| JP Vossen on 23 Sep 2007 07:55:33 -0000 |
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Cross-posted to 2 lists, but unless you are a member of both I doubt a Reply-All will work to both. The full thread may be followed by checking both of these archives. Sorry... http://lists.netisland.net/archives/plug/ http://groups.google.com/group/pantug First, a big thank you to Matt Mossholder for doing the presentation and sharing his knowledge, and to Jonathan Simpson and the ATS group for hosting. I got a *lot* out of the session and am really glad I went. Second, Matt has posted links to the slides at the wiki page for the session: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PennsylvaniaTeam/Philly/MythTVSeminar Third, if I learned nothing else, finding out about the MediaMVP device was well worth showing up. A bit smaller than a typical paperback book, this device will solve a number of problems for me, though it can't handle HD content. But it's just *really* cool. This Linux and PowerPC based unit connects to Ethernet and grabs a DHCP address, tftp's a boot image and boots. There is Windows software that presumably supplies a DHCPd and tftpd (I wonder how it avoids DHCP collisions?), but these are trivial to do in Linux. The real meat is that clever folks at the "mvpmc" project have created an alternate boot image that fires up a MythTV front-end! There is no need to "hack" the box, simply swap the boot image files and reboot it and you go from the official software to the mvpmc (MythTV, ReplayTV, other) code. Sweet! So I will build a hefty MythTV back-end server in the basement, and use a MediaMVP as a front-end upstairs at the TV. Here are my current notes, based on discussion with Matt and playing with the unit Matt brought: http://www.hauppauge.com/html/mediamvp_datasheet.htm http://www.mvpmc.org/ * Composite (RCA) or S-video outs Pro: Small Low power Silent Handles the whole "remote control" issue Just plain cool Con: >>> Can't do HD <<< Can't do Myth Plug-ins Issues accessing MySQL (e.g., for commercial flags) I plan to put a Hauppauge PVR-500 *analog* dual tuner in the back-end server: http://www.haupauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr500mce.html Forth, everyone I've talked to about MythTV has hands-down recommended the HDHomeRun dual HD tuner for HD. I don't care about HD at the moment, but I throw that out there for those who do. Matt also brought one of those and it's also a great little gadget. Here are my notes from the session. I had already done some research, so these are things I didn't know or wanted to note, they are by no means comprehensive. ----- cut here ----- * You can set up a MythTV back-end slave to do nothing but transcode or flag commercials, both of which are CPU intensive but neither of which require a tuner, TV or anything other than a PC with spare CPU power. You could even use an Ubuntu (or other Linux) desktop to do this at night. * Matt quoted the following numbers, I heard higher ones elsewhere for SD, so YMMV: 1G/hr Standard def (I also heard other quotes up to 2G) 9G/hr HD channel 20G/hr HD "transport stream" (contains more than 1 channel) Video cards * nVidia is the current defacto standard, but you'll need their closed source drivers * AMD/ATI just opened up lots of driver source; so F/OSS support is expected to drastically improve soon * Intel is OK, but not ready for HD * Via (in low power units) is OK * Myth can't do CableCARD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CableCARD), and probably never will. ----- cut here ----- For more, read http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO.html and then read Matt's slides. One other neat idea. My old TV has only coax and RCA inputs, and the cable is in the coax and the DVD player in the RCA input. So I have no place to plug the MediaMVP in. While there are Composite signal switches, someone else (MCT IIRC) noted that VCR's usually have Composite in for camcorders and such, so I can plug the MediaMVP into the VCR. Yeah, that adds some complexity to actually using it, and yeah, that degrades the signal some more. But it's clever and free. :-) Finally, since this has already gotten way too long, I've put my personal notes and plan, such as it is, on my web site for anyone who is interested in how I'm actually going to use what I learned: Goals ----- 1) Get away from recording TV via VCRs 2) Provide pause/commercial skip for "live" TV time slots 3) Wife acceptance These are my raw notes, and it's plain, unwrapped, ugly text. Eventually I'll put it into HTML, but in the meantime, here you go. It includes the hardware I'm thinking about buying, with pricing.
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