Screencasts of Installing MythTV Via MythDora 4.0

peterdaly writes "MythDora 4 is a MythTV 'in-a-box' style distribution based on Fedora Core 6. With the help of a RedHat employee and author Jarod Wilson, MythDora 4 has made great strides in hardware compatibility and ease of installation. It is designed to format your hard drive and install everything needed for a fully functional MythTV System. MythPVR.com has created a three-part screencast of the installation process covering MythDora installation, configuration, and MythTV setup. If you have had problem installing MythTV in the past due to hardware compatibility issues, it might be time to give it another chance."

Fedora?

[ObsessiveMathsFreak (773371)]

Having recently fled from the barren dependency hell of Fedora, (to Feisty), I am perplexed as to why anyone wanting to install a user friendly Linux distro of any kind would choose Fedora as their base distro. Hardware detection was... OK, but there were innumerable problems with package management, configurations and yes, software availability. I mean, will the box play mp3 files? DVDs? Fedora is not a distro known for these capabilities.

Re:Fedora?

[scribblej (195445)]

As someone who has been running MythTV on Ubuntu boxes for years now, I agree. Skip Redhat.

Installing MythTV on modern versions of Ubuntu is easy:

apt-get install mythtv-server mythtv-frontend

That's it, you're done*!

(* I assume; I run my clients and server on seperate machines and the server is still a few versions behind the Ubuntu curve)

Re:Fedora?

[Abcd1234 (188840)]

Meh, the same is true of Fedora, which is what I used to build my myth front/backends. Honestly, why all the hate?

Re:

[gregbaker (22648)]

I just did a fresh MythTV install with Feisty a few weeks ago, and that was it exactly. It automatically recognized my Hauppauge 250, and all was good.

I had to edit a couple of lines in the LIRC config for the remote, but that was all.

Re:

[jridley (9305)]

I tried building my myth box on ubuntu last weekend. Ubuntu and myth were trivial, but I spent a good 6 hours and read about a dozen howtos and couldn't get lirc running my pvr150 remote and blaster. Even if everything else is working perfectly, it's a no-go without lirc. This happens to me every time; everything except for one dumb thing works and I'm SOL.

Re:

[CastrTroy (595695)]

Really, so that installs and configures and sets up the databases for MySQL? Does that set up all your channels, the XML TV feed and all the other stuff that is required. After messing around with MythTV for a few hours and getting no where, I found SageTV and bought that. I've been happy ever since. I'm using the windows version right now, but they do have a Linux version, and if it works even half as good as the windows version, then it beats MythTV hands down. Especially on the ease of setup issue

Re:

[LDoggg_ (659725)]

I mean, will the box play mp3 files? DVDs? Fedora is not a distro known for these capabilities.

Both distros share the same philosophy with regards to packaging patent encumbered things like mp3 and DVD decoders in the main distro and repos. It is very simple on both of these to add them in post-install.

Fiesty does make it a bit easier, but to be fair Fedora 6 was released quite a bit earlier than fiesty, let's pass judgement next week when Fedora 7 is released.

Computers have always been political.

[jbn-o (555068)]

People care about avoiding lawsuits and yet it looks like one of the major suppliers of MP3 players recently lost a large patent infringement lawsuit earlier this year to the tune of billions of dollars (no doubt an appeal is pending). If the patent holder isn't paid off, the patent holder has the power to create a huge hassle for lots of ordinary people who will turn to their proprietor and ask why they didn't charge enough money to pay for the requisite licensing fee (or why a loyal customer would be lef

Re:

[caseih (160668)]

What a silly statement. In the case of either distribution, it's a matter of having a good repository. Ubuntu is not somehow magically free from dependency hell. It's just that Ubuntu happens to have very good and very extensive repositories. Likewise, Fedora has a large number of third-party repository that covers a wide range of software needs, including MythTV. The only time I've ever really gotten into dependency hell was some years ago with Debian itself. Honestly there are lots of arguments you

PS3?

[Doc Ruby (173196)]

I wanna see someone port MythTV's codecs to the PS3's Cell [psubuntu.com] DSPs so I can use it as my PVR direct to my HDMI TV and 7.1 surround.

Re:

[tji (74570)]

MythTV's frontend app has already been ported to run on the PS3. MythTV doesn't have a special codec, it uses MPEG2 for most video (e.g. broadcast HD in the U.S. is MPEG2).

But, it doesn't support HD playback. The problem is not CPU power, it's video hardware. Linux runs in a VM on the PS3, which does not offer virtualized accelerated video playback, so it cannot do HD. If Sony ever improves the video support for Linux, the PS3 would make an excellent frontend.

Re:

[tji (74570)]

The XBox can not support playback of HD video (broadcast HD, 1080i or 720p MPEG2). So, aside from being fairly large, and fairly loud, it's too slow to do HD.. not exactly the ideal myth frontend.

The best one I have found, albeit quite a bit more expensive, is the Mac Mini. It rans a full Myth Frontend app, with full support for HD video and surround sound.

Fedora Myth(TV)ology

[SlashdotOgre (739181)]

For those who already have Fedora installed, there's an excellent guide available at http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php [wilsonet.com] which is simple to follow and worked for me on the first try (I went with a Hauppage 150 card). Personally, I preferred installing it the software myself, so I have a better idea of where to look when something breaks. I have yum cron'ed to run nightly, and so far I haven't had the install broken by any new packages since the install (4 or so months ago).

Overrated

[StikyPad (445176)]

I tried MythDora, but frankly I got tired of the "Swiper, no swiping!" popups every time I tried to record a show. I've heard there's a MythBusters plugin to get around them, but I don't think the walrus mustache is an acceptable tradeoff.

Re:Knoppmyth vs MythDora

[biggyfred (754376)]

I am by no means an expert of any kind. In fact, I'm about as amateur as it gets. Before about a week ago, I had very little experience with linux (edgy, FC3 for about 5 mins). This is my quick take on the three:

KnoppMyth was way too over my head. I'm certain that it was my inability to grasp knoppix that was the problem. User problem to be sure, but if that counts as an issue... Knoppix did do great with lirc and my remote right out of the box, a sore spot for me with the other distros I used.

Whereas KnoppMyth felt like swimming in a ocean of misunderstanding, MythDora felt like death by a thousand cuts. It was pretty, but I kept feeling like I ran into hurdles over... and over.. and over. I used Jared's guide, but like all things, the book can only take you so far..

I ended up throwing Feisty on my HTPC and loading up a full backend/frontend/desktop. Biggest problems were my Avermedia A180 (DVB issues) and lirc. The level of user generated documentation with Ubuntu made the difference for me.

Feel free to disagree with me. I can't defend any of this with anything more than my personal experience.

Re:Knoppmyth vs MythDora

[cesman (74566)]

My goal with KnoppMyth is to make it easy. Obviously, it wasn't for you. In what ways can we improve KnoppMyth to make it easier?

Regards,

Cecil

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

It would be nice if extras like exporting to DVD-R, webbrowsers, etc were easier to find. And, when found, install. Finding things on the forums is a pain.

Also, last time I tried, changing your zip code/postal code was broken if you put in a Canadian postal code (They go like this X0X 0X0). That was about a year ago though.

And dealing with things like two IR outputs + one IR input using different methods with LIRC would be nice. As it stands I had to compile LIRC by hand with differing module names to d

Re:Knoppmyth vs MythDora

[cesman (74566)]

In terms of finding programs, etc. Those are all accessible via the MythTV menu. But I can see where better documentation came come in handy. A while ago, I started on a much updated pamphlet, but it is disheartening to work on something and people doesn't read it. A lot of the question I get in IRC (freenode.net #knoppmyth), are covered in the pamphlet. If only people would RTFM.... But I digress. More work is due on the pamphlet, I've just been busy with my professional life.

In terms of MythTV related issues... Those are MythTV issues and not KnoppMyth specific. Ironically, one of the areas we try and make it easier for users is in MythWeather. Your zipcode is automatically retrieved from the db and entered for you.

I don't ever recall reading or hearing about issues w/ multiple LIRC. When issues like this occur, if you want to see it fixed in a future release, you should bring it to my attention of the forum or via PM or email. The development team isn't very large. We don't have all the hardware that is out there. Even our testers may not have the hardware you have. So, if you want to see something fixed, the best way to bring it to our attention and provide details. Same thing goes if you fix an issue. Provide details and ask to test.

Thanks for the feedback.

Regards,

Cecil

Re:

[Ngarrang (1023425)]

If only people would RTFM.... But I digress. More work is due on the pamphlet, I've just been busy with my professional life.

Cecil, you are living in a dream world. Most people don't RTFM. Even when asked. Even if it brought world peace, turned lead into gold and allowed cars to run on water.

Easy to use means not having to open the manual, that the screen tells you everything you need to know, such that a 5 year old can learn to use it. It is this very familiarity that keeps Windows on top, because it is what people know. Linux has to fight this mentality. It is a shame that so many Linux enthusiasts don't understand t

Re:Knoppmyth vs MythDora

[spisska (796395)]

I've run MythTV since 0.14 on Knoppmyth [mysettopbox.tv] and Fedora -- starting with FC3.

When I started, Knoppmyth was way over my head -- particularly the finishing touches to get everything running properly. It was my first real hands-dirty experience with Linux and I appreciated for all I learned. I did did manage to get an ancient K6-3D system running Knoppmyth -- not well enough to put in my livingroom, but well enough to prove the concept and that it was worth the time and effort to build a new system on more capable hardware.

My second system was a P3 700 built on FC3 following Jarod Wilson's definitive guide [wilsonet.com], mainly because I felt that following the guide to transform a generic install into a MythTV appliance would teach me a lot about what the Myth components were, how they all fit together, how to make them all fit together in Linux, and what to do when something went wrong. I was right.

I built a third machine (my current master beckend/frontend) on FC4 also following Jarod's guide but this time on a P4 2.5 machine.

By this time I was ready to start adding FE capabilities, but I already knew the process of installation, knew about the components and dependencies, and no longer felt the need for yumming or smarting in kernel modules and so on. I used Knoppmyth to turn my old P3 700 former-backend into a frontend.

This setup worked well through several upgrades -- FC on the backend, Knoppmyth on the frontend with the only caveat being that both machines have to be running the same version of Myth. Upgrade one, you have to upgrade the other.

Even though this was about two years ago, the Knoppmyth install was easy and painless, and I was prepared to deal with irregularities like tweaking xorg.conf. I also really appreciated that the Knoppmyth CD would let you run a frontend off the CD -- allowing you to instantly test hardware without touching the drive.

Last weekend, I finally retired the P3. It's currently on holiday, but will soon return to service as a file server. Instead I built a new frontend on an Athlon 64 4000.

I decided to give Mythdora a whirl since I know it's been under heavy development including the involvement of Jarod. I was really impressed with how smoothly and quickly the installation went, including post-install scripts to handle things like IR hardware and binary nvidia drivers (I know, I know, but the binary driver really works better for Myth than the Free one). I went from having a pile of boxes at 4 pm to a working Mythtv system at 9:30. It might have been quicker but I had to run to the shop when I ran out of beer.

I didn't try a Knoppmyth install on this hardware, but have no doubt that it would have gone just as smoothly. Cecil deserves a lot of respect and credit for the fantastic job he has done with Knoppmyth over the years.

Of course I did have quite a bit of Myth-specific experience behind me and knew from the start to buy hardware that was rock-solid compatible -- like an nforce board, nvidia gfx card, turtle beach sound card, on-board 10/100 LAN, etc.

The point is that by last weekend I was a lot more familiar with Fedora than with Debian, so I was really happy to be able to so painlessly migrate my FE to Fedora. I have no doubt that those more familiar with Debian will be just as happy with what Cecil has done in Knoppix.

And more than anything, lot of credit is owed to the folks behind MythTV -- from Isaac Richards, the original creator, and all the key developers, to folks like Jarod, Cecil, and Dennis for enormous contributions in making Myth more accessible, to all the numerous active and helpful folks on the mailing list. They've made MythTV into a product that truly is a world-beater -- by far the most powerful, most flexible, most extensible, and downright most pleasurable media engine on the planet.

Here's looking to 0.21.

Re:

[cesman (74566)]

KnoppMyth is meant to be used as a set-top box, not a general purpose computer. KnoppMyth already includes MythBrowser.

Re:Noob questions...

[jdunn14 (455930)]

Well, to work with a remote you need some sort of an IR receiver. And if the machine needs to control a set-top box of some sort (direct tv for example) you may need an IR emitter as well. Coincidentally, I happen to sell such things: http://iguanaworks.net/products.psp [iguanaworks.net]

Yes it's a shameless plug, but when you throw up a softball like this I just have take a swing at it.

Re:

[pimpbott (642033)]

The Hauppague PVR-150,250, and 350 are the best game in town for tuners. Fry's sells the PVR150 for $120 if you have to get it right away, or I've seen them online for as cheap as $60 for plain box with no remote. You can do remote through your LAN I just built a MythDora 3.2 box (doh! Could have done MythDora 4.0!) and it works quite nicely on a P3/850 with an NVidia 6200 based video card with S-Video out. Just this last weekend, I rebuilt the thing with a 320GB drive instead of the tiny drive I had lying

Re:

[cesman (74566)]

You have obviously not spent anytime in #mythtv-user. I've seen lots of folks come in there and ask for help with install MythTV on Ubuntu.

Regards,

Re:Just like.....

[cesman (74566)]

Sorry if my personal and professional life gets in the way of making a release for you. The day you have to pay for KnoppMyth is the day you can stop bitching about releases taking too long.