ready product, while MythTv is only saying they are at 0.20. In other words, Nowhere near done.

          Man, explaining jokes always takes the fun out of them -sigh-
  • A Year of MythTV (Score:5, Informative)

    by feld (980784) on Monday September 11 2006, @10:58AM (#16081515)
    I've been running MythTV for about a year now and let me tell you -- TV can't get any better.

    I have the shows I want whenever I want them. Sure, sure, you can do this with Tivo. But can you also watch those recorded shows over your home network on other PCs? Burn to DVD? My MythTV box also is my torrent box, fileserver, IRC proxy, IMAP server....

    Let's put it this way -- more features than Tivo, and they can't control what you do with it. Go ahead, skip all the commercials you want. Keep your recordings as long as you want. The Man can't keep you down when you're running this system.

    Also, when that commercial flag becomes law (I think it's still up in the air), MythTV plans to use it to identify commercials and intentionally skip them. Eat that, capitalist pigs ;)
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      You missed some of the best features; Video storage.

      I burn a backup of my dvds, store them on my myth box. Watch them whenever I want, with just the click of a button.
    • Seconded! (Score:5, Informative)

      by drewzhrodague (606182) <drew@zh r o d a g ue.net> on Monday September 11 2006, @11:15AM (#16081669) Homepage Journal
      Seconded! MythTV is friggin' awesome. It eats the commercials, shares the shows over the network (NFS and SMB), lets me dump my MP3s onto it for playing, supports multiple heads (and backends), and more. I don't even use half the features of the software, and it still blows me away.

      I'm using KnoppMyth [mysettopbox.tv], and was totally amazed how easily everything installed. Yes I did have to tweak LiRC [lirc.org], and a few other things.

      I'm getting ready do build another unit into my house, and look forward to the extra features in the new version.
    • by Erwos (553607) on Monday September 11 2006, @11:27AM (#16081766)
      Problem is, TiVO isn't really their main competitor in that space - that honor goes to Windows Media Center Edition.

      I'd also point out that I've installed MythTV on several boxes in the past year, and I'm not nearly so ecstatic about it as you. Doing a secure setup is an absolute pain in the neck if you want to use that fancy backend/frontend architecture, and only slightly less so if you keep everything on the same box. I also found performance and stability less than I would have preferred - not bad, mind you, but not really all that amazing, either. The protocol changes were the most frustrating, though - I had embedded extenders become unusable frequently because the MythTV folks would change protocols often.

      This is not to say WMCE is all peaches and cream, because it's not - but for people who can tolerate its limitations (which aren't terribly bad - yet), the easy setup and relatively cheap (compared to a new PC) Media Center Extenders give it some appeal.

      I sound like an MS shill, I know, but for all of MythTV's strengths, it's not for everyone.

      -Erwos
      • Re:A Year of MythTV (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Lumpy (12016) on Monday September 11 2006, @12:42PM (#16082418) Homepage
        Comparing WMCE to mythtv is like comparing a burning car in a junkyard to a new fararri. Windows Media center edition is 100% pure unadulterated crap. it sucks so bad that it spawned people to build things like Mediaportal that blow away every bit of MCE in every possible way. I have helped convert many Windows Media Center machines from the buggy as hell Media center to Media portal + XP pro and gave the users more features, higher stability and removed ALL the damned MCE DRM it adds to your recordings.

        Mythtv is far superior and wows the hell out of people... even the Diehard windows guys drop their jaws when I plug into CATV and start tuning the digital Cable channels directly... something that is 100% impossible under windows because of "safety" features built in the driver.

        I personally prefer mediaportal, but nobody in their right mind can like Media Center edition.. ot simply sucks and feels half done in every part of it.
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        Well, it's all a matter of what you want. Like most OSS vs closed software, the question comes down to: How much is your time worth, and how much flexibility do you want?

        You could run Tivo and have a quick setup, nice interface, and good support. But you gotta pay for the subscription, and you can't (legally) remove the DRM from the recordings or push anything from your PC to your tivo other than .tivo files.

        You could run MCE with a little more tweaking. You could view movies stored on your server from your
  • by Churla (936633) on Monday September 11 2006, @11:00AM (#16081541)
    Any word on when this build will be on a Knoppmyth [mysettopbox.tv] ISO?
    • by King_TJ (85913) on Monday September 11 2006, @11:11AM (#16081638) Homepage Journal
      I'd like to know that too, because I don't bother with MythTV upgrades until it comes out as Knoppmyth on an ISO. Maybe it's just the nature of my particular setup, but it took me *weeks* of tinkering and pouring over message threads to get my Myth box working exactly like I wanted it to. I would have just given up in frustration if the main "core" of the thing wasn't made easier to get going via Knoppmyth.

      In the past, it seemed like it took the Knoppmyth developers at least 1-2 months to release a new ISO based on a Myth update though, so this isn't something I'd really expect to see from them in the next few days or anything.
  • This article is misterious: the reader is anonymous even if he doesn't say anything that could be [insert-bad-reaction]. And the dept is "build your own" Build my own install? o.O
    Anyway, I allways wanted to try it out but didn't ever download it. I guess it's the right time!
  • PVR for me (Score:5, Interesting)

    by drewzhrodague (606182) <drew@zh r o d a g ue.net> on Monday September 11 2006, @11:19AM (#16081699) Homepage Journal
    I have to pipe-up again, and say that MythTV is awesome. If you've got a tuner card, and a spare box, totally check it out. IT EATS COMMERCIALS, plays DVDs, MP3s, does a photo album, and other things that other units don't do, or don't do well.

    It even has support for MAME.
  • by Doc Ruby (173196) on Monday September 11 2006, @11:20AM (#16081715) Homepage Journal
    Can MythTV control my existing cablebox (Scientific Atlanta Explorer 3250)? It's got a USB port, what looks like a smartcard slot, and analog+digital audio/video outs.

    If I could use the cablebox's tuner, maybe I would need only a video digitizer, or even just transcoder. It would be great to use the cablebox to covert digital video signals to TV. I've already got the cablebox and TV, I'd like to spend that money on better quality for the parts I actually require.
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      I believe that's one of the boxes Myth can control via firewire.
      If not, you'll need an IR emmiter (Tivo would need this too).

      LB
  • Will Myth ever support Cablecard? it is a better (imho) platform than WMCE but I and my friends still lease the catv MOTO DVRs because it is the only way to decrypt HD channels like ESPN, and watch sports subscriptions like NHL Center Ice., so untill cablecard is supported in these things, it is prettu useless for anyone without a tower and an antenna.
  • by Otter (3800) on Monday September 11 2006, @11:24AM (#16081739) Journal
    I remember when using beta versions of software seemed super-cutting-edge, and <1.0 software was something almost no users had ever seen.

    Nowadays, thanks to Netcscape and Google, beta is the final state of software. And after years of Linux, an escalation to 0.20 is a perfectly reasonable user upgrade.

  • MythArchive for me! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by kravlor (597242) on Monday September 11 2006, @11:26AM (#16081758) Homepage
    I've been happily running a set of Myth boxen for more than a year now, and while I love the system, the one feature I had been sorely waiting for was an easy way to export to DVD. While a more involved method was possible, I look forward to being able to just create an ISO directly from Myth itself. Keep up the good work!
  • MythTV rules (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Captain_Chaos (103843) on Monday September 11 2006, @11:45AM (#16081920)
    I just finished setting up my home MythTV system. It rocks! I've got my digital cable connected directly to my backend using a PCI DVB-C card, and my projector is connected to my frontend using a DVI cable, so the backend can record the MPEG-2 streams directly to disk with no quality loss whatsoever (and including all the audio and subtitle tracks), and then the frontend can display them on my wall with not a single bit of quality loss in between! Plus it plays my videos and my music, it lets me skip commercial breaks (which it has automatically tagged for me), watch DVD's, play legacy games with MAME, etc., etc.

    It really is a fantastic piece of kit. It can be pretty finicky to set up and you need to be prepared to invest some serious amount of time, but it's worth it!
  • HDTV Lockout (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Krondor (306666) on Monday September 11 2006, @11:54AM (#16082007)
    I love MythTV. I'm very excited to try 0.20 (UPnP especially). It's a great piece of software and IMO handily beats MCE (though I hear BeyondTV puts up a fight). The level of control is great, I absolutely like to OWN my media. I have a looming fear though that poor MythTV is about to get 'shafted' so to speak.

    MythTV has HDTV support for broadcast and Cable HD, but lacks a means of decrypting these streams. In fact, PCs in general do at this point, but I suspect that will change. Vista MCE will undoubtedly have encrypted HDTV playback support, Tivo as well (if it doesn't already). How is a free OSS solution like this to compete against imposed proprietary restrictions? I smell a DeCSS debacle all over again. Perhaps it will get cracked. Maybe I can still watch my streams if I subjugate myself to a DMCA violation or two.

    Lets face it, another case of a superior product getting kicked to the curb by an industry that likes to wear tinfoil hats at the detriment of its consumers. I guess I have a decision in the future. Use the software I love and watch the shows it can view, or relinquish control impair my viewing experience and broaden my media options. I think I'll stay with Myth, the studios just lost a viewer (though I doubt they'll notice).
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      MythTV has HDTV support for broadcast and Cable HD, but lacks a means of decrypting these streams.

      There seems to be a lot of this going around. It must be an American thing, perhaps something to do with ATSC, the DMCA, the FCC or some other three or four letter word? Like I said in another post, I can watch encrypted HDTV channels fine with my DVB-C PCI card (specifically, a Technotrend Budget C-1500 [technotrend.de]). But I think DVB is the European standard.

  • MythTV light (Score:3, Interesting)

    by claes (25551) on Monday September 11 2006, @11:55AM (#16082014)
    Below is my PVR. I "at" to schedule a program:
    #at 18:00
    warning: commands will be executed using /bin/sh
    at> rectv 1 1h simpsons
    at> <EOT>
    job 18 at 2006-09-12 18:00

    #!/bin/sh
     
    if [ -z "$3" ]; then
        echo "too few arguments"
        echo "Usage: record-tv channel duration name "
        echo "channel: 1-9"
        echo "duration: 30m, 1h"
        echo "name: simpsons"
        exit 1
    fi
     
    CHANNEL=$1
    DURATION=$2
    NAME=$3
     
    BITRA TE=4000000
     
    VIDEO_DIR=/home/claes/media/video/re cording/
     
    FCHANNEL[1]=E5
    FCHANNEL[2]=E7
    FCHANN EL[3]=SE16
    FCHANNEL[4]=E6
    FCHANNEL[5]=SE19
    FCHA NNEL[6]=SE20
    FCHANNEL[7]=SE17
    FCHANNEL[8]=SE13
        FCHANNEL[9]=SE14
     
    #Set channel
    ivtv-tune -teurope-west -d /dev/video0 -c ${FCHANNEL[CHANNEL]}
     
    #Set quality
    ivtvctl -d /dev/video0 -c bitrate=$BITRATE
     
    #Start recording
    mkdir -p $VIDEO_DIR #Just in case it does nto work
    cat /dev/video0 > $VIDEO_DIR/$NAME.mpg &
     
    CAT_PID=$!
    # $! is PID of last job running in background.
     
    sleep $DURATION
    kill $CAT_PID
    The resulting simpsons.mpg I play using XBMC.
  • by Viper_Viper (881780) on Monday September 11 2006, @11:57AM (#16082023) Homepage
    Any idea when the Google Summer of Code projects will be included in MythTV? I am guessing .21? These projects are going to be very usefull to MythTV, especially the AutoConfig, Make Myth Multi-user, and the Windows Port. http://code.google.com/soc/mythtv/about.html [google.com]
  • OSS Versioning (Score:3, Interesting)

    by _Neurotic (39687) on Monday September 11 2006, @01:18PM (#16082820) Journal
    Has anyone else ever wondered why so many OSS projects are afraid to ever reach v1.0? Here's an example of a project that has been in development since 2002. It's undergone cycles of feature additions and bug fixes, and it's just now hitting version 0.20?
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      No, but it costs time. I've used Linux as a server OS since Slackware 1.0, and have no problems configuring most things, but to date I've spent three solid days over the last 18 months on various attempts to get Myth working. Hell, I went out and bought components based on recommendations for them being good video card and capture card to use with Myth, and I still couldn't get anything that worked.

      The most recent time, after blowing an entire weekend screwing around, I finally restored my Win2K backup th
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        While it's true that not everyone has an easy time of setting up MythTV, the other side is that there are tons of people that have no problems at all getting it working.

        My first installs of MythTV went decently well, but I had some hurdles due to the Linux flavor I used. However, there are _great_ guides that walk you through the install. There are also some "install a MythTV system" distrobutions (KnoppMyth, MythDora, etc) that do a basically complete system/Myth install with minimal configuration. And
      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        I've used Linux as a server OS since Slackware 1.0, and have no problems configuring most things, but to date I've spent three solid days over the last 18 months on various attempts to get Myth working.

        Hmm... I've had server experience but it sounds like less than you, and I managed to get usable mythtv in under 2 hours. I've been tinkering with it for three weeks since then, but it was working acceptably almost straight away. The main thing you need to do is take a structured approach - if you were putt

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      The frontend already runs on Mac, but the backend? Eeehhhhhh... no.

      I think the primary reason is that the majority of Mac owners who are interested in this kind of setup are usually the kind who have a Mini for hacking. No encoding capability. Myself, I run a Macbook Pro; no supported encoders there either. To get PCI, you gotta get a Mac Pro; an expensive proposition. Most people who would build a Myth box are building it from commodity hardware or from their own "bits boxes". In other words, doing it on t