[mythtv-users] Myth / Pluto / LinuxMCE choice - advice needed

[Gary Dawes]

If you want a fairly painfree myth setup expereince with plenty of support,
then I'd go with knoppmyth. I've been using it for about 3 years ( myth for
over 4) and although it is not faultless, it's pretty good out of the box
now.

Main PC hardware should be fine if it's not bleeding edge. I'd recommend
nvidia for the graphics output, and hauppuage cards, for the capture cards.
Although I'd recommend that you check as revisions can change.

I also use Freecom usb dvb-t tuners (3 of them) for picking up freeview
transmissions and they work fine with a decent signal, although the latest
revision needs a newer version of the driver than is included - fairly
simple to do.

Go with a MCE remote - 15 to 20 quid from a computer fair, or local dealer.
support is built in. I scrounged one of a mate who had one spare. I plugged
it in, found the config file on the mythtv wiki, and I was away.

On a more personal note, my missus is extremely fussy, and normally doesn't
stand for my geeky toys,but Myth's been there for over 4 years now, and
she's never considered anything else, and proudly shows it off to all and
sundry.

have fun and good luck.

gaz
On 06/05/07, Nick F <nikos.f at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 5/6/07, Paul Simpson <paul at maggiandpaul.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> >
> > I have literally hundreds of questions and would ideally like to
> > actually
> > see one (or all three!) options working, so if you live in the Midlands
> > of
> > the UK and wouldn't mind giving me a demo (I live on the Leicestershire
> > /
> > Northamptonshire border) thet would be great ;-)
> >
> > ...
> > Ok, my server machine / core will obviously be on all the time, however
> > I'm a bit of a scrooge and want to get as much "bang for my buck" (as
> > they
> > say in the US) as I can. Am I better getting a meaty machine, or having
> > a
> > moderate spec and the having some extra machines with WOL to use to do
> > the
> > actual capturing? What about the whole hardware / software encoding
> > issue?
> > I hope to use the multiplex streaming when it becomes available to allow
> > me to get as many channels as possible with as few LNBs and capture
> > cards
> > as I can get away with. What about disks? I'd rather not have a whole
> > bank
> > of disks powered up all the time if there is a system which allows them
> > to
> > be powered down when not in use. I understand that there is a Myth
> > add-in
> > which allows you to set up a "wish list" of films and programmes. Will
> > this work with the EPGs available in the UK? How much detail does the
> > EPG
> > in the UK have? 5 of my "customers" are children, so they will want to
> > build up libraries of everything from "Bob the Builder" and "Pingu" (2
> > year old) to "Spongebob Squarepants" (9 year old) whilst I want to end
> > up
> > with every eposode of "The New Yankee Workshop". WAF is very important
> > to
> > me, not least because I have to get the cost of all this through the
> > financial committee (AKA my wife!).
> >
> > The final question is, I guess, the biggy. Which should I go for?
> > Ultimately, I want the integration of Pluto / LinuxMCE, but from what
> > I'm
> > seeing that is a road frought with hazzards. Would I be better sticking
> > with Myth only for now? Or is even Myth still a little shakey? I really
> > can't afford to throw money at hardware unless I know I've got a
> > reasonable chance of ending up with a working system which is useable by
> > all the family.
> >
>
> Hi Paul,
> If you are ever in London - you are welcome to have a look at my
> installation.
>
> On the Myth/Pluto/LinuxMCE - I was also tempted by Pluto when I started
> out - it sounded like a really good idea.  I went so far as to install it on
> an old laptop to try to get it working - it didn't.  I did the same with
> Knoppmyth - and it worked a charm.  I then realised that there was enough
> getting just Myth working properly without trying to get home automation
> working at the same time - so went Myth only (and zoneminder for CCTV).
>
> I've now got a server (Core 2 Duo with 4x750GB SATAII drives in RAID 5 and
> 200GB system drive) and three backends - a mac mini for the living room
> driving a plasma (the mini is an almost perfect frontend) and 2 older
> laptops - one driving a LCD TV in the bedroom, and the other a LCD monitor
> in the kitchen.  They all run Fedora Core 6 (with the help of Jarod's guide)
> and latest SVN trunk.  At the moment the backend only has one DVB-S card
> (with a CAM so it can tune to all the Sky channels without the digibox) -
> but I intend to add additional LNBs (for other sats) and combine with
> DVB-T.  I probably didn't need a C2D - but I wanted a relatively modern
> motherboard with at least 6xSATA II connections - and the lower power
> consumption and 'future-proofness' of the chip convinced me.  Having a
> powerful CPU is also great when ironing out issues - and recompile time is
> low.  For the sake of maybe £200 difference - while struggle with a slow
> (and more energy hoggin) CPU?
>
>
> The RT xmltv guide data is excellent, and you can quickly build up a
> library of desired shows.  Being able to store DVDs on the server - so they
> are accessable from any frontend using the same UI is also great.
>
> Good luck.  I started toying with the idea of Myth last May, built my
> server in November, and now have a pretty stable, family-friendly system
> (with only the occasional crash - usually because I've been playing)
>
>
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>
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