[mythtv-users] TiVo (S1) as a MythTV Frontend

[Brian Wood]

On Feb 6, 2007, at 2:39 AM, David Campbell wrote:

> Justin Hornsby wrote:
>> Hey I have a digital watch/washing machine/phone/foobarappliance that
>> runs Linux.  Does that mean I can run a mythtv frontend on it?
>
>
> Unless I am missing something with the exception of /some physical  
> way/
> of displaying the output on a screen there are no hardware  
> restrictions
> on what myth can run on.

How do you plan to capture video? You need a device that has Linux  
drivers available and there is no such thing in a TiVo, nor is there  
any obvious way to connect one or talk to it if you could.

You also need a CPU that can decode your recordings, at least to the  
point where XvMC could handle them, and no TiVo unit has a CPU with  
that much ooomph.

And your "exception" is a huge one, as there is no PCI/AGP/PXI-E or  
other way to connect a supported video card, nor is there enough CPU  
to run even X on it even if you could.

I wouldn't say it's impossible, but it's certainly impractical and if  
you could manage it you would have so much invested in time and  
special equipment (surface-mount soldering gear for one) as to make  
it of only intellectual interest.


>
> Personally I find hacking pieces of hardware to run wierd and  
> wonderful
> Linux applications is cool and highly enjoyable.
>

So do I, but only when I have a reasonable chance of success.

The Linksys NSLU2 (aka "slug") also runs Linux, has a much faster CPU  
and USB 2.0 ports with standard drivers available. You could try to  
run Myth on that, you would have a far better chance than on a TiVo,  
but I doubt it could be done either.