Configuring Frontend

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Frontend

Here are the pages that give detailed descriptions of all the Frontend Configuration Options, technical descriptions and examples of best practice.--Mikec 16:46, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Here is a description of the MythTV Frontend Process MythFrontend

The frontend process (mythfrontend) is responsible for anything that requires interaction such Watching Recorded Programs or Watching Tv. It provides the GUI you use on your TV/Monitor as well as the LiRc, keyboard, or other input handling for Frontend Navigation. In addition, any MythTv Modules, or plugins, that are installed execute on the same machine that the user is interacting with. As such, the hardware requirements for a frontend are those necessary to support these features. Underpowered machines may not have enough processing power to decode recordings in software while the same machine could perform these functions if hardware decoding is available.

The MythTV architecture supports a theoretically unlimited number of frontend processes connecting to backends. A frontend process can run on the same machine as a backend in the instance of a combined machine, but is often found running on smaller, quieter, more stylish hardware since it the piece of equipment that usually sits within view of the user. When used on a separate machine from a backend, the frontend process connects over a network, either wired or wireless. It communicates with the backend to retreive the Electronic Program Guide and recorded content which is either streamed to the machine or directly accessed if the frontend has access to the same HardWare/File Storage the backend does.

The frontend process also has the widest platform support. Frontends have been ported to the Xbox and MacOSX (see the Myth On Mac Osx guide) as well as the standard Linux Distros with additional work being done to port it to Windows under Cygwin

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

This is based on the default Menu Theme. The classic theme is organized quite differently.

Watch TV

Watching Live TV through your configured TV cards.

Media Library

Watch Recordings

Manage Recordings

Schedule Recordings

Program Guide
Program Finder
Search Words
Titles
Keywords
People
Advanced
Search Lists
New titles
Movies
Categories
Channels
Time
Custom Record
Manual Schedule

Set Priorities

Upcoming Recordings

Delete Recordings

Previously Recorded

Information Center

System Status

Listings Status

Information about current or last mythfilldatabase or tv_grab action, as well has total guide data available. This page also warns of potential errors in TV guide data.

Tuner Status

The status of your Tuner cards eg recording or idle

Log Entries
Job Queue
Machine Status
AutoExpire List

Utilities and Setup

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 its 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 have their own 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 powerup based on activity on the network. You need to makes sure that your machine supports ACPI correctly for this to work. You can use this 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
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 sudio 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 a Optical or coaxial connector. Raw AC3 Stream is passed through to your receiver which will decode the surround. 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.

Agressive soundcard 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. Lightens the CPU's load when disabled. You may also want to disable this if you are using AC3 output as vol control will now be done by your surround amplifier or reciever
Select mixer device /dev/mixer Blank This is the meat of the subject
Mixer Controls PCM Changing the volume adjusts the selected mixer. Options are: PCM and Master.
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 is the meat of the subject
PCM mixer volume 0-100 (selects volume level) 70 Initial volume for PCM output. Using the volume keys in MythTV will adjust this parameter. This is the meat of the subject
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. This is the meat of the subject

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. This is the meat of the subject
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 LEF performing an exit action and RIGHT selecting the current item. 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. This is the meat of the subject
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. This is the meat of the subject
Monitor CD/DVD Off This enables support for monitoring your CD/DVD drives for new disks and launching the proper plugin to handle them. This is the meat of the subject
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.
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").
Log Cleanup Frequency (days) 14 The number of days between log cleanup runs.
Number of days to keep acknowledged log entries 14 The numer 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 acknowldged 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 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.
Appearance

Theme

Theme
Setting Default Value Settings Page's Description Additional Comments
Theme Blue (none) You can find more about themes here
Qt style PUT IN THE DEFAULT HERE 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 an borderless operation. )
Video Mode Settings
Separate video modes for GUI and TV playback
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Localization
English
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Date formate
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Short Date format
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Time format
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
QT
Small font
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Medium font
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Big font
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Use Transparent Boxes
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Popup Background Shading Method
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
LCD device display
Enable LCD device
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject

TV settings

General

General page 1
Time to record before start of show (in seconds)
Time to record past end of show (in seconds)
Channel ordering:
Change channels immediatly without select
Avoid conflicts between live TV and scheduled shows
General (page 2)
Channel format
Long Channel format
Time limit for ATSC signal lock (msec)
ATSC Signal Threshhold
HD Ringbuffer size)KB)
Global Auto Expire Settings
Auto Expire Free Disk Space Threshold(in Gigabytes)

Program Guide

Playback

General playback
Deinterlace playback
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Custom Filters:
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments Full Guide to using Filters Filter_Instructions
Use libmpeg2 for decoding
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Enable realtime priority threads
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Use video as timebase
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Extra audio buffering
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Aspect override
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
PIP video location
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
General playback (part 2)
Action on playback exit:
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Prompt at end of recording
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Clear Saved Position on playback
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Alternate Clear Saved Position
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Use Xv picture controls
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Enable channel change buffer warnings
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
UDP Notify Port:
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
MythNotify Copy the description on the page Here
Port that mythtvosd data is sent This is the meat of the subject
View recordings
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
View recordings (Recording Groups)
Hardware decoding settings
Use the PVR-350's TV out/MPEG decoder
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Video device for the PVR-350 MPEG decoder
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Program Guide Alpha:
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Enable OpenGL vertical sync for timing
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Use hardware XvMC MPEG Decoding
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Use HW XVMC VLD Decoding (Via only)
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Seeking
Commercial Skip
Overscan
Vertical over/underscan
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Horizontal over/underscan
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Scan displacement (X)
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
Scan displacement (Y)
Default Setting PUT IN THE DEFUALT HERE
On Page Description Copy the description on the page Here
Detailed Description and Comments This is the meat of the subject
On-screen display

Recording Profiles

Recording Priorities

Media settings

Info center settings

Phone settings

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