Configuring Frontend

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The frontend process is responsible for anything that requires interaction such 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.

Music Tools

Video Manager

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
Use Wake-on-LAN to Wake Database Unchecked If checked, the frontend will use Wake-On-LAN parameters to reconnect to the database server (Mythbackend) Wake-On-LAN 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).

Audio

Audio
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Audio output device /dev/dsp 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:

Passthrough Output Device: Default Audio output device to use for AC3 and DTS passthrough. Default is the same as Audio output device. This value is currently only used with ALSA sound output. Change this if you want to choose a different device to output the passthrough audio signal.
Enable AC3 to SPDIF passthrough Unchecked Enable sending AC3 audio directly to your sound card's SPDIF output on sources which contain AC3 soundtracks (usually digital tv). Requires that the audio output device be set to something suitable. AC3 is Dolby Digital surround(wikipedia:AC3). You will need to connect your Myth box to your surround receiver via an optical or coaxial connector. Raw AC3 Stream is passed through to your receiver which will decode the audio stream. This is the preferred method for best audio quality, and also takes the audio processing load from your machine.

For more information on setting up digital audio, see the Configuring Digital Sound page.

Enable DTS to SPDIF passthrough Unchecked Enable sending DTS audio directly to your sound card's SPDIF output on sources which contain AC3 soundtracks (usually DVDs). Requires that the audio output device be set to something suitable. For more information on setting up digital audio, see the Configuring Digital Sound page.
Aggressive sound card buffering Off If enabled, MythTV will pretend to have a smaller sound card buffer than is really present. This may speed up seeking, but can also cause playback problems. Where users have reported Audio stutter problems, enabling this setting seems to help.
Use Internal Volume Controls On MythTV can control the PCM and master mixer volume. If you prefer to use an external mixer program, then 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 reciever.
Select mixer device /dev/mixer Blank 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 default. Unlike the Audio output device setting, here you don't need the ALSA: prefix.

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 soundcard. 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 4)

General (page 4)
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.
Halt Command halt If you have configured an exit key using the System Shutdown option, you will be given the opportunity to exit MythTV or halt the system completely. Another possibility for this field is "poweroff". This is the meat of the subject
Keypress Command (none) External application or script to run when a keypress is received by LIRC. This is the meat of the subject
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.
Enable Network Remote Control Interface Unchecked This enables support for controlling mythfrontend over the network. This is the meat of the subject
Network Remote Control Port 6546 This specifies what port the Network Remote Control interface will listen on for new connections. This is the meat of the subject

General (page 5)

General (page 5)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Require setup PIN Off 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 (none) 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 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.
Monitor CD/DVD Off 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.
Enable X-box Hardware Disabled This enables support for Xbox specific hardware. Requires a frontend restart for changes to take effect. Enabling this option will add another button to the settings menu allowing configuration of your Xbox LED. You will need the Blink program from the xbox-linux project, which is installed as /bin/led on GentooX and /usr/bin/blink on Xebian. (Type which blink to see if the program is available.) If you do not have blink, you may obtain it from the Xbox-Linux project site at http://xbox-linux.sf.net/.

Once you have installed blink you will need to set permissions. Blink needs write permission to the i2c device to function properly. There are three methods to accomplish this. First, you could run mythfrontend as root which is the simplest method, but could potentially be a security risk. Next, you may make the blink binary setuid root, which allows non-privileged users to run a program with root capability. This is done by typing the command:

   $ su
   # chmod u+s /path/to/blink

If you select GentooX as the distribution "led" will be used as the blink binary name, otherwise "blink" is used. Colors should be self explanatory. The update interval determines how often the frontend should poll the backend to determine if the status has changed.

Myth Database Logging

Myth Database Logging
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Log MythTV events to database
(checkbox)
Unchecked If enabled, MythTV modules will send event details to the database , where they can be viewed with MythLog or periodically emailed to the administrator. Logs can also be viewed in the MythTV System Status page.
Log Print Threshold All Messages This controls what messages will be printed out as well as being logged to the database.
Automatic Log Cleaning Enabled
(checkbox)
Unchecked This enables the periodic cleanup of the events stored in the Myth database (see "Log MythTV events to database"). Deletes logs that have been around for longer than a specified number of days.
Log Cleanup Frequency (days) 14 The number of days between log cleanup runs.
Number of days to keep acknowledged log entries 14 The number of days before a log entry that has been acknowledged will be deleted by the log cleanup process.
Number of days to keep unacknowledged log entries 30 The number of days before a log entry that has NOT been acknowledged will be deleted by the log cleanup process.
Maximimum Number of Entries per Module 100 If there are more than this number of entries for a module, the oldest log entries will be deleted to reduce the count to this number. Set to 0 to disable.

Mythfilldatabase

Mythfilldatabase
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Automatically run mythfilldatabase
(checkbox)
Checked This enables the automatic execution of mythfilldatabase. mythfilldatabase will populate the database with channel information after you do your channel scan in mythtv-setup. In the case of EIT based channel information this is not required.
mythfilldatabase Path mythfilldatabase Path (including executable) of the mythfilldatabase program. Only visible if "Automatically run mythfilldatabase" is checked.
mythfilldatabase Arguments (none) Any arguments you want passed to the mythfilldatabase program. Only visible if "Automatically run mythfilldatabase" is checked.
mythfilldatabase Log Path (none) Path to use for logging output from the mythfilldatabase program. Leave blank to disable logging. Only visible if "Automatically run mythfilldatabase" is checked.
mythfilldatabase Run Frequency (days) 1 The number of days between mythfilldatabase runs. Only visible if "Automatically run mythfilldatabase" is checked.
mythfilldatabase Execution Start 2 This setting and the following one define a time period when the mythfilldatabase process is allowed to run. For example, setting Start to 11 and End to 13 woud mean that the process would only run between 11 AM and 1 PM. Only visible if "Automatically run mythfilldatabase" is checked.
mythfilldatabase Execution End 5 This setting and the preceding one define a time period when the mythfilldatabase process is allowed to run. For example, setting Start to 11 and End to 13 woud mean that the process would only run between 11 AM and 1 PM. Only visible if "Automatically run mythfilldatabase" is checked.
Run mythfilldatabase at time suggested by the grabber. Checked This setting allows a DataDirect guide data provider to specify the next download time in order to distribute load on their servers. This setting allows DataDirect to tell MythTV when it should update its guide data so that their servers aren't flooded by multiple requests at the same time.

Appearance

Theme

Theme
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Theme Blue (none) You can find more about themes on this page: Category:Themes
Paint Engine Qt This selects what Myth uses to draw. If you have decent hardware, select OpenGL. Changing this requires a restart. 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.
Qt style Desktop Style At startup, MythTV will change the QT widget style to this setting. If "Desktop Style" is selected, MythTV will use the existing desktop setting. You can see many of the available styles here.
Font size default default: TV, small: monitor, big:
Use random theme
(Checkbox)
Unchecked Use a random theme each time MythTV is started.
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 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)
X offset 0 The horizontal offset the GUI will be displayed at. May only work if run in a window. see Gui width(px)
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 Myth
(checkbox)
Checked Toggles mouse cursor visibility. Most of the Myth GUI does not respond to mouse clicks, this is only to avoid "losing" your mouse cursor.
Run the frontend in a window
(checkbox)
Unchecked Toggle between windowed and borderless operation.


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.
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 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.
LCD Displays Time
(checkbox)
Checked Display current time on idle LCD display. Need to restart mythfrontend to (de)activate it.
LCD Displays Menus
(checkbox)
Checked Display selected menu on LCD display. Need to restart mythfrontend to (de)activate it.
LCD Displays Music Artist and Title
(checkbox)
Checked Display playing artist and song title in MythMusic. Need to restart mythfrontend to (de)activate it.
LCD Displays Channel Information
(checkbox)
Checked Display tuned channel information. Need to restart mythfrontend to (de)activate it.
LCD Displays Volume Information
(checkbox)
Checked Display volume level information. Need to restart mythfrontend to (de)activate it.
LCD Displays Generic Information
(checkbox)
Checked Display generic information. Need to restart mythfrontend to (de)activate it.
LCD Backlight Always On
(checkbox)
Checked Turn on backlight permanently. Need to restart mythfrontend to (de)activate it.
Menu Pop-up Time 5 The time (in seconds) that the menu will remain visible after navigation.

TV Settings

General

General

General
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.
Channel Ordering channel number (numeric) Possible values are:
  • channel number (numeric)
  • channel number (alpha)
  • database order
  • channel 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.

General (page 2)

General (page 2)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
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
Time limit for ASC signal lock (msec) 5000 MythTV can check the signal strength when you tune into a HDTV or other over-the-air digital signal. This value is the number of milliseconds to allow before MythTV gives up trying to get an acceptable signal.
ATSC signal threshold 65 Threshold for a signal to be considered acceptable. If you set this too low, MythTV may crash, and if you set it too high, you may not be able to tune a channel on which reception would be acceptable.
HD Ringbuffer size (KB) 9400 The HD device ringbuffer allows the backend to weather moments of stress. The larger the ringbuffer, the longer the moments of stress can be. However, setting the size too large can cause swapping, which is detrimental.

Global Auto Expire Settings

Global Auto Expire Settings
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Auto Expire Free Disk Space Threshold (in Gigabytes) 0 Trigger AutoExpire when available disk space is below this value. Disable AutoExpire by setting to 0.
New Recording Free Disk Space Threshold (in Megabytes) 300 MythTV will stop scheduling new recordings on a backend when its free disk space falls below this value.
Auto Expire Frequency (in minutes) 10 How often the AutoExpire checks for free disk space.
Auto Expire Method Oldest Show First Method used to determine which recorded shows to AutoExpire first. Possible values:
  • Oldest Show First
  • Lowest Priority First
Auto-Expire Default
(checkbox)
Unchecked When enabled, any newly recorded programs will be marked as eligible for Auto-Expiration. Existing recordings will keep their current value.
Re-record programs which have been automatically expired
(checkbox)
Unchecked If set, programs that are automatically deleted (expired) will be allowed to re-record if they are shown again.

Job Queue

Job Queue
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Default Auto Commercial Flagging setting
(checkbox)
checked This is the default value used for the Auto-Commercial Flagging setting when a new scheduled recording is created.
Commercial Skip Method Blank Frame Detection (default) This determines the method used by MythTV to detect when commercials start and end. You must have 'Automatically Flag Commercials' enabled to use anything other than 'Blank Frame'. Possible values are:
  • Blank Frame Detection (default)
  • Blank Frame + Scene Change Detection
  • Scene Change Detection
  • Logo Detection
  • All
Strict Commercial Detection
(checkbox)
checked Enable stricter Commercial Detection code. Disable if some commercials are not being detected.
Default 'Run User Job #1' setting
(checkbox)
unchecked This is the default value used for the 'Run User Job#1' setting when a new scheduled recording is created.
Default 'Run User Job #2' setting
(checkbox)
unchecked This is the default value used for the 'Run User Job#2' setting when a new scheduled recording is created.
Default 'Run User Job #3' setting
(checkbox)
unchecked This is the default value used for the 'Run User Job#3' setting when a new scheduled recording is created.
Default 'Run User Job #4' setting
(checkbox)
unchecked This is the default value used for the 'Run User Job#4' setting when a new scheduled recording is created.

Program Guide

Program Guide 1/2

Program Guide 1/2
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Guide Shading Method Alpha-Transparent(CPU Usage - High) (none) Possible Values:
  • Alpha-Transparent(CPU Usage - High)
  • Blender-Transparent(CPU Usage - Middle)
  • Eco - Transparent(CPU Usage - Low)
  • Solid(CPU Usage - Middle)
Display Genre Colors
(checkox)
Checked Colorize program guide using genre colors. (Not available for all grabbers.)
Display Genre Text
(checkbox)
Checked (Not available for all grabbers.)
Floating Program Guide Selector
(checkbox)
Checked If enabled, the program guide's selector will be free to move throughout the guide, otherwise it will stay in the center of the guide at all times.
Display the channel icon
(checkbox)
Checked (none)
Only display 'favorite' channels
(checkbox)
Unchecked If enabled, the EPG will initially display only the channels marked as favorites. Pressing "4" will toggle between displaying favorites and all channels.
Show the program guide when starting Live TV
(checkbox)
Unchecked This starts the program guide immediately upon starting to watch Live TV.
Channels to Display 5 (none) The number of rows (channels) displayed in the Program Guide.
Time Blocks (30 Mins) to Display 4 (none) The number of columns (time blocks) to display in the Program Guide.

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.
Use select to change the channel in the program guide
(checkbox)
Unchecked If enabled, the Select key will change the channel while using the program guide during live TV. If disabled, the select key will bring up the recording options screen. Note: The EPG hotkey that can be assigned in the keybindings part of MythWeb always switches to the non-Live TV program guide. Consequently, this setting will have no effect on the program guide if a hotkey is used to bring up the program guide, regardless of whether or not you switch to the guide from the LiveTV mode.
Record Threshold 16 If the option to use Select to change the channel is on, pressing Select on a show that is at least this many minutes in 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

General Playback
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Deinterlace Playback
(checkbox)
Unchecked Make the video look normal on a progressive display (i.e. monitor) Television sets have a frame rate of about 30 frames per second (for NTSC). Many people notice flicker at 30fps and prolonged viewing can cause eye strain. So, in order to double the perceived framerate while using the same bandwidth, televisions draw all of the even lines in one pass and the odd lines in the next pass, alternating each time. This is called interlacing.

Computer monitors, on the otherhand just draw every line each pass. This is referred to as progressive.

So, in order to make your interlaced video (meant for a TV) look good on a (progressive) monitor, you need to deinterlace the video.

For some examples of the effects of not deinterlacing and more information, look here.

Custom Filters (empty) Advanced Filter configuration,

[[<filter>=<options>,]...]

There are details on the Filter_Instructions page.
Use libmeg2 for decoding
(checkbox)
Unchecked If enabled, libmpeg2 will be used instead of ffmpeg for decoding MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video frames. This can be faster. Not available when XvMC is used.
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.
Use video as timebase
(checkbox)
Unchecked Use the video as the timebase and warp the audio to keep it in sync. (Experimental)
Extra audio buffering Checked Enable this setting if MythTV is playing "crackly" audio and you are using hardware encoding. This setting 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.
Aspect Override Off This will override any aspect ratio in the recorded stream, the same as pressing the W key during playback. Fill will "fill" the screen with image clipping as required. Fill is useful when using 4:3 interlaced TVs for display. Possible values are:
  • Off
  • 4/3
  • 16/9
  • 4/3 Zoom
  • 16/9 Zoom
  • 16/9 Stretch
  • Fill
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

General Playback (part 2)

General Playback (part 2)
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
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 yo to delete te recordin when it has finished playing.
Clear Saved Position on playback
(checkbox)
checked Automatically clear saved position on a recording when the recording is played back. If disabled, you can mark the beginning with rewind then save position.
Alternate Clear Save Position
(checkbox)
checked During playback, the Select key (Enter or Space) will alternate between "Position Saved" and "Position Cleared". If disabled, the Select key will save the current position for each keypress.
Use Xv picture controls
(checkbox)
unchecked If enabled, Xv picture controls (brightness, contrast, etc.) are used during playback. These are independent of the Video4Linux controls used for recording. The Xv controls may not work properly on some systems, for example some newer Nvidia cards do not support XV picture controls. To see if your machine supports XV picture controls type 'avattr' and look for the variables named XV_BRIGHTNESS, XV_CONTRAST, XV_SATURATION, and XV_HUE. Your graphics card should support picture controls for any of those variables that exist. Unsupported variables will show -1 when attempting to change them.
Enable channel change buffer warnings
(checkbox)
unchecked If enabled, MythTV will warn you whenever you change the channel but are not caught up to live TV.
UDP Notify Port 6948 During playback, MythTV will listen for connections from the "mythtvosd" or "mythudprelay" programs on this port. See the README in contrib/mythnotify/ for additional information. This can be used to display various information (ex. Caller ID, email notification, etc.) on screen during playback. There's related information on the Setting_up_MythNotify page.

View Recordings

View Recordings
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
List Newest Recording First
(checkbox)
checked When enabled, the most recent recording will be listed first in the 'Watch Recordings' screen, otherwise the oldest recordin will be listed first.
Sort Episodes Record date Selects how to sort a shows episodes. Possible values are:
  • Record date
  • Original Air date
  • Program ID
Generate thumbnail preview of recordings
(checkbox)
unchecked If enabled, a static image of the recording will be displayed on the "Watch a Recording" menu.
Time offset for thumbnail preview images 64 MythTV will make a thumbnail image this many seconds from the beginning of the recording. Useful to skip over advertisements.
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.
Display CPU friendly preview of recordings
(checkbox)
unchecked When enabled, recording previews will play with reduced FPS to save CPU.
Start in Titlesection
(checkbox)
checked If enabled, the selector highlight will start on the Program titles window, otherwise the selector will default to the recordings
Show group summary
(checkbox)
unchecked While selecting a group, show a group summary instead of showing info about the first episode in that group.

View Recordings (Recording Groups)

View Recordings (Recording Groups)
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 Recording Group to display All Programs Default Recording Group to display on the View Recordings screen. Possible values are:
  • All Programs
  • Default
Save current Recording Group view when changed
(checkbox)
checked Remember the last selected Recording Group instead of playing the Default group whenever you enter the playback screen.
Use program categories as display groups
(checkbox)
unchecked Add the list of program categories to the list of Recording Groups used for display. Only programs in non-password protected groups will be listed.
Show group name instead of "All Programs"
(checkbox)
unchecked Use the name of the display group currently being shown in place of the term "All Programs" in the playback screen.

Hardware Decoding Settings

Hardware Decoding Settings
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Use the PVR-350's TV out/MPEG decoder
(checkbox)
unchecked MythTV can use the PVR-350's TV out and MPEG decoder for high quality playback. This requires that the ivtv-fb kernel module is also loaded and set up properly.
Video device for the PVR-350 MPEG decoder /dev/video16 (none) Only available if "Use the PVR-350's TV out/MPEG decoder" is checked
Program Guide Alpha 164 How much blend the program guide over the live TV image. Higher numbers mean more guide and less TV. Only available if "Use the PVR-350's TV out/MPEG decoder" is checked
TV audio through PVR-350 only
(checkbox)
unchecked Normally PVR-350 audio is looped into a soundcard, here you can indicate when that is not the case. MythTV cannot control TV volume when this option is checked. Only available if "Use the PVR-350's TV out/MPEG decoder" is checked

Seeking

Seeking
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Fast forward amount (in seconds) 30 How many seconds to skip forward on a fast forward.
Rewind amount (in seconds) 5 How many seconds to skip backward on a rewind.
Smart Fast Forwarding
(checkbox)
unchecked If enabled, then immediately after rewinding, only skip forward the same amount as skipping backwards.
Sticky keys
(checkbox)
unchecked If enabled, fast forward and rewind continue after the key is released. Pressing the key again increases the fast forward or rewind speed. The alternate fast forward and rewind keys always behave this way. Most standalone DVD players seem to act as though sticky keys were "on."
Reposition after fast forward/rewind
(checkbox)
checked When exiting sticky keys fast forward/rewind mode, reposition before resuming normal playback. This compensates for the reaction time between seeing where to resume playbakc and actually exiting seeking.
Reverse direction in fast forward/rewind
(checked)
checked If enabled, pressing the sticky rewind key in fast forward mode switched 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.
Jump amount (in minutes) 10 How many minutes to jump forward or backward when the jump keys are pressed.

Commercial Skip

Commercial Skip
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, Myth 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.
Skip blank frames after commercials
(checkbox)
checked When using Blank Frame Detection and Auto-Flagging, include blank framed following commercial breaks as part of the commercial break.
Skip Unflagged Commercials
(checkbox)
Unchecked Try to skip commercial breaks even if they have not been flagged. This does not always work well and can disrupt playback if commercial breaks aren't detected properly.

Overscan

Overscan
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments

On-screen display

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

Recording Profiles

See this link Recording Parameters

Recording Priorities

Media Settings

Music Settings

Videos Settings

DVD Settings

Images Settings

Info Center Settings

Weather Settings

News Settings

Web Settings

Phone Settings

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