MythTV "Trip Report"

[bluef0x]

Short version: MythTV is a "TiVo". You run it on a spare computer, no monthly fees. It's awesome. If you are interested in building one, then continue below. If you have a cool TV show that might interest me, share. I need [censored] to record.



Not many people know about MythTV, so I thought I would share my experience with it. MythTV is basically a program that turns your computer into a "TiVo" or "DVR". I know quite a few people who have bought TiVo's and every single person I've talked to that owns a TiVo or DVR says the exact same thing: it'll change your viewing habits forever. They are shelling out up to $200 for a unit and $20+ a month for the service and loving it. That said a lot to me, but I still don't want to be paying more bills. So, I found about MythTV.

MythTV runs on linux and has, to my knowledge, a lot more features than TiVo minus the monthly fees. You can record programs, schedule a season, set priorities so "Family Guy" gets recorded instead of your 2nd favorite show, in case they were to ever air at the same time. You can have it only store a certain amount of episodes of your series, either stopping once it hits that amount or to delete and older one and record the newer one. You can schedule your recordings from work or on another computer at home looking at the awesome TV guide. You can get weather, news, etc on your TV with the press of a button. It's pretty nifty for my standard cable TV. Of course, there's always pausing, rewinding, skipping commercials, etc of recorded and live TV.

I've had my MythTV up and running for 3 days now and I'm already in love. It's awesome to wake up, sit down, and watch the US get blown apart by Ghana at 12 in the afternoon instead of 6 in the morning. Then follow it up with the Colbert Report minus the commercials. There's also no need to pick between which show to watch. My girlfriend likes Cheyenne and The Hills... but I wanted to check out that new America's Got Talent. I recorded all of them and watched a movie (Youngblood) instead. Then went back and watched AGT without commercials. No more planning of when to sit down at the TV and rushing to piss during the breaks. When you get bored, you sit down. When you need to piss, you may now walk and give a few flicks instead of dangerously zipping and running back.

Now, MythTV did take a long time to get set up.. but it's because I tried to run it on difficult to install hardware and used some rather long instructions. Hopefully if you do want to get your own MythTV, this will save you a lot of time. Altogether, MythTV only cost me about $190. This was because I had a spare computer sitting around. I figured a lot of other people also have spare computers and parts laying in the garage. The only part you would probably need to add to your old systems is a TV-Tuner card ($150). Some will also need to add a video card ($20) or more hard drive space ($50-100).

This was my old system that I decided to run MythTV on:

AMD 1800+ XP Processor
512MB Ram
Nvidia GeForce 6200 w/TV-Out
120GB Hard Drive
Onboard sound
NIC Card (internet)
Hauppauge PVR-500 TV-Tuner w/Remote
CD Drive

Now, the main problem with my install taking so long was because I was trying to run the machine with a wireless card and an ATI Radeon 8500LE w/TV-Out video card. Now, both of these can work... it's just I'm not that tech-savy, have no knowledge of linux, and was figured a $20 bill and a trip to Fry's Electronics was better than spending endless hours learning linux. If you also need wireless, I recommend getting a "Game Adapter". It's basically a box that looks like a wireless router that connects via a wire to your computer, it then bridges the connection and connects to your wireless network. This is the easiest way to get a wireless setup in MythTV. I also tried to install MythTV using a step-by-step guide... it's a great guide, but I think there are too many places where a little error throws you off. Here's the guide I recommend for those who want to learn a bit of linux or who already are linux-pros: Wilsonet's Step-by-step guide .

Later, I found about KnoppMyth . KnoppMyth basically does EVERYTHING for you. You put in the CD, set the time-zone (very important), and select auto-install. After install, the only thing you have to do is walk-through the MythTV setup. You add your tuner card, make an account at a tv-guide service (where your MythTV will get the program dates/times), and other little stuff. After that, you kick back for a bit while your machine downloads the program guide, and MythTV starts up! This is where you can watch live TV (but remember, you can pause, rewind, and fast-forward it), watch recordings, schedule shows to record, etc.

Now, if you are interested in MythTV and don't know a thing about linux... I HIGHLY recommend KnoppMyth. I also recommend a wired network and NVidia video card with tv-out (GeForce 5200's are like $20-50). For the tuner I suggest getting either like a PVR-500 (it allows for two recordings at once) or multiple PVR-150's or PVR-250's. I hear the PVR-350 has TV-out and helps record CPU usage, so if you have a weaker computer maybe two of those are better than the others. These cards use PCI slots, so make sure you have one or two slots free. If you do get the PVR-500, I suggest NOT getting the "bundle" that comes with the remote. The remote is hard to get working with MythTV. I would get a remote that is automatically installed with KnoppMyth. If you have multiple TV's that you would like to have MythTV on you can have one computer be the "backend" which serves everything to "frontends" along the house. A frontend does NOT have to be a fast computer at all. An xbox can even be a frontend.

I'm probably forgetting a few things, but if anyones interested in setting their own MythTV up I'll gladly answer any questions I can.

I also need some more shows to record, so if you have any suggestions for a TV series to start watching please share.