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MythTV 0.22 Released
uyguremre writes "After a little over a year and a half in the making, the developers of MythTV announced that MythTV 0.22 is now available. There have been a lot of large changes since 0.21, including a port from Qt v3 to Qt v4 and a major UI rewrite to convert to MythTV's new MythUI user interface libary. As always, this release adds support for some new hardware, in this case VDPAU video acceleration, DVB-S2, and the Hauppauge HD-PVR. The MythUI toolkit allows themes much greater control over the user interface and today we're announcing a competition to design new themes for MythTV. With the new release comes a theming competition too. For a more complete list of changes and new features, read the Release Notes on the wiki."
uhhh...in case you haven't figured it out, that's kind of the roots of slashdot. But as a feminist, I certainly agree that they don't necessarily focus on the right issues, such as gender roles in computing, programming languages designed by women, breastfeeding keyboard layouts, etc.
Balmer, quit kidding around. Don't you have work to do?
Open Source: I'll show you mine if you show me yours.
Given XBMC is not a DVR, and MythTV is, yes, those of us who don't steal our content still use MythTV.
So, let's get this right, in this update they have:
- Major back-end changes
- Major UI rewrite
- Significant new hardware support
- Also, apparently a more powerful themes toolkit
And this isn't even worth a .1 version increment. It's a .01
Really, if the version numbers are going to be this meaningless for tracking significant changes they should at least name them or come up with some other system. Something that let's people get interested and involved in the project and excited about the new release.
I have had it running via knoppmyth for a year, which I believe ran Myth .20 and just last week upgraded to Mythbuntu running a .22 pre-release version. It works great as a DVR, and the recent upgrades and changes have made it even better. I don't have many issues at all, and really enjoy the web frontend that lets me adjust my recordings, files, settings and schedules. A few friends have Windows media PCs and one is looking hard at switching over because their machine has gotten no innovation in the past two years while Myth has continued to improve.
I still use it.
It's not without it's warts, but they're pretty easily hidden, and my wife and daughter both love it.
I've never used XBMC - how good it it's PVR capabilities? For scheduling does it support Schedules Direct, or some other listings service (or does it require screen-scraping of some sort?)
Did they fix the database encoding in this one?
Samsung took back my unlocked bootloader because Google wants me to rent movies. They're both evil.
Not trying to create flamebait, But honestly does anyone still use it.
Yes. It's buggy and configuration is horrendous, but now it's going the only real problem I have is that it tends not to update the database properly when a table changes in a new version (e.g. mythbuntu seems to assume that you don't have a root password on the MySQL database).
That said, I'm not going to be upgrading to 0.22 until the current season of my girlfrend's favorite shows finishes, because I'll be in trouble if she misses some due to software changes.
Freevo is similarly stagnated, they've been working towards 2.0 for years. VDR handles the backend, but is lacking a nice 10-ft frontend. Moovida looks promising but is currently lacking a TV recording backend (combined with VDR, it may be the ideal solution).
I'm currently using Freevo, but starting to become frustrated at the broken plugins and limitations in its input (can't assign events to Ctrl key sequences which are generated by some of the Windows Media Centre oriented media keys on my wireless keyboard). The fact that MythTV requires MySQL and Qt and apparently is even more difficult to set up than Freevo (hard to believe) has kept me from considering a switch to MythTV seriously, though it does seem to have more of a following than any of the other contenders.
Clearly you haven't dealt with MythTV. The myth is that you get to watch and record TV. The reality is you spend all your time fiddling with it and cursing at it until your head is so bloody from banging it up against a brick wall that you give up and decide to give up TV altogether.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
XBMC won't record your tv shows, but it does act as a basic frontend. It can connect to a MythTV backend and stream live tv and recordings (without a plugin).
Do I still have to f**k around with 100 combinations/restarts of Qt, ffmpeg, XVideo, XvMC, libmpeg2, xv-blit, opengl, xlib, xshm, directfb, directx ...all whilst not being able to see the f**king mouse cursor and having to hit 'next' five times just to change one setting?
I'd use it WITH XBMC once the Myth backend is a bit easier to configure. As it stands now I'm more than happy to DL my TV content - and yes I still have a damned cable sub with premiums and a TIVO attached to it. I just find that torrenting a show is easier and quicker. This is no more "theft" than running Myth with an ad removal program IMO.
Anyway, I understand the pain of setting up a Myth box having TRIED to do it myself. Maybe time to try again? Many folks I know are using Windows for much the same thing and it seems easier once you hurdle the DRM crap - they even remove commercials too. If Myth has gotten better terrific, I'll look again and figure out how to tie it to my XBMC system. Sadly I'll be stuck with OTA stuff but that's better than nothing. Overseas Myth is probably more popular because they can apparently hook it into SAT systems and get more content than we're stuck with here...
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
I ran MythTV for six years. The last year I've used SageTV. I got sick of MythTV locking up, crashing, and the constant non-stop twiddling with my configuration because I could never get things quite right.
SageTV isn't much better. I spend a lot less time twiddling, but it crashes and freezes about as often as MythTV used to. I'm still looking for that HTPC that just works. I haven't found it yet.
You sure these aren't hardware-related problems? I've had a dual-tuner, split FE/BE Myth system running for, oh... two years now?... with absolutely no problems. Any crashes I've had occurred early on, and have been hardware related (ie, hard disks failing), or problems with Linux itself (XFS+LVM causing hardlocks, bugs in ivtv resulting in tuners dying, etc). 'course, it helps that once I had a working configuration, I didn't touch it at all (ie, no OS updates, etc).
As for fiddling... honestly, I have no idea what you're doing with your system that requires that kind of care and attention. Again, I've been running a Myth system for two years, and it's required basically zero care and feeding once I got the system up and running and working the way I wanted (granted, that took a bit of time early on, particularly on the frontend, getting third-party software working right, tweaking the remote configuration, etc).
Given official Hauppage HD-PVR support, this could be one of the best high-def DVRs out there. Especially when you combine it with an HD Fury2 to convert it to HDMI...
I don't know why the HD-PVR is the only capture card capable of high-def (1080i). HD Fury2 adds HDMI (with HDCP). Sure, it's only 1080i, but how many other high-def capture solutions are out there? For just over $500, you can get one that does HDMI/HDCP as well.
(HD Fury2 converts HDMI to Component or VGA. Sure it's analog, but the HD-PVR only has component inputs).
Especially good for those of us in Canada, where we are forced to use the ultra-crappy cableboxes. (It's why people go to TiVo...).
XBMC is a media front-end, it has NO recording capabilities nor will it apparently. Rather than reinventing the wheel the developers intend to make it easy to interface with other back-ends, including Myth. As front-ends go though it ROCKS and I am able to access all of my MP3, DVD\BD rips (MKV), and many streaming audio stations. I look forward to XBMC getting some MAME support (pretty please), and for there being some sort of back-end PVR thing for it to interface with...
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
I got sick of MythTV locking up, crashing, and the constant non-stop twiddling with my configuration because I could never get things quite right.
SageTV isn't much better. I spend a lot less time twiddling, but it crashes and freezes about as often as MythTV used to. I'm still looking for that HTPC that just works. I haven't found it yet.
I have one MythTV backend in my server closet, plus 2 frontend in my house. I never fiddle with the settings, and the server keeps running and recording the shows we tell it to. It never seem to crash.
Since you have the same crashing with SageTV and MythTV, I would be tempted to say that the only point in common those 2 have is : YOU.
I would not let you touch my setup
Avoid the MS tax, always buy I.B.M. PC's (I Built-it Myself)
I'd use it WITH XBMC once the Myth backend is a bit easier to configure. As it stands now I'm more than happy to DL my TV content - and yes I still have a damned cable sub with premiums and a TIVO attached to it. I just find that torrenting a show is easier and quicker. This is no more "theft" than running Myth with an ad removal program IMO.
You do realize you're paying for cable TV /service/, right? You don't become rights holder to everything broadcast on cable TV just by having a cable TV subscription.
I tried using XBMC on an Asrock ION 330 as a frontend for a while. Basically, it looks amazing (especially compared to Myth 0.21), and has some nice things like animations. It was dirt simple to get working with the hardware, including an MCE remote (as in, I basically had to do nothing).
The bad: it's not a DVR at all. It has half-baked myth backend support - in that it is supposed to understand the streams and be able to play content. However, you have to go into a menu item called "Scripts" and then start "Mythtv" from a list there, before navigating to recordings. It has no support for scheduling or doing anything besides playing back recordings. I ended up just making it look directly at the Recordings directory on my myth box and playing back files from there (note, I use a script there to symlink the mythtv recording files to their actual names).
The ugly: Due to the high potential, I started digging in more to see if there was anything I could do to help out, such as work on the myth backend support. What I found is that entire project has been mothballed, and they are working on a grandios rewrite of a generic PVR layer, and then later on top of that will have Mythtv support. Not a TERRIBLE plan, but 1) it's a huge plan, that will take a long time before it is even remotely usable, 2) it means the PVR has to be lowest common denominator support, combined based on what all the PVR backends they support have. It also means the devs are rejecting patches to the existing myth support, because it is not relevant in the wake of the new PVR backend.
On top of that, the architecture is sadly lacking. With apologize to XBMC devs, as I'm about to call your baby ugly, but It very much shows its organic and basic roots. The actual menu items are hardcoded into the theme, and intertwined with the code in the back. To do something that should be simple, like add another menu item to the main menu, from what I can tell you have to: 1) modify the core code to understand the command, 2) modify the theme to add in the button - which includes changing the x,y coordinates of all buttons below that one that now need to be shifted, and adjusting the animation code so it knows the positions of all the buttons. It's possible it is simpler than that (I didn't actually try), but from looking at the code, that's what it looked like to me, and so I lost interest due to the amount of effort and non-reusability (eg, my Mythtv button wouldn't be accepted as a patch, and I'd have to redo this anytime I installed an update).
Speak before you think
Once the show is recorded, there is a background job flagging the commercials. When I watch a show, I just hit Z to bypass the commercial in a millisecond.
Watching live TV is a pain now because of this !
Avoid the MS tax, always buy I.B.M. PC's (I Built-it Myself)
You were doing great up until that "it works on everything" part. Plenty of folks have pulled their hair out with Myth in the past and you make it sound like a breeze. Look at the numbers of folks posting here that have given up on it and you can plainly see it's far from easy. I for one hope that this version is VERY good but please, the rah rah it works great stuff can be saved - most of us know better having tried it already.
I lent out my HDHR to someone having given up on Myth previously. I have spare hardware though so maybe I'll try it again but if it's half as bad as the last time I'll put it down again. The Myth guys really have an uphill climb convincing people IMO. Myth seems like the epitome of what people have issues with when they talk about Linux. Funky config scripts, hair pulling, things that don't make sense, things that just don't work, picky hardware, painful broken upgrades, the list is long. A new version is great news, lets see if it flies. Call me cautious having been bitten about 5 times previously by this software!
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
I'm going through the same. I've been using Myth for maybe 3 or 4 years (starting with 0.20-beta something). It was relatively stable, but did crash once in a while. Mostly what was driving me insane is for the past few months, it would stop responding to the remote for a few minutes, then suddenly play back everything that just happened. So you'd hit fast-forward, and nothing would happen.. hit a couple more times... then suddenly a few minutes later, it would skip forward several times. Lirc was seeing the commands in realtime, so I have no idea what the problem was. It was intermittent, and I never found a common thing that was happening at the same time.
I've built a new Windows box now, and I'm currently trying GBPVR, and SageTV. Myth's UI is better than SageTV's.. GBPVR is a lot like myth. Myth has better recording options than both. Sage has sub-$200 fanless network client hardware, which has the same UI as the main box - this is a HUGE plus. You can't build a PC for that price, let alone a silent PC, and any other options have a different UI which is just annoying. Myth is the only one I know of that supports multiple backends (not needed for me now, but it's a sign of a good design and allows expandability).
Taking away constraints of OS/software, there is just no solution that leads to a great networked PVR system out there yet, in my opinion. To clarify, I'm not looking for a HTPC - I want a UI, consistent on every TV in my house, that lets me watch live TV (not that I ever do that), watch and/or schedule recordings (and have any available on any TV), watch DVDs, watch downloaded movies/shows, listen to music (both stored and streaming), and things like pictures and weather reports are kinda handy too.
Speak before you think
Use a dedicated distro and all the hard work is done for you. Such as LinHES for example.
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of cats. MEOW!!
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Release_Notes_-_0.22
MythTV
New Features
* MythTV UI ported to new MythUI library with all new capabilities
* Added Automatic Prioritization to the scheduler which uses watching behavior to automatically increase priority of shows that are watched close to their recording timeslot over shows that are delayed for longer periods of time. See [16477] for details until the wiki page is populated.
* Added MPEG-2 support for ConvertX/GO7007 tuners in addition to the existing MPEG-4 support. [16538]
* Added new jump point for taking a screenshot and corresponding UPnP web method. [16532]. Network control also has this jumppoint [16613]
* Improved theme caching speed after a "make install" for users who update frequently. [16487]
* Added support for overriding the audio sampling rate in recording profiles on a per card basis. [16747]
* Support for the Hauppauge HD-PVR Component Video Recorder
* Vastly improved channel scanner
* Fanart, Banner, and coverart support in Watch Recordings
* VDPAU Video renderer and decoder for hardware accelerated playback of H.264, MPEG-1/2, WMV, and VC-1.
* Many software deinterlacers are now multithreaded
* New codec and container support from up-to-date ffmpeg libraries.
* Add support for DVB-S2 [21318]
* HDHomeRun multirec support
* Additional Myth Protocol socket functions, including file upload, deletion, and scanning of storage groups. [19979] [21134] [21156]
* Adds a popup dialog accessible from the main menu using MENU which allows the system to be shutdown or rebooted [20852]
EIT
* Fixed encoding for various french Astra 19.2E channels. [16792]
* Various Freesat EIT fixups
* UK EIT fixup - Adds handling of AD, S, SL and W tags in EIT data [20768]
* Fixed matching of programs for updating EIT data
Firewire
* Add Firewire Vendor & Model ID's for PACE STBs [17149]
* Add Motorola DCH-3200 vendor ID
* Add DCT6200 vendor ID
* Add firewire and channel changing support for the DCX3200 model STB [21514]
UPNP
* More exhaustive MIME test [17155]
Setup
* Allows input groups to work properly when each recorder has more than one input and so can be in multiple mutually exclusive input groups. [17172]
* Add commandline scanner [17175] plus many more changesets
* Adds option to mythtv-setup to disable automatic database backup before database upgrades [17479] (ensure you do a manual backup before upgrade if this is enabled)
* Add HD-PVR support [17493]
* Add support for multiple frontends per DVB adaptor [17832]
* Add scanning support for DVB-S2 [21317], [21318]
* Add a spinbox for specifying a value for the "LiveTV Idle Timeout" setting [21378]
* Channel scanner - add option to set off air channels invisble [21691]
* Channel scanner - Allow basic channel scanning with DVB version of HDHomeRun [21858]
* Offer to automatically shutdown backend at start
My MythTV setup crashed a 2-3 times per week for several months. I eventually discovered that it was the Linux driver for my StreamZap LIRC receiver. I replaced it with a serial-based receiver, and haven't had a crash since.
What I'm saying, it's probably a hardware/driver problem, not a MythTV problem.
I've been running it for ages without major problems. The only problem I have is every time I upgrade the kernel I need to rebuild the driver for my tuner, but that's no biggy - got that scripted - and it's nothing to do with MythTV per se.
Sure, it was a bitch to set up the first time, but since then it's been stable and awesome and having done it once, I'm pretty quick at setting it up for others.
I too use XBMC, but only as a quick and dirty way of using an Xbox as a frontend. It just doesn't come close as a PVR.
I don't therefore I'm not.
When the hell did recording TV become not allowed? Or are you and your argument just full of shit?
And I am positive that all of the media being played on XMBC was purchased for that fair use media shifting right?
All fair points.
For one, you are correct about the Live TV support. One of the benefits of having such a large community is that we get a multitude of third-party plugins, scripts, skins, etc. That is also a problem in itself though, because they are often half-finished and poorly implemented. The MythTV frontend is such an example, though it has recently been picked up an greatly improved by our own dtierney.
The DVR rewrite is much more than that, it is an entire add-on framework that makes development more modular. It is being designed as a 'pvr-frontend' solution, one that you can hookup to one of many backends. There's no reason to rewrite what's already been done.
Your baby is ugly too! Really, though, the XBMC skinning engine is so powerful that simply diving in and changing a few things isn't exactly easy. That's also why we've drawn the interests of so many talented skinners and modders, the possibilities are endless. So it's a trade-off.
Currently Live TV certainly isn't what XBMC is known for, but it certainly excels as the face of your media library. We hope to improve that as time goes.
Sorry to hijack. Congratulations to the Myth devs on your release.
TheUni
The very court case that led to the concept of fair use is about recording television content. Get your facts straight. Recording content in Myth is a direct relation to Sony v. Betamax which was, you got it, about time shifting, which is what a DVR/VCR are.
I've used Myth for years. Since the 2.4 kernel days when you had to recompile the kernel to get DVB and ALSA working. It used to take hours and hours to get even the remote control working, but I perservered because it was far superior to anything out there.
But Myth has lagged too long and it has always looked godawful compared to its competors.
With the release of Windows 7, I have found that I am able to do all that I need and it looks a hell of a lot better. This latest release of Myth (which is pretty lame for taking so long for such a minor release) only convinces me further that I made the right choice of switching away from it.
Thanks for the memories, though. I'll think of you fondly.
If they're recording their version numbers like most software does, the move from 0.21 to 0.22 is what you're calling a ".1" release.
Version numbers aren't meant to be like normal decimal numbers. The stuff the the right of the decimal point is the integral minor release number. Going from 0.21 to 0.22 means an increment of one minor version, not a "hundredth" of a major version release.* There's no such thing as a ".01 release."
In other words, the jump from 0.21 to 0.22 is the same "amount" of version increase as the jump from 0.1 to 0.2. if you're at version 4.9 of something and you push out a minor release, its version will be 4.10, not 5.0, which would indicate a major release. Likewise, version 4.1 of software is most emphatically not the same thing as version 4.10.
It's also why a lot of version numbers have multiple decimal points, such as 4.9.1326. (The 1326 in this case is likely a build or other sub-minor revision number.) Obviously, if you're trying to interpret that as some kind of fraction between 4 and 5, it's meaningless.
* Just to satisfy the pedants, there are some exceptions. Some software with lots of minor revision milestones number early minor revisions x.01, x.02, etc. Also, some software uses a version numbering scheme in which odd numbers are development versions and even numbers are stable versions, so for example, x.14 would be a stable release and x.15 would be the next development release. And some developers give their software stupid-ass meaningless version names instead, such as "Millennium Edition," "XP," and "Vista," so that you really have no idea what the hell you're running outside of a general four-year or so time window.
To my knowledge, none of these schemes apply to MythTV, thank god.
I don't know if XBMC is or not, but Mediaportal sure is, and Mediaportal + XP = about the easiest to use homebrew DVR I've ever tried. Like the above poster I tried MythTV and just couldn't keep it running for any length of time, and Mediaportal is easy peasy and so far pretty stable.
Oh it is Open Source too, if you care about playing with the code.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Rule 34 in action
who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
MythTV seems stagnated in development, even with this release, and seems bulky and awkward. Are there any other viable alternatives for home TV boxes/media boxes, that *don't* include a console in any way (xbox media centre, PS3, Wii, etc...)
I'm pretty happy with myth, but you are right, forward progress has slowed. To the point of ridiculousness.
For example, the devs recently refused to accept patches for the support of R5000-modified tuners - tuners which are perfectly legal under the DMCA because they only modify the tuners that do not include access control (if the box has access control, typically 4C on firewire, the company will refuse to make the modification because of the DMCA.)
The reason the devs refused to accept the patches?
Assumption of violation of ToS and DMCA - when neither is the case.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Although I have not tried it (yet), there is a more complete third-party MythTV plugin for XBMC. You can find it at http://code.google.com/p/mythbox/ and it works for Linux, OS X & Windows
Features:
(Why are <li>'s double line spaced?)
Recording transmitted content has been a much used fair use right since the invention of the tape deck... And since then the industry has complained about, and tried to take away that right by imposing limits on each new technology that does basically the same.
It's basically a fancy VCR! There is nothing wrong or illegal with it... what is worrying though is that geeks are actually scared of exercising their rights, and are scared of legal repercussions by companies that are taking away your rights.
Why is it that when it comes to media people are scared to stand up for their rights, but when someone tries to 'limit free speech' all hell breaks loose... It's both a right, as is the right to be safe from unwarranted legal action that will bankrupt you whether you're right legally and/or morally.
mythtv website got /.ed it would seem.
So you're saying that the site is mything?
records transmitted content (as well as media shifting) which typical is not allowed
It's times like this that I wish "Wrong" were one of the moderation options. Because you are. You've heard of TiVo, right?
Lactating mammary does not go woosh.
"His name was James Damore."
While there is a legal distinction, is there really a moral distinction between recording the show on your own DVR versus downloading a copy someone else recorded?
My TiVo HD records Mythbusters every week, but around 6 hours later my media server goes out to the internet and grabs a copy of the same episode. I could just script a few tools like kmttg does to rip the content off the TiVo and transcode to a format of my preference, but why bother when someone else has already done it for me and at the same time cut the commercials for me?
Yes, technically what I'm doing is illegal, but morally I can not see any way this is any different than if I was to waste my time scripting and waste my CPU time processing my own recordings in to the same end result.
I used to get high on life, but I developed a tolerance. Now I need something stronger.
steal
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
I set up an SVN snapshot of Myth on a Mac Mini about six months ago. I wanted to save power, so the Mini runs both the backend and the frontend. If you like, you can see a full description of how I did it. (The guide is out of date in the sense that I resolved jumpy playback issues by reducing the priority of commercial-flagging jobs.)
It's been wonderful. I get full HD video and convenient scheduling. I've had exactly zero crashes, and the automatic commercial skipping has been very reliable (maybe one mistake every 5 or 10 shows). I also really enjoy the ability to watch TV on any computer in the house.
Right now, I'm working here and there on integration with Plex because I'd like to have all media in just one interface.
No innovation? My experience with Windows Media Center is that it has gotten to be useless, because it respects the copyright flag. It used to be that this meant that you cannot record HBO, but now, the big four are using it. Of course, my Media Center PC stopped working six months ago, and I was so dissatisfied, that I just replaced it with standard XP. So, in the past six months, it is possible that they have fixed the "we won't record anything but PBS" policy of theirs.
In more recent years at Sony, the left hand might not know what the right hand is doing, but I don't think they had this problem back in the '80s. You meant Sony v. Universal, which is colloquially known as the "Betamax case" or "Betamax decision."
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.