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You can try Knoppmyth, which is a Knoppix-based installer and bootable front end. Be aware, though, that MythTV requires some specific hardware, and if you try to run it with a lot of the stock MS MCE machines they're selling these days, you're going to run into problems.

To get a truly hassle-free setup, you need a Linux-compatible capture card with hardware encoding. These (the Hauppage PVR series are the best supported, particularly the PVR-250) do not come standard in cheap MCE machines. There are also issues with on-board video and with ATI cards. You'll need a good, supported graphics card like the nvidia gf or fx series, particularly if you plan on going out to a TV or to HD.

If everything is compatible and everything is plugged in just right, you can get Knoppmyth running within a couple hours.

In the long run, though, it's better if not to build it yourself than at least put the pieces together yourself. Many, many people have done this following Jarod Wilson's excellent guide for Fedora. If you do it this way, you have a much better idea how to fix things that go wrong (they will), and how to upgrade and extend functions when you want to (you will).

MythTV is not a simple thing to get running, and it is certainly not low maintenance. It is, though, the most powerful media engine on the planet at the moment, and is entirely open-source.

There is a business model for MythTV, with a subscription service available through LxM Suite -- they give you six months of TV listings data as well as other services for a $30 fee. The money, minus operating costs, goes in a pool to pay for bounties. Subscribers get a number of points to vote for what proposed features get funded -- i.e. paying somebody to do some of the more tedious coding, but the subscribers decide what code gets priority.

Running MythTV will take a lot more of your time than you might expect, particularly as you learn to use the CD and video archiving tools. But it is well worth the time. I've had my box running for over a year now, and can't imagine what I'd do without it.

Yes.

http://mysettopbox.tv/

KnoppMyth is great, I'm fairly newbian to linux and I managed to get it set up and cranking over the weekend. Hardware auto detection and all the hard stuff worked out for you

http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html

I had no luck with it, and went to ubuntu, but that should do it.

They already have

If you want an easy life, go get reference hardware for KnoppMyth

I built one myself, and for HDTV I'd say you'd need ~2.5GHz+ if you have a combined front-end and back-end. If you separate the 2 systems, the back end doesn't need that much requirements, probably just a decent speed Hard Drive, because all it does is writes the data streams to the Hard Disk. The front-end on the other hand (The part that actually decodes and displays the data) would need a decent processor to decode the HDTV signal and the usual video card picked for Myth boxes is a GeForce 5200 because they are a decent card with no fan (quiter). If you are trying to build one that just does analog TV signals the requirements drop a lot. A great source for information is http://mysettopbox.tv/

For those impatient, there is KnoppMyth - a Knoppix based Live CD that runs MythTV. Link here It looks good, but it doesn't run so well on my P3 450 Mhz. ;-)

If you're looking to have this mythical convergence box you keep hearing so much about. Find out about current, less restrictive, alternatives.

Okay, you know us MythFans would get all foamy about that.

Get a tuner card first - especially something like PVR-350 that can encode TV to MPEG and simultaneously decode MPEGS to S-video/composite for playback.

My 1.2GHz machine uses 10-15% CPU encoding/recording one channel and, at the same time, playing something previously recorded at 1366x768 (with ads removed of course :-)

Also, unless you have done some significant work around dealing with heat, you have a pretty noisy machine in your living room. Ick.

If anyone starts this type of project, get a low spec and very quiet machine, such as one based on an EPIA MII10000 (1.0GHz) or fanless Eden600. Add a PVR-350 and a *quiet*/fast/big disk (I have 550GB), and you are away.

Oh, and use KnoppMyth for a quick and painless install.

And collectively [the WMA music stores] have about 10% of the market.

Another 10% being MP3 downloads from eMusic.com, MP3Tunes.com, etc., right? Besides, as people find that they can play music on a console that they already own for games, they'll be more likely to buy music from playsforsure stores.

Sony's rumored to be in talks with Apple right now

Where would a Sony-Apple deal leave Warner, Universal, and EMI?

up to this point nobody ever, ever uses a game console for anything but playing games. That's reality.

Darn right. Even if your console does have a DVD player built-in (like the PS2), you still can't play a DVD on one TV and a game on another. Might as well go with the GameCube, which costs the same as a PS2 minus the price of a low-end DVD player, which you can use on a separate screen.

and as MS is currently the only commercial OS producer making a Media Center OS, they've pretty much got that market locked up.

By "commercial" do you mean "proprietary"? As soon as anybody starts to sell copies of the KnoppMyth distribution, KnoppMyth becomes commercial free software. But given s/commercial/proprietary/g, you have a point.

You mean KnoppMyth right? :-)
Knoppix optimized for mythtv.

Now, HTPCs are the next big thing. Unfortunately, brewing your own is still a pain in the butt. What needs to be done to remedy this is the following:

• An easy to install/use software. The article mentions KnoppMyth which is a great start. There should be more efforts like it. The idea is to allow anyone to salvage an old machine that has been lying in the closet for 1 year, install the software (which includes the OS) and start recording. No additional tweaking! The machine should boot to a MythTV-like menu.
  
• Support for cheaper hardware. You don't really need a P4 or an Opteron processor for that.
  
• Support for a remote control. NO KEYBOARD OR MOUSE.
  
• Support for many peripherals like TV Tuner cards, DVD burners, hard drives, etc.
  
• A cheap, good looking case. Most HTPC cases cost over $150. That is almost as expensive as the machine itself (assuming it HAS been in your closet for a year). A good, perhaps plastic, case is needed.
  

Its called KnoppMyth, based off Knoppix

http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html

It makes it all the more difficult for the entertainment cartel to fight the provision. Using the VCR as an example, going forward the VHS tape VCR is going to become extinct. Replacing it is digital. Tivo. MythTV, Knoppmyth. Digital cards/units like Air2PC, HD3000 cards, and other versions that will come out now that the broadcast flag has been temporarily set back. Ideally, you would want the same rights for these new products that you currently have with your VCR, right?

You can currently record a television program or movie from over-the-air or cable, pop the tape out, take it to your vacation home or friend or relative's home, and watch that movie while on vacation or at your friend or relative's house. You can even pop that tape into the mail and send it to your mom's house so you can watch it together when you stop in from your business trip on your way back home. Or visiting temporarily from school prior to going home for summer break. Or simply let your mom watch it while you stay at school for extra studies.

With a digital recording and a networked home, why bother with VCR tapes? You simply transfer the recording over the internet to your mom's home. And if you forget to do it while at your home or dorm, you can do it remotely by logging in to your home network and then transferring the program to your current location.

Digital Restrictions Management schemes all interfere with the above. Interfere with rights you already have when those programs exist in other forms, on other media. Why does innovation result in lost rights?

It is very important to frame your statements using the above examples. Simply stating that proposed copyright rules or digital restrictions management or treaties dealing with "IP" and "copyrights" will outlaw future VCRs is not enough. Legislators aren't experts. Far from it. You telling them that the proposed legislation or actions by them in a treaty will outlaw future VCRs falls flat on its face because they won't believe it. They didn't believe it with VCRs even though it almost happened (remember the Sony Betamax case and MPAA's suggestion of a $100.00 "tax" on each blank tape payable to them as compensation for "lost" sales like they had/have with the current $1.00 per blank VHS tape or whatever on blank cassettes or on other media in other countries outside US like Canada and elsewhere).

You need to frame your statement in clear, short and easy to understand terms. Something that the MPAA/RIAA will have a difficult time arguing against. They will use tactics like changing the subject, or use other unrelated examples to argue their point but when they do, unbiased legislators sometimes catch it. Always frame it over rights already held with VCRs against the same rights being lost in the new technology (digital, Tivo, transferring a recording to mom's home, etc.).

Include examples that highlight constituent backlash. Imagine what will happen when cable companies (not the studios, check the MythTV mail archives) enable a broadcast flag to prevent recording of Desperate Housewives. Or have the program expire a week later. Or prevent the transfer of the episode to mom's house while on vacation at her home and she can't operate the old VCR (or reset the clock) let alone the newfangled Tivo thing. That will start them thinking what happens if they allow the entertainment cartel legislation and their own wives can't record Desperate Housewives. Or their understanding on how they can't watch football on the big screen because the wives need to watch Desperate Housewives and can't Tivo it for later or to watch over someone else's house during a playoff game or the Super Bowl.

Each one of the examples above are good if you take the time to frame the statement properly. Sho

http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html
Assuming you have the right hardware, etc.
If not, prepare to spend a couple hours finding drivers / recompiling / all that fun stuff.

Maybe it is just me, but I don't feel like installing 3 distros and spending hours trying to get some hardware to work, sometimes "just fucking works" is nice.

Problems solved.

The 350 is easy enough to get working if you're just using the TV input - it's no harder than the 250 for that. It's the TV output that's harder. However, with knoppmyth and this script it's now pretty much automatic. I've done both ways - the manual setup was a pain in the ass but with the script I installed a box within an hour.

If you're a Knoppix fan, there is KnoppMyth:

http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html

Although it isn't a LiveCD, you have to install it. I'm still preferential to FC3 though :)

MythTV is great -- plays shows I record, DVDs, and even plays TV shows downloaded from the Internet (via mPlayer, which still blows my mind). KnoppMyth is easy to setup and install, and works with even old misengineered equipment.

I say this becasue I don't do Windows anymore, and my life is easier for it!

I've been using MythTV and really like it.

For those who want a fast install, check out KnoppMyth

Of course there's always Freevo

Personally, I've had great luck, especially as far as installing and locating dependencies, with Gentoo. If it's in Portage, so are the prereqs and they're mirrored on many, many servers.

Now, I'll freely admit that I'm not wild at times about the amount of time Gentoo needs to compile updates, but, since those updates aren't binary and I can keep stupid dependencies off my system, like KDE, it's a necessary evil.

So Tivo wants to start competing with KnoppMyth? Trouble is, KnoppMyth is free! Also, I don't know about Tivo, but Myth also allows you to record two shows at once if you have multiple tuner cards in your computer.

BTM

well there's knoppmyth mythtv installer that makes it pretty easy. Pair that with a pvr250 and a nvidia video card and you should be in great shape (I'm reasonably sure in the near future the knoppmyth project will add support for the plextor convertX - I hope)

If you go to the dark side (windoze) it can be pretty easy... shameless plug check out some of the articles on byopvr.com for some good diy background, recommendations, etc..

e.

Try KnoppMyth. I don't know if it crosses your threshold of "easy", but it's definately easier than building myth from soruce.

I use the Knoppix MythTV distro.

I also run Gentoo, but an easier to set up distribution would be KnoppMyth
http://mysettopbox.tv/

also there are Air2PC cards that can also be used for HDTV like pcHDTV3000, but you will have to wait until April to get one.
http://mythic.tv/product_info.php?products_id=33

There is a distribution that is being worked on that could help people along.

I'll take it off your hands cheap

On the other hand, if you're willing to give it another shot, try KnoppMyth

Hey, I wouldn't say you have to be a linux genius... just be able to burn a bootable knopppmyth ISO =)

The latest alpha knopmyth revision has built in support for the HD-3000 IIRC.

I did find the included documentation a little thin on the HD3000, but there is a helpful hd-3000 forum and failing that you can come to my build your own PVR site with questions/pointers/etc...

Although note: I haven't gotten around to installing my HD-3000 as of yet. Too many PVR cards/software too little time.

e.

Try KnoppMyth. Self-booting ISO, installs Debian and tries to auto-configure much off-the-shelf PVR hardware. Their forums are full of helpful advice and list specific hardware that's known to work without issue (and workarounds for things that aren't).

Have you tried KnoppMyth? http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html

If you are referring to KnoppMyth then it also installs the backend. You can use the cd to just install the frontend but it will install the both pieces on one computer. That is the way I have done it.

KnoppMyth definitely makes MythTV more accessible. The entire install and configuration takes about 20 minutes provided that you are using linux compatible hardware. Pretty much if you are using a Hauppauge card then you are set.

Knoppmyth is the whole shebang. I based my dedicated install on it. http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html

Poseidon, I'm sorry to hear that your first experience with Linux was so horrible. I can see why you're so convinced that Linux is worthless, and I will admit that Linux has problems, but what saddens me is that you hit every shitty thing about Linux all at once and now you're missing out on something that could have been very awesome.

The tempation here is to say "your first mistake was..." but that's not right. It wasn't your fault. You got hosed. You were introduced into Linux in what might actually be the single worst possible way. I believe the proper way to phrase what I want to say is "the first thing your friend should have told you is..."

1. Linux has a learning curve even for techies, and MythTV uses just about ALL of it, every piece of your hardware, networking, shell scripts, databases, cron jobs, user management, filesystem management. Installing Myth can be a huge project even nerds who have been using Linux for years.
2. Linux's biggest shortcoming (and it looks like your biggest frustration) is that it doesn't support all hardware. Some works great. Some works OK. And some is never going to work no matter how many lists you scour and how many times you beat your head agains the wall. It's true and it sucks. But it's not necessarily Linux's fault. It's mostly because Linux is still an underdog and most hardware companies don't take the time to write Linux drivers for their hardware, and they don't trust the open-source community enough to hand over specs that would allow us to write our own drivers. This is very much a problem for things like accelerated video drivers, TV tuners, and especially wireless network cards. All of which are -surprise!- major components of a MythTV system. Expect this to change as Linux gets more popular, but for now... your friend should have helped you get started on researching what hardware would be most compatible before you ever spent a dime on it.
3. Because Linux is open and flexible... everyone out there is customizing it to their own uses. This is a good thing, but it does increase the learning curve. You got burned by this in the worst possible way. Your friend should have told you that Slackware is geared towards GUI-free servers and is notorious for its hands-on, experts-only installation. Exactly the opposite of what you want for MythTV, or even a normal desktop system for that matter. He should have steered you in the direction of KnoppMyth, or at least Mandrake.

I feel your pain. Linux and I had a very rocky start. Three years ago I tried it a few times and dropped it because I couldn't get my sound card to work, I didn't have the patience to dual-boot, and I was on dialup. Eight months ago I tried again and things were different. I am in LOVE and I am never going back. I am in total control of my computer, and I don't have to worry about spyware or adware ever again. I've even set up my own Myth box and I love it. Now whenever I use a friend's windows box I'm reminded how awesome it is to have a computer that knows that it works for me and isn't trying to sell me anything. So I hope you try again sometime, Poseiden. You just might find out why we zealots are so zealous.

To sum up... My advice for anyone trying Linux for the first time...

1. Read up on different distributions before you try one. I hear Suse is really easy to get started on.
2. Install it on a secondary machine, or have a roommate's/spouse's computer handy so you can jump back to a familiar interface to jump online and look things up.
3. Have broadband. Linux is extremely internet-oriented. Configuring your networking, staying up to date, and looking up answers to questions are all much easier with broadband.
4. If your distribution offers a Live CD, try that first to see how compatible the hardware is. And if you're

While I am assured (I suppose) that the instalation process for MythTV is improving with every version, I would suspect that unless Linair has packaged it in whatever distribution format they prefer, that it will be a chore to install.

In all honesty, you can probably get MythTV working faster by using an off the shelf sub $300 pc from your local white box pc maker, a $180 (or less) Haupauge pvr-350 and a copy of KnoppMyth downloaded from http://www.mysettopbox.tv/. It would cost less, already has S-Video out, and you can find pretty much all the instructions for using the pvr-350 as the output device at http://knoppmythwiki.homelinux.org/, or more specifically http://knoppmythwiki.homelinux.org/index.php?page= HauppaugeThreeFiftyInstallation.

The only people I have heard of who have had potentially easier installs of MythTV are Gentoo users, but since I don't run Gentoo, I can not confirm, and don't deny their reports. Should you choose that route I applaud you, but from your self description I suspect that does not interest you.

-Rusty

There are several websites on converting laptops into "picture frames" http://www.likelysoft.com/hacks/pictureframes.shtm l, http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/27/023922 2&tid=222&tid=1, http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Channel 9.JunktopRevival Which you could modify slightly to add built in powered speakers and hang one in each room.

- Mike

MythTV has not even been updated for a whole year.

I don't know where you get your info from but mythtv.org disagrees with you. (September 2004 for the 0.16 release, this weekend , apparenty for 0.17)
This is not a project for the linux newbie.
But, learning to get mythtv from cvs and compile is relatively pain-free ... once you have mythtv already working on your box, that is. And there's always knoppmyth , a bootable cd version.

I only have Basic Cable, you insensitive clod!

Seriously. It's $10 cheaper to order Comcast cable Internet with basic cable. THis is how they getcha -- basic cable only has like 20 channels, 5 of those are religeous, 5 are shopping channels. We do get the Outdoor Hick Network, but not the Discovery Channel. Pretty much only useful for recording Enterprise with my MythTV box.

KnoppMyth

"Yes, but how do you justify paying $13/month for just a program guide which is free on tv.yahoo.com or your cable provider's site? Or keeping a landline for TiVo to use when you probably already have broadband and a cell phone? Also don't you sometimes want to send a VCD of your favourite episode to a friend?"

well I think the monthly charge is a little high, but the landline thing you mention is bunk.

You can setup/use your TiVo series 2 with a usb broadband adapter to download listings/updates/etc... There's a few small hoops that are well documented to do so on the tivo site/knowledgebase.

FWIW knoppmyth makes the the installation and most of the configuration of linux/myth much easier (for some systems/tuner cards -- pvr250 is a good bet)

If you want to go the windows route on a budget I recommend Hauppauge WinTV PVR150/250 with GBPVR (free as in beer) software. You'll still probably want a modest yet not too crusty machine (say 1ghz or higher)...

e.

Same situation here - Series 2 TiVo and a nice orphaned Windows PC-turned-MythTV box give me some experience with both.

I find myself hardly using the TiVo these days. I've moved all the "season pass" show schedules over to the Myth box. Originally got going with Myth because it would let me play my assortment of DivX movie files and let me record/watch tv simultaneously with a second tuner card, and the level of control linux/myth give me is keeping me on it.

One oddity - the best way to share video in multiple rooms with myth seems to be to NFS a huge volume with your recorded video. I remember Tivo's multi-room viewing gave you a combined list of programs and, when requesting one from another Tivo unit, simply downloaded the program to the one requesting the video and played it when ready. It'd be nice if I had each frontend contribute storage to the other frontends without having to build a huge storage machine and worry about it frying one night and losing all my saved programs.

Anyway.

I agree that the 350 is more needless hair-pulling for most, but if you're setting up separate backend/frontend boxen, a 350 is a nice one-card solution for watching TV on a cheap-o linux machine. Then again, so is a motherboard with on-board TV-out and ethernet.

My main concern right now (and one of the reasons I've not dumped another grand into building a nicer backend machine and some frontends around the house) is Myth is currently only useful for analog cable. The HDTV cards out there can only receive OTA signals (unencrypted) and the future of cable TV seems to be cable company-provided receivers w/ PVR capability that aren't easily controlled from a PC. Sure, there's some work being done for the firewire ports on some of the newer receivers, and you can usually get an IRblaster going or something to control the unit, but, bye-bye multiple recordings to my backend, and so on.

Myth could use some polish (I still like the satisfying little beeps and blurps when I use the Tivo) but I'm surprised at how much it does already. KnoppMyth is making strides to lower the learning curve for new setups. DVD burning still takes some hard work, but it's getting easier, and MythDVD has built-in background ripping/transcoding. Cool add-ons like MythPhone and mfe are fun to play with and could become more useful soon. And the Hauppauge cards are just wonderful - kudos and much thanks to Chris Kennedy and the IvyTV community for supporting this hardware so diligently. I'll be a Myth user for a long time if I can get an acceptable HD solution working with it.

Knoppmyth is pretty easy... Linux bootable based on Knoppix.

It can install a full version to your hard drive or a client version only.

As a MythTV user for a couple months now, I can say that the perceptions people have about it are generally correct, but it's not as hard to setup as you might expect, assuming you have supported hardware.

I took my old 566 celeron and my old 27 gig hard drive, along with the old hardware I had with it, and got a mythbox running pretty quick using KnoppMyth. After seeing how well some DVD rips of various shows looked on there, I took the plunge and bought a Hauppauge PVR250 that does hardware encoding. When I put everything together and installed KnoppMyth again (a new version had come out in the meantime), it worked almost out of the box. I spent a while trying to figure out how to get a couple things configured, until eventually I found a forum post that said "oh yeah, that's built in, just run this script it comes with and it will install it all for you." With a few more options in the install process, it could be plug and play.

I had been following MythTV for a while, so I had a good idea what would be supported and what wouldn't, but I have to say, I'm very impressed with how much an old 566 celeron can do with the right hardware. I can easily watch programs while others are recording, and the automatic flagging/skipping of commercials makes TV watching so much more enjoyable. I could barely stand to watch TV over the holidays at my grandmother's house, there are commercials constantly.

Like they say, once you have a PVR, it changes how you watch TV.

Oh, and I use rabbit ears to get my programs. I don't need another 20+ channels to pick from, I barely have time to watch the 5 or so programs I record now.

DO your research FIRST, and just buy a PVR-250 or PVR-350. Friend of mine didn't listen to me, and went and bought himself a cheap $29 tuner card for $180 -- and no MPEG.

I have an old non-mpeg tuner card, and it works great with MythTV. Dedicate a box to the task. Get a nice TV-Out card that you can live with. Get the remote control, or a longer-range wireless keyboard.

MythTV blows my mind everytime I use it: KnoppMyth

For those of you complaining that this doesn't work for the US, MythTV does, and has a very big community. There's also a distribution based again off of debian specifically for MythTV, called KnoppMyth http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html

" I still think Beyond TV snapstream is the only logical option on windows XP due to price and the fact that it runs on virtually all cards. MythTV and other open source projects seem so raw still"

plug I just posted a review of BeyondTV 3.5 on my site. There's also SageTV on windoze that's good. (sage tv review)

GBPVR is free as in beer and although an independent project hangs pretty well with the commercial apps in most respects, from what I understand.

Also commercial is Meedio HTPC which used to be myHTPC which has a beta PVR plugin that should be not beta pretty soon.

GotTV (no link handy sorry) recently spun into something else, and is also windows and "free" (not sure if it's FOSS or not...)

Have you used mythTV lately? I'm not sure you are giving it a fair shake. I think the issue is more the complexity of the install/linux learning curve than usability/look and feel issues... (hopefuly efforts like knoppmyth mitigate that a little bit)

*shrug* that said, I do like the polish and all the features of BTV, but there's a lot of options out there, and i'm glad to see media portal's (and xmbc's) progressing nicely)

e.

Hardware: Old Dell optiplex 110 with Pentium III 800MHz, 256Mb RAM, DLink 802.11b PCI wi-fi card. Cost - a favour to a buddy.

Additions: Hauppauge PVR-350, 200Gb Seagate Barracuda, USBUIRT http://www.usbuirt.com/. Cost of additions - £ 216

Wi-Fi with MythTV was hell, PAL TV out with X-Windows was hell, S-Video input with MythTV was hell, EPG download from http://www.bleb.org/tv with MythTV was flaky, IR support for driving my Cable set-top-box was not great.

I tried a copy of XP MCE, but unless you have certified hardware, forget this being easy or stable, so I went on the hunt for Windows based PVR software and came across http://www.gbpvr.com/.

I must say I have been suitably impressed with ease of setup, ease of use, stability and features. Pretty much all of the MythTV features, but a lot easier to set up. Total setup time from blank hard drive to working GBPVR on XP in under 2 hours on above hardware. MythTV took a weekend to have partial functionality working on the same box. The USBUIRT works well with GBPVR, and GBPVR is able to pull EPG from Bleb (Or other XMLTV sources). Main problem now is 256Mb of RAM is just not quite enough for XP... the box is now deemed prototype, waiting for more cash to buy a new barebones system with decent CPU and RAM. Probably go for a Shuttle small form factor like one of these ST62K's http://www.de.shuttle.com/en/desktopdefault.aspx/t abid-72/170_read-2782/

...yes, it's another MythTV solution. Personally, I use KnoppMyth for its utterly trivial installation.

MythTV obviously does TiVo-like functionality, and it does it extraordinarily well, i might add. MythDVD (using Xine for menu support) for DVDs. My whole music collection is in mp3 format anyway, so MythMusic is fine for me.

I used to have the mp3's all on the MythTV box, but once I got my iPod it seemed silly to have a IEEE1394 connection from the iPod to the WindowsXP box, and a piddling 100Mb/s from the XP box to my iTunes folder, which was just NFS-mounted on the MythTV box. So to facilitate speed in synching, I moved the music folder to the XP box and just mounted the iTunes folder from the MythTV box. Works great.

Oh, and photos and videos, too.

Howski

I use MythTV, of course! Actually, I use KnoppMyth, but -- same thing.

FABULOUS TiVo replacement, but sometimes a bit hard to get working, especially if you only have seemingly random hardware, or just whatever is laying arround. The machine I dedicate for this is piped into my TV, stereo, local network, and it is convenient to drag-and-drop whatever media files I want (including MAME ROMs!) onto the MythTV box, and play away! Check it out, it really is worth it. Use an MPEG tuner card if you can.

MythTv

PVR Hardware Database

RedHat install guide

Gentoo Install Guide(I went this route)

Knoppix Myth

Just do your hardware research first and Knoppmyth is a snap to install.
You may need to do a tiny bit of tweaking to get it working just how you want it but configuration should be minimal.
...Unless you're like me and aspire to have the most bad ass PVR on the planet.