[mythtv-users] Other Myth uses...

[Andrew Davis]

Just a note to share...

After getting my "full blown" Myth box running, I realized I use it more 
to store and view my DVD and MP3 collection than anything else. I 
already have two DVRs provided to me by my cable company... both of 
which can have the hard drives upgraded easily enough (one came with 
only a 40GB IDE drive... I put in a 160Gb and upon reboot it found it, 
formatted it, and now records a lot more). The TV recording of Myth is 
nice, but its also sort of overkill for me personally, though I miss the 
feature of being able to search for the phrase "billiards", then record 
everything (my Cox provided DVR won't do this). At the end of the day, 
though, I decided on a simpler route... I installed the entire MythTV 
solution onto my laptop. I personally think that Myth is a great 
frontend to all the individual programs that it uses... so now, rather 
than switch between XMMS, Xine, Ogle, mplayer, etc... I use my laptop 
for work and if I want to watch a movie or listen to music, etc, I just 
fire up MythTV and use it for movies, MP3's, etc. I installed both the 
backend and frontend onto the laptop and can successfully have both 
running and playing MP3's while also running Firefox, Thunderbird, 
Evolution, OpenOffice and multiple SSH sessions, as well as tsclient. 
Its a very nice solution. To keep things in sync, I have a copy of my 
MP3's and DVDs on another server at home and simply rsync the new stuff 
from the laptop back to the server.

Related, I'm trying out a smaller, a-open type solution for my Yukon. We 
already have the in-dash/in-headrest setup with GPS and satellite radio 
in the front and a PS2/Xbox/DVD player for the back, but as I hit 
speedbumps and such, the DVDs tend to skip. I'm thinking that wiring a 
small PC to the touchscreen would be a great solution (both monitors in 
the headrests are touchscreens with Linux support). In this case, the 
Yukon has a wireless card in its PC and a script to rsync the data from 
the server to the Yukon's PC. All I have to do is park in the garage or 
on the driveway to be in range, then fire up a script. This makes all my 
movies and music available on the road and since the PC still has a DVD 
drive, the kids can also put in their CDs and DVDs. Again, I'm not using 
the TV function (though with a DirecTV antenna on the roof I could), but 
I'm just using it for media playback for the kids and music for myself. 
Seems to work great... the newer SATAII drive I'm using handles the 
speed bumps and rough roads much better than a DVD in the main system. 
:) And best of all, with my Kyocera KR1 and KPC650, anywhere I can get 
an EVDO connection, I can get internet which means the Myth box can 
still update weather, newsfeeds, rss, etc...

So just a thought to the hackers out there... MythTV doesn't just have 
to do TV or live in your living room. It can be a simple solution for 
archiving DVDs and MP3's... or watching movies in a vehicle... or 
watching movies from a laptop while on a flight across the US. 
Ironically, over the years I've followed the work and projects of LiVid, 
LinDVD, Xine, Ogle, mplayer, etc. I've seen a select few laptops (namely 
one from IBM and one from HP) include Linux and a s/w DVD player. But in 
the end, upgrading was a pain and they all had some drawback (I recall 
even recently Xine lacking DVD menu support and Ogle being unable to 
"stop" a DVD). In that sense, MythTV is a good looking, working solution 
for playing DVDs (encrypted or not), listening to MP3's, etc. In fact, I 
think companies like Lenovo and HP should consider a big "screw you" to 
the likes of LinDVD, Intervideo, etc and consider installing MythTV on 
their pre-installed Linux laptops. Of course, due to licensing and such, 
they never will... but still... :)