Setup General

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Backend

MythTV Detailed Backend Configuration v. 0.18.1. (Incomplete)


MythTV Backend

The backend process (mythbackend) is the portion of the system that handles the Video capture cards as well as Scheduling Recordings on those cards, Commercial Flagging, and transcoding. The backend process interacts with the Database primarily.

As with the MythFrontend, there can be multiple backends. One backend process is designated as the master backend. This is usually the first backend installed on a system. This backend is responsible for coordinating the activities of the other backends known as slaves. This is especially true for scheduling as the master backend will determine the best distribution of programs across all available tuners. Each backend can have any number of tuners, including zero. As of 0.16, Commercial Flagging can be distributed across different backends, thereby spreading the load of that process.

There is no requirement for direct user interaction with the backend. The backend can use local HardWare/File Storage or have it mounted from another system. If remotely mounted, network performance should be considered as there will be considerable traffic on the network as recordings are stored and retreived by the backend process.

Communications Protocol

The backend and frontend communicate using their own Myth Protocol. The developer of Win Myth, a windows frontend to MythTV for playing recordings on Windows, has documented his workings on the procotol here. Work on defining the Myth Protocol is also be performed on this Wiki.


Backend Configuration

The MythTV Backend configuration has two main objectives

  • Tell MythTV what TV Capture/Tuner cards to use
  • Populate the Myth Database with information about channels and tuning information

There are additional items that can be configured, but without successfully achieving the above two steps you will not be able to get Live TV.


Running mythtv-setup

Configure the Myth backend like so

> mythtv-setup

The system will now prompt to see if you want to keep the current TV card settings as well as the channel information.

Once configuration is done you can test to see if the mythbackend process is running correctly by starting it in a Terminal window:

> mythbackend

Watch out for any error messages.

Backend Reference

Host Address Backend Setup

Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
IP address for mythtv 127.0.0.1 Enter the IP address of this machine. Use an externally accessible address (ie, not 127.0.0.1) if you are going to be running a frontend on a different machine than this one. This is the meat of the subject
Port the server runs on 6543 Unless you’ve got a good reason to, don’t change this. This is the meat of the subject
Port the server shows status on 6544 Port which the server will listen to for HTTP requests. Currently, it shows a little status information. This is the meat of the subject
Master Server IP address 127.0.0.1 The IP address of the master backend server. All frontend and non-master backend machines will connect to this server. If you only have one backend, this should be the same IP address as above. This is the meat of the subject
Port the master server runs on 6543 Port which the server will listen to for HTTP requests. Currently, it shows a little status information. This is the meat of the subject


Host-specific Backend Setup

Directory to hold recordings:

Default Setting /mnt/store/
On Page Description All recordings get stored in this directory.
Detailed Description and Comments Be sure this directory exists and that proper permissions are set for the mythtv user. If the directory does not exist or is inaccessible, the backend will not start.


Directory to hold the Live-TV buffers:

Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFAULT HERE
On Page Description All Live-TV buffers will get stored in this directory. These buffers are used to allow you to pause, fast forward and rewind through live TV.
Detailed Description and Comments Be sure this directory exists and that proper permissions are set for the mythtv user. If the directory does not exist or is inaccessible, the backend will not start.


Live TV Buffer (GB):

Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFAULT HERE
On Page Description How large the live TV buffer is allowed to grow.
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


Minimum free Live TV Buffer:

Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFAULT HERE
On Page Description How full the live TV buffer is allowed to grow before forcing an unpause.
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


Save original files after transcoding:

Default Setting Not checked
On Page Description When set and the transcoder is active, the original nuv files will be renamed to nuv.old once the transcoding is complete.
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


Global Backend Setup

TV format:

Default Setting NTSC
On Page Description The standard to use for viewing TV.
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


VBI format:

Default Setting None
On Page Description VBI stands for Vertical Blanking Interrupt. VBI is used to carry Teletext and Closed Captioning data.
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


Channel frequency table:

Default Setting us-cable
On Page Description Select the appropriate frequency table for your system. If you have an antenna, use a “-bcast” frequency.
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


Time offset for XMLTV listings:

Default Setting None
On Page Description If your local timezone does not match the timezone returned by XMLTV, use this setting to have mythfilldatabase adjust the program start and end times. None disables this feature, Auto automatically detects your local timezone.
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


Master Backend Override:

Default Setting Checked
On Page Description If enabled, the master backend will stream and delete files if it finds them in the video directory. Useful if you are using a central storage location, like a NFS share, and your slave backend isn’t running.
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


Follow Symbolic links when deleting files:

Default Setting Not checked
On Page Description This will cause Myth to follow symlinks when recordings and related files are deleted, instead of deleting the symlink and leaving the actual file.
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


Shutdown/Wakeup Options

Block shutdown before client connected:

Default Setting Checked
On Page Description If set, the automatic shutdown routine will be disabled until a client connects.
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


Idle timeout (secs):

Default Setting 0
On Page Description The amount of time the master backend idles before it shuts down all backends. Set to 0 to disable auto shutdown.
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


Max. wait for recording (min):

Default Setting 15
On Page Description The amount of time the master backend waits for a recording. If it's idle but a recording starts within this time period, the backends won't shut down.
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


Startup before rec. (secs):

Default Setting 120
On Page Description The amount of time the master backend will be woken up before a recording starts.
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


Wakeup time format:

Default Setting hh:mm yyyy-MM-dd
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


Set wakeuptime command

Default Setting
On Page Description The command used to set the time (passed as $time) to wake up the masterbackend
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


Server halt command:

Default Setting sudo /sbin/halt -p
On Page Description The command used to halt the backends.
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


Pre Shutdown check-command:

Default Setting
On Page Description A command executed before the backend would shutdown. The return value determines if the backend can shutdown. 0 - yes, 1 - restart idling, 2 - reset the backend to wait for a frontend.
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject


WakeOnLan settings

MasterBackend

Reconnect wait time (secs):

Count of reconnect tries:

Wake Command

Wake command for slaves:


Job Queue (Host-Specific)

Maximum simultaneous jobs on this backend:

Run Jobs only on original recording host

Job Queue Check frequency (in seconds)

CPU Usage

Allow Commercial Detection jobs

Allow User Job #1 jobs

Allow User Job #2 jobs

Allow User Job #3 jobs

Allow User Job #4 jobs


Job Queue (Job Commands)

User Job #1 Description:

User Job #1 Command:

User Job #2 Description:

User Job #2 Command:

User Job #3 Description:

User Job #3 Command:

User Job #4 Description:

User Job #4 Command: