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"Oh my god, thanks for opening up an old wound! Last time I looked at the cable guide on my television 2/3rd of it was this horrid and annoying ad space, and then there was room for 2 or maybe 3 lines of guide data. The stupidity of it made me want to scream. I have been a Tivo subscriber for a long time now and never have to deal with it, thank goodness."

I think newer tivos have started injecting some ads in the guide haven't they?

No problems with this on MythTV.

And how many premium/protected channels can MythTV handle again?

MythTV has no issues with my protected TV channels.

I'm talking about DVB-C with Irdeto2 encryption, in Denmark for what it's worth. I have used a setup with an official Irdeto CAM module and now use a softcam setup (the Irdeto CAM burned out, twice).

So what's your point again?

"Oh my god, thanks for opening up an old wound! Last time I looked at the cable guide on my television 2/3rd of it was this horrid and annoying ad space, and then there was room for 2 or maybe 3 lines of guide data. The stupidity of it made me want to scream. I have been a Tivo subscriber for a long time now and never have to deal with it, thank goodness."

I think newer tivos have started injecting some ads in the guide haven't they?

No problems with this on MythTV.

And how many premium/protected channels can MythTV handle again?

I think newer tivos have started injecting some ads in the guide haven't they?

No problems with this on MythTV.

I just can't stand settop boxes. I've yet to have ever seen one from the cable company that is responsive or as capable as anything homebrewed. I loved my old tivo, but, I gotta say, newerones that I've seen...seem to be slower than the old ones?

In the past...I'd opted for just plain analog cable...just to avoid the stupid settop box, the extra fees, etc.

Let's also consider how locked the cable co's boxes are.

Since I've put together a couple of MythTV boxes, I do enjoy it. My last one may need a bit of a faster processor...I built this media box pre-katrina, and didn't really have much need for HD stuff. I now have it loaded with a Haupauge analog card...and have a HDHomerun dual tuner unit...one spliced into the cable feed and one into an antenna. The great thing is...I can set it up to record what I want, when I want..keep things as I want, backup to DVD if I please...timeshift and send it to every room i want. The only thing I can't do, is pay tv stations, and frankly, I've not see that many. I'd like to get the HD of Foodtv and some others, but, that's about it.

I'm not interested in recording things, and sending it out for free on a P2P system, I just want to use things for personal consumption, but, the cable co's won't let us do that. Until then, I'd do not want their set top box. They are slower than what I can do, they aren't as flexible (can't have more than 2 tuners in them usually), and they charge fees (one for each tv in the home?).

Does anyone out there in the US actually LIKE the set top boxes they have? Would you not rather have different choices?

I keep thinking, if they'd make it easier to buy 3rd party stuff (or DIY materials) that would allow YOU to get the content you pay for and use it as you please for private consumption, there's be less need for 'pirated' content to be out there, etc.

Let the consumer have more choice and charge a fair rate, and I think 98% of the people out there would have no problem with paying for content and hooking into their system.

C-Band is still in fairly active use in the US and around the world -- you could (gasp!) use it for what it was built for. It's the only way to get truly ala carte TV service, and usually costs a lot less than the alternatives (not to mention all of the free stuff out there). You'd probably need a new receiver to get digital channels, but I've spoken with plenty of MythTV users who have C-band setups.

If you are running Windows and using the manufacturer's drivers for a relatively recent (last few years) video card, then yeah, everything should be peachy. But if you are using open source video card drivers under Linux then good luck. Even with the proprietary Nvidia driver, highdef video playback can max out a fairly new CPU. http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/HD_Playback_Reports will give you an indication about the type of setup you need to get HD video playback to work.

Keep in mind that people who pay to watch TV are also paying to watch advertising.

O RLY?

(Never mind that I skipped commercials with a TiVo before that, and with a pair of VCRs before TiVo...)

It's called a Firewire card as I mentioned elsewhere:

http://mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Recording_Digital_Cable#Option_2:_FireWire_via_Set_Top_Box

Of course, depending upon your STB and Provider, YMMV.

If you get digital cable, you can use any ATSC/QAM card to get the unencrypted cable channels (the bottom 20 channels or so). But it can be a bit of a pain to set up.

I had a pair of pchdtv-5500's in my myth box hooked directly to the wall (no cable box), getting the clear channels just fine.

When I moved, I switched to OTA because I'm on a nice hill and didn't feel like continuing to spend the extra money on TV each month.

I assume based on the post that you are in another country.

Therefore you are likely watching by satellite, or by it being carried on your local cable channel.

Here in America, I use schedules direct,(which I pay a very small fee for) but I don't think that will work for you. Mythtv's website talks about XMLTV for getting the listings for you. I would tend to say google your country or service provider, mythtv, and listings on a string, and see what you find.

The problem with stuff like MythTV is that it does not appeal to the average DVR user. Most people who use a Media Center PC and can set it up probably have no idea what a SVN is or how to operate something like MythTV.

This is not newbie friendly. It's easy to say "MythTV, MythTV" and espouse the benefits of it, but you're not going to get people to use it if it is not easy to set up.

When you have an installer that you can click on and get the program working without having to mess with Linux and command lines (like WinMyth), THEN it will have a chance in the consumer market. Until then, the average user will put up with it or just hook up the ol' VCR.

'nuff said.

Your specs are considerably lower than the lowest I have seen playing bluray 1080p on Linux.

link

If you can fill in a gap on that table it would be great, since the best they have any AMD doing is a lower (half) bitrate 1080p. If a 4600+ can do better, it is info worth knowing.

I run Knoppmyth on my DVR and the Hauppauge cards are very well supported.

On a side note, I recommend you consider the ATI Remote Wonder instead of the Hauppauge IR remote. It's RF and highly configurable.

I've been using Slackware forever, and there is one simple reason - it seems like it's the only distribution out there that is still Linux.

Wtf do I mean by that? Every linux distro out there is branching off into their own little world, making them look like they are complete different operating systems. In fact, a lot of new linux users look at distributions that way. They don't like the fact that, yes, I can compile the sources of all your special ubuntu software, and make my slack install literally clone your standard ubuntu installation. Hardly anything has changed in the framework of slackware since the beginning, which is why I look at it as the only distribution that "is" still "Linux"

Back to the parent post; you want to know how to get your wireless card to work? you compile the driver (a ton easier than you think) and read the README and INSTALL file that comes with it. Aka follow directions.

I had to deal with my girlfriend's openSUSE installation because she was struggling to get ndiswrapper to work. She had to download a new kernel, download patches for the new kernel that enabled ndiswrapper, which required more patches to the kernel in order to support the dependencies for the ndiswrapper module. After that, she runs the program to have it read the windows driver for her broadcom card, and it was a no go.
I come over, took a look at the situation, and I downloaded the source code for ndiswrapper, compiled it (a simple make; make install) - loaded up the module (modprobe) and ran the ndiswrapper command line program. it worked.

I guess you can use this as proof that linux isn't yet ready for your mainstream user, but it also shows that distributions are going in their own little directions. Slackware still works, and works well. I applaud the person who posted about stability and such, because it's true.

And for your PVR-150, here you go: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_PVR-150 - read up :)

Not entirely complete, of course -- I'm not sure /dev/video exists, I don't know what xanim is, and there's the matter of whether it's actually mpeg. But the concept is, in fact, blindingly obvious.

For example: I consider playing mp3 files to be a goal. However, the mp3 format is patented, and any implementation must pay ridiculous licensing fees.

So yes, I am kind of worried that TiVo's patents might cover, for example, MythTV.

finding just the right material for the filament which would conduct, but not short out, wouldn't burn up immediately, and would provide a steady amount of light.

Which shows you how little judges -- or maybe just you -- know about the history of the light bulb. It absolutely was a simple idea. We already had candles, why not use electricity to provide light?

Browse the mythtv lists and you will find many h.264 on linux users, I actually watched h.264 yesterday on my linux box.
The problem is the lack of multithreading on h.264 more than the lack of GPU offloading, the GPU offload barely works in windows I would like to add.

h.264 on Linux is core2 today, here are som examples on playback hardware
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/HD_Playback_Reports

So please stop this myth about h.264 not being possible on linux.

Yes, FireWire will provide a P2P connection with your cable box and DVR so you can change channels according to the MythTV wiki. The setup however requires some tweaking with the CLI, and the model of your cable box and FireWire card seems to matter (the wiki favors the Motorola DCTxxxx boxes).

I've had a MythTV setup at home for more than two years now, and have posted several times about it. Here's my quick take on the major changes for 0.21:

* Support for multiple recording directories.
* Support for recording multiple streams over DVB.
* New deinterlacers (and an OpenGL-based video renderer, but that's still disabled by default, as I understand it).

That's it. There are hundreds of other changes and fixes, great and small, but for most people these are the changes that'll mean the most. Despite the 18 months since 0.20's release (a way too-long interval, I'd argue), this is a testament to just how good 0.20 was feature- and stabilitywise.

Even bigger news than 0.21 is the forthcoming $299 Hauppauge HD-PVR, the first consumer-grade high-definition video encoder (and with promised Linux support, no less). Within a couple of months, anyone—not just those lucky enough to have unencrypted FireWire ports—will be able to record in real time full 720p or 1080i video and Dolby 5.1 audio from their high-definition cable boxes into h.264 format and play it back on their MythTV boxes. Be aware, however, that the h.264 recordings will for many likely require faster hardware than what they're using for their MythTV frontends.

Last time I installed MythTV, I used Fedora Core 5 and followed Jarod Wilson's guide and didn't have any trouble. The MythTV.org wiki also has an entry for installing on FC7. I'll likely be upgrading to FC8 when I move to version 0.21, so hopefully there aren't any major changes from these directions. You'll need to wait for the packages to become available, but I don't think it will take long. BTW, I've got a Hauppauge 250 on a PIII 1GHz with 256MB and never had a problem performance-wise.

Just wonder if there will be something like VIA's Mini ITX with CELL processor on board available somewhere in future.
Imagine building own MythTV with that.
Ultimate PVR!

/Z

I wonder if this will have any effect on MythTV?

A MythTV box with an HD tuner card works quite nicely. I have a pcHDTV HD-5500 card in my system, and even though I don't subscribe to digital cable, all of the local over-the-air channels (and subchannels) are sent over the cable in unencrypted QAM format.

All of the HD programming is stored in straight MPEG-2 format.

Even better, the MythArchive plugin will burn DVDs, automatically downscaled to standard widescreen DVD resolution, if you want to archive shows that way.

The only real problem with the HD-5500 is that the analog tuner works poorly on the analog channels - but I have an old Hauppauge WinTV card that takes care of that problem.

And why would I pay for DVB tuners when my stupid cable company (UPC) has its own thoughts about how to deliver their digital stuff? Smartcards are restricted to their own decoders: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Netherlands#UPC
so I still would have to rent an extra settopbox anyway.

My next tv would not need to have any tuners if it was up to me. It just has to act as a monitor for a decent machine with enough slots to contain a couple of dvb-s cards suppoted by vdr: http://www.linuxtv.org/vdrwiki/index.php/Introduction for in the living room.

It also can provide multiple streams (depending on the number of cards and what channels are on the same transponder) to place/time-shift, it made watching tv bearable again.

I have digital cable and getting that working is a big thing for me.

Unfortunately Media Center doesn't have any QAM support. Thats the part of the switchover that scares me - not being able to use my DVR.

http://www.mythtv.org/
http://www.linuxmce.com/

Import it into Mythtv with mythfilldatabase: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Mythfilldatabase

Updating Mythdora 4.0 to use SchedulesDirect
Updating MythTV to use SchedulesDirect

MythTV already has an alternative with Schedules Direct - http://www.mythtv.org/ . How did this make front page?

I didn't see any word about MPEG2/MPEG4 offloading, or even word of proper Xv support/controls. I've got my fingers crossed, but for those of us who live & breathe MythTV, I fear it's still a one-horse town.

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Commercial_My thTV_System is a comprehensive list of pre-built boxes that work well with MythTV

It's kind of a pain to tune with the command line, but it works well.

There is something seriously wrong here. I'm not sure that no wrong was done, but I'm also sure that there were better things Federal Agents could have been doing.

I'm not really a gamer, but I have to say using an original XBox (cheaply acquired, second hand, pawn, etc) as a network media front end for something like MythTV is pretty awesome... This isn't really possible without modifcations. I'm not interested in playing games.. but what I am interested in is a cheap media center box with decent TV out capability. That is one Really Awesome, Non-Infringing use.

I don't really think any of the analogies fit, either. It is what it is, which is not necessarily used for game piracy (though probably is some significant percentage of the time). On the one hand you can say it is like installing feature X in your car to get more horsepower. Well, that'll make your car go faster... which is potentially illegal. I mean your stock Geo is perfectly capable of moving along at any set speed limit.. so any modification to go faster is intended to break the speed limit. ... It doesn't really fit either, but I would bet the situation could have been solved with a conversation, perhaps an interview at the station, etc.

However, that would require an intelligent and thoughtful analysis of the situation: the parties involved, the scope and scale of the crime, etc. Apparently the folks in charge here here were either intellectually incapable of that or Conditioned to Obey(tm). Either way it is scary, and that is probably the intention.

I feel sorry for the folks involved. Probably, on the whole, just nerds like us in the wrong place at the wrong time. One looses one's stuff for an inexcusably long time and one is presumed guilty. If one is lucky one gets to be a media poster child on some scale about the "Dangers of XYZ". I would hope these folks can truly get a trial with a jury of their peers AND that the judge doesn't force the omission of "irrelevant facts" like "there were no pirated games found at the home". I would love to see this type of thing crushed by Jury Nullification. (If you ever want out of Jury Duty go up to the prosecutor, lean in, and whisper 'I know all About Jury Nullification').

Consider the BS one has to go through for simple things involving the government such as DMV tag renewals, tickets for various minor offenses, property tax, etc and then consider the crap these folks will have to endure, probably for years, over a mod chip. This is dumb.

Erm... MythTV runs on OSX: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Myth_on_Mac_O S_X

On the KB, you have to hit enter after you've found the channel you want (I didn't figure that out, my kid showed me).

But that should not be needed on the remote so I'm afraid I'm just as puzzled as you are... p'raps you should look here. If you are outside the USA apparently there's some special mojo involved.

#4 Use EIT http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/EIT

If you are getting your TV from an ATSC, DVB-S or DVB-C card you can probably (I say probably because I have not tried every combination), use EIT. In fact I use EIT on my ATSC cards to ensure Zap2It (it is really DiataDirect), is correct.

I use a MythTV box which was fairly hard to get working but is simple to use. It can change channels on my Sky Digibox so I can record shows automatically using the built in TV guide. I can archive recordings to DVD or play back DVD's on the same box. It cost around £400 (GBP) to build 2 years ago, with a lot of the money going on a Hauppauge PVR-350 card and a small form factor case.

I've also bought a Pioneer DVR for my father in law, the DVR-540HX-S with 160GB hard drive, this was much the same price and does almost as much as the MythTV box including controlling a Sky box. It's also quieter and lacks the initial setup complexity of the Myth box (meaning less support for me!).

If you want total simplicity go for the prebuilt DVR - for total control it has to be MythTV

Myth just tunes to it (alongside the digital multiplex) and grabs a lot of info. It's not perfect, but it means we don't need to bother with zap2, radio times, etc

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/EIT

According to a posting on mythtv.org...

Some reasons and other comments given for the scheduled discontinuence, copied from the forum, copied from the mailing list:

• Continued use of the service to support commercial products, in violation of the agreement.
• Commercial products continued to grow despite previous appeals that this activity stop.
• There are significant changes to the supporting data structure forthcoming and we could not devote resources to the continued upkeep and enhancements of the service.
• Maintenance of the service is impacting our resource pool for other projects.
• We sought alternative options but were unable to find a solution.
• We recognize the hardship this creates for the user community. We are open to alternative solutions and would consider proposals that met the needs of the user community and our company.
• We looked into options to turn this into a paid service however we do not have the infrastructure at this time.

In 10 years, internet television is the major content source in the world. While projects like FreeVo and MythTV provide open DVR functionality, I think the future of television lies more in projects like Democracy (although it's a desktop app) and ToxTox, which aims to be an open internet television "browser". Just like Firefox did, I hope projects like these will open up the walled gardens of settop boxes.

I'm one of those people who are interested in better 2D acceleration and hardware MPEG-4/H264 acceleration. I'm a MythTV user. Nvidia's hardware does have support for such acceleration; they call it Purevideo. Unfortunately, the Linux drivers don't support it.

Well, the "nv" driver doesn't support it, but Nvidia's own driver does ("it" being the XvMC extension in Xorg).

Given that you're a MythTV user, here's a link to their Wiki, which contains a page about XvMC support.

The new 7050PV [nvidia.com] chipset would be perfect for a high-definition ...

I've not tried it, but the 7300GS just came out a month ago, and I happened to be upgrading so I got one - for 40 Euros; it's passively cooled, and so far has been working really well in TwinView mode on my Linux box. I use Kaffeine (Xine-based) rather than MythTV, but it's very smooth. I'm sure MythTV would be the same.

I wish Intel would release a standalone video card.

BTW, I'm using a machine with an integrated Intel VGA at work. It's OK - has open source drivers, and 3D acceleration, but it uses system memory, only has one output (not DVI either), and doesn't always behave itself. Personally, I much prefer the 7300. Oh yeah - the Intel driver supports XvMC too.

-- Steve

I'd add Cat5e drop points to every room in the house and outfit a closet to be a server room. I'd set up an Asterisk server so that could have my own VoIP PBX, complete with voicemail and call forwarding to my cell. I might also add a wireless access point for folks with laptops. Finally, I'd round out with a *BSD file server and maybe an install of MythTV for DV recording and burning. But this would be the ultimate geek house.

If you want network transparency and scripting, why the hell are you using windows? Use the right tool for the job and you'll find that there's no end of solutions. You might find you'd like the Music Player Daemon or MythTV. Or enable X forwarding and run Amarok across the network. Or just ssh in and use mplayer.

And if you're seriously set on using Windows for this, why not enable file sharing and let the network transfer your MP3s on the fly?

Anyway, to answer your question, you can do this with FTP Site commands. There's also a web API but I haven't used it.

The killer feature of this program is *not* what it does. It's a very powerful and robust media player, certainly, but the true power comes from the user interface, which is simple, effective, straightforward and very pretty to look at (and fully skinnable). Anyone who has used a TiVo or similar television media interface should have no problems using XBMC. Now that it is no longer tied to the Xbox, it will be possible to create small form factor media center systems running linux and give them a truly excellent user interface.

We already have that, it's called MythTV. What does XBMC have that MythTV doesn't?

This took me some time myself. Everything else was fairly smooth, but getting my remote to work (which for me was more just for fun since I'm sitting two feet from my desk and watching on my monitor) left me baffled.

You add the remote control's table (lircd.conf) to the appropriate places and your module is loaded but when you start myth or irw you don't get a response.
I'm pretty sure I had to manually add a line for lirc_i2c to /etc/modprobe.d/aliases

If you haven't found this then it's your best bet. You've probably covered most of what's on that page but there may be a few things you can double check from there to help you get it all fixed up.

Really, with tens of channels, never mind hundreds, I've long since given up trying to find stuff worth watching, that's what computers are for.

I don't know if it's Bayesian or not (maybe some other machine learning technique), but there's MythCollaborative.

What hardware would be recommended to get started to get started? I assume a Tuner card in a working PC is what is needed but would additional hardware/software be needed?

Most obviously, you want a working computer. Motherboards are pretty flexible but some VIA chipsets have been known to be problematic. Nforce boards are the gold standard.

For capture, it really depends on your signal source and your plans.

Analog hardware capture cards are probably the best e.g, the Hauppage PVR 150/250/500 series. These will let you capture analog OTA transmissions and coax/S-video output from a cable or satellite STB. These cards are SD only, but can capture all stations in SD.

To use this card with a cable or satellite STB, you'll need an IR blaster and a working serial port. There are a number of IR blasters that can do this that work through a serial port or through USB.

For HD broadcasts you'll need a card capable of ATSC (over the air) or QAM (cable) decoding. But even QAM cards will only give you those channels that your cable provider sends without encryption. By law (in the US), they are required by the FCC to send OTA stations in the clear -- meaning NBC, FOX, ABC, PBS, CBS. But you're not likely to get access to channels like DiscoveryHD or ESPNHD even if you're paying for them. Either way, HD cards will generally only give you HD stations.

You'll want an nvidia gfx card for playback. Don't ask, don't posit, don't opine, and most of all, don't try to get an ATI card working under Linux. ATI doesn't care, their drivers are for shit, and you're asking for a headache. Any nvidia card gf4 or better will work. The gold standard is still the fx5200 series, although you'll have no problems with the 6x00 series either.

Your AC97 on-board audio will work, though I've always found it a bit noisy and lacking in definition. Turtle Beach cards offer excellent quality for the price -- particularly the Riviera, which you can get retail for around $30 or OEM for around $25.

Why would someone want to use this instead of say TVO?

Aside from the joy and satisfaction that comes from building a superior machine, it is because of the things that makes MythTV superior to devices like Tivo. I can't speak for all users, but I'll say why it's better for me.

Mythtv allows time-shifting of television in much the same way that Tivo does. It allows for recording of TV programs automatically according to user-defined rules in a much more discreet way than Tivo does. It allows remote administration of recordings and recording schedules in a way that Tivo doesn't. It allows format shifting of recorded material in a way that Tivo doesn't. And it is capable of storing and playing back just about any media in a way that Tivo most decidedly isn't.

Myth plays externally acquired videos, like your home movies or legitimately backed-up DVDs, Myth plays your music, Myth shows your photos, and Myth will do all this on as many machines as you attach to your network without asking for silly things like license keys or monthly fees.

How does a remote to work with this setup?

Like this.