Watch TV

Previous	Up	Next
User Manual:Detailed configuration Frontend	User Manual:Index	User Manual:Accessory Modules

Up	Next
User Manual:Daily Use	User Manual:Watch Recordings

When you select Watch TV from the front page, MythTV will automatically go to the default channel when you setup the mythbackend. You can also have it go directly to to programme guide.

Basic Usage

Changing channels

While watching Live TV you can change channels with . There is a pause of several seconds while MythTV buffers the new channel. People often find this pause disconcerting as they are typically coming from a normal TV where they are used to "Channel Surfing", though it's fairly common on digital cable TV service, as well. The way to overcome this is to put MythTV into Browse Mode, and this will become the default as of 0.19 for precisely this reason.

Browse Mode is enabled under

TV Settings->Playback->On Screen Display,

check the box "Always use browse mode when changing channels in LiveTV".

Press to browse the program information on the next/previous program with the OSD. Then when you see the program you want, press and MythTV will jump to that channel. While in Browse mode you can also use to see what shows are coming up next, by scrolling the program guide earlier and later in time.

You can also jump directly to a channel by pressing the number keys. Press 1 and it will jump to the first channel in your channel list, press 12 it will jump to the twelfth channel in your channel list etc. You can organise your channel list with the MythTV-Setup program.

Changing Volume

Press / to increase/decrease the volume.

Press to toggle the audio mute

The OSD will show the volume provided you have set MythTV to use its internal volume controls. It is possible to set MythTV to bypass its internal volume controls and send the audio directly to your soundcards SPDIF output. In this case you should program your remote's volume up and volume down keys to control the volume on your AV amplifier.

Changing Aspect Ratio

You can step through the different screen aspect ratios with the key.

4:3	Classic TV Aspect Ratio
16:9	True Anamorphic Widescreen
4:3 Zoom	Crop top and bottom to fill Wide Screen TV
16:9 Zoom	Crop sides to fill 4:3 TV
16:9 Stretch	Resize 4:3 picture to fit a Wide Screen TV

Live TV Capabilities

MythTV offers some of the most sought after features of modern Media Centres.

Pause Live TV

Pausing live TV is great when the phone rings during a show or your little ones need a comfort break during a movie.

By pressing on your remote the picture will freeze but MythTV will continue to record to the hard drive. The OSD will appear showing seconds behind the real-time broadcast.

Live TV is treated as a recording and it is saved in your media list. The live TV recording will auto expire when the hard drive nears being full.

While the picture stream is paused:

Press to move forwards / backwards by 1 frame

Press a second time to un-pause live TV, you will now be watching 'behind' live TV. This is sometimes referred to as Chase TV Playback for obvious reasons.

Chase TV Playback

With Chase TV Playback the system can be recording live tv while you are watching the same program behind realtime. It is somtimes referred to as Timeshifting TV.

Press to move forwards/backwards in the stream (default is 5 seconds)

Press to jump forward/backwards by the configured number of minutes (default is 10). This is great to skip quickly over commercials

If you are coming to MythTV from using a Video Recorder, you might want to enable the "sticky" keys option. This keeps the fast forward or rewind on even after you release the key. Subsequent presses of or will increase the speed of the rewind or playback. When you reach the point you want to watch, press to resume normal playback.

Time Stretch Playback

At the 0.17 release of MythTV the concept of timestretch playback was introduced. Though, it's really 'time-compression'. This allows the user to adjust the playback speed slightly, but keeps the audio at the same pitch. If you're recording a lot of shows, timestretch lets you get through them faster. So now you can watch a 1 hour show in 40 mins without feeling like you are listening to Alvin and the Chipmunks. You can use this feature to play the TV Stream in slow motion, nice for instant reviews of sports events.

Press to toggle the Time Stretch playback.

Press the to set the Time Stretch speed.

Electronic Program Guide (EPG)

The Electronic Program Guide will allow you to get more detailed information on what is being broadcast currently as well as scheduled programs that are coming up.

You can go directly to the Program Guide, by pressing

Press and the OSD will show information on what you are currently watching. The OSD will stay up for a few seconds and then fade out. You can set the duration in

TV settings->Playback Settings->OSD

Press and the On Screen Menu will show.

Use / to move up and down the menu. Use to Select.

Select the Program Guide and the Full EPG will show.

Use , to move around the EPG

Use to switch to full-screen Live TV on the channel you selected, or just press to go back to watching Live TV on your original channel.

The EPG also allows direct channel jumping by entering a channel number. By default, it is off. You can turn it on in the

TV -> Guide Settings.

When you press a number key MythTV gives you 2.5 seconds to enter additional digits, (These are displayed on screen as you press), after which it will jump to the closest channel it can find that matches the digits you have pressed.

Concurrent Channel Watching

If you have multiple tuner cards you can watch two channels at once using the Picture in Picture (PIP) facility. You can record one programme while you are watching another. Turn on the PIP via the Onscreen Menu by pressing the key while watching Live TV.

Press the key to switch between your various tuner cards.

Recording Live TV

While watching Live TV press the key, MythTV will start recording the show from the point that you started watching it until the show is finished, according to the Guide schedule. This might cause some rescheduling of later recordings.

The Tuner card being used to record from will be locked until the recording has finished or you explicitly cancel the recording. If you have multiple Tuner cards you can now change channels with the keys. MythTV will continue recording the current show and switch to the next available Tuner card. If there are no more available Tuner cards then the keys will just jump back and forth in the recording.

Press the key, and the OSD will show the position in the recording.

Use the keys to move backwards and forwards in the recording.

You can exit the watching recordings with the key.

If you try watching live TV and all the Tuner cards are busy recording, you will get the following screen.

Previous	Up	Next
User Manual:Detailed configuration Frontend	User Manual:Index	User_Manual:Accessory_Modules

Up	Next
User Manual:Daily Use	User Manual:Watch Recordings