mythtv setup
MythTV is “a homebrew PVR project” started by Isaac Richards, developed for several years, and expanded into a wonderful open-source project that I’ve been playing with, working on, and contributing to, for quite some time now.
There are some wonderful package maintainers out there (Dag Wiers, Axel Thimm, etc.), and some great guides that make setting up mythtv a snap. Jarod Wilson’s Fedora Myth(TV)ology Guide and FAQs are amazing — I’ve contributed a little bit back to this one, for sure, and is the reason I run Fedora Core at home.
On to the setup:
The Master Backend
The master backend is a custom-built PC (ordered parts and put together by me) with:
- an AMD 2400 “Barton” CPU
- about 200 GB storage (an 80 GB drive and 12o GB drive)
- DVD-RW and CD-RW drives
- 2 Hauppauge PVR-350s
- a super sweet, k-rad, ultra-awesome, neon-blue, glowing alien-head clear plexiglass case (Jodi loves this one)
It runs Fedora Core 2 Fedora Core 3 Fedora Core 4 and the latest version of mythtv (0.15 0.18.1 as of this post).
It has all the extra goodies, and is sitting in a closet in another room, with only SVIDEO, Audio, and the IR Blaster cables coming through the wall to make a really minimal, amazing impact. See the pictures.
The Slave Frontend
I tried something new and created a small frontend client for the back bedroom. Essentially, it’s a mini-itx motherboard (small form factor) in a small case, and well, that’s it.
It actually boots off the network, over PXE, grabs an image from the mythtv-server, and boots up, right into mythtv. It is actually quite amazing. It is a small kernel and 50MB cramfs image that boots up incredibly fast, and streams video over my CAT 6 100mbps network at, well, blinding speed.
The project I’m using is called MiniMyth and despite the frontpage’s lack of updates. There is a nice big community inside.
Some Great Resources:
