I want my MythTV Tim Fenn [email protected] What are DVRs? ● Digital Video Recorders - digital devices used to schedule/record television programs ● typically include features like fast forward, rewind, pause recorded and ªliveº TV ● standalone service - e.g. TiVo, Replay TV ● integrated service ± e.g. Comcast How does MythTV compare? ● 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) ● 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... Example screenshots... Example screenshots... Example screenshots... Example screenshots... Example screenshots... Required Hardware (backend) ● TV capture card: – Hauppauge PVR cards (150/250/350/500) are very popular (encoding done in hardware) ($70-200)1 ● well supported in linux (Chris Kennedy, Tyler Trafford, John Harvey et al. and some actual vendor support on register settings)2 – older bttv (bt848/bt878) chipsets (WinTV-Go, etc, etc...) – Plextor ConvertX PX-TV402U (USB 2.0 device) ● 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) ● currently supported HDTV cards require encoding in software (computationally demanding, requires a P4 and ~9gig/hr of media) – very tricky for several reasons: OTA/QAM/resolution/DVB vs. ATSC/driver support/encryption – FCC©s broadcast flag (no longer a problem?) – pcHDTV1 – Air2PC2 ● 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) ● display (TV? monitor? HDTV?) – for HDTV, NVIDIA FX/MX chipsets support XvMC (in principle, anyway) ● 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 – http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/XFree86-Video-Timings-HOWTO/ ● problems associated with proprietary drivers (busted XvMC, among others) – PVR 350 supports MPEG2 decoding, can be used as a framebuffer for X (John Harvey) – 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) ● audio – S/PDIF (AC3 passthrough?), RCA, etc. – alsa1 is your friend ± slave devices, sound routing/resampling, multiple card setups, etc. – DigitalSound HOWTO: http://www.mythtv.info/moin.cgi/DigitalSoundHowTo ● control over it all: remote control and/or keyboard – LIRC2 ● native support in myth ● control any program (or load any program) using remote – wireless keyboard/mouse – universal IR remote (potentially combined with the above) 1. http://www.alsa-project.org/ 2. http://www.lirc.org Required Hardware (misc) ● IR blaster – control any IR equipment (cable box, lights, fans, stereo, etc.) ● LIRC ● DVD drive/burner ● ªminiº frontends – mini-ITX boards (http://linpvr.org/) – XBox ± Dennis Cartier (http://bit.blkbk.com/) – Hauppauge MediaMVP ± mvpmc ( http://mvpmc.sourceforge.net/) – AVeL LinkPlayer (DVD player + HDTV capable network client http://www.iodata.com/products/) Software HOWTO ● MUST be comfortable with linux system administration!!! ● Best bet: pick a distribution with binary builds available: – RH/FC ● ATrpms (Axel Thimm - http://atrpms.net) - apt/yum ● Jarod Wilson - http://www.wilsonet.com/mythtv/ – Mandrake ● Thac (http://rpm.nyvalls.se/) - urpmi – Debian ● Matt Zimmerman (http://dijkstra.csh.rit.edu/~mdz/debian/dists/unstable/mythtv/) - apt – Gentoo ● native portage support (http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Setup_MythTV) - emerge – Knoppmyth ● ªliveº CD for frontends (http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html) – Mac OSX ● frontend only (http://whpress.com/mythtv/) Software (misc) ● 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 ● 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/ ● Linux home server HOWTO (Miles Brennan): http://www.brennan.id.au/ ● logical volume management (LVM): http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/ ● My misc. stuff: http://www.stanford.edu/~fenn/ ● V4L2: http://www.thedirks.org/v4l2/ ● ivtv: http://www.ivtv.tv.