Three MythTV Linux Distros Compared

An anonymous reader writes "Linux.com has a comparison article up looking at three MythTV-focused Linux distributions. The piece looks at Mythdora, Mythbuntu, and KnoppMyth, with an eye towards ease of installation and the actual utility of the install. From the article: 'For regular system maintenance, KnoppMyth simply isn't in the same ballpark as MythBuntu and MythDora. The live CD heritage of Knoppix means you cannot update individual packages, which is fine if you like that, but for an always-on system like a MythTV back end, I'd prefer flexibility and configurability of a mainline distro. When all is said and done, if I were building my TiVo replacement today, I would do it with MythDora. MythBuntu shows a lot of promise, and I will give the final 7.10 release another look (in part because I run Ubuntu on my desktop machines), but it isn't ready yet.'" Linux.com and Slashdot are both owned by SourceForge.

MythDora?

[hal2814]

MythSwiper, no MythSwiping!

Oh man...

Re:

[pilgrim23]

some while back a totally different aproach then Tivo or the newer DVRS came out and as far as I can see. died. All the systems used a software based on a package called MyIHome. Brands included Neuston, Mumistu, IODATA/AVEL, and, on the Macintosh side Elgato's iHome. All of these are no longer on the market. Some had built in DVD drives, some USB for addition of external hard drives... a few had wireless.
These boxes connect to your local network,and stream various media files to your TV. You are limi

Re:MythDora? (XBMC on its way)

[Anonymous Coward]

With the Linux port [xboxmediacenter.com] of XBMC [wikipedia.org] underway, and very usable at this stage, Myth will have serious competition soon for (currently) its non-PVR functionality. The linux port of XBMC is completely OpenGL 2.0 optimized. Currently, in terms of UI and user friendliness, there's very little that compares to XBMC.

Re:

[myth24601]

"MythSwiper, no MythSwiping!

Oh man..."

Awsome!

Too bad nerds don't usually breed so nobody here will get it.

Re:

[grasshoppa]

Sadly, I have a three year old AND a mythdora system. I got it, and it caused an involuntary twitch.

Re:

[StikyPad]

Ah, that's a good one... [slashdot.org]

MythTV for PS3

[DrXym]

The PS3 can run Linux but so far it's been regular Linux distributions. MythTV sounds like a natural fit for a device which has practically everything in place to be a kickass multimedia console. It would be cool to see a MythTV dist for the PS3 that boots straight into the UI and also works with any plugged in USB devices like TV tuners.

Re:

[LordKazan]

any tuner device supported by linux should be usable with mythtv so if you find a USB tuner with linux support you can use it

(Watching HDTV on mythtv trunk on fc7 right now)

Re:MythTV for PS3

[tji]

> any tuner device supported by linux should be usable with mythtv so if you find a USB tuner with linux support you can use it

MythTV is modular. You do the tuning/recording/processing on the backend, which talks to the frontend (display) via the network. These functions can be on the same box, but with the PS3 as a frontend, you would want a separate backend.

http://linuxtv.org/ [linuxtv.org] has info on supported devices. My tuner of choice is the HDHomeRun, a network based dual HD tuner.

Re:

[halfelven]

HDHomeRun looks very promising. I'm having one delivered to my door today, can't wait to play with it.

Re:

[pthor1231]

I think the PS3 locks down most of the processing power when you boot it into something other than the PS3 OS. Trying to watch a video on my friends ubuntu install on his ps3 was terrible, like 3 or 4 fps.

Re:

[EvilRyry]

This is mostly because there are no accelerated video drivers for Linux on PS3. CPU power should be mostly there I'd imagine though...

Re:

[DrXym]

I've installed VideoLan on a PS3 and the framerate is acceptable.

Re:

[FunkyELF]

Not true. Most of the processing power is still there. Just no accelerated graphics. The CELL should be enough to process it, the code hasn't been written yet. If you're watching a video on there you're just using the 3.2GHz PPC with a frame buffer. You're not using any of the SPU/SPE's. I think work is being done for this but it will take time.

Re:

[LWATCDR]

As far as the GPU is concerned yes. But you have the full power of the CPU available. The problem is that the CPU isn't that great if you don't use the SPEs. Now if they ever port the codecs to use the SPEs then the PS3 should be a transcoding monster.

Re:MythTV for PS3

[tji]

> The problem is I don't think there are any USB TV capture devices that work in MythTV.

The PS3 would make a good MythTV frontend (display) system. You're better off using a Linux box as the backend. That way you can still use the PS3 as a game system or Blue-Ray DVD player -- rather than leaving it in Linux mode all the time to record programs. As for tuners. the HDHomeRun is a good network-based HD tuner option.

> I have been using MythTV for something like 4 years now just because there isn't anything as good but I really hate it. It's so freaking slow and buggy. I mean once you have hundreds of recorded shows the thing just slows to a crawl. It takes forever just to delete a program. This all seems totally ridiculous considering the relatively tiny amount of data it is managing. Then there are the bugs like when it gets into some sort of bad state and the menus don't work (you can open the menu but can't select anything). Very poorly written piece of software if you ask me.

It's hard to say what the issue is from that description.

- Slow performance: All the standard Linux tuning applies. MythTV uses MySQL extensively, so tuning that performance is important.
- Slow Delete: File system choice is important. ext* is very slow in deleting files. I use JFS because it deletes almost instantly. In newer MythTV versions, there is an option to do deletes in smaller chunks to avoid this problem on ext* systems.
- I haven't seen bugs like those you described. I use 0.20.1, and it works well. MythTV is not ideal.. setup is difficult, as is configuration.. The menu systems could use some major improvements and configurability. It's definitely the worst DVR going, except for everything else.

Re:

[jedidiah]

This is a minor tuning issue. Admittedly it's one that end users should not ever be exposed to. However it is still pretty simple to fix. You just need to let mysql be more greedy with memory.

Re:

[jedidiah]

Don't kid yourself.

You are no champion for those that "just want to make it work".

You want to whine about something. This happens to be it. Something else would do equally well.

When it comes to "just want to make it work", a poorly tuned mysql db is just an annoyance and is no show stopper.

WARNING: Critical problem with out of date distros

[LordKazan]

Recently the free listings provider for north america (TMS' Zap2it) annouced they will be going offline on Sept 1 - a replacement ($5/month for now, hopefully reducing to $20/year in the future - schedulesdirect.org) is available but only the latest release .20.2 of stable (And -fixes and trunk in snv naturally) support using it.

If you download one of these distros make sure they have updated it with a .20.2 (post mythfilldatabase scheduling fix) otherwise you will not be able to get north american listings.

Re:WARNING: Critical problem with out of date dist

[krbvroc1]

Your facts are kinda misleading. True, the latest 20.2 release incorporates direct support for the new schedulesdirect.org program listing. However, older versions can be 'retrofitted' by using/updating just the xmltv application. The latest xmltv 0.5.48 will work with the new schedulesdirect site. You can then feed that into your existing mythfilldatabase. This solution might work for those unable/unwilling to upgrade their mythtv version. Personally, I've gone to 20.2 and the upgrade was pretty seamless.

ABI change?

[pavon]

According to this ubuntu bug report [launchpad.net] the ABI changed along with the schedules direct change, so you do need to update everything, not just one module. At least that's how I read it - I may be wrong.

Re:

[LordKazan]

you read that right

Re:

[krbvroc1]

The ABI change is because the plugins always to be recomplied to match a new version. My point is that for those unable/unwilling to upgrade to the latest, some sort of 'yum update xmltv' or 'apt-get update xmltv' or manual tar ball installation from xmltv.org should be a temporary solution without having to update/upgrade the rest of the system.

Re:

[krbvroc1]

I haven't. However, the article mentions two other distros which may be much easier than the live distro. The problem with xmltv is that it is Perl and its Perl dependency hell. I haven't had to use it in years, but its an option for some. Even as a stop gap - you could run it on another machine (windows box too) to produce the daily xml file, copy that over to your myth box, and run mythfilldatabase. Its a stop gap. Also, remember you that you get about 14 days of schedule information. So on Sep 1, you sho

Re:

[jedidiah]

Ok then don't use Knoppmyth.

Rebuilding MythTV is trivial under Ubuntu.

My backend is running 6.10, my frontend is running 7.10 and I built 0.20.2 on both without any trouble.

Re:WARNING: Critical problem with out of date dist

[brunascle]

save yourself a few days/weeks with:

mythfilldatabase --max-days 14

that'll give you 14 days until you have to update. pick your own number, but the further you go into the future the more info is going to be missing.

What about Yahoo?

[ArchieBunker]

Can't you just grab listings from tv.yahoo.com ?

Re:

[LordKazan]

because it's potentially illegal, absolutely unrelaible, and there may not even exist a script to scape the information and transform it into a usable format

Re:

[halfelven]

http://www.schedulesdirect.org/faq [schedulesdirect.org]

Maybe, if you're doing it by yourself. It ain't gonna be pretty, nor reliable.

Re:

[brunascle]

mod parent up.

i tried this last night, and it worked great for me in feisty. and schedules direct is finally accepting sign-ups, so all is well. you get a free trial period (1 week i think) before you have to pay.

Anyone have an alternate link?

[Isca]

The hamsters are having trouble keeping up.

Upside

[Realistic_Dragon]

The good thing about being forced to get a TV is that a condition of me doing so was that I get to install a Myth TV setup. I'm thinking satellite + cable + OTA inputs to a small cluster in the basement, new fibre runs all over the house, speakers in every wall, projectors in hidden drop down ceiling mounts, touch screen controls in every room, integration of every form of entertainment known to man and a user interface that delights and astounds.

By the time I'm finished, of course, it'll be obsolete and I shall have to start over, just like the fourth bridge paint job. Perpetual geeking if you like.

Re:

[edmicman]

user interface that delights and astounds

And you're going to use MythTV?

Re:

[jedidiah]

Apparently, you've never used a Tivo. Nor a Cableco provided DVR for that matter.

Just the avoidance of easter eggs and little hacks to re-enable critical features is a nice improvement.

A possible source for guide data

[Mike Gleason]

There's been some talk about getting a subscription service running for MythTV users; if I recall, the goal was to get it going for $5/month.

Here's an option that could be considered: buy a BeyondTV license from Snapstream, then use your username and password along with a little reverse engineering to login legally to their guide service. BeyondTV's guide data is included with your purchase -- no monthly fees. Currently it costs $70, so after a year it would have paid for itself at the proposed $5/month.

That said, I should say I'm pretty pleased with the actual BeyondTV software, even though it is Windows-based. I spent about 2 weeks trying to get Myth (MythDora) and Freevo to work at all on a pretty vanilla new Dell PC with new hardware reported to be compatible. I downloaded BTV just to see if the hardware was to blame, and after a grand total of 15 minutes, I had a working PVR with multiple tuners. The software is customizable as well, so I can do nightly batch processing like I was planning to do with the Linux box, although the included Xvid transcoding works automatically if you want to do that.

Re:A possible source for guide data

[LordKazan]

you're pretty out of date - schedulesdirect is up... and they hope to be able to reduce to $20/year eventually. try reading the thread before replying i posted about SD before you posted

Re:

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Here's an option that could be considered: buy a BeyondTV license from Snapstream, then use your username and password along with a little reverse engineering to login legally to their guide service. BeyondTV's guide data is included with your purchase -- no monthly fees. Currently it costs $70, so after a year it would have paid for itself at the proposed $5/month.

I've got an old ReplayTV (the kind that could automagically skip commercials and came with a lifetime schedule subscription) sitting on a shelf. I would love to make use of that lifetime subscript for my myth setup.

Re:

[Enigma2175]

Here's an option that could be considered: buy a BeyondTV license from Snapstream, then use your username and password along with a little reverse engineering to login legally to their guide service. BeyondTV's guide data is included with your purchase -- no monthly fees. Currently it costs $70, so after a year it would have paid for itself at the proposed $5/month.

While that is a technical possibility, it cannot be done legally since BeyondTV's license agreement specifically prohibits it. You can do it, b

Re:

[Tack]

I spent about 2 weeks trying to get Myth (MythDora) and Freevo to work at all on a pretty vanilla new Dell PC with new hardware reported to be compatible.

Speaking on behalf of Freevo, I can say we know it sucks, and we're not happy with the suckage either. Freevo 2 (whose vaporwareness admittedly approaches that of Duke Nukem Forever) will suck less in that respect, and our partnership with GeeXbox will make the distribution aspect of it much simpler.

Re:

[jedidiah]

I spent 2 hours getting Myth working on my Mac Mini.

Most of that time was just waiting for the Ubuntu installer to do it's thing while I jumped in and out of the home office doing other things.

MythTV distros over-rated

[halfelven]

I don't see what's the point of building a dedicated distro for MythTV. Why reinvent the wheel? Why not use a well-known, established distribution, and just create a software repository with MythTV?
A dedicated distro may be here today, gone tomorrow, if it doesn't build a large enough community. That's not what I expect from the operating system that I'm gonna use on the MythTV server that I will build next month.

I think I'm just going to use CentOS or Ubuntu (the LTS edition - long-term support) and pull MythTV from one of the popular repositories.

Re:MythTV distros over-rated

[jma05]

> I think I'm just going to use CentOS or Ubuntu (the LTS edition - long-term support) and pull MythTV from one of the popular repositories.

Because many of us already tried that and couldn't get it to work. MythTV is one of the worst software I had to set up. It is just wrong to expect an end user for a PVR to even know what a database is, let alone having to set it up and deal with the error messages, even if it something popular such as MySQL. MythTV just needs to be as easy as the commercial packages to setup.

Re:

[halfelven]

Oh, I see.

Well, I agree that MythTV per se is a bit dorky, and it might be a chore for the non-technical user (or at least the user not too familiar with Linux) to install and configure. Yes, they do need to make the install / config process easier. And yes, I think I see now the point of using a dedicated distro.

I had no problems with the setup - but then I'm fairly familiar with the OS.

Hm, still, the average enthusiast should not find it too difficult. Sometimes the hardware might get tricky, but that's a

Re:

[jma05]

> it might be a chore for the non-technical user
> still, the average enthusiast should not find it too difficult.

It can be a chore for anybody. A non-technical should not even touch it. I have been using Linux for at least 6 years now (both desktop and servers). Not exactly a newbie. Although most of my problems were related to poor compatibility of my tuner card at the time. But I was annoyed with other aspects of the install as well. People have varying luck with MythTV. For some, it just works and

Re:

[halfelven]

I agree. The amount of online documentation that Ubuntu has amassed is amazing. If you stumble upon an issue, chances are it's already solved somewhere in the Wiki, the forums, or the mailing list archives.

Re:

[egypt_jimbob]

I've set up my share of myth boxen, and I think it can be done by a newb (after all, this is what got me into linux). Sure, problems can arise, but if you go with a popular distro like ubuntu, then odds are the wiki docs will cover the majority, if not all of them.

That assumes a newb with quite a large amount of dedication. Many people who are not regular Linux users seem to install software like this:

• download installer
• run installer
  • if it doesn't work, author an informationless post in an unrelated forum then give up and complain to all their friends that Linux sucks
  • if it does work, complain about how hard it was to install and Linux sucks

I would like to have faith. I would like to believe that newbs read forums and ask useful que

Re:

[Nurgled]

Ubuntu, Xubuntu and Kubuntu are all really the same distro with different meta-packages installed (ubuntu-desktop, xubuntu-desktop and kubuntu-desktop respectively). From a quick perusal of Mythbuntu's website it would appear that they operate on much the same principle, aside from being in a separate repository.

It sure would be nice to be able to do

apt-get install mythbuntu-frontend

on a vanilla Ubuntu Server install (Ubuntu Server is really just Ubuntu without any of the aforementioned desktop packag

Re:

[LordKazan]

if you do your research and get well supported cards (Hauppauge PVR-150s, PVR-500s for analog, DVB cards for digital (the Kworld ATSC 110 is a DVB card that does US ATSC and QAM)) setup is a snap. It's not mythtv's fault if you fail to check your cards compatability.

that being said setup could certainly be made easier

Re:

[Abcd1234]

It is just wrong to expect an end user for a PVR to even know what a database is

No offense, but that's fucking idiotic. If you're building a DIY PVR, and you decide to build it on top of Linux, it behooves you to understand the basics of system administration. This includes how to run a mysql database, among other things. Or were you just expecting the system to magically auto-maintain itself?

Re:

[jma05]

>> It is just wrong to expect an end user for a PVR to even know what a database is
> No offense, but that's fucking idiotic. If you're building a DIY PVR, and you decide to build it on top of Linux, it behooves you to understand the basics of system administration.

That bigotic "Those dumb users" mindset especially when basic usability testing is lacking is actually offensive. Don't know about you or what a majority of MythTV users do, but I DON'T build dedicated PVRs. I installed a PVR software on

Re:

[Abcd1234]

That bigotic "Those dumb users" mindset

Hey, did I say that? No! I said the users should be expected to *learn* something. God forbid...

Don't know about you or what a majority of MythTV users do, but I DON'T build dedicated PVRs

Then you're most certainly in the minority, and your needs may not be well served by Myth.

I just don't think it should come down to that for an entertainment app.

If that's all your Myth install is to you, then you're definitely in the minority. Myth isn't an "app". It's a softwar

Re:

[Abcd1234]

I tried setting up MythTV a year or so ago. I've maintained Gentoo, Debian, and FreeBSD boxes. I can program. I know databases. But IIRC, the very first page of the setup--not sure if it was MythTV or KnoppMyth's fault--was asking about which sockets I wanted to use, or some such nonsense.

Yeah, and it picks a default. So if you don't care, why didn't you just ignore it? Honestly, if that's the extent of your complaints, you obviously gave up too easily.

Incidentally, if what you say of your experience is t

Re:

[SydShamino]

I built my first ever MythTV setup this weekend, as a test. (I can receive HD from all the local networks - yay!) I chose Ubuntu because I am a hardware engineer, not a software engineer, and packages (specifically Debian based as that is all I've ever used) allow me to use Linux.

My biggest problem is that the MythTV distribution for Ubuntu is not built with XvMC support. My computer (Athlon 64 3000+, 1 GB, GeForce FX 5200) is perfectly suited to run as a dual back/front-end box if XvMC is enabled (accor

Re:

[SydShamino]

To follow up on my own comment, I (having nothing better to do) decided to try and build MythTV from source tonight.

I'm following the "Install MythTV" section of this page:
www.pchdtv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1938

Note that I'm using Ubuntu Feisty Fawn instead of SuSe. I have also already installed some development tools to compile the utilities that came with my pchdtv 5500.

Problems:
1. Path to frontend.h is wrong. Quick file search is easy to fix.
2. Configure complains about lack of LAME MP3 library. Ins

Re:

[SydShamino]

Ok, I think I found it in the MythTV.org howto. My google searches failed me, but I found it while looking for MythTV forums to post the question...

The sections on Shared-Library Requirements for MythTV and Environment Variables for MythTV seem to be what I was looking for, except that the instructions don't match what I see in Ubuntu, and it doesn't say at all how to permanently change these variables. At least I know from previous research that "export" will set them temporarily during a console sessio

Re:

[Abcd1234]

After it compiled, you did a 'make install', right? And made sure to have /usr/local/bin in your path? And also made sure /usr/local was in your /etc/ld.so.conf or the distro equivalent?

Re:

[jedidiah]

...a dedicated distro isn't going to change any of that.

If there is an automated build for lirc, that can be assimilated into a normal distro just as well.

apt-get install mythtv works pretty much the same way either way.

Automagic setup of mysql with mythtv is going to work the same exact way even with some crusty edition of Debian.

Reinvent what wheel?

[cesman]

KnoppMyth has been around for four years http://www.mysettopbox.tv/CHANGELOG.txt/ [mysettopbox.tv]. A glance at the CentOS site shows it was first copywritten in 2004. When Ubuntu was launch in October of 2004, KnoppMyth was already a year old. The community is large and very active. I'll stop producing releases when my keyboard is pulled from my cold dead hands.

Once I can actually read the article, I'll comment in full. But to state that one cannot upgrade software in KnoppMyth is dead wrong.

Regards,

Cecil

Re:

[Phillup]

But to state that one cannot upgrade software in KnoppMyth is dead wrong.

I'll vouch for that!

I just did a fresh install of knoppmyth yesterday (in preparation of your impending release of the next version), followed by an 'apt-get update; apt-get upgrade'.

I had to hold the lirc stuff due to two packages wanting to replace the same file... but other than that, no problems at all.

Re:

[halfelven]

Oddly, after investigating Mythbuntu I'm changing my mind. It's based on Gutsy, which will receive package updates for 18 months. After that it's either no updates, or upgrade the OS.
18 months is not too bad. The Ubuntu OS upgrade is not too bad either, from what I've heard.

Maybe I'll give it a try.

Re:

[siwelwerd]

I don't see what's the point of building a dedicated distro for MythTV. Why reinvent the wheel? Why not use a well-known, established distribution, and just create a software repository with MythTV?

Because MythTV isntallation is a pain in the ass. Even with all the packages in a repository. After messing around with your proposed method for a weekend, I downloaded MythDora on a whim, popped in the disk, and was off and running in an hour. Not that I particularly like Fedora, but automated installation of the trickier bits is what did it for me.

Re:

[Burz]

That is what LinuxMCE [linuxmce.com] does. First you install Ubuntu, then you run a program that installs and configures a whole suite of programs including MythTV.

The demo video on their site is impressive.

Re:

[jedidiah]

Dedicated distro easier?

pppppffffft. Bull puckey.

They're actually harder to use. That's not even counting if you want something other than what in the can.

Any dedicated MythTV distro I've ever tried has made me want to throw the install CD across the room.

Configure? Yeah. Update? Not so much.

[dfdashh]

I've been using my MythTV box as my primary media center for over a year and a half now. While I love to make the occasional configuration changes to meet the ever-changing needs of my family, I NEVER update unless I have a very, very good reason. Why? Because at this point I don't want a weekend troubleshooting session because I triggered incompatibilities. I guess that is just me being paranoid, though. I've never had drastic problems with Myth, but I can also attribute that to the fact that I wrote up my requirements, built the machine to them, and left it that way. No surprises! So there are some tradeoffs when using a media distribution like KnoppMyth to build out your MythTV, but sometimes they are really blessings in disguise.

Re:

[halfelven]

Fully agree. That's the best way. Build a dedicated machine, upgrade MythTV only when absolutely necessary. Like a DIY appliance.

MythTV Box

[CopaceticOpus]

Does anyone sell a pre-built, pre-configured MythTV box? I personally have no interest in dealing with the quirks of setting one up, but I'd like to run one. Here's what I'd look for:

• Packaged in the smallest possible, living-room friendly case
• Runs quietly, with good power and heat management
• Plays files off a USB drive and/or over ethernet
• Online zero-effort software updates
• Shouldn't cost a ton more than the cost of the required hardware

If someone does this right I'd think they could have quite a hit on their hands.

Re:

[mrsmiggs]

If you're in the UK there's always these guys http://efficientpc.co.uk/desktops/isis/ [efficientpc.co.uk] Not sure about the zero effort upgrades, if they take the packages from a repository it can't be that hard.

I often look at their website with the temptation to splurge some cash, not sure about their laptop packages though. I don't like the idea of buying a laptop and then not being able to use all the hardware that comes with it. Even if the hardware is spurious.

Re:MythTV Box

[Fratz]

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Commercial_My thTV_System [mythtv.org] is a comprehensive list of pre-built boxes that work well with MythTV

Installing it the painful way...

[monkeyboythom]

I'm currently trying to do what the distro should be doing for me; installing layer and application at a time.

Of course, I'm also trying to do this on a system put together from more recent hardware, the m-atx Gigabyte platform GA-MA69GM-S2H Socket which uses AM2 and the AMD 690G Northbridge. And a USB connected ATSC HDTV card.

I'm finding it's a snap to install Ubuntu, LAMP, and MythTV but almost impossible to get any further than configuration. And that is the problem. I can install WinXP and SageTV and have all these components work right now. So it still is the main problem for Linux and any distro - hardware support.

Yes, the larger question still is open versus restricted driver support. But at the end of the day, especially the present day like tonight, I'd rather have my hardware recognize a restricted driver and install it seamlessly than having the "freedom" of an open source driver. If move to open from a restricted, then shouldn't that be the incentive for hardware manufactures to provide these drivers?

Books on MythTV

[louiebeth]

I know a book just came out on MythTV: Practical MythTV (http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=1 0245 [apress.com]) Is it any good? Anybody read it?

Re:

[wicks0r]

Try Hacking MythTV [amazon.com]. It's from Jarod Wilson who wrote one of the most popular MythTV howto [wilsonet.com] out there.

Why Mythtv when XBMC exists

[QuijiboIsAWord]

I was a MythTV proponent for YEARS. I built my own box, and I've run with both Gentoo and Ubuntu based backends. When my video card blew out last month after 3+ years of constant running (including through some very bad power outages which were hard on the entire houses electrical system) I couldn't afford to replace the video card and motherboard which was also fried.

I pulled the drive and stuck it in the computer in the other room, and decided to try XBox Media Center an my old xbox I had sitting around.

Re:Why Mythtv when XBMC exists

[Abcd1234]

To my surprise, XBMC completely blows MythTV out of the water.

Weird, I had no idea you could plug a video capture card into an XBox, let alone set up XBMC to use it to record TV. Got any links?

Re:

[Abcd1234]

but if you're not averse to downloading TV shows who cares about PVR functionality?

Fuck, I hate it when people say this. Yeah, sure, if all you watch is mainstream, popular television, particularly if you track new series, downloading might just work for you. But for anyone who watches even slightly off-the-beaten-track stuff (say, re-runs of America's Test Kitchen), good luck finding a well seeded torrent, or be prepared to wait for weeks while your downloads trickle in.

Re:

[Palshife]

doesn't have the power to decode actual 720p content without some heavy hardware modding

That's why.

Re:

[yanos]

I dunno, but I was using xbmc for some years and its far from perfect, even just for a media center.

- It doesnt allow you to decode hi def video.
- Contrary to what you claim, it only outputs at 480i.
- It's hard to update since it's illegal to distribute in binary form, so you're stuck to deal with l33t forums and such to get one, or find the MS compiler and compile the sources (on windows).
- There is alot of formats it doesnt support, like ogg, matroska video, vob subtitles, quicktime, mp4..etc
- For some re

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

- It doesnt allow you to decode hi def video.

720p works okay with XVID/DIVX, but you are right that H.264 and 1080 are out of the question sadly.

- Contrary to what you claim, it only outputs at 480i.

No, the XBOX can do 1080i/p, and can upscale video to those resolutions better than many expensive TVs or DVD players. There are even a few games that support it, Dragons Lair HD being the only one that springs instantly to mind.

- It's hard to update since it's illegal to distribute in binary form, so you're stu

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

The parent is 100% correct on this one - nothing comes close to XBMC in the Media Centre stakes. Instant on/off, easy and fast menu system, plays just about anything you can throw at it, easy config, supports Windows network shares etc...

Everything else just sucks by comparison. I tried various things for Windows, including Media Portal. All were rubbish. Media Portal, for example, has a really slow menu system. On XBMC, you move a highlight and it's instant. On MP, every time you move there is a scrolling

Some comparision....

[cesman]

I started KnoppMyth over 4 years ago, so I'm biased.

The comparison seemed rather dull and uninformed. The installation, default theme and the "running" systems are compared. In the end, it comes to "convenience". This is where the author's lack of information really shines.

To stated that one cannot install additional software on KnoppMyth is wrong. You can install a .deb or install from source. The problem comes in if you want to auto upgrade to the next release (BTW: Neither of the other options supports an auto upgrade functions. MythDora is working on it however.). Whatever additional packages you installed, you'll have to reinstall (R6 will address this). But what do you need to install (other than perhaps pineapple and some codecs ;)? And if you read tjc's guide to using the backup and restore, you'll only have to install those once.

In addition to MythTV and it's official plugins KnoppMyth includes mplayer, xine, webmin (how is that for conveniences?), rrd (hit Apache and see how your system as been performing, seems pretty convenient to me), MythWebFlash, irblaster support and so much more.

In addition to the official themes, we also include most if not all of "Juski's" http://juski.co.uk/ [juski.co.uk]themes are included as well. So while the author didn't like Titivillus, there is nothing stopping him or any user from using any theme. Got an ipod? What to take that show with you? Myth2ipod http://www.myth2ipod.com/ [myth2ipod.com]is include in KnoppMyth. Or stream it with MythStreamTV.

Both NFS and Samba are included and configured. All one has to do is start the daemons. Got an nvidia based video adapter? Guess what is automatically installed on first boot? Navigate with a keyboard? KnoppMyth includes out the box support for multiple remotes. Guess which distro was the first to officially support the popular Hauppauge PVR line of hardware MPEG tuners?

The ideal behind KnoppMyth is to make it easy to get a Linux/MythTV powered PVR is a quick and easy manner. Some of you already get this... Think appliance. KnoppMyth is into it's fifth year and we'll continue to improve and develop it. Much thanks to member of the community for the improvements, ideals and support. I do wish MythDora and MythBuntu well, however as I see it... They are threading on ground already paved.

Regards,

Cecil

Re:

[cesman]

You're welcome. I'd like to see people that try it, stick with. If something doesn't work, use the forum and report the problems. Several users have come back and reported what was now Tier 2 is Tier 1!

Regards,

Slightly OT... Lightweight MythTV Front-end

[Hercynium]

My preference is to just run the MythTV backend on an Ubuntu server in the basement and the frontend from an old laptop in the living room... for the laptop, using a LiveCD is ideal since I don't have to maintain anything, save for burning another CD for updates (when I feel like it).

Lately, I've started looking at a device called the Neuros OSD... I don't know much about the state of development of the OSS add-ons but if someone gets either the MythTV front-end running on it, or writes a front-end that is

Re:

[cesman]

Sounds like you need a KnoppMyth CD. Boot the CD, provide basis data and as long as the backend is configured correctly... You have a functioning frontend completely running from the CD.

Wussy

[/dev/trash]

I built my mythTV box with GENTOO.

Happy with MythDora 4.0

[smchris]

Got around to blowing away my hand-rolled Fedora 4, Myth 2.0 rpm set last week with an "auto" MythDora install. Installation and hardware recognition were 100% uneventful on low-end current stuff. The beginner could find the Myth configuration a learning experience, as always, but I had screen shots of my previous installation and that was uneventful as well.

I think it took me about as much time to angle the new SATA drive into the machine as it did to do the install and an equal amount of time (because I

How does LinuxMCE compare?

[Argon]

See http://linuxmce.com/ [linuxmce.com]. Disclaimer: I've never used any of these. I am however thinking of building a media center box and noticed the LinuxMCE freshmeat announcement a few days back.

Re:And People Complain About The Many Version Of V

[LordKazan]

mythtv is just linux softwre - those distros are just rolls of their parent distros with mythtv bundled and tuned as it doesn't normally come bundled.

if you're going to watch HD it's best to compile it yourself so it can do the most cpu optimizations (make sure to enable them via the appropriate configure flag)

Re:

[halfelven]

How much does it really matter to use compiler optimizations for HD? Do you have any numbers, benchmarks, etc.?

Just curious.

Re:

[LordKazan]

it matters massively. HD is MPEG2 at 1920x1080. I am using an Athlon 2500+ and offloading some of the MPEG2 decode work to a geforce 6200 via XvMC (unfortunately ATI's drivers don't have XvMC) and i still use 50% CPU when watching HD. With CPU opts turned off i bet you i couldn't watch HD (no i'm not doing a recompile of mythtv and 10 recordsing tonight to find out)

Re:

[Minwee]

Your honour, I cite the precidents set in RUBBER v GLUE and POT v KETTLE, and request that the poster be beaten about the head and shoulders with a large, freshwater fish.

Re:

[zenyu]

How much does it really matter to use compiler optimizations for HD? Do you have any numbers, benchmarks, etc.?

The big ones, but also enabled in many pre-compiled packages:
* cmov, about 10% (supported by Pentium Pro and later, but not some VIA processors)
* enabling MMX & SSE, about 10-15%

Total you can add about 30-35% with full optimization on a P4, vs. compiling for a Pentium Pro, which is the default. These numbers are somewhat old, but there is no reason to think they have changed app

Distro? You Want Distro? You Can't Handle the...

[WED Fan]

I honestly thought that when one said,"Get MythTV." it would be that simple. Why does it surprise me that there is more than one distro, just like the rest of Linux?

New Slogans

• Linux, its just too forking much.
• Forked.com - It's not Porno!
• If you need help, RTFM - Read the Forking Manual, you forking noob.
• Linux Geeks, they couldn't get forked if their sisters were giving it away.

Yes, I realize, a distro != fork, but now-a-days with the vast differences, it may almost amount to one.

Re:Distro? You Want Distro? You Can't Handle the..

[TeknoHog]

How can you expect people to wear clothes, when there's so much choice?-)

Re:

[Anpheus]

If I wear one t-shirt versus another, it doesn't make it so I can't run, jump, swim, or whatever. If I choose one distro or another, or even different operating systems, I have to choose from large sets of activities that are almost entirely exclusive from each other, with overlap only in the most popular areas, and the usability varies wildly.

If t-shirts were like distros or operating systems, I'd have to wear blue every time I wanted to play a game.

So I ask you, is that you, BadAnalogyGuy?

Re:

[Alsee]

How can you expect people to wear clothes, when there's so much choice?-)

It's not so bad. We're geeks... we only have to choose once every month or three.

-

It IS slashdotted.

[Kludge]

And the funniest part is this

Linux.com and Slashdot are both owned by SourceForge.

Slashdot takes out other subsidiary's servers.

Re:

[amightywind]

Yes, by all means lets use Enormoware (C,R,TM) where you have $50/hr call center 'help' and mass incompatibilities. And lets also spend the next 50 hours downloading 'obscure.dll' only to get the machine to 'lock up' every 10 minutes.

Re:

[jedidiah]

pppffffft

apt-get .*obscure.*dev

Re:

[/dev/trash]

obviously you've never installed mythTV via Gentoo

Re:

[jerkychew]

Mythdora gives you the option of enabling SELinux and the firewall during the install interview. Granted this isn't a perfect solution but a) It's better than nothing and b) It's meant to be an appliance, not a server. I'd hope that it would be on your local network behind a firewall and not wide open to the internet.

My issue, though is your statement, "...but as I had no idea if changing the default password would break functionally, I had to ditch it."

- So, what you're saying is you did zero research, and

Re:

[jedidiah]

Gutsy Gibbon is more than adequate as a MythTV plaform. The problem from the article is an edge case that may or may not get seen much in actual use. In general who gets highly integrated systems just to slap in an aftermarket video card?

The article didn't really address anything substantive. The really tricky parts like ivtv and lirc weren't even addressed. It's really impossible to judge competing distributions if you don't mention that sort of stuff. This article was too superficial to be useful.