Quick question about Linux and MythTV

[coolred]

I am currently using SageTV 2.0 as my PVR app, but I am learning linux and will likely eventually go with the more feature rich myth TV. But as I am still a linux newb, I just wanted to check and see what, if not all, distros myth TV will run on.

Like I said, I am a newb, so I have no idea how stupid of a question this is, it may very well run fine on all distros, then again maybe not. Thanks

 

[drag]

All linux distros are about the same. The major differences come in how they are set up and how they are presented initially during a install.

Each distro is perfectly capable of doing anything that any other distro can do. Some things in one distro may be a bit easier to do because of the setup, and other distros may have specific bugs in software that occasionally gets in the way of making things that work in all distros equally. Also configuration, especially for networking and startup scripts will vary from distro to distro.

But there is nothing that will stop any distro from running Mythtv as well as any other as long as you are willing to put the work in.

That being said probably Fedora core2 would be the easiest. Not because of any innate superiority, but simply because some people that happen to use Fedora have gone thru a lot of work to make sure that it is easy to set up and run well.

Mythtv has a VERY complicated set of dependances that you need to be able to deal with in order to have it run correctly. The Mythtv folks, instead of writing everything from scratch, have taken functionality provided by other programs and incorporated it into the overall mythtv package.

For instance for channel listings, settings, and scedualling they use a MySQL database. The channel listings are gathered using XMLTV. The video player that they use to play media, such as TV, is Mplayer, and the encoding is taken care of using Mencoder. Video drivers are provided from the IVTV project for Wintv PVR-250 and 350 mpeg2 cards, and bttv and VL4 provide drivers for the normal, cheaper cards you tend to see. (some cards, such as the ATI All-in-wonder (not to be confused with the Wonder TV capture cards) won't work in Linux). etc etc.

So it can be a lot of work to find and install all these programs. Also making sure that all of them are setup with the correct functionality needed to be used in MythTV. And that's not even counting stuff like the game emulation and weather stuff.

So by using tools like Apt (or Yum), and the 3rd-party Atrpm rpm database. It makes it easy to install all this software (apt-get install mythtv-suite or some such command).

fedora mythtv howto page.
the official mythtv howto

Oh. and when you install Fedora, be sure to select "install everything" option, just to make it easy on yourself. You can go and later turn off services and such you don't want running.

Also mythtv isn't realy all that easy to deal with. It may take a few different tries. Just go slow and be sure to read everything in both howtos because their are tips and tricks randomly placed that may help out.

 

[pitupepito2000]

As drag has already stated, all linux distros are the same. Unix is like a cookie, the different types of cookie dough represent the different types of Unixes available. Linux is one kind/type of cookie dough, the frosting, and other stuff that you sprinkle on the top of the cooking dough represents the different types of linux distros. That being said all linux distros are the same underneath, the have the same cookie dough, and same linux kernel excep for version variation. You can set up MythTV in any distro, some might be easier than others. I would recommend Fedora, or Mandrake.

 

[n0cmonkey]

If unix and linux are cookies, Linux is stale. Remember what GNU stands for, it holds true for Linux too.

 

[pitupepito2000]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
If unix and linux are cookies, Linux is stale. Remember what GNU stands for, it holds true for Linux too.

The first time I learned I didn't get the joke, until I learned recursion. Then I realized that geeks are good at computers, but not necesarily jokes

 

[pitupepito2000]

coolred, I forgot to mention, that at first it's a little hard to set up mythtv, but don't give up. It's so good, with so many features. For example, mythweb allows you to view your tv listing and set up recordings through a web browser. It allows you to browse pictures, play music, games, etc. The mythtv website has a very good how to. They even explain how to do things in a couple of different distros. Another good place to ask questions in case you get stucked in on IRC, in #mythtv-users.

One thing that helps with mythtv is to have at least 512MB of ram, a fast CPU, something faster than 2.5Ghz, a big fast hard drive because things are getting encoding and decoded meaning you are reading/writing a lot of things to your hdd.

 

[drag]

You don't need a tremendiously fast CPU anymore. Especially if you have a nice PVR-250 or PVR-350.(which you need to run sagetv, I beleive)

Basicly what your doing is taking the raw cable signals, encoding them into a format (mpeg2, mpeg4, mjpeg), recording them to your harddrive, playing them from your harddrive, and then decoding them so that they can be displayed on your monitor and played from your sound card.

Now if you have a hardware-based mpeg2 encoder the first step is taken care of, if you have a cheaper card then all of it has to be run in software. The CPU can be significant and it needs to be done at decent quality at real time. 1.5ghz will be fine, I beleive, for watching TV with all the PVR features at good quality with no frame loss.

The mythtv documentation has several examples of what people are able to do with different computer hardware.

 

[coolred]

Thanks for all the inof guys. I did know that it would be quite a chore to get it setup and running properly, and it will be quite a while before i attempt it. I want to get familar with linux before I even attempt to setup myth. I just wanted to make sure of what you have told me, since it owuld suck to learn one or 2 distro's really well and then find out I have to use a completely differant one for myth. But that appears to not be the case, as I has suspected.

I am currently playing a bit with knoppix. Having some problems with it, which normally would be a bad thing, but now I consider it a good thing, as it makes me have to work to figure it out, and I am learning a lot.

 

[Klixxer]

Originally posted by: drag
All linux distros are about the same. The major differences come in how they are set up and how they are presented initially during a install.

Each distro is perfectly capable of doing anything that any other distro can do. Some things in one distro may be a bit easier to do because of the setup, and other distros may have specific bugs in software that occasionally gets in the way of making things that work in all distros equally. Also configuration, especially for networking and startup scripts will vary from distro to distro.

But there is nothing that will stop any distro from running Mythtv as well as any other as long as you are willing to put the work in.

That being said probably Fedora core2 would be the easiest. Not because of any innate superiority, but simply because some people that happen to use Fedora have gone thru a lot of work to make sure that it is easy to set up and run well.

Mythtv has a VERY complicated set of dependances that you need to be able to deal with in order to have it run correctly. The Mythtv folks, instead of writing everything from scratch, have taken functionality provided by other programs and incorporated it into the overall mythtv package.

For instance for channel listings, settings, and scedualling they use a MySQL database. The channel listings are gathered using XMLTV. The video player that they use to play media, such as TV, is Mplayer, and the encoding is taken care of using Mencoder. Video drivers are provided from the IVTV project for Wintv PVR-250 and 350 mpeg2 cards, and bttv and VL4 provide drivers for the normal, cheaper cards you tend to see. (some cards, such as the ATI All-in-wonder (not to be confused with the Wonder TV capture cards) won't work in Linux). etc etc.

So it can be a lot of work to find and install all these programs. Also making sure that all of them are setup with the correct functionality needed to be used in MythTV. And that's not even counting stuff like the game emulation and weather stuff.

So by using tools like Apt (or Yum), and the 3rd-party Atrpm rpm database. It makes it easy to install all this software (apt-get install mythtv-suite or some such command).

fedora mythtv howto page.
the official mythtv howto

Oh. and when you install Fedora, be sure to select "install everything" option, just to make it easy on yourself. You can go and later turn off services and such you don't want running.

Also mythtv isn't realy all that easy to deal with. It may take a few different tries. Just go slow and be sure to read everything in both howtos because their are tips and tricks randomly placed that may help out.

This guy should be elite.

 

[pitupepito2000]

Originally posted by: Klixxer

Originally posted by: drag
All linux distros are about the same. The major differences come in how they are set up and how they are presented initially during a install.

Each distro is perfectly capable of doing anything that any other distro can do. Some things in one distro may be a bit easier to do because of the setup, and other distros may have specific bugs in software that occasionally gets in the way of making things that work in all distros equally. Also configuration, especially for networking and startup scripts will vary from distro to distro.

But there is nothing that will stop any distro from running Mythtv as well as any other as long as you are willing to put the work in.

That being said probably Fedora core2 would be the easiest. Not because of any innate superiority, but simply because some people that happen to use Fedora have gone thru a lot of work to make sure that it is easy to set up and run well.

Mythtv has a VERY complicated set of dependances that you need to be able to deal with in order to have it run correctly. The Mythtv folks, instead of writing everything from scratch, have taken functionality provided by other programs and incorporated it into the overall mythtv package.

For instance for channel listings, settings, and scedualling they use a MySQL database. The channel listings are gathered using XMLTV. The video player that they use to play media, such as TV, is Mplayer, and the encoding is taken care of using Mencoder. Video drivers are provided from the IVTV project for Wintv PVR-250 and 350 mpeg2 cards, and bttv and VL4 provide drivers for the normal, cheaper cards you tend to see. (some cards, such as the ATI All-in-wonder (not to be confused with the Wonder TV capture cards) won't work in Linux). etc etc.

So it can be a lot of work to find and install all these programs. Also making sure that all of them are setup with the correct functionality needed to be used in MythTV. And that's not even counting stuff like the game emulation and weather stuff.

So by using tools like Apt (or Yum), and the 3rd-party Atrpm rpm database. It makes it easy to install all this software (apt-get install mythtv-suite or some such command).

fedora mythtv howto page.
the official mythtv howto

Oh. and when you install Fedora, be sure to select "install everything" option, just to make it easy on yourself. You can go and later turn off services and such you don't want running.

Also mythtv isn't realy all that easy to deal with. It may take a few different tries. Just go slow and be sure to read everything in both howtos because their are tips and tricks randomly placed that may help out.

This guy should be elite.

:beer: