Building a Linux PVR Part I - MythTV Setup and Install
by Kristopher Kubicki on September 3, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Linux
MythTV (continued)
Moving onto the capture card menu, we can select our capture card and configure it for default options. Although SuSE/YAST does not recognize our Hauppauge PVR-250, MythTV sees the device as a Video for Linux device.
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Myth also allows us to use multiple tuners, something that we will go into more detail with in Part II. In the Input connection menu, we can modify our input sources from the PVR-250 card. By selecting the "Tuner 0" option, we can add the DataDirect channel stream and thus, all of our channels are automatically programmed in. The other inputs here allow us to do fun things with Myth, like capture our Gamecube output on one of the composite or S-Video connections as well.
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Going into the channel menu, we can see all of our channels from DataDirect programmed into the database. We are now ready to start playing with MythTV.
Starting MythTV is a two-part endeavor. First, we must run the backend, which can be done by just typing the command mythbackend.
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Then, starting the frontend can be done in a different shell by running the command mythfrontend. By doing so, the main Myth menu turns on, and we can reconfigure this to go straight to video instead.
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NullSpin - Saturday, September 4, 2004 - link
I can't tell you how long I have been waiting for this article. I have been waiting to buy components for almost a year but did not want to wade into this project with no idea of what hardware was reccomended. I'm also really interested in seeing the process of adding an nfs server into the mix for additional storage.Maybe you could price out a 'quiet' system and the various form factors for htpc's.
Can't wait for part deux.
NS
sisyphus - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
I have just one thing to say about MythTV:http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html
Save yourself some time and grief!
Use KnoppMyth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nnyan - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
Just had another thought, how does MythTV compare to other applications like Freevo?griffy - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
Great job, thanks.In your next article, could you let us know a little more why you chose the hardware you did, and maybe what you think the minimum might be?
Thanks
archcommus87 - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
Wow, goes to show me that there are still topics out there I know NOTHING about. Most of this article was over my head. Is that because I'm not familiar with Linux or something else?Just the whole part about getting the card setup, the commands to run, the Myth database, etc. WHOOSH.
Resh - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
Thanks for replying Kris, but your reply makes me cry. My Hitachi doesn't have a DVI or VGA-in so unless I can get the TV-out on the vid card to work under Linux, I'm dead in the water.If anyone has seen any good directions on making Suse, Fedora, or Mandrake work with the TV-out on currently available nVidia card or Radeon 8500, please let me know! llama at rogers dot com
Kris, if you can cover this in the next, or a third, I'd have your children (although my wife might object). ;-)
Thanks!
Nnyan - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
Cool article. My only complaint is that I would have liked to have read which distros DID work well with MythTV and perphaps the PVR-250. Perphaps in part 2?Thanks to skeptic for the mention of KnoppMyth distro.
JoeNiner - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
Please please please include a KnoppMyth install in a follow up!KristopherKubicki - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
Resh: We only used a PVR-250, so there is no passthrough. We just hooked the DVI out on our GeForce card up to the TV :)Kristopher
meksta - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
mythTV is perhaps the most versatile piece of software I have come across. You can build a system for cheaper if you want. I am running myth on a XP2500+ cpu and Chaintech 7nif2 mobo (built-in s-video out). I also run two el-cheapo tv tuner cards for some simultaneous recordings.With a PVR250, that does hardware encoding, you really don't need a kick ass cpu at all.
I agree it takes a while to set up. But once I had it up and running...it's been happily stable since.