[mythtv] Some new features

Gordan Krešić gkresic at htpchouse.com
Thu Feb 21 14:17:10 UTC 2008


As a HTPC enthusiast and do-it-yourself kind of geek, I'm appreciating
all you guys from MythTV movement are doing in assisting people like
me to build our own, personalized HTPC devices. On the past three
years, I've worked with MythTV in many different setups, but now I'm
trying to build something different, setup that will include all that
MythTV has to offer, but also all the other applications that still do
not have appropriate substitutions in Myth modules (namely,
proprietary applications like Skype).

Currently, I'm using only one part of Myth in my setup: mythtv module
for watching live TV. mythfrontent and other Myth modules are not used
in any way currently, although I'm experimenting with them every now
and then.

However, there are three features that I miss in Myth:

Possibly a small hack would be very appreciated - to implement "Are
you sure?" dialog when trying to exit live TV playback, like the one
that pops up when trying to exit mythfrontend. Reasons are obvious,
because I'm using *only* mythtv module and accidentally pressing
Escape one time too much when exiting menus, exits my TV playback
also, leaving me with bare desktop. On one occasion, back in the days
of 0.19 versions, I've downloaded Myth sources and hack TV module to
disable exiting altogether with Escape key, but didn't submit that
patch because it was too crude and inappropriate for most users.
Later, I was too lazy to patch and compile every new Myth version, so
I switch back to packed binaries from Debians repo and now I have to
live with extra caution on Escape key :) Ideally, this option should
be configurable, because not all users will want that extra click to
exit live TV playback.

Another feature is a bit more complicated - it would be useful from
the standpoint of someone who do not want whole Myth package to
modularize Myth in the way that every module has its own executable,
just like Live TV playback has its own "mythtv" executable. In that
scenario, mythfrontend would implement menu system only, and all
"real" functionalities would be in separate executables. Again,
configurable option for extra question upon exiting would be useful in
all that modules for the same reasons I've described in previous
paragraph.

Last, but not less important, would be ability to choose different
ALSA mixers for different Myth modules. For majority who do not need
that functionality, default setting should remain just like it does
today, but in configuration of each module option for overriding that
default with specific setting affecting only that module would be
nice.

Anyway, you can find more about my efforts on building somehow
different HTPC setup on:

	http://www.htpchouse.com/

where you can find more detailed description why these features would
be useful for.

	-gkresic.


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