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Building a Linux PVR with MythTV: A Comprehensive Guide

This guide provides an extensive overview of constructing a Personal Video Recorder (PVR) using Linux and MythTV. It covers the basics of PVR technology, including features such as electronic program guides, live show pause, and recording capabilities. The document walks you through planning, installation, and offers a demo of the system. Additionally, it discusses hardware requirements, installation instructions for various Linux distributions, and troubleshooting tips for common issues. Ideal for enthusiasts looking to create a DIY home media solution.

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Building a Linux PVR with MythTV: A Comprehensive Guide

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  1. Building a PVR Using Linux and MythTV May 19, 2004 Jeffrey Perry jeffperry_2003@yahoo.com Boston Linux Users Group

  2. Building a Linux PVR w/ MythTV • Introduction • Planning • Installation • Demo • Conclusions

  3. What is a PVR? PVR = Personal Video Recorder A video recorder which records to the hard disk instead of a tape Definition varies but most include: • Electronic Program guide, pause/ff/rw live and recorded shows • Other possible features ... remote viewing, web scheduling, music etc.

  4. Motivation • TiVo is cool, wouldn't you like one too? • How much does it really cost? • Ok, I want to burn DVDs too. How much now? • Interesting project • Practical - no VCR or DVD player already

  5. Commercial PVRs • TiVo • ReplayTV • Others....

  6. TiVo: How much does it cost? • 40 Hours - $149 * • 80 Hours - $249 * • 140 Hours - $349 * *= PLUS program listing service fee of $ 12.95/month or $299 lifetime PLUS $99 for Home Media Option

  7. TiVo: Home Media Option • Web scheduling • Digital photos • Digital music • Multi-room viewing

  8. ReplayTV How Much does it cost? • 40 Hours - $150* • 80 Hours - $300* • 160 Hours - $450* • 320 Hours - $800* *=PLUS program listing service fee of $ 12.95/month or $299 lifetime

  9. Cost of DVD Recorders Q: How much to buy a consumer device which can record TV shows to DVD? A: Consumer DVD recorders range in price from $200- $500 Consider: PC DVD Writers Sony 4x for $118( Jan 2004, rebate) Sony 8x for $160 (now @ compusa.com)

  10. Enter MythTV: Features • Record TV shows, scheduled, instant record • Free Program guide - via Zapdata.com, others • Pause/Fastforward/Rewind Live TV, recordings • Store & play music, DVD videos • Watch & record at same time • Check weather, news, and browse web • Play and burn DVDs • Skip commercials – auto detect and flag • Play SNES & other video games (Xmame)

  11. MythTVArchitecuture Strengths • Distributed modular design • Frontend - the UI you interact with • Backend - Tracks schedule, records, streams playback • Highly Scalable • Multiple tuners • Add tuners to machines and share • Multiple back ends • A single master backend coordinates the rest • Open Source

  12. Hardware: TV Tuner Tradeoffs • Hardware MPEG chip • Faster encode/decode without load on PC • Result: Can use slower CPU • Tuner only • Requires card support video4linux driver (or bttv driver) • Requires high speed CPU for encode/decode • See: PVR Hardware Guide http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-page.php?pageName=install_guides

  13. Hardware: Hauppauge Tuner Cards • WinTV PVR250 (~$100) • Hardware Encode • WinTV PVR350 ($200) • Hardware Encode • Hardware Decode • Radio Tuner • Comes with an IR remote

  14. Hardware: Display Options • WinTV PVR350 has TV Out • Linux ivtv driver needed • Still under development • Still a bit unstable with occaisional hangs • Video card w/ TV Out support • This may be the better bet for stability right now. • Still need a tuner card (either simple or w/MPEG encode/decode in hardware)

  15. Hardware: Motherboard, DVD, Hard Drive • Beware of cheap VIA chipset motherboards. MythTV problems await! (Don't panic yet- some workarounds exist which MAY cure it) • DVD Writer (optional) • Used to install Linux, archive shows • Big Hard Drive • approx 1G/30 mins @ 480x480 MPEG2 • better compression possible with lower res or tweaking

  16. Hardware: Device Drivers for TV Card &Video • TV Card • Hauppauge WinTV PVR250/350 • ivtv version 0.1.10pre2 or newer stable version • PVR350 only - Patches to X windows (framebuffer coexistance with ivtv framebuffer interaction) • Other tuners • Video4Linux kernel module • Video card w/ TV Out • X windows driver for your card

  17. Hardware: Remote Controls Remote control functionality: LIRC package • Supports IR and RF remotes including home made receivers

  18. My Hardware Setup • Case: AMS gBox P4 Blue CF-968L ($230, sale) • CPU: 1.7Ghz celeron ($65) • Motherbrd: Socket478B Chyang Fun CFI-S968L • 256 meg RAM ($65) • Hauppauge WinTV PVR350 ($200) • Sony DVD +-RW writer 4X ($118,rebate) • Seagate 200 Gig (about 100 hours) HD ($100,rebate) • TOTAL Cost: $778

  19. Installation: Choosing a Linux Distribution • Suse 8.1 too many additions & probs reported • KnoppMyth R4 is not the easy way out • Choose tried and true Redhat 9.0 • ATRPMs has most of the rest of what you need • Apt-get for rpm is your friend • Still some kernel packages issues, requires forced loading of some rpms. Getting better. • Use Jarrod's guide - updated now for Fedora http://wilsonet.com/mythtv

  20. Installation: Choosing a Filesystem • File system choice • Ext3 (my choice, simple default for now) • XFS (some report better perfomance) • Generally good idea to increase inode size (default is 4k, 64 meg would be better)

  21. Installation Overview • Install Redhat • Install device driver for tuner (PVR2/350 reqs extract windows driver from cdrom) • create mythtv user • Install atrpms-kickstart • Get latest updates (Apt-get update) • Get mythtvsuite and dependencies (apt-get mythtv-suite) - 54 packages in all - not perfect • Mythtvsetup

  22. Installation Overview (Cont.) • Mythfilldatabase • Start mythbackend • Start mythfrontend, visit setup section and config • Configure each module - (see docs at mythtv.org) • (some modules )Additional tweaks outside GUI (example: Installing a new Video for MythVideo)

  23. Installation tweaks • Turn off automount of Cds (mythmusic ripper) • Turn off esd or artsd • Remove ~mythtv/.kde/Autostart/Autorun.desktop • Chkconfig autofs off, apmd off, httpd on (mythweb) • Ln -s /dev/scd0 /dev/dvd (MythDVD) • Edit channels (~mythtv/<sourcename>/.xmltv & tweaks to associated DB tables) • Turn on DMA on HD (hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda)

  24. News Weather Web Images Games (not setup) Demonstration MythTV • MyhtvSetup • Mythfilldatabase • MythFrontend Setup • TV • Video • DVD • Music

  25. Conclusions: MythTv Rough spots • PVR250/350 record to MPEG2 directly so Commercial cutting must be done manually. Still not perfect. A/V sync is a challenge for MPEG2 w/o having to rencode whole file (takes hours) • Integration is not as seamless as it may seem (ex: Remote control of MythVideo requires edits to your lirc config file) [mplayer] • Installing videos not ripped from DVD is done outside the GUI by copying, then back to GUI to "scan" for new files

  26. MythTV Rough Spots (Cont.) • Mythfrontend UI • Selecting exit, then yes does not shutdown the machine • Icons for recorded state non obvious • - MythWeather (simple, easy to use, does it's job well :-) • A few small bugs • Zip code feature is not obvious. • MythTV - generally non existent end-user documentation.

  27. Conclusion: MythTv Strengths • Recording scheduling flexibility & prioritization • Playback features including FF, Pause, Rewind • More features than TiVo • Excellent modules: MythTv, MythMusic, MythDVD, MythWeather and MythNews • Flexible distributed architecture • Clever design makes apps appear mostly seamless (xml config files control app integration & gui themes)

  28. Conclusion & Recommendations Building a reasonably priced full-featured Tivo alternative with more features including DVD writing is possible - the result is very usable and enjoyable but will take some effort • Recommendations • TV Out: Buy a video card with TV output • Tuner: PVR 250/350 • Redhat 9.0 / Fedora & Jarrod's walkthrough • DVD Writer, Hard Drive (BIG)

  29. Resources - Start Here • MythTV http://www.mythtv.org • IVTV (Hauppauge PVR250/350 Driver) http://ivtv.sourceforge.net • PVR Hardware Guide http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-pvrhwdb.php • Jarrods Redhat 9.0 and Fedora Install Guide http://www.wilsonet.com/mythtv

  30. Resources - MythTV • Myth TV Main site (download, docs, etc) http://mythtv.org • MythTV Mailing list archives (links to lists at bottom) http://mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythInfo • MythTV forums http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/ • Windows front-end for MythTV http://winmyth.sourceforge.net/ • Jarrod's MythTV install walkthrough for Fedora, other info http://www.wilsonet.com/mythtv/

  31. Resources - LIRC & IVTV • LIRC Remote control http://www.lirc.org • Ivy Wiki (ivtv community) http://ivtv.writeme.ch • IVTV Sourceforge page http://ivtv.sourceforge.net/ • IVTV Development list archives http://www.poptix.net/ivtv/

  32. Resources - PVR Hardware • PVR Hardware News http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-view_articles.php • PVR Hardware Guide http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-pvrhwdb.php • PVR Hardware Install guides for MythTV, others http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tikipage.php?pageName=install_guides

  33. Resources - Edit/cut commercials • Avidemux http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/ • Note on running dvdauthor w/ avidemux http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showpost.php?p=152219&postcount=9 • Gopchop http://sourceforge.net/projects/gopchop/ http://outflux.net/unix/software/GOPchop/ • Cinelerra Video Editor http://heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra.php3 • MythMkMovie (output not mpeg, requires transcoding) http://www.icelus.org/

  34. Resources - DVD Burning • Dvd-rw-tools & growisofs http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW • DVD Author http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net/ • GUI front-end for dvdauthor http://qdvdauthor.sourceforge.net/ • DVDStyler - GUI front-end for dvdauthor http://dvdstyler.sourceforge.net/ • DVD Slideshow http://dvd-slideshow.sourceforge.net/ • Linux Journal artile on DVD authoring http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6953 • Linux Gazette DVD burning howto http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue83/stoddard.html • Cdrecord (limitation on burn size w/o agreeing to license and getting free key)http://www.fokus.gmd.de/research/cc/glone/employees/joerg.schilling/private/cdrecord.html • Computer burned DVDs - info on compatibility w/ consumer DVD players http://www.videohelp.com/

  35. Resources - Misc. • Libmpeg http://libmpeg2.sourceforge.net/downloads.html • Transcode http://www.theorie.physik.unigoettingen.de/~ostreich/transcode/ • Commercial DVD burning package - GearPro for Linux http://www.gearsoftware.com/products/ProLinux/index.cfm • Linux video studio - GUI for editing http://packages.debian.org/stable/graphics/linuxvideostudio

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