Configuring Frontend

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This page is up-to-date to MythTV version 0.20, the current release is 34.0


Important.png Note: Some of the menus have changed since this guide was written. Any explanations should still be correct but some settings have moved and/or had their names changed

The frontend process is responsible for anything that requires interaction such as Watching Recorded Programs or Watching TV. It provides the GUI you use on your TV or monitor as well as the LIRC, keyboard, or other input handling for Frontend Navigation.

You may also find it useful to read about MFD/MFE the Myth Frontend Daemon

The frontend can be configured by going to the 'Utilities and Setup' menu of the frontend. The following sections describe the available configuration options.

Contents

Music Tools

Edit Keys

Setup

General

Database Configuration 1/2

Database Configuration 1/2
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Hostname 127.0.0.1 The hostname or IP address of the machine hosting the database. This information is required. If you are running a single combined backend and frontend, then leave this at its default value of 127.0.0.1. This is often referred to as the local loopback IP address. If you have multiple frontends connecting to this backend then you will need to set this address to the same address as the real IP address eg 192.168.2.11 as it appears on your network. If you have a DNS Server running on your network you can just put the hostname eg "MythBackend". Your DNS Server will translate this to its real IP address.
Database mythconverg The name of the database. This information is required. This is the name of the database the MythTV backend uses to store information. Normally you should not need to change this. However, you may choose to have different databases for different reasons, for example, a test database so you can check out configurations, and then put this back to mythconverg later, or a different database depending on user so each user can set an independent look and feel.
User mythtv The user name to use while connecting to the database. This information is required. You should not have to change this from its default.
Password mythtv The password to use while connecting to the database. This information is required. Change this to suit your system.
Database type MySql The database implementation used for your server. MySql is an Opensource database used by MythTV to hold all of its internal information.

Database Configuration 2/2

Database Configuration 2/2
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Custom Identifier for Frontend Preference Unchecked If this frontend's hostname changes often, check this box and provide a network-unique name to identify it. If unchecked, the frontend machine's local hostname will be used to save preferences in the database. This is the meat of the subject
Enable Database Server Wakeup Unchecked If checked, the frontend will use database wakeup parameters to reconnect to the database server (Mythbackend) Database Server Wakeup is an ACPI option that allows your machine to power up based on activity on the network. You need to make sure that your machine supports ACPI correctly for this to work. You can use this to remotely activate your machine (for instance when you are at work).

(The following additional options are only displayed if this option is checked.)

Reconnect time 0 The time in seconds to wait for the server to wake up.
Retry attempts 1 The number of retries to wake the server before the frontend gives up.
Wake command (blank) The command executed on this frontend to wake up the database server (eg. sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart)

Settings Access

Settings Access
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Require Setup PIN Unchecked If set, you will not be able to return to this screen and reset the Setup PIN without first entering the current PIN. MythTV setup can be locked so that you don't have tampering fingers change things while you are out. This tells the system that a PIN will be required to access the configuration screen.
Setup Pin Code blank This PIN is used to control access to the setup menus. If you want to use this feature, then setting the value to all numbers will make your life much easier. Set it to blank to disable. Tell the system what the security PIN is here. Don't forget to write it down somewhere so you don't forget. Or back up your database before you set the PIN so you can restore in case you forget.

Audio System

Audio System
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Audio output device ALSA:default Blank This is the sound card that you want to use.

To specify an ALSA device, use the format ALSA:device (where device is a valid ALSA device such as spdif; iec958; default; hw::0,0; plughw:0,0; etc.). For example, ALSA:spdif.
You can find out which ALSA devices you have available, with the command

aplay -l

To enable JACK output, use the format JACK:

Speakers configuraion Stereo Set your audio configuration: Stereo or Surround.
Advanced Audio Configuration
(checkbox)
unchecked Enable extra audio settings. The following additional options are only displayed if this option is checked.
Override SRC quality
(checkbox)
unchecked Override audio sample rate conversion quality.
Aggressive Sound card Buffering
(checkbox)
unchecked If enabled, MythTV will pretend to have a smaller sound card buffer than is really present. Should be unchecked in most cases. Enable only if you have playback issues.

Audio Mixer

Audio Mixer
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Use Internal Volume Controls On MythTV can control the PCM and master mixer volume. If you prefer to control the volume externally (like your amplifier) or use an external mixer program, disable this option. Disabling this option may lighten the CPU load if the sound device has no hardware mixer. You may also want to disable this if you are using AC3 output as volume control will be done by your surround amplifier or receiver.
Mixer Device /dev/mixer Setting the mixer device to "software" lets MythTV control the volume of all audio at the expense of a slight quality loss. Your system will have a Mixer device that combines multiple channels of audio input and controls the volume independently on each of these. There will also be a master volume that controls the output of all the inputs at the same time.

If you choose an ALSA device for output, you must also specify an alsa mixer name, for example ALSA:default.

Mixer Controls PCM Changing the volume adjusts the selected mixer. Options are: PCM, Master, or any other named mixer control.
Master mixer volume 0-100 (selects volume level) 70 Initial volume for the Master Mixer. This affects all sound created by the sound card. Note: Do not set this too low. This will control the overall sound level output from your sound card.
PCM mixer volume 0-100 (selects volume level) 70 Initial volume for PCM output. Using the volume keys in MythTV will adjust this parameter. The Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) input is where MythTV will send the audio from your TV Card. This sets the initial volume level for this.
Independent muting of left and right audio channels Off Enable muting of just the left or right channel. Useful if your broadcaster puts the original language on one channel, and a dubbed version of the program on the other one. This modifies the behavior of the Mute key. Broadcasters in Europe often will use the left and right channels to send simultaneous language audio on the same transmission. You will often see this on Eurosport for instance, where German and English are sent at the same time. Muting one or the other channel will select the language you want to hear.

General (page 6)

General (page 6)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Use Arrow Key Accelerators On If enabled, Arrow key accelerators will be used with LEFT performing an exit action and RIGHT selecting the current item. An intuitive way of navigating through the MythTV menus. Right is considered enter while left is considered exit or back. Much like navigating through a menu tree.
Screen Shot Path /tmp/ Path to screenshot storage location. Should be writable by the frontend.

Media Monitor

Media Monitor
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Monitor CD/DVD
(checkbox)
Unchecked This enables support for monitoring your CD/DVD drives for new disks and launching the proper plugin to handle them. You can set the system up to auto launch DVD or CD playback on insertion. Many new distributions as of 2006 will have this feature.

(The following options are only displayed when this option is checked.)

Use new media
(checkbox)
Unchecked This will cause MythTV to jump, to an appropriate plugin, when new media is inserted.
Ignore Devices (blank) If there are any devices that you do not want to be monitored, list them here with commas in-between. The plugins will ignore them.

Program Exit

Program Exit
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
System Exit Key ESC (Escape) MythTV is designed to run continuously. If you wish, you may use the ESC key or the ESC key + a modifier to exit MythTV. Do not choose a key combination that will be intercepted by your window manager. Possible values are:
  • ESC
  • No exit key
  • Control-ESC
  • Meta-ESC
  • Alt-ESC
Confirm Exit (Checkbox) On When enabled, MythTV will prompt for confirmation when you press the System Exit key. If enabled, MythTV will ask you whether you really want to exit the frontend if you press the system exit key at the main menu.
Customise exit menu options Autodetect By default, only remote frontends are shown the shutdown option on the exit menu. Here you can force specific shutdown and reboot options to be displayed. Choices are:
  • Autodetect
  • Show Quit
  • Show quit and shutdown
  • Show quit, reboot and shutdown
  • Show shutdown
  • Show reboot
  • Show reboot and shutdown

Remote Control

Remote Control
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
LIRC Daemon Socket /dev/lircd UNIX socket or IP address[:port] to connect in order to communicate with the LIRC Daemon.
LIRC Keypress Application blank External application or script to run when a keypress is received by LIRC.
Enable Network Remote Control interface Off This enables support for controlling mythfrontend over the network.
Network Remote Control Port 6546 This specifies what port the Network Remote Control interface will listen on for new connections.


Appearance

Theme

Theme
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
UI Theme Terra (none) You can find more about themes on this page: Category:Themes
Theme cache size: 1 Maximum number of prescaled themes to cache.
Paint Engine Qt This selects what Myth uses to draw. If you have decent hardware, select OpenGL. The frontend interface can be drawn using OpenGL if you have a powerful enough video card. This allows for additional visual effects. Do not change this if you have integrated video or are using PVR-350 S-video out.
Menu theme Default (none) This gives you two choices on how the menus are laid out in the MythTV user interface. The content of the two choices is the same, but the terminology (ex. "Optical Disks" vs. "DVD") and organization of the menus is different.

This document is based on the "Default" setting.

Screen settings

Screen Settings
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
GUI width (px) 0 The width of the GUI. DO not make the GUI wider than your actual screen resolution. Set to 0 to automatically scale to fullscreen. Width in pixels of window that myth uses.

A normal TV (without MythTV) has a 5%-10% overscan. In other words, 5%-10% of the image is past the visible edges of the screen. If you adjust your MythTV box's output to overscan your display device, and uncheck "Use GUI size for TV playback" (below), you can use this and the following 3 GUI size and position settings to shrink the GUI so that the GUI is not overscanned (and you can see all of it).

GUI height (px) 0 The height of the GUI. DO not make the GUI taller than your actual screen resolution. Set to 0 to automatically scale to fullscreen. see Gui width(px)
GUI X offset 0 The horizontal offset the GUI will be displayed at. May only work if run in a window. see Gui width(px)
GUI Y offset 0 The vertical offset the GUI will be displayed at. see Gui width(px)
Use GUI size for TV playback
(checkbox)
Checked If enabled, use the above size for TV, otherwise use full screen. see Gui width(px)
Hide Mouse Cursor in MythTV
(checkbox)
Checked Toggles mouse cursor visibility. Most of the Myth GUI does not respond to mouse clicks. Use this option to avoid "losing" your mouse cursor.
Use window border
(checkbox)
Unchecked Toggles between windowed and border-less operation.
Use fixed window size
(checkbox)
Checked When disabled the video playback window can be resized.

Video Mode Settings

Video Mode Settings
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Separate video modes for GUI and TV playback
(checkbox)
Unchecked Switch X Window video modes for TV. Requires "xrandr" support. The following additional options are only displayed if this box is checked.
GUI 640x480 Resolution of screen when not watching a video.
Video Output 640x480 Default screen resolution when watching a video.
Rate Any Default refresh rate when watching a video. Leave at "Any" to automatically use the best available.
Aspect Default Aspect ratio when watching a video. Leave at "Default" to use ratio reported by the monitor. Set to 16:9 or 4:3 to forca a specific aspect ratio.
In X 0 Horizontal resolution of video which needs a special output resolution.
In Y 0 Vertical resolution of video which needs a special output resolution.
Output 640x480 Screen resolution when watching a video at a specific resolution.
Rate Any Refresh rate when watching a video at a specific resolution. Leave at "Any" to automatically use the best available.
Aspect Default Aspect ratio when watching a video at a specific resolution. Leave at "Default" to use ratio reported by the monitor. Set to 16:9 or 4:3 to forca a specific aspect ratio.


Localization

Localization
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Language English Your preferred language. Choices are:
  • English
  • Italiano
  • Catala
  • Espanol
  • Nederlands
  • Francais
  • Deutsch
  • Dansk
  • Svenska
  • Portugues
  • Nihongo
  • Slovenski
  • Suomi
  • Hanzi (Traditional)
Guide Language #1 English Your #1 preferred language for Program Guide Data and captions.
Guide Language #2 English Your #2 preferred language for Program Guide Data and captions.
Date format Sat Jan 31 Your preferred date format. Choices are:
  • Sat Jan 31
  • Sat January 31
  • Jan 31
  • 01/31
  • 01.31
  • Sat 31 Jan
  • 31.01.2004
  • 2004-01-31
Short Date format 1/31 Your preferred short date format. Choices are:
  • 1/31
  • 31/1
  • 01/31
  • 31/01
  • 01.31
  • 31.1.
  • 31.01.
  • 01-31
  • Sat 31
  • 31 Sat
  • Sat 1/31
  • 1/31 Sat
Time format 6:56 AM Your preferred time format. You must choose a format with "AM" or "PM" in it, otherwise your time display will be 24-hour or "military" time. Choices are:
  • 6:56 AM
  • 6:56 am
  • 06:56 AM
  • 06:56 am
  • 6:56
  • 06:56

QT

QT
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
"Small" font 12 Default size is 12.
"Medium" font 16 Default size is 16
"Big" font 25 Default size is 25.
Fine tune font size (%) 0 Fine tune all font sizes by this percentage. Font sizes should be the correct relative size if the X11 DPI (dots per inch) is set to 100.
Use Transparent Boxes
(checkbox)
Checked If enabled, the Watch Recording and Delete Recording screens will use transparency. Disable if selecting the recordings is slow due to high CPU usage.
Popup Background Shading Method Fill "Fill" is the quickest shading method.
"Image" is somewhat slow, but has a higher visual quality.
No shading will be the fastest.
Use line edit virtual keyboards Checked Allows you to use a virtual keyboard in Myth line edit boxes. To use, hit OK/Select while a line edit is in focus. (This only works if your OK/Select is set to send a Return rather than a space) This feature allows you to use your remote with an on screen keyboard to fill out text boxes. This allows you to operate MythTV without a keyboard.

LCD device display

LCD device display
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Enable LCD device
(checkbox)
Unchecked Use an LCD display to view MythTV status information. Need to restart mythfrontend to (de)activate it. The following additional configuration items appear only when this box is checked.
Display Time
(checkbox)
Checked Display current time on idle LCD display. Need to restart mythfrontend to (de)activate it.
Display Menus
(checkbox)
Checked Display selected menu on LCD display. Need to restart mythfrontend to (de)activate it.
Display Music Artist and Title
(checkbox)
Checked Display playing artist and song title in MythMusic. Need to restart mythfrontend to (de)activate it.
Items Artist - Title Which items to show when playing music. Available items:
  • Artist - Title
  • Artist [Album] Title
Display Channel Information
(checkbox)
Checked Display tuned channel information. Need to restart mythfrontend to (de)activate it.
Display Recording Status
(checkbox)
Checked Display current recordings information on LCD display.
Display Volume Information
(checkbox)
Checked Display volume level information. Need to restart mythfrontend to (de)activate it.
Display Generic Information
(checkbox)
Checked Display generic information. Need to restart mythfrontend to (de)activate it.
Backlight Always On
(checkbox)
Checked Turn on backlight permanently. Need to restart mythfrontend to (de)activate it.
HeartBeat Always On
(checkbox)
Unchecked Turn on the LCD heartbeat.
Display Large Clock
(checkbox)
Unchecked On multiline displays try and display the time as large as possible.
LCD Key order ABCDEF Enter the 6 Keypad Return Codes for your LCD keypad in the order in which you want the functions up/down/left/right/yes/no to operate.
Menu Pop-up Time 5 The time (in seconds) that the menu will remain visible after navigation.


Screen Setup Wizards

Follow the on screen directions to adjust the size and position of your GUI display.


TV Settings

General

General (Basic)

General (Basic)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Channel Ordering channel number (blank) Possible values are:
  • channel number
  • callsign
Channel Format number callsign Your preferred channel format. Possible values are:
  • number callsign
  • number name
  • callsign
  • name
  • number
Long Channel Format number name Your preferred long channel format. Possible values are:
  • number name
  • callsign
  • name
  • number
  • number callsign
  • number name
Change channels immediately without select
(checkbox)
Unchecked When a complete channel number is entered MythTV will switch to that channel immediately without requiring you to hit the select button.
Avoid conflicts between live TV and scheduled shows
(checkbox)
Unchecked If enabled, live TV will choose a tuner card that is less likely to have scheduled recordings rather than the best card available.
Allow live TV to move scheduled shows
(checkbox)
Unchecked If enabled, scheduled recordings will be moved to the other cards (where possible), so that live TV will not be interrupted.

General (AutoExpire)

General (AutoExpire)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Auto Expire Method Oldest Show First Method used to determine which recorded shows to delete first. LiveTV recordings will always expire before normal recordings. Possible values:
  • Lowest Priority First
  • Weighted Time/Priority Combination
  • Oldest Show First
Auto-Expire Default
(checkbox)
Checked When enabled, any new recording schedules will be marked as eligible for Auto-Expiration. Existing schedules will keep their current value.
Re-record Watched
(checkbox)
Checked If set, programs that have been marked as watched and are auto-expired will be re-recorded if they are shown again.
Watched before UNwatched
(checkbox)
Unchecked If set, programs that have been marked as watched will be expired before programs that have not been watched.
LiveTV Max Age 1 Auto-Expire will force expiration of LiveTV recordings when they are this many days old. LiveTV recordings may also be expired early if necessary to free up disk space.
Priority Weight 3 The number of days bonus a program gets for each priority point. This is only used when the Weighted Time/Priority Auto-Expire Method is selected.
Extra Disk Space 1 Extra disk space (in Gigabytes) that you want to keep free on the recording file systems beyond what MythTV requires.
Auto Expire Instead of Delete Recording
(checkbox)
Unchecked Instead of deleting a recording, move recording to the "Deleted" recgroup and turn on autoexpire. (The following items are only displayed if this box is checked.)
Expire in deleted order
(checkbox)
Unchecked Expire Deleted recordings in the order which they were originally deleted.
Deleted Max Age 0 When set to a number greater than zero, AutoExpire will force expiration of Deleted recordings when they are this many days old.

General (Jobs)

General (Jobs)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Commercial Flagging Method All Available Methods This determines the method used by MythTV to detect when commercials start and end. Possible values are:
  • All Available Methods
  • Blank Frame Detection
  • Blank Frame + Scene Change Detection
  • Scene Change Detection
  • Logo Detection
  • Experimental: Blank Frame + Logo Detection
  • Pre & Post Roll: Blank Frame + Scene Change
Strict Commercial Detection
(checkbox)
Checked Enable stricter Commercial Detection code. Disable if some commercials are not being detected.
Default Transcoder Autodetect This is the default value used for the transcoder setting when a new scheduled recording is created. Possible values are:
  • Autodetect
  • High Quality
  • Medium Quality
  • Low Quality
Deferral days for Auto-Transcode jobs 0 If non-zero, Auto-Transcode jobs will be scheduled to run this many days after a recording completes instead of immediately afterwards.
Run commercial flagger
(checkbox)
Checked This is the default value used for the Auto-Commercial Flagging setting when a new scheduled recording is created.
Run transcoder
(checkbox)
Unchecked This is the default value used for the Auto-Transcode setting when a new scheduled recording is created.
Run User Job #1
(checkbox)
Unchecked This is the default value used for the 'Run User Job#1' setting when a new scheduled recording is created.
Run User Job #2
(checkbox)
Unchecked This is the default value used for the 'Run User Job#2' setting when a new scheduled recording is created.
Run User Job #3
(checkbox)
Unchecked This is the default value used for the 'Run User Job#3' setting when a new scheduled recording is created.
Run User Job #4
(checkbox)
Unchecked This is the default value used for the 'Run User Job#4' setting when a new scheduled recording is created.

General (Advanced)

General (Advanced)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Time to record before start of show (in seconds) 0 This global setting allows the recorder to start before the scheduled start time. It does not affect the scheduler. It is ignored when two shows have been scheduled without enough time in between.
Time to record after end of show (in seconds) 0 This global setting allows the recorder to record beyond the scheduled end time. It does not affect the scheduler. It is ignored when two shows have been scheduled without enough time in between.
Category of shows to be extended (blank) For a special category (e.g. "Sports event"), request that shows be autoextended. Only works if a show's category can be determined.
Record past end of show (in minutes) 30 For the specified category, an attempt will be made to extend the recording by the specified time. It is ignored when two shows have been scheduled without enough time in between.

General (Channel Groups)

General (Channel Groups)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Remember last channel group
(checkbox)
Unchecked If enabled, the EPG will initially display only the channels from the last channel group selected. Pressing "4" will toggle channel group.
Default channel group All Channels Default channel group to be shown in the EPG. Pressing GUIDE key will toggle channel group. Possible values are:
  • All Channels
  • Favorites
Browse/Change channels from Channel Group
(checkbox)
Unchecked If enabled, LiveTV will browse or change channels from the selected channel group. "All Channels" channel group may be selected to browse all channels.

Program Guide

Program Guide 1/2

Program Guide 1/2
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Display Genre Colors
(checkox)
Checked Colorize program guide using genre colors. (Not available for all grabbers.)
Display the channel icons
(checkbox)
Checked Display the icons/logos for the channels in the guide. See section 9.5 of the Installation Guide for how to grab icons.
Show the program guide when starting Live TV
(checkbox)
Unchecked This starts the program guide immediately upon starting to watch Live TV.

Program Guide 2/2

Program Guide 2/2
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
What to call 'unknown' programs Unknown (none)
What category to give 'unknown' programs Unknown (none)
Guide starts at channel 3 The program guide starts on this channel if it is started from outside of Live TV mode.
Record Threshold 16 Pressing Select on a show that is at least this many minutes into the future will schedule a recording.
Allow channel jumping in guide
(checkbox)
Unchecked If enabled, you will be able to press numbers and jump the selection to whatever channel you enter.

Playback

General Playback (1/8)

General Playback (1/8)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Enable realtime priority threads
(checkbox)
Checked When running mythfrontend with root privileges, some threads can be given enhanced priority. Disable this if mythfrontend freezes during video playback. Realtime requires special privileges - either running as root, suid binary, permissions from limits.conf, or the realtime kernel module. (suid binary seems broken in 0.20). See the realtime thread information in the HOWTO for more details.
Extra audio buffering
(checkbox)
Checked Enable this setting if MythTV is playing "crackly" audio and you are using hardware encoding. This setting affects digital tuners (QAM/DVB/ATSC) and hardware encoders. It will have no effect on MPEG-4 or RTjpeg video. MythTV will keep extra audio data in its internal buffers to work around this bug.
Jump to Program OSD
(checkbox)
Checked Set the choice between viewing the current recording group in the OSD, or showing the "Watch Recording" screen when "Jump to Program" is activated. If set, the recordings are shown in the OSD.
Clear bookmark on playback
(checkbox)
Checked Automatically clear the bookmark on a recording when the recording is played back. If disabled, you can mark the beginning with rewind then save position.
Alternate clear and save bookmark
(checkbox)
Checked During playback the Select key (Enter or Space) will alternate between "Bookmark Saved" and "Bookmark Cleared". If disabled, the Select key will save the current position for each keypress.
Automatically mark a recording
(checkbox)
Unchecked If set, when you exit near the end of a recording it will be marked as watched. The automatic detection is not foolproof, so do not enable this setting if you don't want an unwatched recording to be marked for expiration.
Continue Playback When Embedded
(checkbox)
Unchecked This option continues TV playback when the TV window is embedded in the upcoming program list or recorded list. The default is to pause the recorded show when embedded.
Live TV idle timeout 0 Exit LiveTV automatically if left idle for the specified number of minutes. 0 disables the timeout.
Always stream recordings from the backend
(checkbox)
Unchecked Enable this setting if you want MythTV to always stream files from a remote backend instead of directly reading a recording file if it is accessible locally.
Enable OpenGL vertical sync for timing
(checkbox)
Unchecked If it is supported by your hardware/drivers, MythTV will use OpenGL vertical syncing for video timing, reducing frame jitter.
Enable picture controls
(checkbox)
Unchecked If enabled, MythTV attempts to initialize picture controls (brightness, contrast, etc.) that are applied during playback.

General Playback (2/8)

General Playback (2/8)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Vertical scaling 0 Adjust this if the image does not fill your screen vertically. Range -100% to 100%.
Scan displacement (y) 0 Adjust this to move the image vertically.
Horizontal scaling 0 Adjust this if the image does not fill your screen horizontally. Range -100% to 100%.
Scan displacement (x) 0 Adjust this to move the image horizontally.
Video Aspect Override Off When enabled, these will override the aspect ratio specified by any broadcaster for all video streams Possible values are:
  • Off
  • 4:3
  • 16:9
  • 14:9
  • 2.35:1
Zoom Auto Detect (Default ) When enabled, these will apply a predefined zoom to all video playback in MythTV. Possible values are:
  • Off
  • Half
  • Full
  • H.Stretch
  • V.Stretch
  • Auto Detect (Default C)
  • Auto Detect (Default Horizontal)
Letterboxing Color Black By default MythTV uses black letterboxing to match broadcaster letterboxing, but those with plasma screens may prefer gray to minimize burn-in. Currently only works with XVideo video cards. Possible values are:
  • Black
  • Gray
PIP Video Location Top Left Location of PIP Video Window PIP=Picture In Picture

Possible values are:

  • Top Left
  • Bottom Left
  • Top Right
  • Bottom Right
Action on playback exit Just exit If set to prompt, a menu will be displayed when you exit playback mode. The options available will allow you to save your position, delete the recording, or continue watching. Possible values are:
  • Just exit
  • Save position and exit
  • Always prompt
Prompt at end of recording
(checkbox)
Unchecked If set, a menu will be displayed allowing you to delete the recording when it has finished playing.

Playback Profiles (3/8)

Playback Profiles (3/8)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Current Video Playback Profile CPU+ (none) Selection of any of the possible profiles, will display a list of the rules associated with that profile.

Possible values are:

  • CPU+
  • CPU++
  • CPU--
  • High Quality
  • Normal
  • Slim
  • VDPAU High Quality
  • VDPAU Normal
  • VDPAU Slim
Add New Add a new profile to the list.
Delete Delete the current profile from the list
Add New Entry Create a new rule for the current profile.


View Recordings (4/8)

View Recordings (4/8)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Episode sort orderings Sort all sub-titles/multi-titles Descending Selects how to sort show episodes. Sub-titles refers to the episodes listed under a specific show title. Multi-title refers to sections (e.g. "All Programs") which list multiple titles. Possible values are:
  • Sort all sub-titles/multi-titles Descending
  • Sort sub-titles Descending, multi-titles Ascending
  • Sort sub-titles Ascending, multi-titles Descending
  • Sort all sub-titles/multi-titles Ascending
Sort Episodes Record date Selects how to sort a shows episodes.
  • Record date
  • Original Air date
  • Program ID
Generate preview image remotely
(checkbox)
Unchecked If you have a very slow frontend you can enable this to always have a backend server generate preview images.
Time offset for thumbnail preview images 64 MythTV will use this offset to make a thumbnail image this many seconds from the beginning of the recording, unless this offset happens to be between cutpoints or inside a flagged advertisement.
Display live preview of recordings
(checkbox)
Checked When enabled, a preview of the recording will play in a small window on the "Watch a Recording" menu.
Use HW Acceleration for live recording preview Unchecked Use HW acceleration for the live recording preview. Video renderer used is determined by the CPU profiles. Disable if playback is sluggish or causes high CPU
Start in group list Checked If enables, the focus will start on the group list, otherwise the focus will default to the recordings.

Recording Groups (5/8)

Recording Groups(5/8)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Password required to view all recordings (empty) If given, a password must be entered to view the complete list of all recordings.
Default group filter to apply All Programs Default group filter to apply on the View Recordings screen. Possible values are:
  • All Programs
  • Default
  • House/garden
Always prompt for initial group filter
(checkbox)
Unchecked Always prompt the user for the initial filter to apply when entering the Watch Recordings screen.
Save current goup filter when changed
(checkbox)
Checked Remember the last selected filter instead of displaying the default filter whenever you enter the playback screen.
Show filter name instead of "All Programs"
(checkbox)
Unchecked Use the name of the display filter currently applied in place of the term "All Programs" in the playback screen.

View Recordings (6/8)

View Recordings (6/8)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Sort Titles Alphabetically Sets the Title sorting order when the view is set to Titles only. Possible values are:
  • Alphabetically
  • By Recording Priority
Include the "Watch List" group
(checkbox)
Checked The "Watch List" is an abbreviated list of recordings sorted to highlight series and shows that need attention in order to keep up to date. The following menu items are only displayed when this box is checked.
Start from the Watch List view
(checkbox)
Unchecked If set, the "Watch List" will be the initial view each time you enter the Watch Recordings screen.
Exclude recordings not set for Auto-Expire
(checkbox)
Unchecked Set this if you turn off auto-expire only for recordings that you've seen and intend to keep. This option will exclude these recordings from the "Watch List".
Maximum days counted in the score 60 The "Watch List" scores are based on 1 point equals one day since recording. This option limits the maximum score due to age and affect other weighting factors.
Days to exclude weekly episodes after delete 2 When an episode is deleted or marked as watched, other episodes of the series are excluded from the "Watch List" for this interval of time. Daily shows also have a smaller interval based exclude time.

Seeking (7/8)

Seeking (7/8)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Smart Fast Forwarding
(checkbox)
Unchecked If enabled, then immediately after rewinding, only skip forward the same amount as skipping backwards.
Fast forward/rewind reposition amount 100 When exiting sticky keys fast forward/rewind mode, reposition before resuming normal playback. This compensates for the reaction time between seeing where to resume playback and actually exiting seeking.
Reverse direction in fast forward/rewind
(checkbox)
Checked If enabled, pressing the sticky rewind key in fast forward mode switches to rewind mode and vice versa. If disabled, it will decrease the current speed or switch to play mode if the speed can't be decreased further.
Seek to exact frame
(checkbox)
Unchecked If enabled, seeking is frame exact, but slower.

Commercial Skip (8/8)

Commercial Skip (8/8)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Automatically Skip Commercials Off Automatically skip commercial breaks that have been flagged during Automatic Commercial Flagging or by the mythcommflag program, or just notify that a commercial has been detected. Possible values:
  • Off
  • Notify,but do not skip
  • Automatically skip
Commercial Skip Auto-Rewind Amount 0 If set, MythTV will automatically rewind this many seconds after performing a commercial skip
Commercial Skip Notify Amount 0 If set, MythTV will act like a commercial begins this many seconds early. This can be useful when commercial notification is used in place of automatic skipping.
Maximum commercial skip (in seconds) 3600 MythTV will discourage long manual commercial skips. Skips which are longer than this will require the user to hit the SKIP key twice. Automatic commercial skipping is not affected by this setting.
Merge short commercial breaks (in seconds) 0 Treat consecutive commercial breaks shorter than this as one break when skipping forward. Useful if you have to skip a few times during breaks. Applies to automatic skipping as well. Set to 0 to disable.
Skip blank frames after commercials
(checkbox)
Checked When using Blank Frame Detection and Auto-Flagging, include blank frames following commercial breaks as part of the commercial break.

Playback OSD

On-screen display

On-screen display
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments

OSD Menu Editor

OSD Menu Editor
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments


Playback Groups

Select the appropriate playback group (usually Default) to see the following menu.

Playback Groups
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Title match (regex) (blank) Automatically set new recording rules to use this group if the title matches this regular expression. For example, "(News¦CNN)" would match any title in which "News" or "CNN" appears.
Skip ahead (seconds) 30 How many seconds to skip forward on a fast forward. Press the "Right" key to cause this action.
Skip back (seconds) 5 How many seconds to skip backward on a rewind. Press the "Left" key to cause this action.
Jump amount (in minutes) (default) How many minutes to jump forward or backward when the jump keys are pressed. The "default" value is usually 10 minutes. Press "Down" to jump forward, and "Up" to jump backward.
Time stretch (speed x 100) 100 Initial playback speed with adjusted audio. Use 100 for normal speed, 50 for half speed and 200 for double speed.

Channel Groups

Channel Groups
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments


Recording Profiles

Recording Profiles
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments


Recording Priorities

Set Recording Priorities
Scheduler Options

Scheduler Options
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments

Set Channel Recording Priorities

Channel Recording Priorities
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments


Custom Priority Rules

Custom Priority Rules
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments


Media Settings

Music Settings

Videos Settings

General Settings

General Settings (1/2)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Directory that holds videos: This directory must exist, and the user running MythVideo only needs to have read permission to this directory. Several directories may be entered as a colon separated list.
Directory that holds movie posters: This directory must exist, and the user running MythVideo needs to have read/write permission to this directory.


Player Settings
Player Settings
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Default Player: Internal This is the command that is used for any file that the extension is not specifically defined. You may also enter the name of one of the playback plugins such as 'Internal'. Possible values:
  • mplayer -fs -zoom -quiet -vo xv %s
File Types
File Types
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments

DVD Settings

Images Settings

Info Center Settings

Weather Settings

News Settings

Web Settings

Phone Settings

System Event Handlers

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