[mythtv-users] Newbie Alert

Rob Willett rob.mythtv at robertwillett.com
Fri Apr 16 11:49:12 EDT 2004


Graham,

Speaking as an expert of 2-3 weeks welcome. You'll find you pick things up here
and people do respond quickly.

Your first starting place should be the documentation on www.mythtv.org. 

I suspect you'll find the pause button on live TV to be well worth it. Anyway
you'll get it whether you want it or not. <grin>.

I use RedHat 9.0 as I'm familiar with it. I don't think there will be major
differences anyway between the various distro's. You will (or I think you will)
need to recompile a new kernel as the standard ones don't normally have the
right drivers. This is not difficult but takes timeto get it just right.

I would check the specific card and version number against the V4L website.
Googling normally lets you know. If the specific card is not mentioned then
assume the worst.

The SBlive card is wel supported. Since I only have two speakers I'v not got
into 5.1 so can;t comment. I believe it is though.

Get used to lot's of compiling, especially the mythmusic module. It does work
though.

Your first problems are going to be getting the right kernel with the right
drivers. I use 2.4.24 and that works for everything so far. 2.4.25 doesn't for
me. Your mileage may very. get the kernel setup right, if you can see the card
and get audio coming out with ALSA then the rest of the mythtv install is just time.

Best of luck,

Rob.
Quoting Graham J <grahamj at lixar.com>:

> Hey all,
> 
> Graham Nicholls here from Ottawa, Canada. I'm new to to the list and thought
> I'd say hello and mention why I'm here.
> 
> Up until now I've had my laptop connected to the TV running XP. I use it to
> play back MPEG2 TV shows which I record using my other PC which has a
> Hauppage PVR-250 and my own custom PHP/XMLTV/MYSQL setup. It works pretty
> well but I've been itching to come up with a more integrated solution.
> 
> I've now put together an Athlon 1.1 box with 768MB, 120GB, Asus Radeon 9200,
> a cheap Pine TV card (bt878 tuner), the PVR-250, an SB Live 5.1 and a
> DVD-ROM. My goal is to set up MythTV on the box so I can browse listings,
> watch live TV with the cheap card and have the PVR-250 dedicated to
> recording only. I have no interest in pausing live TV or using the cheap TV
> card for any recording whatsoever.
> 
> I haven't used Linux in quite some time so even just that part will be a
> challenge for me, but I've been writing software since I was 7 so I know I
> can overcome any challenges given enough time, and hopefully the odd tip
> from you guys :)
> 
> A couple of quickies to start off, if you don't mind:
> 
> - I was planning to use Mandrake since its GUI seems pretty easy to use. Is
> this a good bet or would another distro be better for Myth?
> 
> - Should the bt878 be ok with V4L? I've searched for answers to this
> question but haven't come up with anything so far.
> 
> - Ditto for my SBLive - I'd like to have 6-channel digital out to my stereo
> but realize that might be asking a bit much for Linux :) I don't really care
> about playing DVDs with this box so if not I can live with that.
> 
> Thanks in advance and I look forward to chatting more with the Myth
> community :)
> 
> Graham J
> http://xvi.com
> 
> 




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