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- orbitalleader, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5What's not told here: it's a pain in the ass to set up MythTV. Jonathan Corbet is a Linux guru who's contributed to the kernel and edits Linux Weekly News. Even he says it's virtually impossible to set up:
http://lwn.net/Articles/174125/
"MythTV may have a lot of things to recommend it, but there is some work to be done to make it installable by normal people. Today's MythTV reminds your editor of installing early Slackware releases: a long and fiddly process with the occasional trap to avoid. The Linux installation problem has been nicely solved; if the target hardware is supported, putting together a Linux system to use that hardware is usually a straightforward task. What has been done for Linux as a whole can certainly be done for MythTV. Until it has been done, MythTV is likely to be inaccessible to many who would like to use it."
He does love it, but warns about the more casual user trying to install it. - SgnDave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Not to crap on the parade, but this article is prime for generating FUD. It portrays the only way to get Myth as being to buy a kit. That is completely wrong. See, for example, systm episoe 2 ( http://revision3.com/systm/mythtv/ ) to see just how easy it is. If you have an old PC, all you need to buy is a TV tuner.
I can honestly see many people using this FACTUALLY INCORRECT article as a basis for debating the merits of MythTV. The Washington Post has just created a horde of "experts" who are misinformed. - us3ecandme, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I don't know about everyone else but TiVO's been harshing my mellow lately. I've been waiting and waiting for the series 3 and it's just not coming. Nobody's come close to an alternative yet, so this looks promising--although $700 seems steep for a diy kit. We'll see how this plays out.
- AF-Geek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I am a Linux _n00b_, and KnoppMyth worked pretty well for me. I took an old P-III 850MHz/768MB/40GB box and added a Hauppauge PVR-150. The only real problem I ran into was my own stupidity about my cable, not MythTV (I kept forgetting to choose "HDC" version of cable during the set up).
This has been a nice intro to Linux for me. With a little help from the web and a friend, I've tweaked the recording resolution/bitrate, set up the web front-end, and installed an FTP server and a VNC server (I love "apt-get").
I've been recommending KnoppMyth to lots of friends. - TheSlup, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I have a box setup with MediaPortal. Open source MCE in a nutshell. They only "pain" was setting up the TV schedule download. Use a WinTV PVR-350 for the tuner card.
http://www.team-mediaportal.com - zombieball, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4A MythTV box by no means costs $700. One could piece together a computer with slightly older parts for a mere $300 cost of video card. Albeit the video card will need to have a hardware based encoder / decoder (which van be found from Hauppauge for under $200) the total price will be well under $700. I live in Canada, so these prices would be reduced even further for those of you in the US. The best part is with the MythStream addon, your MythBox essentially becomes a Slingbox at the same time. The compression will not be as advanced as Slingbox, but will do fine if you plan to view your recorded programs over your own network (perhaps via wifi to a laptop as I do).
If you are interested in setting up a MythTV box I suggest checking out episode 2 of Systm where Kevin Rose & Dan Huard take you through the process. - SgnDave, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Just to clarify... there is no one "kit." In fact, MythTV will run perfectly happily on a $300 white label PC, where the only added cost would be a tuner card ($100 or less) and video card. So even though $700 is steep compared to a TiVO, it's also steep compared to what most people actually pay to get MythTV running.
See here for a discussion of what it should *actually* cost: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/176319?do=post_view_flat#176319 - lordsnooty, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3myth does so much more that a Tivo, that's its USP. The ability to play your divx/xvid/mpg media collection turns it into something special. It's revolutionising my TV experience, and I don't even have a TV card in mine. And the game interface is just more points in favour. This really is the convergence device that everyone was talking about, but no-one had. Hence, "myth" TV.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3
With DirectTV preparing to rip my Tivo's from my cold depressed fingers I think I will be going Myth soon as well. - hoberion, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3if you are new to linux be sure to use the knoppmyth version, its a "burn a cd and set mythtv up using a wizard" kinda distro.
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html
also used in the systm episode 2 as is mentioned by zombieball
http://revision3.com/systm/mythtv - cathode, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Thanks for the tip dude, I have been sweating over mythTV hardware for quite some time now, and am ready to throw in the towel for an XP system which will simply work.
- toad3k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Just find a spare pc laying around. I was running mine on a p3 500 that I never used anymore, just plugged in a $150 capture card and a bigger hd and it was ready to go.
- dnaspydir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i have to disagree... for a system that has yet to reach 1.0 release status it is quite reliable. there is no question there is room for improvement, but to say it is "soooo 2 years ago", i had to comment... from the moment you get it setup it will do more than a tivo or media center.
you really must check out the latest build... - OperatorNo9, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2From MediaPortal's feature list re: DVD playback:
"Automatically populates video artwork & information from IMDB."
Brilliant!
Media portal looks pretty sweet, man. Thanks for the tip. - OperatorNo9, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2There certainly are some notable discrepancies between the article and reality. But, take something like MythTV and the general populous' understanding of media center software for regular PCs, mix in the fact that they are now selling prebuilt MythTV systems (what the article is really about), and you have the perfect breeding ground for confusion.
Considering the relative obscurity of MythTV, the fact that they have these kits and that the Washington Post is reporting on them will only aide in MythTV's transition from geek chic to ubiquitous fun for the masses. - zombieball, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hoberion is right, knoppmyth is probably the easiest way to setup MythTV.
Since I wished to use a SATA hard drive (which was not supported by knoppmyth, at least at the time) I opted for this website: http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php It is a step-by-step walk through for setting up MythTV on Fedora Core 4. Beware FC4 is quite bloated when it comes to Linux operating systems though! - cathode, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I watched that Systm show and thought that they seriously glossed over the hardware. I have been researching this stuff for awhile now (I want one) and pretty much found out that it's all rough around the edges.. you'll be lucky if your hardware works. I definitely do NOT get the impression that you can just slap a TV tuner into any old PC and have it actually work.
Plus, as a Linux noob, and non-programmer, I don't know how to do any scripting, which is what some of that MAKE stuff looks like. - drag, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Mythtv is complex, no doubt about that.
This site has the best, by far, mythtv howto that I know of. Very detailed, very usefull. Uses Fedora Core 4 at this time. The guy running it knows his stuff.
http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/ - dddane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1so in other words, add $250 to the $300. (The hauppauge 250 cards are about $120-130 min these days...). sure there are cheaper cards, but you NEED a card with hardware MPEG encoding built in ...so the PVR-250 is considered the gold standard for this. the 350 has hardware encoding AND decoding, but its a little more money.
and to make any bit of sense out of this box, you need at least two of these cards. - cathode, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If some PC company would sell small MythTV boxes for under $1000 that simply work... bingo. There's a wad of cash to be made, I for onw would buy one immediately.
- navinjohnson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Basically this a digg for MythTV, the article itself covers no new ground.
- dramatools, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1While KnoppMyth gives you a quick start, it's by no means plug-and-play. I rebuilt my Fedora Core-based Myth 0.18 box with KM R5B7 (Myth 0.19) and had to spend a few days getting my Hauppauge remote control and serial IR blaster to play nice together (hint: move /etc/rc5.d/S20irblaster to /etc/rc5.d/S21irblaster). The ivtv driver that ships with R5B7 also has the PVR-150 tinny audio bug, requiring a runtime workaround.
Given those problems, setting up KnoppMyth is easier than trying to get Myth running on another distro, especially if you want to use EPIA hardware-- Under Fedora, you'll be scrounging the net to find a complete set of ATrpms RPM macros to rebuild packages. Not fun.
I still have problems with the database dropping all its listings, but Myth is getting better with each release. - Quickstrike, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Can anyone report on the Myth TV recording quality? I remember seeing pictures in the past, and it looked considerably worse running through the Tuner card when compared to a Tivo doing the same thing.
Also, how does it compare to Windows offerings? ie. If price wasn't a concern, what would be the best DIY solution? I like BeyondTV's interface the most, but SageTV seems to have more features.
Keep in mind, I have my xbox modded with XBMC, so there isn't a need for xvid/dvd playback. Just on-the-fly recording of great quality. - etruscan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1MythTV may be old - but so is Windows, and Linux, and we still get stories regarding both. MythTV is slowly evolving into an alternative that more and more people are willing to try out... so any information is good. I personally have been interested in setting one up since watching the Systm video on it a few months back, but I haven't had a chance to organize the hardware yet.
This article will be a good reference point for information on the project, however. - dddane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Another one worth checking out is GBPVR ... http://www.gbpvr.com/ (last time I visited that site was slow as *$@( though).
its not open source, but its free, and (best of all for many...) runs on Windows. And while not open source, it has an open interface that allows you to write plug-ins for it to customize it. - dnaspydir, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1knoppmyth is definitely the way to go, there is no question about it... well, that is for those who don't want to go the media center route... really the MS route in general, since there are several htpc options for use with windows.
i'm currently running knoppmyth r5b7 on a sempron 2200, 512Mb, 250Gb with a hauppauge pvr500 mce, and a pvr250. it allows me to record up to 3 stations at a time (2 analog, 1 digital). the most difficult part of my config was the remote control, so rather than use lirc to control everything, it only controls the digital cable box that i attached a serial irblaster up to. the system control is all done with a programmable remote configured to use the receiver from an ir keyboard.
i have also setup a frontend box that interfaces with the main system to allow viewing from another room. i can even take over one or two of the tuners from the main box if i want to be able to pause live tv. the next step for my config is to go wireless on the frontend.
i have even been able to sync my iriver pmc120 with it using the only windows machine in my home (so far just music and videos, not my recorded tv shows, but that was just over the past weekend, i need a little more time). - archer75, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Having used a PC as a HTPC I can say that they suck. I'll take my dual tuner Direct Tivo over a HTPC any day.
- Jozer99, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1A PVR competing with another PVR?!?! What a radical idea!
An article about how open source software is gaining on closed source software on digg?!?!? What a radical idea! - sycorob24, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I would love to load MythTV onto my Tivo box. Has anybody heard of a MythTV distro that's set up for Tivo hardware?
- zombieball, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Edit: $300 + cost of video card - Missed the 3 min timeline.
- dddane, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1As a former MythTV user (of 2 years or so...), I have to say that MythTV is soooo 2 years ago. Why is this news story out now?
MythTV is nice on paper, but in practice its just nowhere near as reliable as a real DVR made with dedicated and specific hardware made for DVR usage. I have top of the line hardware, top of the line TV capture cards, etc., and the system ran like a wet dog and wasn't all that reliable. I have friends with similar problems... The problem isn't MythTV, though.. There are just far too many variables. Other software has the same problems.
Wired.com did a news story (about a year ago now...) on MythTV, and the found that it wasn't as reliable either.
I'll have to check out the latest build.
BTW, Tivo's new pricing plans SUCK! (No more lifetime activation, they no longer know what the multi-box discount will be, etc). - vortec42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0MythTV does not run on TiVo's, as the hardware is proprietary.
- roentgen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0No kidding. I've been a huge TiVo fan, but their abolition of the lifetime subscription makes me think that $700 isn't that expensive, once you consider the combined cost of the TiVo unit, a large hard drive, and (previously) a lifetime service subscription.
Plus, I'll be able to customize it better than TiVo season passes allow. - philz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Yes, but does it ... (no not linux) delete your files as well?
(heh - that's a feature right?) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1i cant ***** figure out mythtv
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