Anybody here have anything to say about MythDora?

[Jaxidian]

Does anybody have anything to say about this package? I'm by no means a Linux guru. I have some experience with it and can get my way around but I would never trust myself to setup a secure box without something doing it for me automagically. Also, I have no experience with MythPVR. I've heard a lot about it and it seems that everybody either loves it or hates it. But my question is mostly about the MythDora package - does anybody have anything good or bad to say about this?

Thanks!
-Jax

 

[Slick5150]

I haven't tried that one, but a couple other options are KnopMyth and LinuxMCE

 

[Jaxidian]

Originally posted by: Slick5150
I haven't tried that one, but a couple other options are KnopMyth and LinuxMCE

Those come all bundled with the OS + DVR software easily configured (drivers, security, etc.)? I guarantee I'll never be able to get all of the driver stuff configured by myself!

-Jax

 

[Slick5150]

Yep. KnopMyth is Knoppix Linux + MythTV. i've played around with that one a bit.

Never used LinuxMCE. Not exactly sure how it works, but their claim is that its easy to use right out of the box.

 

[venkman]

I've never really played with Myth, or for that matter Linux, before so MythDora sounds like a good way to get into. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Jaxidian]

No problem.

I'm currenting running Vista Home Premium but I'm getting too many recordings that are corrupted (either completely unusable or skips around a lot) and it's just not working as well as I would like. I loved the simplicity in setting it up (was tons easier than BTV and SageTV was it?) but it just doesn't seem as reliable as I'd like. Nice and pretty, though.

So I figured before I dish out some $$'s for BeyondTV (I liked that more than the other one), I'd give the free stuff a try (didn't like any of the free stuff for Windows).

Wish me luck!

-Jax

 

[venkman]

Good Luck. As for your problem with Vista it is either that your system isn't beefy enough to handle HD Viewing and recording at the same time or that your connection (OTA?) isn't very strong. My bad, but still watchable, connection to the local Fox station made it impossible for me to record 24.

 

[Jaxidian]

Originally posted by: venkman
Good Luck. As for your problem with Vista it is either that your system isn't beefy enough to handle HD Viewing and recording at the same time or that your connection (OTA?) isn't very strong. My bad, but still watchable, connection to the local Fox station made it impossible for me to record 24.

My box is an AMD 4200x2, 2GB RAM, ATI HDTV Wonder and I have a SATAII drive dedicated for nothing other than saving the feed to while the OS and Page File are on a Raptor 74GB. I'm guessing this is quite beefy enough for saving an MPG stream in MPG format (no intensive conversion/encoding/decoding is necessary when saving it since DVR-MS format is MPG2-based with some add'l meta data and OTA signals are also MPG2 encoded).

As for my OTA connection, well, maybe that's it. When I'm watching something on TV it ocassionally (once every 5-10 minutes) has a little hiccup. I've got an outdoor channel master antenna in one of my upstairs bedrooms at a window (only obstructive objects would be other 2-story houses) that I'm planning on putting up in my attic, but I'm also planning on doing another 53 bajillion things too and time just doesn't permit. What kind of help should I expect getting that antenna in my attic? If that's all I need to do to fix this problem, I'd much rather do that than reinstall/configure everything.

Thanks!
-Jax

 

[venkman]

Originally posted by: Jaxidian

Originally posted by: venkman
Good Luck. As for your problem with Vista it is either that your system isn't beefy enough to handle HD Viewing and recording at the same time or that your connection (OTA?) isn't very strong. My bad, but still watchable, connection to the local Fox station made it impossible for me to record 24.

My box is an AMD 4200x2, 2GB RAM, ATI HDTV Wonder and I have a SATAII drive dedicated for nothing other than saving the feed to while the OS and Page File are on a Raptor 74GB. I'm guessing this is quite beefy enough for saving an MPG stream in MPG format (no intensive conversion/encoding/decoding is necessary when saving it since DVR-MS format is MPG2-based with some add'l meta data and OTA signals are also MPG2 encoded).

As for my OTA connection, well, maybe that's it. When I'm watching something on TV it ocassionally (once every 5-10 minutes) has a little hiccup. I've got an outdoor channel master antenna in one of my upstairs bedrooms at a window (only obstructive objects would be other 2-story houses) that I'm planning on putting up in my attic, but I'm also planning on doing another 53 bajillion things too and time just doesn't permit. What kind of help should I expect getting that antenna in my attic? If that's all I need to do to fix this problem, I'd much rather do that than reinstall/configure everything.

Thanks!
-Jax

The golden rule of troubleshooting is always try the easiest potential solution first.

Your system is plenty beefy enough to record dvr-ms through media center. The only thing I see that may be wrong with your system is the ATI card. Not because the ATI card is particularly weak, but because the drivers and software for the card totally suck. Do you have the one that came in the big pyramid shaped box or the newer 650 revision? If it is the older one you might want to consider switching over to a Happauge card. CC has one on sale this week After Mail in Rebate Link.

I've seen nothing but good things reported about this card and it's USB younger brother (which I have) and they work GREAT in Vista MCE plus they have rock solid driver support.


Just a couple of ideas of what may fix your issue. I'd try the Happauge card first. If it doesn't work, you can always return it (just don't send in the Rebate first ).

 

[Jaxidian]

Originally posted by: venkman
The golden rule of troubleshooting is always try the easiest potential solution first.

Your system is plenty beefy enough to record dvr-ms through media center. The only thing I see that may be wrong with your system is the ATI card. Not because the ATI card is particularly weak, but because the drivers and software for the card totally suck. Do you have the one that came in the big pyramid shaped box or the newer 650 revision? If it is the older one you might want to consider switching over to a Happauge card. CC has one on sale this week After Mail in Rebate Link.

I've seen nothing but good things reported about this card and it's USB younger brother (which I have) and they work GREAT in Vista MCE plus they have rock solid driver support.


Just a couple of ideas of what may fix your issue. I'd try the Happauge card first. If it doesn't work, you can always return it (just don't send in the Rebate first ).

Yup, it's that huge pyramid-like box.

I'll try the Hauppage - thx for the suggestion. If it acts the same then I'll just return it. By the way, any chance my PC is beefy enough to record the same episode twice at the same time, once on each capture card? And hell, can I even do this with Vista's media center? I don't know if I've seen such options though I've not had more than one capture card plugged in at a time (I know Vista ignores the analog part of the card by default and never cared enough to do the hack to trick it into using it).

Thanks,
-Jax