MythTV 0.21 Released

kormoc writes "The new release has lots of new stuff, notably: autodiscovery (less manual configuration of new front-ends), storage groups (no need for LVM/etc), support for multiple recordings on one DVB/ATSC multiplex, a couple of new plugins, some new deinterlacing / video display options, and many, many other things. The release notes page in the wiki has the list of what's changed, but it's currently a couple thousand checkins out of date. Grab the release from the download section and please at least try to read the docs before asking questions. The binary packages should hopefully be updated to 0.21 soon."

Bug Fixed in the SAA7134?

I have a Myth TV machine using a SAA7134 (MSI TV Anywhere Plus) TV Tuner card, and although this card worked fine in TVTime, and mencoder/mplayer, I had horrible problems with automute in MythTV and I am wondering if this bug has been fixed. I can manually

Re:Bug Fixed in the SAA7134?

"I have a Myth TV machine using a SAA7134 (MSI TV Anywhere Plus) TV Tuner card, and although this card worked fine in TVTime, and mencoder/mplayer, I had horrible problems with automute in MythTV and I am wondering if this bug has been fixed. I can manually turn off the mute in the saa7134 Mixer, but really, it made me feel ripped off by the guy who sold it to me promising me "This model works in Linux" Well he was telling the truth."

I'd say it is best to go with the Haupauge (sp?) cards that are proven winners with MythTV...cheap and you can slap multiple ones in there to record/watch on different channels at the same time. That and they have hardware decoding/encoding which allows you to run slightly less powerful processors on the box itself....

Re:Bug Fixed in the SAA7134?

Or if you have a cable box with firewire ports you can jack directly into it. 0.21 has huge fixes for firewire.

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The assumption being, of course, that the cable box has a firewire port and that it actually works.

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... and isn't disabled by the provider, like most are.

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Given if you meet certain requirements, by law they have to enable it, a large number of people have that option. For more info, check out http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/FireWire#FCC_regulations [mythtv.org]

DVB Multiplexing!

Finally you can record overlapping shows on one tuner!
Example: You are paranoid of slight time changes, and record ALL shows with 5 minutes pre and post buffer. In the .20 and below this would use two tuners if you wanted 7:30-8pm and 8-8:30pm. Now it is smart enough to pull two streams off the multiplex.

It will also let you (if you're in australia) record ABC1 and ABC2 off the same tuner at the same time!

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Out of interest where do you get your program scheduling for Australia? This has always been the thorn in my side when attempting to automate with a PVR

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I tried using tv_grab_au and patching together scripts from several different places... I even had it working for about a year at one stage. In the end I upgraded the myth box to digital and in the process didn't bother setting up a tv guide and just left

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Shepherd: http://svn.whuffy.com/index.fcgi/wiki [whuffy.com]

it:
-auto-updates (can be turned off)
-gets info from various services (oztivo, websites, imdb, etc)
-has not failed me yet

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The EPG data from the digital signal is usually only for the next show or two AFAIK. If you want to set a recording then you probably need an internet based EPG system (shepherd works great for me)

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How does it decode two streams at once?

No need for LVM?

LVM may not be needed for Myth, but as a home server/media center, its important. I LVM a RAID-1 set on my mythbox, and carve out space for pictures, mp3s, etc.

Two years with MythTV

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

* 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 [gossamer-threads.com]), 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 [avsforum.com], 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 [gossamer-threads.com] than what they're using for their MythTV frontends.

Re:TV Listings

The MythTV box I use at home (version 0.20) is pulling listings data from Schedules Direct [schedulesdirect.org], the service created to replace Zap2it's listings service.

Re:TV Listings

I'm pretty sure that MythTV used to use Zap2It to get their tv listing info, but a while ago we discussed [slashdot.org] that Zap2It was no longer going to provide this service for free. Where is this release pulling the listing data from?

MythTV can get listing info from various sources, but I think most folks (at least in the USA and Canada) are now using Schedules Direct (http://www.schedulesdirect.org/ [schedulesdirect.org]). Schedules Direct was set up by various folks involved with open source video/television related projects like MythTV in response to the Zap2It free listings shutdown and has reached its goal of getting enough subscribers to hit a price point of $20 per year for listings data (with a 7 day free trial). My experience with the transition was that it was pretty much seamless.

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If you want continual quality listings, you're probably going to have to pay for it. I got SageTV, and with the $80? I spent, I get free listings, for well, I guess as long as they stick around. I've been using it for like 2 years now, so I guess based

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If you paid for it, are the listings really free?

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But you can expect the TV companies to make the listings available for free, so all you really need to do is grab from all the different tv station's listing pages.
Some services also broadcast listing data with the program stream itself.

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Yes, but then you have to convince them all to deliver it in the same format, and then contact them when the mess up the format, or forget to deliver their feed. You've obviously never dealt with trying to get a data feed from some company who's main inte

I'm confused about something. . .

Ok, let me see if I understand this right. . .

People were upset that Zap2It wasn't giving free listings (and they'd rather not pay for the pay service), so they setup another *pay* service as an alternative? Why not just pay for Zap2It? Were they asking fo

Re:I'm confused about something. . .

The problem with Zap2It labs was that there was no pay service (and they apparently weren't interested in providing one). Their main beef was the many commercial products that were using the service.

Re:I'm confused about something. . .

Because Zap2It wasn't offering a pay service for individuals anymore. Zap2It doesn't have the infrastructure in place to accept payments from thousands of individual people. They are built around accepting large payments from dozens of companies for those companies to use. Zap2It got tired of individuals taking advantage of their free service and they didn't want to bother with setting up a pay system for individuals so Schedules Direct was created to fill in the gap.

Re:Yes, but...

DRM/lock-in smoke, don't breathe this.

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Try Knoppmyth. Yeah, it's Knoppix-based and thus Debian, but try it anyway. Go outside your comfort zone. I've been using it for about a year now. The last few versions have been very easy to set up. I don't have a digital card tho, so don't know how it wi