I want my MythTV
Tim Fenn
What are DVRs?
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Digital Video Recorders - digital devices used to schedule/record television programs
typically include features like fast forward, rewind, pause recorded and “live” TV
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standalone service - e.g. TiVo, Replay TV integrated service – e.g. Comcast
How does MythTV compare?
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Free and open source for users, by users Runs under Linux and (frontend only) MacOSX SQL backbone client/server architecture (think: one box for inputs/recording, any other number of boxes for viewing)
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nobody cares what you do with it or how you use it (10 capture cards? Sure! Can I control my lights and ceiling fans using the same box? OK! Watch/burn/rip DVDs? DeCSS, hah!)
Con: requires know-how of hardware and (primarily Linux) software
So what is MythTV capable of?
- Example screenshots...
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Required Hardware (backend)
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TV capture card:
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Hauppauge PVR cards (150/250/350/500) are very popular (encoding done in hardware) ($70-200)
1
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well supported in linux (Chris Kennedy, Tyler Trafford, John Harvey et al. and some actual vendor support on register settings)2
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older bttv (bt848/bt878) chipsets (WinTV-Go, etc, etc...)
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Plextor ConvertX PX-TV402U (USB 2.0 device)
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fully open sourced SDK (and gave free stuff to Isaac Richards)3
1. http://www.hauppauge.com 2. http://www.ivtv.tv 3. http://www.plextor.com/english/support/LinuxSDK.htm
Required Hardware (backend)
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currently supported HDTV cards require encoding in software (computationally demanding, requires a P4 and ~9gig/hr of media)
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very tricky for several reasons: OTA/QAM/resolution/DVB vs. ATSC/driver support/encryption
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FCC's broadcast flag (no longer a problem?) pcHDTV1
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Air2PC2
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better: firewire output of cable box (read: digital stream that just gets dumped to disk) – e.g. DCT6200
1. http://www.pchdtv.com 2. http://www.bbti.us/products_air2pc_atsc_pci.htm
Required Hardware (frontend)
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display (TV? monitor? HDTV?)
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for HDTV, NVIDIA FX/MX chipsets support XvMC (in principle, anyway)
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setting up the output is tricky (and sometimes the driver fails with some modelines, particularly related to 1080i)
analog conversion: VGA to Y,Pb,Pr via Audio Authority 9A601
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http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/XFree86-Video-Timings-HOWTO/
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problems associated with proprietary drivers (busted XvMC, among others)
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PVR 350 supports MPEG2 decoding, can be used as a framebuffer for X (John Harvey)
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TV-out works well with NVIDIA proprietary drivers, ATI proprietary drivers, SiS, EPIA onboard, etc.
1. http://www.pacificcable.com/Picture_Page.asp?DataName=9A60
Required Hardware (frontend)
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audio
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S/PDIF (AC3 passthrough?), RCA, etc. alsa1 is your friend – slave devices, sound routing/resampling, multiple card setups, etc.
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DigitalSound HOWTO:
http://www.mythtv.info/moin.cgi/DigitalSoundHowTo
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control over it all: remote control and/or keyboard
LIRC2
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native support in myth
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control any program (or load any program) using remote
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wireless keyboard/mouse
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universal IR remote (potentially combined with the above)
1. http://www.alsa-project.org/ 2. http://www.lirc.org
Required Hardware (misc)
IR blaster
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control any IR equipment (cable box, lights, fans, stereo, etc.)
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LIRC
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DVD drive/burner “mini” frontends
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mini-ITX boards (http://linpvr.org/)
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XBox – Dennis Cartier (http://bit.blkbk.com/)
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Hauppauge MediaMVP – mvpmc (
http://mvpmc.sourceforge.net/)
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AVeL LinkPlayer (DVD player + HDTV capable network
client http://www.iodata.com/products/)
Software HOWTO
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MUST be comfortable with linux system administration!!! Best bet: pick a distribution with binary builds available:
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RH/FC
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ATrpms (Axel Thimm - http://atrpms.net) - apt/yum
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Jarod Wilson - http://www.wilsonet.com/mythtv/
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Mandrake
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Thac (http://rpm.nyvalls.se/) - urpmi
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Debian
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Matt Zimmerman (http://dijkstra.csh.rit.edu/~mdz/debian/dists/unstable/mythtv/) - apt
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Gentoo
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native portage support (http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Setup_MythTV) - emerge
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Knoppmyth
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“live” CD for frontends (http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html)
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Mac OSX
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frontend only (http://whpress.com/mythtv/)
Software (misc)
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learn apt/synaptic/yum/smart!!! window manager (none, ratpoison, fluxbox, etc.) X.Org driver for graphics output driver for video capture remote/IR blaster control: LIRC alt. music player: xmms video game emulators: xmame/snes9x video player (SVCD/DVD/non-nuv format: xine/mplayer) CD/DVD burning: DVD+RW/+R/-R[W] tools, dvdauthor, dvdstyler
My Home Setup
- My Home Setup
- Home Setup – master backend
- Home Setup – master backend
- Home Setup – master backend
- Home Setup - Network
- Home Setup – mini frontend
- Home Setup – mini frontend
Demo, Q's and Links
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MythTV wiki: http://www.mythtv.info/ mythtv-users list: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/
downloadable TV listings: http://labs.zap2it.com
ivtv-devel list: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/ivtv/devel/ Jarod Wilson's MythTV HOWTO: http://www.wilsonet.com/mythtv
Fedora multimedia HOWTO (Eric Raymond):
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Fedora-Multimedia-Installation-HOWTO/
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Linux home server HOWTO (Miles Brennan): http://www.brennan.id.au/ logical volume management (LVM):
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/
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My misc. stuff: http://www.stanford.edu/~fenn/ V4L2: http://www.thedirks.org/v4l2/ ivtv: http://www.ivtv.tv