MythTV 0.20 Released 281
An anonymous reader writes "The latest version of MythTV, the open source PVR application for Linux, has been released. New features (as documented in the release notes) include a new menu system, an improved internal DVD player, support for DVB radio channels, and mouse support. There is also a new plugin – MythArchive – which allows recordings be written to DVD. You can download MythTV from MythTV.org."
I so wish this were on FreeBSD (Score:2, Informative)
ya rly (Score:3, Interesting)
Questions (Score:4, Interesting)
For you Myth users out there, I have a few questions:
Thanks. Congrats to the MythTV team
Re:Questions (Score:4, Informative)
A full system built with HDTV support.
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Assuming the format is QAM, the tuner cards will tune any unencrypted QAM signals. You'd need to check with your cable or satellite provider to see how many channels are unencrypted.
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Re:Questions (Score:4, Informative)
Playlist of TV shows have been available in 0.19 - works very nicely for my 5 year old!
(Not that I'm putting him in front of the tube with a playlist and walking away just like that. That would be wrong. But those darned Thomas the Tank Engine episodes are only 4 minutes long apiece!)
Re:Questions (Score:5, Informative)
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I bought a MythTV system from Cosmos Engineering [cosmoseng.com]. You can probably save money by building one yourself but I liked the fact that it just works out of the box. It was reviewed in Linux Journal so that might be reputable enough for you.
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The biggest costs are the base components, tuner, motherboard/cpu/ram, storage. A case
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It works very well in this way. You can set fine grained priority settings to each individual recording or entire season recordings. In my experience (and I haven't seen a setting otherwise) the application stores information on shows within the next 2 weeks. If the first conflict arose as described: the high level one would be postponed to a later viewing IFF it has a later viewing (within
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You can run as many as are physically possible on your _network_. If you were a major cable-hound, or running a PVR service for your entire building, you could stash a room full of back-end servers in the basement with half a dozen tuner cards each and then network them to tiny front-end machines that sat on top of everyone's TV.
There really is no limit to how many channels of late night porn you can record.
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Priority recording (Score:3, Informative)
new features (Score:5, Informative)
Major changes
* Menus are now drawn by MythUI using OpenGL. This option can be enabled/disabled in the Appearance settings.
* Improved internal DVD player - now supporting menus and other missing features
* Added MHEG content implementation (Interactive TV in UK)
* Added Hotplug support for removable media in Media Monitor and MythGallery
* Added support for the HDHomeRun encoding device
* Added support for basic FreeBox recorders
* Added support for H.264 (aka MPEG-4 AVC) TS decoding
* Added an MPEG1/MPEG2/MPEG4-AVC IP network recorder
* Added internal UPnP support for TV and Music
* Added experimental second commercial detector
* New socket class for backend communications
* OSD image cache which improves channel changing speed
* Fixed program transition while Watching LiveTV
* Added beginnings of firewire capture support for MacOS
* Support for DVB radio channels and guide data collected via EIT for them
* Added mouse support in menus, including gestures
* Menus are now drawn by MythUI using OpenGL. This option can be enabled/disabled in the Appearance settings.
* Improved internal DVD player - now supporting menus and other missing features
* Added MHEG content implementation (Interactive TV in UK)
* Added Hotplug support for removable media in Media Monitor and MythGallery
* Added support for the HDHomeRun encoding device
* Added support for basic FreeBox recorders
* Added support for H.264 (aka MPEG-4 AVC) TS decoding
* Added an MPEG1/MPEG2/MPEG4-AVC IP network recorder
* Added internal UPnP support for TV and Music
* Added experimental second commercial detector
* New socket class for backend communications
* OSD image cache which improves channel changing speed
* Fixed program transition while Watching LiveTV
* Added beginnings of firewire capture support for MacOS
* Support for DVB radio channels and guide data collected via EIT for them
* Added mouse support in menus, including gestures
Re:new features (Score:5, Informative)
As a MythTV user, here is what I see as important, and having improved in 0.20:
- MythTV is a free / open source PVR application, with support for analog, digital, and HDTV recording in most international standards (i.e. it's usable in the U.S., Europe, Asia, etc.). It includes many features not available in commercial PVR products.
- Automatic commercial detection and removal, or manual skip forward/back.
- Transcode of video to other formats/resolutions -- including DVD export in 0.20.
- Network based structure, allowing 'backend' recording storage on different machine than the 'frontend' display. (i.e. stick the backend with all the cable connections, antennas, loud fans and tons of disk in the basement, put a small/quiet frontend near your TV for output.)
- HDTV support: With supported HD capture card, terrestrial broadcast HD and Cable HD are supported (with the exception of encrypted cable HD channels - which cannot be decrypted on any PC PVR)
- Improved MacOS X support. The 0.20 version has greatly improved the Mac support, especially for the Intel based Macs. Performance optimizations for HD video playback make the Core Duo Mac Minis a great choice for a small/quiet frontend box.
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What the parent poster meant... (Score:3, Insightful)
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The kind of people who need it explained in adspeak aren't going to get very far with installing it anyway.
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1) Better software for them to personally use
2) Experience/enjoyment of devel.
Neither of these are any better or worse based on number of people using the software, so most don't care about marketing. If someone else gets good use out of the software than thats great and they can do with it as they wish(assuming it complies with GPL), but theres no reason to market it.
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2) Experience/enjoyment of devel.
Neither of these are any better or worse based on number of people using the software,
That's not strictly true.
1) The more people using the software, the more likely (though still a low percentage) it is that some of them will contribute back suggestions (or maybe even patches) for improving the software.
2) That enjoyment is enhanced, at least for some developers, by the knowledge that other people find the software useful.
If neit
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HDTV support: With supported HD capture card, terrestrial broadcast HD and Cable HD are supported (with the exception of encrypted cable HD channels - which cannot be decrypted on any PC PVR)
Maybe not for ATSC (the American standard), but I can watch the encrypted HD test channels on my digital cable connection without problems via my DVB-C (the European standard) card. I did have to add the channels manually though, the channel scanner did not find them automatically (although this is one of the things
HD Over Firewire (Score:2)
HDTV support: With supported HD capture card, terrestrial broadcast HD and Cable HD are supported (with the exception of encrypted cable HD channels - which cannot be decrypted on any PC PVR)
It is important to note that if your Digicable provider uses a supported set top box (like the Motorola STBs), you don't need an HD capture card to capture HD. You can grab the raw content right off the box using Firewire.
MythTV fully supports several boxes via firewire, it can even change the channels over the firew
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http://xkcd.com/c125.html [xkcd.com]
Really, quite offtopic the the article, but relatively funny relative to the parent...
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It should be noted that MHEG-5 is currently only used in the UK on DVB- T , not DVB-S (hopefully this will change when FreeSat gets off the ground next year). ATM all the interactive content on DVB-S is propriatory (not-so-)OpenTV stuff.
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Version 1.0 - released 25 years from now - will be sick!
Win32 version (Score:4, Funny)
(yes, obviously my karma is too good)
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I dont understand why the funny mod...
I have just bought a DVB usb dongle for my Notebook and I would like to try it out. I have Kubuntu installed, however it is very unstable and I usually only log in to "play" with it (wireless does not work, graphics card incompatible, etc etc etc...).
So I would have the same question, is there any kind of Win32 version?, now that I think about it, MythTV would be excellent for a "
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I would really love to test this PVR thing as I have read a lot about them but have never used one of them (I dont watch almost any TV... usually just rent movies via screenselet).
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There, fixed that for you.
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In case you missed it, WinMCE is Microsoft's lame attempt to make their version of MythTV. It is much less complete, much more annoying, and costs a lot more. Plus, it's counted as a fully ready product, while MythTv is only saying they are at 0.20. In other words, Nowhere near done.
Man, explaining jokes always takes the fun out of them -sigh-
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Then why didn't you score some free karma, by ending your post that way?
Of course, this suggestion is going to trash my karma.
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note: using a HD capture card to tune and record QUAM signals will not work under windows. the windows driver for the HD tuner card is broken intentionally to keep evil-doers from watching and recording digital CATV.
also, if you are using windows, you HAVE to have XP.. ME is 100% crap and will not work in any way shape or form... also you need 3X the machine under windows to run mediaportal.. MythTV can run on as little as a 700MHZ PIII and 256 meg ofram and still play + reco
A Year of MythTV (Score:5, Informative)
I have the shows I want whenever I want them. Sure, sure, you can do this with Tivo. But can you also watch those recorded shows over your home network on other PCs? Burn to DVD? My MythTV box also is my torrent box, fileserver, IRC proxy, IMAP server....
Let's put it this way -- more features than Tivo, and they can't control what you do with it. Go ahead, skip all the commercials you want. Keep your recordings as long as you want. The Man can't keep you down when you're running this system.
Also, when that commercial flag becomes law (I think it's still up in the air), MythTV plans to use it to identify commercials and intentionally skip them. Eat that, capitalist pigs
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I burn a backup of my dvds, store them on my myth box. Watch them whenever I want, with just the click of a button.
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One of these days I'm actually going to drop the coin on a decently sized monitor ( 20in+ ), and just go that route for TV.
Seconded! (Score:5, Informative)
I'm using KnoppMyth [mysettopbox.tv], and was totally amazed how easily everything installed. Yes I did have to tweak LiRC [lirc.org], and a few other things.
I'm getting ready do build another unit into my house, and look forward to the extra features in the new version.
Re:A Year of MythTV (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd also point out that I've installed MythTV on several boxes in the past year, and I'm not nearly so ecstatic about it as you. Doing a secure setup is an absolute pain in the neck if you want to use that fancy backend/frontend architecture, and only slightly less so if you keep everything on the same box. I also found performance and stability less than I would have preferred - not bad, mind you, but not really all that amazing, either. The protocol changes were the most frustrating, though - I had embedded extenders become unusable frequently because the MythTV folks would change protocols often.
This is not to say WMCE is all peaches and cream, because it's not - but for people who can tolerate its limitations (which aren't terribly bad - yet), the easy setup and relatively cheap (compared to a new PC) Media Center Extenders give it some appeal.
I sound like an MS shill, I know, but for all of MythTV's strengths, it's not for everyone.
-Erwos
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Extender is expensive compared to Myth front ends. (Score:2)
I would like you to find a Windows media Center Extender for less than $100....
And as far as your protocol issue - ssh into the Xbox/Myth frontend, apt-get update- apt-get upgrade. Done. The front end updates when the back end does.
Re:Extender is expensive compared to Myth front en (Score:2)
Your magical apt-get trick only works if you're using Debian. Those of us who are running custom embedded hardware, such as the Hauppauge MediaMVP, really don't get that option.
-Erwos
Re:A Year of MythTV (Score:4, Interesting)
Mythtv is far superior and wows the hell out of people... even the Diehard windows guys drop their jaws when I plug into CATV and start tuning the digital Cable channels directly... something that is 100% impossible under windows because of "safety" features built in the driver.
I personally prefer mediaportal, but nobody in their right mind can like Media Center edition.. ot simply sucks and feels half done in every part of it.
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Not entirely true. Mediaportal cannot stream video to the Xbox 360. This is an important feature for a lot of people who own this console.
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You could run Tivo and have a quick setup, nice interface, and good support. But you gotta pay for the subscription, and you can't (legally) remove the DRM from the recordings or push anything from your PC to your tivo other than
You could run MCE with a little more tweaking. You could view movies stored on your server from your
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Not to rag on Myth, but yes you can... I watch TiVo recorded programs on my Mac and Windows boxes over the net, burn them to DVD, and with a little hacking (I'd hardly call running a bash script hacking though) I can stream video to my tivo from any PC on my network. All of this without DRM.
Now, back to Myth - I'm sure it's a great application, and I'd probably be usin
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You have a couple of different options. You can run the frontend for Myth on the Mac, or you can get the mpeg-2 decoder for quicktime, nfs mount you mythbox location for your shows and watch your shows in frontrow.
The frontend is my favorite approach because then you get the wonderful benefit of automatic commercial skip.
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Thank you!
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tivo can with lots of hacking and/or spending money for "home network option" or you can buy a replayTV and do it without anything special.
Things I want from myth that I have on my windows based Mediaportal... Podcasts. I should be able to subscribe to "channel frederator" and simply watch it's episodes... mediaportal this works perfectly... mythtv is much harder or I need t
What would make MythTV better than TiVo? (Score:2)
Audio:
Full multimedia jukebox; MP3 shuffle mode with a mood classifier. Choose the mood you're in, or want and it'll find & play appropriate music, with effects.
Video:
Auto-record tv shows I might like continuously into free space, based on a classification of the title, description, actors, director etc.
Basically, a bit of intelligence on the part of the software. There are a bunch of geek features which frankly don't care about, like watching shows over a networ
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Any word on knoppmyth? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Any word on knoppmyth? (Score:4, Informative)
In the past, it seemed like it took the Knoppmyth developers at least 1-2 months to release a new ISO based on a Myth update though, so this isn't something I'd really expect to see from them in the next few days or anything.
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Knoppmyth upgrade (Score:2)
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Insert subject (Score:2)
Anyway, I allways wanted to try it out but didn't ever download it. I guess it's the right time!
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Yes, I've been running it on FC3 for well over 18 months now, and I used that same guide for the setup. Despite a few stumbles in my setup (serial connection to satellite receiver etc.) it worked like a champ first time. It just got better with 0.19 and now I'm really excited about the 0.20 chan
PVR for me (Score:5, Interesting)
It even has support for MAME.
Controlling Cablebox? (Score:3, Insightful)
If I could use the cablebox's tuner, maybe I would need only a video digitizer, or even just transcoder. It would be great to use the cablebox to covert digital video signals to TV. I've already got the cablebox and TV, I'd like to spend that money on better quality for the parts I actually require.
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You can tell Myth to fire up an external program to change channel - I have a shell script to send IR commands to my Sky box.
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You basically have to Google around for more information specific to your setup, but MythTV can control external boxes (by calling external scripts). You'll need either an IR blaster or a proper cable and know how to interface with your cablebox's USB port. Don't forget that you'll also need A/V in on the tuner card.
It can be frustrating, though. I have DirecTV now. The box has a USB port, but it requires a U
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If not, you'll need an IR emmiter (Tivo would need this too).
LB
Cablecard (Score:2)
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But, as it is today, my MythTV box works well with all my local channels via HD Cable. The one channel I would really like to be able to acc
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Doubtful, unless some hardware manufacturer builds a CC-equipped tuner that can be plugged directly into a PC. Unfortunately there probably isn't a whole lot of demand for that, at least not currently, so the chances of seeing one any time soon are probably pretty slim...
That's the only reason I'll consider buying one of the new HD TiVo's (aka Series 3) that should be released soon. Rumor has it that TiVo will be announcing it as early as tomorrow. The downside is that it
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Any TiVo that has a lifetime subscription purchased on or before January 21,2000 is eligible for a one-time transfer to a new TiVo, including the S3. Check out the post here [tivocommunity.com] on the TiVo forum by a TiVo employee.
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I'm actually building a Myth box right now and one of my goals is to record NHL Center Ice. I don't even have digital cable yet, just analog, so I'm a little unclear on it.
How come you can't use the Coax-out (or composite or S-Video or whatever) of the Set Top Box and keep your Myth box always on Channel 3, and record whatever output? I had assumed I'd be able to record Center Ice that way. Do you mean not being able to record it in HD? I guess that does make sense. But y
The funny thing... (Score:3, Funny)
Nowadays, thanks to Netcscape and Google, beta is the final state of software. And after years of Linux, an escalation to 0.20 is a perfectly reasonable user upgrade.
DVB recordings with dishentwork are awesome. (Score:2, Informative)
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MythArchive for me! (Score:3, Interesting)
MythTV rules (Score:3, Interesting)
It really is a fantastic piece of kit. It can be pretty finicky to set up and you need to be prepared to invest some serious amount of time, but it's worth it!
Mac? Please? (Score:2)
Is no one working on porting it?
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I think the primary reason is that the majority of Mac owners who are interested in this kind of setup are usually the kind who have a Mini for hacking. No encoding capability. Myself, I run a Macbook Pro; no supported encoders there either. To get PCI, you gotta get a Mac Pro; an expensive proposition. Most people who would build a Myth box are building it from commodity hardware or from their own "bits boxes". In other words, doing it on t
HDTV Lockout (Score:5, Insightful)
MythTV has HDTV support for broadcast and Cable HD, but lacks a means of decrypting these streams. In fact, PCs in general do at this point, but I suspect that will change. Vista MCE will undoubtedly have encrypted HDTV playback support, Tivo as well (if it doesn't already). How is a free OSS solution like this to compete against imposed proprietary restrictions? I smell a DeCSS debacle all over again. Perhaps it will get cracked. Maybe I can still watch my streams if I subjugate myself to a DMCA violation or two.
Lets face it, another case of a superior product getting kicked to the curb by an industry that likes to wear tinfoil hats at the detriment of its consumers. I guess I have a decision in the future. Use the software I love and watch the shows it can view, or relinquish control impair my viewing experience and broaden my media options. I think I'll stay with Myth, the studios just lost a viewer (though I doubt they'll notice).
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MythTV has HDTV support for broadcast and Cable HD, but lacks a means of decrypting these streams.
There seems to be a lot of this going around. It must be an American thing, perhaps something to do with ATSC, the DMCA, the FCC or some other three or four letter word? Like I said in another post, I can watch encrypted HDTV channels fine with my DVB-C PCI card (specifically, a Technotrend Budget C-1500 [technotrend.de]). But I think DVB is the European standard.
One Problem (Score:2, Interesting)
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No, I don't think it was the IVTV config. I had this problem before and solved it. I think the blue was a background color that was in use by one of the other utilities on the box and it would show through on anything that wasn't fullscreen. I could be mistaken, though.
As I said, I fixed this problem before. I wrote down the solution but don't have my notes in front of me at the moment. I'll try to remember to post an update later when I d
MythTV light (Score:3, Interesting)
Google Summer of Code (Score:3, Interesting)
It does indeed kick ass. (Score:2, Interesting)
Is it easy to install? No. Myth isn't an application, it's a platform inside Linux relying on MySQL, Apache, PHP, tuner drivers, lirc drivers, and the willingness to tweak the things which aren't guaranteed to work correctly out of the box (e.g. PHP5 not registering itself as a MIME type with Apache 2, streaming requiring not on
Cataloging with MythTV (Score:2)
OSS Versioning (Score:3, Interesting)
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The most recent time, after blowing an entire weekend screwing around, I finally restored my Win2K backup th
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Ah, a casual user then :-) Took me at least a week (but then I was compiling Gentoo on a diddy 1.2GHz Epia box)
MythTV is complex to set up because it is doing complex stuff - plus its supporting lots of different modes of use (analogue TV, DVB, with/without hardware MPEG are all rather different kettles of fish).
Any free/open (and especially non-windows) media centre is liable to be driver hell - there is not mu
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My first installs of MythTV went decently well, but I had some hurdles due to the Linux flavor I used. However, there are _great_ guides that walk you through the install. There are also some "install a MythTV system" distrobutions (KnoppMyth, MythDora, etc) that do a basically complete system/Myth install with minimal configuration. And
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Hmm... I've had server experience but it sounds like less than you, and I managed to get usable mythtv in under 2 hours. I've been tinkering with it for three weeks since then, but it was working acceptably almost straight away. The main thing you need to do is take a structured approach - if you were putt
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It's sad that the laws in this country and others have gotten so restrictive b