Anand builds a MythTV

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Anand builds a MythTV

Kristopher Kubicki of Anandtech.com has gone to some considerable work and effort to document the building of a SuSE Linux-based MythTV PVR using a Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250MCE for the TV tuner card. He summarizes:

And finally, after several hours of turmoil and despair, we have installed and tested our Linux device. Its far from perfect - we cannot readily work with digital TV broadcasts, for example. What we do have is a machine that will readily emulate all of the basic Windows MCE or TiVo functionality at a reduced cost - and we can hack/configure/manipulate it to any extent that we wish to in the future. On the downside, it did take us over four hours to set up and install everything.
...
Other drawbacks of MCE devices include the inability to play back the video content on anything but other MCE devices, and the inability to re-render the recorded files into a different format to save space. With MythTV and Linux, on the other hand, we can capture, re-encode and playback on completely separate machines, even Windows systems. For the truly crafty, Myth allows us to connect the front end of a different machine to the first MythTV system and play video files/streams in that manner.

Me? I'd buy a Tivo and be done with it :)

Building a Linux PVR [Anandtech.com]

by Gen Kanai September 6, 2004 in Products

Comments

I can play MCE recorded shows all around the house using WMP9. Is there maybe something I'm missing from that final comment?

Posted by: Paolo Marcucci at Sep 6, 2004 12:11:19 PM

Paolo, apparently there is something you're missing:
http://tivo-mplayer.sourceforge.net/

Posted by: Josh at Sep 6, 2004 6:45:05 PM

Josh, I don't see anything in that link about inability to play MCE files on other machines. I do that all the time from the other Windows XP (not MCE) machines in my home LAN, using WMP9. I was addressing the comment "Other drawbacks of MCE devices include the inability to play back the video content on anything but other MCE devices".

As for the re-encoding of ms-dvr files, there are several options, both commercial and free like, for example, the one at http://www.nacontap.com/dvr2wmvrc35.cfm

I'm not saying anything about MythTV ot Tivo, just pointing out some inaccuracies about MCE.

Posted by: Paolo Marcucci at Sep 6, 2004 9:08:43 PM

Ah, gotcha Paolo. I thought your statement was directed at Gen's final comment, "Me? I'd buy a Tivo and be done with it :)" and that perhaps you were pointing out an advantage that MCE has over TiVo.

Nothing to see here, move along...

Posted by: Josh at Sep 7, 2004 5:45:36 AM

Mythtv user chiming in... Once you've gone MythTV you can't go back ;) Perhaps it's because I have the pcHDTV tuner, but being able to upgrade my PVR to HDTV for less that $200.00 is quite an advantage.

http://www.sturgeonfamily.com/mythtv.php

Posted by: John at Sep 8, 2004 12:39:57 PM

There are a few windows based pvr software solutions that make it even easier to roll your own pvr. I went with BeyondTV's fine software and transformed a secondary, 700 mhz box running xp into a fully functional pvr with the addition of their software and a Hauppauge card. Very simple and no monthly fees...

Posted by: Jon at Sep 15, 2004 3:31:16 PM

I Wounder how easy it is to rip out the Tivo parts from the underlining linux os and install Myth TV on top of it.

Posted by: eric at Sep 16, 2004 9:20:16 AM

It would be interesting if, just for comparison, knoppmyth was installed on the same hardware (after a backup of course)

Anandtechs author did a fine job, but (IMHO) SUSE has almost the WORST support for installing MythTV, and basic setup can take hours... THEN one has to build packages?

One must work in ones own comfort zone, I suppose.

On (at least) Debian, Fedora(x) or Mandriva, one simply has to add the appropriate package sources, and invoke the magic invocation i.e "urpmi mythtv-suite ivtv -a" and wait for EVERYTHING to install, then run "mythtv-setup"

Using Knoppmyth... Brain dead simple. Finds HW, installs itself, and prompts you thru the setup. Couldn't be simpler unless you had someone else do it for you.

As a test on my longtime Mythtv//main workstation (AthlonXP/2100+, 512M NF2, 2x avermedia M179s, mongo HD space) it only took ~20min to go from "bare metal" to recording/watching shows.

If you are building a stand alone PVR, Knoppmyth is the ONLY sane way to go.

If you are comfortable with Debian, it would probably make a fine dual purpose setup.

(For the record, I use Mandrak^H^Hriva 10.2 LE, one must use "easy urpmi" and add plf, contrib, and manually add THACS RPMS.
I also have an XBox as a frontend in the living room, works excellent, runs Xebian (Debian derivative))

Posted by: Greg at Jul 10, 2005 11:33:17 PM

Anand builds a MythTV

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