Build Your Own PVR 469
An anonymous reader submits: "One geek's trials and tribulations of buying a ReplayTV, hating it, and deciding to build his own Linux PVR from nothing. The first try sinks into the swamp (hardware problems). The second try sinks into the swamp (more hardware problems). The third try... you get the idea. But success, finally, based on SageTV, a Windows PVR client. Makes you wonder if current Linux PVR apps are just too much of a pain to get working well?"
pushy (Score:5, Funny)
I don't have the time! Stop pressuring me!
Why... (Score:3, Insightful)
Can we mod a whole story down?
Re:Why... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Linux apps too hard to configure? (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway, back on PVR's.
I use mythtv. I have a pinnacle pctv pro and a DVD player in my box. I splurged and bought a $45 sb live! card. It took me a day of compiling and configuring on gentoo, and things were running fine. A few more days of tinkering and I have a n64/snes console/pvr/dvd player/mp3 player that shares my windows mp3 collection.
Not hard, but then I'm not an idiot.
Do *you* have to be?
I said "I don't have the time".
You say it took you days to compile, configure and tinker.
You may not be an idiot, but you sure are an asshole.
Re:Linux apps too hard to configure? (Score:5, Insightful)
On the other hand, they're free, and you can add your own features if you want. I'm a happy mythtv user who didn't like its mythweb module. So I rewrote it and gave it back, and now the project is better than ever (imho, the web interface to mythtv makes it more useful than any other PVR solution - I don't have to walk into the other room to set up or manage recordings, or can schedule recordings I've forgotten about before leaving on vacation).
Re:Linux apps too hard to configure? (Score:5, Insightful)
1). Make linux easy to work on and use so that it can be an effective alternative to windows. This might entail things like standardized GUI interfaces, methods of adjusting preferences that neither involve the command line nor hacking an initialization script, and help files that guide users through how to easily solve their problems.
2). Keep linux in it's current state of "difficult for the newbie to work on and use." This would involve the least disruption to the current developmental process(es), would keep things "just as they are today", and ensure the burden is on the user for tracking down an expert in case they need to install, modify, use, upgrade, or remove either the operating system or an application.
While keeping the customization that is vital to the particular user available is it necessary to keep it difficult? Or are the two mutually exclusive?
Re:Linux apps too hard to configure? (Score:3, Insightful)
Also don't overestimate the ease of use Windows purports to have. It's still hard in spots, som
Re:Linux apps too hard to configure? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, Linux absolutely should be available in a form that is as easy to use as Windows. What concerns me is that there is still such a holdout among elitists like yourself. The notion that allowing Linux to be newbie friendly will somehow make it worse for us hackers is downright asinine. I briefly held this belief myself before realizing how stupid it was. Every example you gave of the "horrors" of a newbie-friendly Linux is pure hyperbole and utter BS. (And frankly, they show that you have little clue what you're talking about.) The development of software and utilities that assist ordinary users will not in any way affect those of us who do most of our work in a bash shell and a vim session. To the contrary, it will help us immensely because more software will become available for our platform of choice and any kludgy configuration issues that exist today will be standardized by necessity as automation tools are developed.
Also, may I ask you a question? Do you ever plan to actually use the skills you infer to have to make a living? Well guess what? It's a no-go if ordinary people can't use the technology you are most adept at and if Linux doesn't drive a significant 'market-share'. So what is your solution? Let Microsoft and Apple have all the desktops and let Linux/BSD be niche players for the geeks only? Guess what? If that happens, we will have a world filled with DRM garbage and security nightmares. Get your head out of the sand.
Re:Linux apps too hard to configure? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm a seasoned unix user
Am I the only one who thinks of the phrase 'the kernel's secret blend of herbs and spices' when they hear this phrase?
I guess so.
--Dan
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:SkyTV PVR (Score:4, Informative)
Do what TiVO does with cable boxes -- get an IR blaster. Program the PVR with the codes to change channels on your Sky TV box, and let it change the channels on the STB for you. Any good PVR app will have support for this.
As a side note, TiVO has recently (within the past 6 months or so) started supporting certain cable boxes via the serial port, and they do support many satellite boxes via the serial port as well (just in case you had a TiVO before you got on DirecTV, and didn't want to get the DirecTiVO). However, the IR blaster approach is still required for a lot of cable boxes, and it works.
MYTHTV does this allready! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:MYTHTV does this allready! (Score:5, Informative)
Watch a half hour program. then mythtv crashes and locks the device so you can't even restart it without rebooting.
Re:MYTHTV does this allready! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:MYTHTV does this allready! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:MYTHTV does this allready! (Score:2)
Re:MYTHTV does this allready! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:MYTHTV does this allready! (Score:4, Informative)
mythtv has a lot of great ideas, but it is way too buggy right now. Watch a half hour program. then mythtv crashes and locks the device so you can't even restart it without rebooting.
You make it sound like everyone who uses mythtv has this problem. I use it day to day and it works great. once you get it up and going its alot better than even those pay products like sage. but i have to agree, unless you have experience with linux, its going to be tough
Re:MYTHTV does this allready! (Score:2, Informative)
In any case, my experience with mythtv has been superb. Never miss an episode of Family G
Re:MYTHTV does this allready! (Score:5, Informative)
I'll add another to the "me too" count, MythTV works fine for me. I even own one of the supposedly troublesome combos of a VIA KT400 chipset and a PVR-250, and it's working fine. We'll see how that works when I put another PVR-250 in the mix, but for now it works.
As a bonus, there's a website that has step-by-step instructions, using apt-get for everything on Fedora Core 1. You could pretty much copy/paste the directions, and have a MythTV machine up and running in less than one hour. That website would be here [wilsonet.com].
-- Joe
Re:MYTHTV does this allready! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:MYTHTV does this allready! (Score:3, Interesting)
The only "issue" is that MPEG-4 really puts strain on my CPU, holding a Athlon 2600+ at ~60% while encoding.
I now do homework for the next day's courses instead of watching adult swim and the daily show at night. I also watched some football games with it, and having a frame-by-frame slow-mo is wonderful. What's even better is never watching commercials, cuts the time of shows way down. Even with a crappy four year old bt87
Re:MYTHTV does this allready! (Score:3, Informative)
That would be an SBLive! Value card, clocks in at about $20-$25 USD these days. Eat ramen for one day and you can afford one.
What, no TiVo? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What, no TiVo? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why not just by a Tivo? At his rate, it would have saved him time and money (assuming he couldn't return the Replay).
My Series 1 absolutely rocks. 120GB drive in it, with Tivoweb. Sure, there are things I wish it would do, but then again...what it DOES do, it does REALLY WELL.
After a couple of month of the monthly $12 fee, I learned that my TV watching had changed forever, and I sprung for the lifetime subscription before they bumped it up from $250 to $300. I've got backups of the software...but I absolutely dread the day my hardware dies (I hope I outlive it).
Re:What, no TiVo? (Score:2)
Why not just read the article? It would have saved you asking a redundant question which he (rather, his wife) asked and he answers many times throughout the article.
Re:What, no TiVo? (Score:3, Insightful)
Come to think of it, the entire article could be summed up thusly:
"A friend of mine had Tivo, which I decided I wanted, but I didn't want to shell out $600 for the whole nine yards. So first I went with a cheap option which didn't work. Then I went with a cheaper option which also didn't work. Then I went with a more expensive option which worked, but badly. Finally, I tried something which worked, an
Nah (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Nah (Score:5, Funny)
That's because we all know linux hackers are bloody communist hippies who spend spare CPU cycles wearing patches, shouting "oo arr!!" and riding the high seas in search of copyright bounty!
Building A Low-Budget TiVo Substitute? (Score:5, Informative)
Building A Low-Budget TiVo Substitute? [slashdot.org]
Uh, Tivo? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Uh, Tivo? (Score:3, Interesting)
The advantage that Tivo and Replay have over home-brew systems is that both systems are fixed hardware platforms and as such, drivers are a non-issue. Much like game consoles. Tivo's software was written and tested on Tivo equipment. They don't have to worry about getting different brands of sound cards to work, or different ker
Re:Uh, Tivo? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Uh, Tivo? (Score:2, Informative)
Install was litterally: urpmi mythtv, follow the simple instruction for populating the database, and watch tv. Took about an hour, including putting the cheap ass tv card in the pc, and download time for the software and tv listings.
MythTV (Score:5, Informative)
I run an Epia Nehemiah 1Ghz w/512 MB RAM with a Hauppauge PVR 350. The web front end makes all my Tivo using coworkers drool. Yes, it was a pain in the rear to get everything working, but in the end, I gained some knowledge and have one neat little system.
Re:MythTV (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:MythTV (Score:5, Informative)
Web site with a forum (you may still want to search through e-mail list archives, I don't) is http://www.mysettopbox.tv/
R4 worked for me after some tweeking that I agree would be more than the original article writer would like. I am comfortable with Linux, including Debian, so it was not a problem for me. I am hopping R5 will be out soon, and will take care of the few issues I had.
One item that the KnoppMyth forums have that you may find handy is a tier 1, tier 2, tier 3 listing for hardware configurations that worked out of the box, with minor changes, or not at all.
-Rusty
Re:MythTV (Score:3, Insightful)
He couldn't get past booting linux on the thing - not exactly a stunning indictment of MythTV!
Re:MythTV (Score:2)
After rebates, I paid about $550 for my Tivo box, including lifetime subscription. Is the DIY hardware more or less expensive? For all the time and trouble, I think it would be difficult to save money. The only advantage over Tivo is that you are free to do whatever you want with your MythTV box (and recorded TV shows
Superior Flexibility (Score:2)
Re:MythTV (Score:2)
But, as many other people have stated, with the setup guide mentioned in the article (which I also mentioned in another post), you can install all of MythTV via apt-get. This gives you much more functionality than a TiVo, as you get not only timeshifting of TV, but you also get the ability to do picture slideshows, watch/rip DVD's, playback videos (stored on the hard drive), view the weather forecast, and play games under
Re:MythTV (Score:2)
I see the Linux HDTV card (www.pchdtv.com) is around $200, but that might require some serious storage capacity. Then again I'm back to your $500 or so, but that would be an HDTV
Re:MythTV (Score:2, Informative)
If you are comfortable mucking around Linux, then MythTV is definitely the way to go.
what's wrong with this picture? (Score:2, Insightful)
Reminds me of people who combine two or three pre-packaged foods in a bowl and call it a "recipe".
Linux problems? (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't a flame or anything, but this article doesn't reflect at all the state of Linux PVR.
Re:Linux problems? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Linux problems? (Score:3, Insightful)
yes. regardless of his skill level, the point is that linux didnt work out of the box, but the windows stuff did. windows is crap, but more often than not, it works right away. your mileage may vary is the case with any linux project, in my opinion. any OS for that matter. ive been relatively pleased with XP, but i sure wish i didnt need it and could use my debian install at work more.
i love linux, i can deal with wind
Re:Linux problems? (Score:3, Insightful)
Uh, not really. Windows itself maybe did, but his first attempt at a Windows PVR didn't. Besides, only once have I failed to boot Linux successfully on the first try, and that was this week with a MandrakeMove CD on a Dell Latitude. Knoppix worked fine on that same machine.
> having said all that, i think im just gonna buy a pvr
I've had TiVo for several years myself, despite being quite comfortable with Linux and Windows.
Re:Linux problems? (Score:3, Interesting)
1. Don't use linux on a regular basis.
This is worse than a dupe (Score:5, Insightful)
The SAME ANSWERS come up:
* "Why? Tivo is affordable"
* "MythTV!"
* "TV sucks!"
* "ATI All-In-Wonder!"
* other sourceforge suggestion...
New answer.. (Score:2)
What's a PVR anyway? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What's a PVR anyway? (Score:2, Insightful)
But then again, I'm a language lawyer.
MythTV worked brilliantly (Score:5, Informative)
Installed Debian on it with similar hardware as the author of the article had. I had no problems whatsoever, though I've been using Linux since '98.
If you want just a Tivo box for cheap, I don't suggest doing it unless you want shady quality. Get a damned good TV Card (like the PVR-250 which does encoding on the hardware - this is around $120 alone), and a huge hard drive, and a good amount of memory. If you have the PVR-250, you don't need such a powerful CPU as the MPEG encoding is handled by the PVR.
All in all, it was worth the time. I never have to look back and it's simply an amazing solution. I've been using Myth for about 8 months and it never stops to amaze me.
Coulda, Shoulda, Didn't... (Score:5, Interesting)
First of all, I get the idea this person is not a veteran of the linux industry. He does a good job of navigating through what are essentially basic problems.
I don't think its worthy to mention he had his jumpers wrong... everyone makes a jumper mistake and it is fairly easy to diagnose.
His major fault.... He purchased a Win-TV 250. This card is pretty good actually with onboard hardware mpeg2 encoding. (I own a 250 as well as a vanilla hauppage win-tv) The drawback to the Win-TV 250 is it does not have tv out. He should have spent a couple extra bucks and got the 350.
The next big mistake was relying on some integrated tv out solution. It's been my experience that onboard has the tendency to be slightly different then their off board branded brotherin. Thus, I can easily see why he had some troubles.
He said it himself, he suffers from some impulse buying habbits. I think a little more research on compatability would have turned up better linux results. Personally, I went into the linux pvr project with absolutely no starting knowledge other then getting my hauppage card working a long long time ago. (out of the box support made it no chore). However, knowing nothing about the task prompted me to research, research and well... read more.
I wish he had tried a Knoppix MythTV Live CD as I would like to have seen the results. ie. used knoppix CD and it worked! (probably not with the odd video out)
No, thats wrong.. (Score:2)
The WinTV-PVR-250 is well supported in MythTV which is currently the most mature linux based PVR package and from experience I would recommend a VGA to NTSC video converter WAY before I'd recommend using any cards video ou
Re:Coulda, Shoulda, Didn't... (Score:3, Funny)
Well, that's kind of the point. It's easy (and fast) to diagnose. It's the first thing you check if hard drive or CD-ROM isn't working.
This guy spent two hours wondering about it, and needed God to intervene before getting it right.
no, this guy's just clueless (Score:4, Informative)
He also did a horrible job on research and homework. He could have probably slapped a KnoppMyth CD in the drive and been done in record time.
I'd say -- this guy simply didn't have the basic computer and Linux skills to do anything but install pre-packaged software. He ended up with the solution that fit that skillset the best.
No offense, but he wasn't ready to try a do-it-yourself solution. A consumer solution *is* the best for someone with the limited time he had available (self-imposed deadlines) and knowledge level.
TiVo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:TiVo (Score:2)
Impatient Incompetence (Score:4, Insightful)
One wonders, if you are going to venture into building something like this, with a confessed lack of competency and patience, would failure not be a certain outcome?
When one feels the need to document at length the oh-so-advanced topic of repeatedly screwing up the jumper settings on your hard drive, this becomes more an article on basic computer construction skills than anything about PVRs. I won't get into "the instructions said 'use a screwdriver.'" He ditched the entire linux idea because he couldn't disable the floppy seek. Please.
if(cant boot linux) { geek creds revoked; } (Score:2)
er, interesting conclusions in context of the rest (Score:5, Informative)
This is only my second day as a PVR equipped husband and already my wife has forgotten about TiVo. She watches episodes of Charmed and the Gilmore Girls and grins as she fast forwards through commercials. As for me, I have been spending quality time with John Stewart - his show on the Iowa Caucases was not to be missed.
Yes, this little project ended up being a little more pricey than I had expected, about $800 total, but I am left with an expandable and powerful system capable of doing a lot more than any TiVo can do. Perhaps the whole thing was silly. After all, VCR's basically do the same thing right?
Hey, kudos to him for getting it working. Most of the stories I've read in this genre end up with the author buying a ReplayTV or TiVO because his creation failed the spouse test. Or just wouldn't work reliably. According to the conclusion, wifey is as happy as a clam.
But:
Soon the sound started falling behind the movement of his lips. That was no good. Plus his body blurred when he moved. My hero, John Stewart was jittery and smeared. The wife grumbled.
So, we have $800 for a TiVO with a relatively unreliable guide with less info, no auto-commercial skip (as in 50XX series ReplayTV's), lots of fans and noise, 3x the power use, and picture quality issues that will be fixed Real Soon Now:
After all of this, the picture was better, but John Stewart still looked unintentionally silly.
Apparently, the next version (2) of Sage will be available in early February 2004, and these picture adjustment issues will be much easier to grapple with.
In my experience, SageTV always has image quality and sync problems (and they always blame the OS, or the video card, or cosmic radiation, etc. -- I got a refund). I really do want to make my own PVR one day, but I'm afraid the time is not yet right. Almost, but not quite.
You should check my post.. (Score:2)
Not Very (Linux) Geeky... (Score:3, Insightful)
I can slap a lot of hardware together and try and run any number of systems on it, but if I'm not willing to WORK through problems, they will all fail.
Don't waste
Re:Not Very (Linux) Geeky... (Score:2)
He even give linux a chance? (Score:2)
His ability lacks a bit... (Score:5, Funny)
If that's his math skill, no wonder he kept failing...
--Rob
Re:His ability lacks a bit... (Score:3, Informative)
First page, first factual error (Score:5, Informative)
TiVo does run Linux, but Replay uses some embedded realtime OS. Definitely not Linux.
Re:First page, first factual error (Score:2, Informative)
Alas, SageTV is excellent (Score:3, Informative)
I finally broke down and installed SageTV on a Win2K box and have been very happy ever since. I'm using two PVR 250 capture/compression cards, an NVIDIA GeForce 5200 and a Fortissimo 7.1 (just for the TOSlink output) on an Athalon 2000+ system using an IRman universal IR recivever which makes the system think It's a tivo to allow for my universal remote to support it. One tuner is connected to the output of my cable box to allow access to the digital tier and HBO using an Actisys IR-200L.
The overall result is spectacular, I never have recording conflicts, flawless sound and picture quality, and I can back off shows to DVD with the Ulead MovieFactory package which comes with the PVR-250. I can also view the Mpeg files from my other computers as well. The SageTV package also serves as an MP3 and DVD Player. When the remote is not enough VNC works flawlessly. Quite indispensable given my schedule, and its addicted me to Inuyasha as well!
Excellent software, 'tho I intend to revisit mythtv when a mini-distro is available.
linux vs. windows (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't mean to be a fanboy... (Score:5, Informative)
S-Video or RGB (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I don't mean to be a fanboy... (Score:3, Informative)
yes, the front (display) and back (recording / storage) can be separate.
Can I have a monster recording server and then playback clients on my LAN?
Oh yes
Can I rip a DVD/CD at the client and store it on the server?
Yes, I do this a lot... personally I rip to mpeg4/xVid at 1000kbps and have no real hassles with quality. This is built into the mythDVD section.
What about DVD burning.
Hmmm... not too sure about this one, but it would be relatively easy for a hacker to code a
Building any sort of PVR is difficult (Score:2)
So between the rapidly changing codec terrain, the scads of possible devices, varying levels of operating system support, and the fact that pushing video around is an order of magnitude (or two) more demanding then audio - I'm not surprised
My ATI card works just fine (Score:2)
Several months before I got the card, I used my grandfather's ReplayTV to record a show that was on at 4:00am and later I took my PC to his house and captured the movie with my ATI card and WHAM I now have a DVD of the movie.
LK
Freevo (Score:2)
I played around with MythTV... (Score:2)
Ended up just going back to the ATI Multimedia Center that shipped with the card and Win2k. I don't have shifting, but it's not the end of the world.
SageTV supports the Hauppauge cards - MythTV should be a breeze to get working with one of those.
BYOPVR (Score:3, Informative)
My ReplayTV Experience (Score:5, Informative)
Contrary to the experiences described in this article, my ReplayTVs work flawlessly. Plugged in to the home network, DHCP served them up IPs, they downloaded their info and updated their software. They use uPnP to auto-discover other ReplayTVs on the network and integrate them very well in their on-screen UI.
In fact the UI is a big win - it passes the spouse test easily. Browsing material on the base machine, from another ReplayTV, or from the PC file server is takes a single button push. The ReplayTVs handle program contention intelligently, offering to offload a conflicted recording slot to a "spare" ReplayTV on the network.
The clever Java program DVArchive [sourceforge.net] uses uPnP to imitate a ReplayTV and enables you to upload, stream, or move recorded content from the auto-discovered ReplayTVs. In effect, each ReplayTV acts like a big, external MPEG-2 capture card with lots of ports and functionality.
All ReplayTVs on the network can, of course, stream from any DVArchive-equipped file server to any ReplayTV.
You can even schedule DVArchive to automatically grab recorded material from the ReplayTVs on a batch basis, providing an easy way to create large archives. I have set up some watched folders where new material gets automatically batch encoded to MPEG-4 (xvid) for archiving.
There's a big user community associated with DVArchive [planetreplay.com].
All in all I am very satisfied with my ReplayTV setup. It is totally integrated into my home media setup (1 TB RAID-5 file server) and works effortlessly. The ReplayTVs automatically skip adverts (works pretty well) and there's an active between ReplayTV units. Useful if you want to pick up a season half-way through. [planetreplay.com]
I avoided Tivo, partly because of cost, but mainly because of its incipient DRM. I was afraid I would have to expend significant effort to create a spouse-friendly PVR system but thankfully my networked ReplayTVs have obviated this requirement for a while.
GBPVR (Score:3, Informative)
The abstract is misleading... (Score:3, Informative)
This isn't an article about how Linux 'Tivo-like' software is unsuitable, unavailable or too difficult to use or configure - it's about how this particular person couldn't get past the BIOS 'no floppy controller found' message when rebooting and therefore gave up on Linux completely. There's absolutely NOTHING useful in that article for anyone interested in doing something similar with Linux.
No offense but user compatibility problem? (Score:3, Funny)
"When I booted up the unit, I found that neither my CD/DVD Drive, nor my Hard Disk were recognized...Two hours later God spoke to me...look at the back of the hard drive and compare the jumper positions...Jumpers are little brackets that must be moved to tell a piece of hardware what role it will play as part of your computer."
to make a long story short, brain surgeon guy had the hd set to slave so it wouldn't boot. Like, duh. Course it took him 2 hours to realize it and God had to tell him too.
No offense guy, but MythTV wasn't designed for you. Get a Tivo. You'll be happier. It's simple. Pretty buttons.
Reviewers Linux Literacy (Score:5, Insightful)
All in Wonder Radeon on an Athlon 2200 (Score:3, Informative)
Now some of you may be wondering how I'm doing this. Well I'm doing it under Windows 2000 is how. When there is a Linux solution that works as well I may switch, but I'm not going to go out of my way to avoid a good solution just because it runs on top of Windows. People who make choices based upon emotionally driven ideology instead of practical considerations usually don't get as far as people who do the opposite. So while I may prefer Linux to Windows in general, my preference is based upon the technical and social merits of Linux, not upon some quasi-religious hatred of Windows.
I work with someone who is at least as good as I am with Unix, and is most likely far better. Her superiors are wanting her to support Windows now as well and she is fit to be tied. Her hatred of M$ and Windows is such that she just can't do it. Unfortunately Windows is not going anywhere. Refusing to deal with it doesn't make it go away, it just makes its presence that much more of a problem. It is better to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. If I can't make windows jump then that makes me that much less powerful a hacker (!=Cracker) and that much less valuable to whomever I work for.
I think having a Linux PVR solution would be great, but going out of one's way to use alpha and beta quality stuff that is a pain to get configured and working just to avoid using Windows is pretty damned silly unless you're one of the developers.
Lee
ExtremeTech article on building a home threatre PC (Score:5, Informative)
Hardware Specs (Score:3, Informative)
I'm normally hardware and distribution agnostic, but had very good results with the following combo:
* Fedora FC1
* Axel T's apt-rpm of mythtv-suite and ivtv drivers (nothing better than an apt-get install mythtv-suite, and watching it go...)
* The following hardware from www.minipc.com.au:
* Shuttle SN45G nForce2 Ultra
* Athlon 2700+
* 512 Mb 333 RAM
* 120Gb HDD, 8MB, Seagate
* Mitsubishi DVD +/-R/RW
* Hauppauge PVR-350
* Follow the bouncing ball from http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/, http://ivtv.writeme.ch/tiki-index.php?page=TvOutP
The shuttle is VERY quiet, and works great with mythtv. Some key 'gotchas' I encountered on the way:
* Have the nvidia drivers handy on a CD after installation, or the network card won't work.
* Make sure you're date/time is set correctly on your system (several hours stuffing around with TV guide data and XMLTV before I caught the fact that I was 1 year off!)
* The Australian default channel positions are often replicated higher up in the spectrum - the 'higher' versions may be the defaults for your area.. I was starting to worry that my tuner card was a dud.
For anyone that wants a one-system mythtv box, I'd recommend grabbing the same specs (probably from the same location if you're in Oz - prices were pretty good for Australia).
Red.
Why do we keep hearing about these PVRs? (Score:5, Informative)
$29/mo x 12mo = $348.00. That's for a year of basic satellite service (~125 channels) with a 40 hour unit for 'free'. As the PVR prices continue to tumble, you'll find that PVR units will become standard-with-service in a couple of years.
Sure, "hacking" is fun, but only when it's improving something and learning in the process. I know Linux/BSD as well as I ever care to, so there's nothing new to learn by typing 'rpm -i Myth' or 'make install' and edit a conf file, or two, after building a new box. I've seen too many people refer to this as hacking, thus my mention of it. Don't call it that unless you are writing your own code or have either utilized a soldering gun or dremmel in your project.
Don't get me wrong, I am not critizing people's efforts. I think it's great that folks are using this to learn something new. But, it hardly replaces a set-top PVR or saves any money.
Here's the reasons, as I see them:
Multiple tuners - lets you record one show while watching another, record two shows while watching another previously recorded one. This issue has only ever been responded to with "You watch too much TV" cracks, but I watch about 4 hours a week and have two series with over-lapping schedules. If I had one tuner, I would miss one of them.
Realtime encoding/decoding - This goes with the multiple tuners issue. My unit can encode two shows at once while playing a third one back. This is all done without any slowdowns on a dinky CPU.
Remotes - A task specific remote. VCR style controls, never have to touch a keyboard. No dead buttons. No extra buttons.
Wife/child friendly - If it crashes, the most you ever do is pull the card and power cycle. Boots in 15 seconds and picks up where it left off (recording or playing back), no loss in material except for the off-time. I don't want them having to worry about ever having to see a console or have any bugs surface that can't be fixed by a power cycle or press of a button on the remote.
No fuss in the event of a failure - If a lease or in warranty: Call your SAT/CAT provider and they will Fed Ex you a whole new unit in the even of a failure. If it's old and you own it, then simply take advantage of the market and switch providers for 12 months, get a free new one.
I know some folks are very dependant or faithful to one provider. Don't be. They all just want your money, just because one has a cooler name and you like blue icons better, that doesn't mean you need to not play the market. There's plenty of money to be saved and the tactic of branding is just that, a marketing tactic. Shop around, get cool stuff for nothing, enjoy!
Re:Why do we keep hearing about these PVRs? (Score:3, Informative)
Not true. My PC PVR does far far more than a Tivo would ever dream of, and it can do it for much less.
For instance, I can edit out commercials, credits, intros, etc., or I can use some programs that will automatically edit out commercials.
I can network my machines cheaply (NICs are practically free), and copy files any way I choose.
I can record videos to VCD, or SVCDs with my cheapo CD-recorder, or I can spend $100 for a DVD-Recorder and start ma
PVR Hardware (Score:3, Informative)
To DIY or not to DIY? (Score:4, Interesting)
Then in Dixons [dixons.co.uk], I found the Philips DVDR-70 DVD+RW recorder. At 279.99, I snapped it up. This machine needs the more expensive DVD+RW discs. It can also use DVD+Rs, but the functionality is a bit more limited with one-time media. There are only two SCARTs, and you'll need both of them for the TV and the satellite/cable decoder; but it does have audio/video/SV ins on the front {meant for a camcorder so designated CAM1} which you can use in an emergency, and audio/video/SV outs around the back. As you would expect on any DVD player, the TV SCART has RGB out; but unlike a VCR the auxiliary SCART has RGB in.
Chapter points are added automatically during recording, or you can add them by hand - and the ability to block certain chapters allows you to implement a form of ad-skipping, which is vital for most cable/satellite recordings. The picure is rock-solid even at six-hour compression. It will play MP3 audio CDs through your TV or hi-fi, but not multisession discs - you'll have to burn them in one go. This should mean those annoying copy-protected discs will play fine, though, and there's no mention of disabling the digital audio out during certain kinds of playback {but I haven't been able to test this}.
Downsides? No HDD so you can't record and play back at the same time, and the picture blanks out while the machine is busy. No RF modulator, so you have to use the A/V connections; but you'd be throwing away the advantages of DVD anyway. And I didn't build it myself.
Conclusion: Worth the price, and you'll soon get to live with the quirks. Expect newer models to answer them anyway.
****
This is stupid. (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, like it's MythTV's fault that Fedora Linux didn't recognize his lack of a floppy drive.
I have to wonder if Knoppix would have successfully automagically configured his hardware.
Re:no... (Score:3, Insightful)
"Yes I run linux, but I don't try to do dumb stuff that it wasn't designed for with it."
For someone who "says" they run Linux you sure have one hell of a negative attitude about it.
Re:I Don't get it... (Score:2)
At least the hobby guy is learning something while you're sitting on your passive ass watching reruns.
Re:I Don't get it... (Score:2)
Re:Well I can say this for one.. (Score:3)
Other than a few random posts on slashdot, could you please offer a few concrete data points to back up such a sweeping assertion? Some market analysis based on real numbers would be particularly helpful.
Re:Well I can say this for one.. (Score:5, Insightful)
I built a machine for Myth, for Sage, for Snapstream, and for MCE. In the end, I stuck with snapstream.
MCE is a buggy piece of crap (surprise)
SageTV is nice, but fails the pretty/Wife Factor test quite badly, and has plenty of bugs of its own.
Snapstream has by far the most "tivolike" interface, and just plain does the job well.
Myth, if I NEVER, EVER had to have my wife and kids rely on it, would be nice, but I simply did not find the combo I got with my snapstream install.
If you are JUST going to do PVR, sure, its not THAT hard to get set up. But when you add playing DVD's, pushing a high def signal through a converter, playing MP3s, cutting DVDs from home movies, doing some light websurfing, actuing as the household firewall, the household fileserver, and being a KILLER gaming platform on a nice 50 inch HDTV, you're gonna end up with windows.
Bitch all you want, but add "killer gaming" and "easy to use all the other little crap" to the equation, and windows RAPIDLY becomes worth the license fee.
Re:Well I can say this for one.. (Score:3, Informative)
well you say you built a machine for this, which means you used a ilegal copy of it. Did you even use real MCE or the hacked tablet edition? And MCE is designed for specific hardware, if you didn't meet it's requirements to a tee it will be bad. But if you have a proper machine MCE is very solid by all acounts.