MythTV
In anticipation of Tivo’s presenting ads while we fast forward, I’m looking into building (or buying?) a MythTV, an open source project that turns a linux box into a Tivo++. We love Tivo, but MythTV looks much better. (We’re also going to try to buy our next TV before the Broadcast Flag goes into effect in July 1, 2005.)
I find myself amazingly confused, however. For example, the EFF says that PC TV tuners will record HDTV off of over-the-air broadcasts but not off of cable boxes. That sounds crazy…crazy like the FCC. (Tivo also doesn’t record HDTV, except through some deal with DirecTV.) Will going the MythTV route lock me out of recording HDTV if and when commercial recorders enable it? Will the free source of programming information, zap2it.com, continue as free or is there a reasonable likelihood that we’ll be locked out of access? Does someone sell ready-to-run MythTV boxes? Alternatively, since it seems that there’s a CD with linux and MythTV sw ready-to-install, is there a list of exactly the right hw I can just go out and buy without having to make choices beyond how large a hard drive and whether I want a white or black case? (MySetTopBox is pretty good at this.) Just a few of a zillion questions. And I won’t be starting this immediately since I have been unable to extirpate entirely my sense of priorities.
Some initial links:
MythTV home
Screenshots – mmmm!
Documentation
PVR Blog (personal vido recorder)
PVRBlog’s MythTV how-to
MySetTopBox
Knoppmyth– MythTV on a CD
Support the EFF!
Categories: Uncategorized dw
David – Check out Jarod Wilson’s MythTV HOWTO for Fedora ( http://www.wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php ). I’ve installed a few times and it is a great resource. If you are building a MythTV box from scratch, I highly recommend building it with similar hardware to what he has. Everything comes much easier that way. Figure you’ve got at least a weekend of time to build it and get it running.
In Cambridge, there is a computer build-to-order place called “PCs For Everyone”. They’re a little expensive, but you can get the quality and selection of components you’d want for this.
And I’m pretty sure they’d help with the MythTV software install for a fee.
The old time-vs-money tradeoff…
An On, I’m ok building PCs from components. I know I’m likely to get stuck installing linux, esp. with a complex set of dependencies. So, if I can get a parts list for the knoppmyth disk, then I think I’ll be in good shape. (Plus, my nephew is a linux admin and hacker.)
Nick, thanks for the link. Looks very useful.
But David, all this work for what? At the end of the day it is still TV, the greatest factor in the decline of the American public.
Curmudge, Curmudge, I know.
Just pretend you’re destroying all network TV as you fly by all the commercials.
I’ve wanted to build a MythTV box myself a few times so I hope you write about your progress.
I bought the HDTV card that the EFF talks about on their broadcast flag home page, and built a Linux-based computer to use it. The company that builds the card says that they plan to eventually issue a firmware update that will enable the card to receive unecrypted HDTV over cable. Whether the practical effect of that is that you’ll be able to watch HDTV over cable is anyone’s guess; mine is that the cable companies will probably wind up encrypting everything. I think I’m going to have to climb up into the attic and reconnect the old TV antenna we have up there.
I’ve been trying to install MythTV on the box with the card and failing miserably. Right now I’ve got it to a point where it does everything except what it’s supposed to. It’s a set top box that reads RSS and Atom feeds, shows me the weather, and will play MP3s, but if I try to use it to watch TV, it freezes on me. Bleah. I hope you have better luck than me if you go down this path.
Todd Grinnell told me you were interested in building a MythTV box. I work w/ Todd and have built a working MythTV box using a Dell desktop and 350 capture card. Running Fedora Core 2. Took a little work and I can currently only get channels 2-99 on Comcast digital cable. So shoot me an e-mail if you need any info.
I got stuck installing mythtv and I found this web site http://pvrguide.no-ip.com had helpful guides.
They have a forum where I got over my install problems (my mistake – a bad setup)