Installing and using MythTV
Robert Kulagowski, mailto:rkulagow@rocketmail.com
<mailto:rkulagow@rocketmail.com>
2009-10-12, v0.22.00
Initially, installation of MythTV seems like a huge task. There are
lots of dependencies, and various distributions seem to do the same
thing different ways. This document will attempt to give general
installation instructions, as well as including distribution-specific
instructions where necessary.
______________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
1. First things first.
1.1 What is MythTV?
1.2 QuickStart
1.3 Upgrading from previous versions
1.4 How to obtain this document / PDF versions of this document
1.5 Books about MythTV
1.6 Document conventions
1.7 Mailing lists / getting help
1.8 IRC
1.9 Bug database
1.10 Contributing to this document
2. Introduction.
3. Checking prerequisites.
3.1 Hardware
3.1.1 CPU Type and Speed
3.1.2 Memory
3.1.3 Hard Disk(s)
3.1.4 Filesystems
3.1.5 Video Capture Device
3.1.5.1 Frame Grabbers.
3.1.5.2 Hardware MPEG-2 encoders.
3.1.5.3 DVB capture cards.
3.1.5.4 HDTV.
3.1.5.5 Hauppauge HD PVR
3.1.6 Playback of HDTV using CPU
3.1.7 Playback of HDTV using VDPAU
3.1.7.1 Firewire.
3.1.7.2 DBoxII or other devices running Neutrino
3.1.7.3 USB Capture Devices.
3.1.7.4 IP Recorder (RTSP, RTS, UDP)
3.1.8 Sound card
3.1.9 Video Display Card
3.1.10 Cards with TV-out
3.1.10.1 ATI
3.1.10.2 NVIDIA
3.1.10.3 Hauppauge PVR-350
3.1.11 External Adapters
3.2 Software
3.2.1 Pre-compiled packages
3.2.1.1 Red Hat Linux / Fedora Core / MythDora
3.2.1.2 Debian
3.2.2 Manual installation
3.2.3 Command-line installation
3.2.3.1 Fedora / Mythdora
3.2.3.2 Mythbuntu
3.2.3.3 Debian.
4. System Configuration Requirements for Compiling MythTV.
4.1 Software requirements for compiling MythTV
4.1.1 General requirements
4.2 Shared-Library requirements for MythTV
4.2.1 Modifying /etc/ld.so.conf
4.3 Environment variable requirements for MythTV
4.3.1 General requirements
4.3.1.1 QT libraries and binaries
4.3.2 Device Permissions
5. Downloading and compiling.
5.1 Configuring the Schedules Direct service
5.2 Manually building MythTV
5.2.1 Enabling real-time scheduling of the display thread.
5.2.1.1 rlimits
5.2.1.2 realtime module
5.2.1.3 run as root option (not safe)
5.2.2 Frontend-only configuration
5.3 Gentoo
6. MySQL.
6.1 Distribution-specific information
6.1.1 Mandriva
6.1.2 Red Hat Linux and Fedora Core
6.1.3 Gentoo
6.2 Setting up the initial database
6.2.1 Mandriva and Red Hat Linux/Fedora Core
6.2.2 Debian 3.0
6.2.3 Gentoo
6.2.4 Modifying access to the MySQL database for multiple systems
7. Configuring Sound.
7.1 Graphically setting up the mixer
7.1.1 Mandriva and Red Hat Linux/Fedora Core
7.1.1.1 Using ALSA.
7.2 Setting the mixer from the command line
8. Setting up a remote control.
8.1 Gentoo
8.2 Additional information for lirc
8.3 Configuring lirc for use with an IR blaster
9. Configuring MythTV.
9.1 Configuring the Master backend system
9.1.1 General
9.1.2 Capture Cards
9.1.3 Video Sources
9.1.4 Input Connections
9.1.5 Channel Editor
9.1.6 Storage Groups
9.1.6.1 Introduction.
9.1.6.2 How to use Storage Groups.
9.1.6.3 Migrating to Storage Groups.
9.1.6.4 Advanced: Algorithm used by the Storage Group
9.2 Post-configuration
9.3 Configuring a non-master backend
9.4 Configuring and running mythfilldatabase
9.4.1 Periodically running mythfilldatabase
9.5 Grabbing channel icons for Schedules Direct users
10. Configuring mythfrontend.
10.1 General
10.2 Appearance
10.3 Program Guide
10.4 Playback
10.4.1 Video Filters
10.4.2 Applying filters
10.4.3 Currently Available Filters
10.4.4 Usage Considerations
10.5 Recording
11. Using MythTV.
11.1 Keyboard commands
11.1.1 mythfrontend
11.1.2 Watching TV or a recording
11.1.3 Watching TV only
11.1.4 LiveTV Browse Mode
11.1.5 Playback Recording Zoom Mode
11.1.6 If you have two or more tuner cards
11.1.7 Watching a recording only
11.1.8 EPG
11.1.9 Setting Program or Channel Recording Priorities
11.1.10 Viewing Scheduled Recordings/Resolving Conflicts
11.1.11 Viewing Search Listings
11.1.12 Recording Profiles Setup Screen
11.1.13 Recording Groups
11.1.14 Watch Recordings Screen
11.1.15 Remote Controls
11.2 Using themes with MythTV
11.3 Adding support for an external tuner
11.4 Using Shutdown/Wakeup
11.4.1 A deeper look into the operation
11.4.2 Setting up the MythTV side of this extension.
11.4.2.1 Using WOL to wake your Master backend.
11.4.2.2 Using BIOS wakeup to wake your Master backend.
11.4.3 Wakeup the MySQL server using WOL
11.4.4 Tips/Tricks:
11.5 Controlling the mythfrontend via telnet
12. Scheduling Recordings.
12.1 Record Types
12.2 Scheduling Options
12.2.1 Priority
12.2.2 Duplicates
12.2.3 Conflicts
12.2.4 Scheduling decisions
12.2.5 Reschedule Higher Priorities
12.2.6 Controlling Your Schedule
12.3 Storage Options
12.3.1 Recording Profile
12.3.2 Recording Group
12.3.4 Playback Group
12.3.5 Auto-Expire
12.3.6 Episode Limit
12.4 Post Recording Processing
12.4.1 Commercial Flagging
12.4.2 Transcoding
12.4.3 User Jobs
12.5 Advanced Recording Options
12.5.1 Creating Power Search rules with Custom Record
12.5.2 Getting Started
12.5.3 How it Works
12.5.4 Common Tricks and Tips
12.5.5 Working with SQL
12.6 Scheduling with more than one Input
12.6.1 Mutually Exclusive Inputs
12.6.2 Stations, Channels and Video Sources
12.6.3 Order of Inputs
12.6.4 Matching Callsigns
12.6.5 Using Priorities to Prefer an Input
12.6.6 Input Priority
12.6.7 Channel Priority
12.6.8 Preferred Input
12.6.9 HDTV Priority
12.6.10 Custom Priority
13. MythPlugins.
14. MythWeb.
14.1 Installation and prerequisites
14.1.1 Mandriva
14.2 Completing the installation
14.3 Resetting the key binding table
14.4 Resetting the theme.
15. MythGallery.
15.1 Installation and prerequisites
15.2 Using MythGallery
15.3 Importing Pictures
16. MythGame.
16.1 Setup Directory Structure
16.2 Download and Install xmame
16.3 Download extra files
16.4 Download and Install MythGame.
16.5 Setup xmame in MythGame
16.6 Hints:
17. MythMusic.
17.1 Manual installation of prerequisites
17.2 Mandriva
17.2.1 Additional options with MythMusic
17.3 Red Hat Linux 9
17.4 Compiling MythMusic
17.5 Configuring MythMusic
17.6 Using MythMusic
17.7 Troubleshooting MythMusic
17.7.1 When I run MythMusic and try and look up a CD, I get an
error message
18. MythWeather.
19. MythVideo.
20. MythDVD.
20.1 Manual Compilation of Prerequisites
20.2 Pre-compiled binaries
20.3 Running the Myth Transcoding Daemon
21. MythNews.
22. Troubleshooting.
22.1 Compiling
22.1.1 Compile errors
22.1.2 make: *** No rule to make target
/usr/lib/qt3/mkspecs/default/qmake.conf', needed by
Makefile'. Stop.
22.1.3 make: *** No rule to make target
/mkspecs/default/qmake.conf', needed by Makefile'. Stop.
22.1.4 Internal Segmentation Fault.
22.2 Debugging
22.2.1 MythTV segfaults
22.2.2 MythTV isn't doing anything
22.2.3 Debugging with GDB
22.2.4 MythTV is crashing your system
22.3 Installing
22.3.1 When trying to run mythtv-setup, you get an error like
this: "mythtv-setup: error while loading shared
libraries:"
22.4 Using
22.4.1 No programs are displayed in "Watch Recordings"
22.4.2 MySQL not connecting correctly
22.4.3 MySQL database is corrupt
22.4.4 Using a MPEG-2 encoder card and the video appears
"jittery"
22.4.5 Using a MPEG-2 encoder card and the video is jumping up
and down
22.4.6 Screen goes blank but returns when mouse is moved or
keyboard is used
22.5 Miscellaneous
22.5.1 mythfilldatabase failing
22.5.2 Fast CPU, choppy or jittery video
22.5.3 Frontend appears to be slow at jumping / seeking.
22.5.4 On-screen Display shows incorrect program length.
22.5.5 Troubleshooting audio
22.5.6 Mythbackend reports that your card is not reporting full
duplex capabilities
22.5.7 The mythbackend program told me to look at this section
22.5.8 My remote doesn't work / works sometimes and not others /
"ghost" keypresses
22.5.9 Where's "canada-cable"?
22.5.10 Channels are off by one
22.5.11 Mythweb is showing a db_open error when I connect to it
22.5.12 Mouse pointer disappears when placed over the MythTV
windows
22.5.13 What does "strange error flushing buffer" mean on
the console?
22.5.14 Can't change the channel when watching Live TV.
22.5.15 Screen goes black when you try to play something
22.5.16 Poor performance with NVidia cards and XvMC
22.5.17 Computer is loading a media player application when you
insert a CD or DVD
23. Miscellaneous.
23.1 I'd like to watch the files without using MythTV / I'd like to
convert the files to some other format
23.1.1 mythtranscode example
23.2 Using a different window manager
23.3 What capture resolution should I use? How does video work?
23.4 MythTV GUI and X Display Sizes
23.4.1 X Dimensions
23.4.2 MythTV Dimensions
23.4.3 Overscan Dimensions
23.5 Saving or restoring the database
23.6 Deleting the MySQL database
23.7 btaudio
23.8 Removing unwanted channels
23.9 NFS
23.10 Automatically starting mythfrontend at system boot time
23.11 Automatically starting mythbackend at system boot time
23.11.1 Red Hat And Mandriva
23.11.1.1 Log files
23.11.1.2 Mandriva
23.11.2 Gentoo
23.12 Advanced Backend Configurations
23.13 Using the transcoder
23.13.1 Configuring Recording Profiles to Allow Transcoding
23.13.2 Configure Transcoding Profiles
23.13.3 Create/Alter Scheduled Recordings to Enable Transcoding
23.13.4 Manual Transcoding
23.14 Changing your hostname
23.15 Can I run MythTV on my TiVo?
23.16 Can I run MythTV on my ReplayTV?
23.17 Can a wireless connection be used between the frontend and the
backend?
23.18 How can I burn shows that I have recorded to a DVD?
23.19 Using the DBoxII within MythTV
23.20 What do the icons on the Watch Recordings screen mean?
23.21 What do the letters mean when I change channels?
23.22 What is the difference between the various Hauppauge PVR
models?
23.23 Changing channels on an external Set Top Box
23.24 Configuring one machine to flag all commercials
24. Example Configurations.
24.1 Advanced Partition Formatting
24.1.1 Ext2
24.1.2 Ext3
24.1.3 ReiserFS
24.1.4 JFS
24.1.5 XFS
24.2 Caching support for Schedules Direct
______________________________________________________________________
11.. FFiirrsstt tthhiinnggss ffiirrsstt..
NNOOTTEE: Please note that I, Robert Kulagowski, am _N_O_T the
author/programmer of the MythTV application! I can not give you
personalized installation support. If you are having issues installing
MythTV you should examine the archives, or post your question to the
MythTV-users mailing list. If you send me "Does MythTV work with 'X'"?
messages - I will simply instruct you to ask your question on the
mythtv-users mailing list.
11..11.. WWhhaatt iiss MMyytthhTTVV??
MythTV is a GPL licensed suite of programs that allow you to build the
mythical home media convergence box on your own using Open Source
software and operating systems. MythTV is known to work on Linux and
Mac OS X (PowerPC and Intel). It does not run on Windows.
MythTV has a number of capabilities. The television portion allows you
to do the following:
+o You may pause, fast-forward and rewind live Television.
+o You may install multiple video capture cards to record more than
one program at a time.
+o You can have multiple servers (called "backends"), each with
multiple capture cards in them. All scheduling is performed by the
Master backend, which arbitrates which recording will be performed
by each device. All recording requests are managed by the Master
backend, so you can schedule a recording from any client.
+o You can have multiple clients (called "frontends" in MythTV
parlance), each with a common view of all available programs. Any
client can watch any program that was recorded by any of the
servers, assuming that they have the hardware capabilities to view
the content; a low-powered frontend will not be able to watch HDTV,
for example. Clients can be diskless and controlled entirely by a
remote control.
+o You may use any combination of standard analog capture card,
MPEG-2, MJPEG, DVB, HDTV, USB and firewire capture devices. With
appropriate hardware, MythTV can control set top boxes, often found
in digital cable and satellite TV systems.
+o Program Guide Data in North America is downloaded from
schedulesdirect.org, a non-profit organization which has licensed
data from Tribune Media Services. This service provides almost two
weeks of scheduling information. Program Guide Data in other
countries is obtained using XMLTV. MythTV uses this information to
create a schedule that maximizes the number of programs that can be
recorded if you don't have enough tuners.
+o MythTV implements a UPNP server, so a UPNP client should
automatically see content from your MythTV system.
Other modules in MythTV include:
+o MythArchive, a tool to create DVDs
+o MythBrowser, a web browser
+o MythFlix, a Netflix module
+o MythGallery, a picture-viewing application
+o MythGame
+o MythMusic, a music playing / ripping application which supports MP3
and FLAC
+o MythNews, a RSS news grabber
+o MythVideo, DVD ripper and a media-viewer for content not created
within MythTV
+o MythWeather
+o MythWeb, which allows you to control your MythTV system using a web
browser. With MythWeb, you can schedule and delete recordings,
change keybindings and more. With proper security, you may even
schedule a program over the Internet and have it immediately acted
on by the Master backend.
11..22.. QQuuiicckkSSttaarrtt
Custom mini-distributions are available to make it easier to install
MythTV. A mini-distribution removes many of the "general purpose"
workstation / server software packages that may be installed by
default if you use one of the big-name OS packages.
See http://mysettopbox.tv <http://mysettopbox.tv> if you'd like to
install a custom version of Arch Linux optimized for MythTV.
See http://www.minimyth.org <http://www.minimyth.org> for a small
MythTV distribution which can be booted over a network.
See http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/ <http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/> for
instructions tailored to RedHat's Fedora Core distribution.
See http://www.mythbuntu.org/ <http://www.mythbuntu.org/> for a
distribution using a customized Ubuntu.
See http://www.mythdora.com/ <http://www.mythdora.com/> for a
distribution using a customized Fedora Core.
There is a MythTV wiki at http://wiki.mythtv.org
<http://wiki.mythtv.org>.
11..33.. UUppggrraaddiinngg ffrroomm pprreevviioouuss vveerrssiioonnss
The upgrade from previous versions should be transparent. Any changes
to the database structure should be applied automatically.
It is _s_t_r_o_n_g_l_y recommended that you back up your database before
installing a new version of MythTV.
See ``Saving or Restoring the database'' for instructions.
11..44.. HHooww ttoo oobbttaaiinn tthhiiss ddooccuummeenntt // PPDDFF vveerrssiioonnss ooff tthhiiss ddooccuummeenntt
This HOWTO document is maintained at the primary MythTV website:
http://www.mythtv.org <http://www.mythtv.org> by Robert Kulagowski
<mailto:rkulagow@rocketmail.com>.
This document is available as a single-page HTML document at
http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-singlehtml.html
<http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-singlehtml.html> or as a PDF
at http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO.pdf
<http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO.pdf>.
This HOWTO is for MythTV v0.22
Release notes for this version may be found in the MythTV Wiki at
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Release_Notes_-_0.22
<http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Release_Notes_-_0.22>
11..55.. BBooookkss aabboouutt MMyytthhTTVV
If you would like to purchase a book specifically about MythTV:
+o Hacking MythTV, ISBN 978-0470037874 by Wilson, Tittel, Wright and
Korelc
+o Practical MythTV: Building a PVR and Media Center PC, ISBN
978-1590597798 by Smith and Still
11..66.. DDooccuummeenntt ccoonnvveennttiioonnss
The following conventions are used throughout this document.
bboollddffaaccee - used for program names.
typewriter - used for program paths.
_e_m_p_h_a_s_i_s - Pay attention here.
Pay more attention.
Ignore at your own peril.
Feature that has been added to SVN (subversion, a revision control system)
but is not available in the current release.
11..77.. MMaaiilliinngg lliissttss // ggeettttiinngg hheellpp
It's recommended that you join the user list at
http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
<http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users>. The developer
list is at http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev
<http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev>. Please keep
the developer list strictly for development-related issues.
Searchable archives for the lists are available at
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/ <http://www.gossamer-
threads.com/lists/mythtv/>.
11..88.. IIRRCC
There are two IRC channels dedicated to MythTV which can be found on
irc.freenode.net
+o mythtv
+o mythtv-users
The mythtv channel is where the developers discuss code. It is _n_o_t a
user-support channel. Please don't ask non-development related
questions there.
Really. Even if there's no one in the mythtv-users IRC group or everyone
seems to be ignoring you.
11..99.. BBuugg ddaattaabbaassee
If you feel you need to contribute to a bug database, use the MythTV
bug ticketing system at http://svn.mythtv.org/trac
<http://svn.mythtv.org/trac>.
Good entries will contain the following:
1. Qt version
2. Linux distribution
3. gcc version
4. the last entry in config.log to detail how you compiled
5. MythTV version numbers (_e_._g_.from mythfrontend --version)
6. Hardware
7. How you are able to reproduce the bug
See the instructions on how to debug in ``Section 22''.
The bug database is not a chat room, so restrict your entries to what
is relevant. It's also not a repository of feature requests; a feature
request without an accompanying patch file to implement that feature
will be quickly closed. There is a feature wishlist on the wiki at
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Feature_Wishlist
<http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Feature_Wishlist>. There is no
guarantee that anything on the wishlist will ever get code written to
implement it.
If a developer closes out your bug, it's likely you didn't provide
enough information. Don't re-open a bug without providing additional
information.
11..1100.. CCoonnttrriibbuuttiinngg ttoo tthhiiss ddooccuummeenntt
Contributions to the HOWTO are welcome, especially if you find a
grammatical or spelling error, or if the wording of something is just
plain confusing.
If you'd like to make a new contribution, create a ticket at
http://svn.mythtv.org/trac <http://svn.mythtv.org/trac> and click "New
Ticket". The type should be set to "patch" and the owner set to
"rkulagow" to ensure that I see your contribution.
Please send it as either SGML or as plain text. _N_O _H_T_M_L. The source
used to create the HOWTO is in SGML / Linuxdoc. Do not be afraid of
SGML! A quick look at the source of this HOWTO will show that it is
not difficult, because there aren't that many tags to worry about, so
at least _t_r_y to submit as SGML. See the Linuxdoc HOWTO at
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Howtos-with-LinuxDoc.html
<http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Howtos-with-LinuxDoc.html> for information
on the linuxdoc format itself, or look at the mythtv-HOWTO.sgml file
as an example.
To create the actual patch, run ddiiffff --uu oorriiggffiilleennaammee nneewwffiillee >>
ddoocc..ppaattcchh and attach your contribution to the trac ticket.
22.. IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn..
This HOWTO document will focus on manually building MythTV in a North
American environment. If you have installation instructions for a
different region or Linux distribution, please send them to the author
so that it can be included in other versions of this document.
33.. CChheecckkiinngg pprreerreeqquuiissiitteess..
You must ensure that any firewalls (either hardware, or a software
firewall installed by your distribution) will not block access to the
ports that will be used by the MythTV clients and servers on the
"inside" LAN. The ports for MySQL (TCP port 3306) and mythbackend
(TCP ports 6543 and 6544) must be open. It is _s_t_r_o_n_g_l_y recommended
that you do _n_o_t expose the MythTV and MySQL ports to the Internet or
your "Outside" LAN.
33..11.. HHaarrddwwaarree
Hardware selection is a complex topic, one this HOWTO will only
discuss briefly and in general terms. The following subsections offer
some general guidance but stop short of offering specific
recommendations.
For a good MythTV experience, you must understand that MythTV
exercises your hardware more than a typical desktop. Encoder cards
generate DMA across the PCI bus. The CPU is busy encoding / decoding
video. Hard drives are constantly reading and writing data. Building a
MythTV system on older / "spare" hardware may be an exercise in
frustration and can waste many hours of valuable time.
If you have specific questions about the suitability of specific
hardware choices, you can consult the archives of the mythtv-users
mailing list at http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/
<http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/> or post a question to
the list.
33..11..11.. CCPPUU TTyyppee aanndd SSppeeeedd
Selection of CPU type and speed is one of the trickiest elements of
hardware selection, mainly because there are so many tradeoffs which
can be made. For example, if you have plenty of CPU, you can use
higher bitrates or capture sizes, etc.
MythTV has two modes of operation. First, it can function as a
software video encoder, which means that it uses a fairly generic
"dumb" video capture card to get frames of video, encodes them using
the CPU on your motherboard and writes them to disk. High-end video
capture cards and devices like the TiVo and ReplayTV have dedicated
encoder chips which use specialized hardware to convert the video
stream to the MPEG-2 format without using the motherboard CPU. The
main CPU has the responsibility of running the Operating System and
reading and writing the encoded frames to the disk. These tasks have
fairly low CPU requirements compared to encoding video, which is why a
device like a Series 1 TiVo can run with only 16MB of RAM and a 54MHz
CPU.
There are many variables that go into the question: "How fast a CPU do
I need to run MythTV"? Obviously, the faster your CPU, the better your
experience will be with MythTV. If you are using the software MPEG-4
encoder and performing the "Watch TV" function, where the CPU is both
encoding and decoding video simultaneously to allow Pause, Fast
Forward and Rewind functions for live TV requires more CPU then just
encoding or decoding. MythTV also supports multiple encoder cards in a
single PC, thereby increasing the CPU requirements if you plan on
simultaneously encoding multiple programs. As a general guideline,
plan on 1GHz per encoder if you are doing software-based encoding,
less if you are using a hardware-based encoder.
Here are a few data points:
+o A PIII/733MHz system can encode one video stream using the MPEG-4
codec using 480x480 capture resolution. This does not allow for
live TV watching, but does allow for encoding video and then
watching it later.
+o A developer states that his AMD1800+ system can aallmmoosstt encode two
MPEG-4 video streams and watch one program simultaneously.
+o A PIII/800MHz system with 512MB RAM can encode one video stream
using the RTjpeg codec with 480x480 capture resolution and play it
back simultaneously, thereby allowing live TV watching.
+o A dual Celeron/450MHz is able to view a 480x480 MPEG-4/3300kbps
file created on a different system with 30% CPU usage.
+o A P4 2.4GHz machine can encode two 3300Kbps 480x480 MPEG-4 files
and simultaneously serve content to a remote frontend.
The second mode of operation is where MythTV is paired with a
hardware-based video encoder, in which case MythTV will primarily be
I/O bound. There are several examples of such devices, like the
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150/250/350/500 series, the Hauppauge HD-PVR, or
the Silicon Dust HDHomerun. In this mode, because the video encoding
is being done by a dedicated video processor (the Hauppauges), or the
device is simply writing the data to disk (the HDHR and other digital
devices, such as DVB cards) the host CPU requirements are quite low.
See the ``Video Capture Device'' section for details.
Primary development in MythTV has transitioned to supporting MPEG-2
capture devices and HDTV, so if given the option, go with the hardware
MPEG-2 encoder or ATSC. Because of the transition to digital broadcast
in the United States, most television stations are now digital-only.
There are still analog stations in the U.S., but a majority are low-
powered. Canada still has analog broadcasts.
Analog encoding or hardware MPEG-2 encoding may still be required if
you are trying to capture standard definition video sources, such as
set-top-boxes.
33..11..22.. MMeemmoorryy
A MythTV host that is both a backend and a frontend and using software
encoding with a single capture card should run adequately in 512MB of
RAM. Additional RAM above 512MB will not necessarily increase
performance, but may be useful if you are running multiple encoders.
33..11..33.. HHaarrdd DDiisskk((ss))
Encoded video takes up a lot of hard disk space. The exact amount
depends on the encoding scheme, the size of the raw images and the
frames per second, but typical values for MythTV range from 700
megabytes/hour for MPEG-4, 2 GB/hour for MPEG-2 and RTjpeg and 7
GB/hour for ATSC HDTV.
NNOOTTEE: You _m_u_s_t use DMA for hard drive access to prevent
choppy or jittery video. Not all distributions enable DMA at boot
time. See the Troubleshooting Section for ``instructions'' on how to
do this.
Writing video to disk is sensitive to timing issues; RTjpeg requires
less CPU with the tradeoff being larger files and needing to write to
the disk faster. MPEG-4 requires more CPU, but the files are smaller.
At the default resolution, MPEG-2 creates the largest files of all
with almost no CPU impact.
See the Troubleshooting ``section'' for more information.
33..11..44.. FFiilleessyysstteemmss
MythTV creates large files, many in excess of 4GB. You _m_u_s_t use a 64
or 128 bit filesystem. These will allow you to create large files.
Filesystems known to have problems with large files are FAT (all
versions), and ReiserFS (versions 3 and 4).
Because MythTV creates very large files, a filesystem that does well
at deleting them is important. Numerous benchmarks show that XFS and
JFS do very well at this task. You are _s_t_r_o_n_g_l_y encouraged to consider
one of these for your MythTV filesystem. JFS is the absolute best at
deletion, so you may want to try it if XFS gives you problems. MythTV
incorporates a "slow delete" feature, which progressively shrinks the
file rather than attempting to delete it all at once, so if you're
more comfortable with a filesystem such as ext3 (whose delete
performance for large files isn't that good) you may use it rather
than one of the known-good high-performance file systems. There are
other ramifications to using XFS and JFS - neither offer the
opportunity to shrink a filesystem; they may only be expanded.
NNOOTTEE: You _m_u_s_t _n_o_t use ReiserFS v3 for
your recordings. You will get corrupted recordings if you do.
Because of the size of the MythTV files, it may be useful to plan for
future expansion right from the beginning. If your case and power
supply have the capacity for additional hard drives, read through the
``Advanced Partition Formatting'' sections for some pointers.
33..11..55.. VViiddeeoo CCaappttuurree DDeevviiccee
In order to capture video, MythTV will need one or more video capture
devices with Linux drivers. There are a number of classes of hardware
available for capturing video.
33..11..55..11.. FFrraammee GGrraabbbbeerrss..
This class of card is the simplest and is usually the cheapest. There
is no on-board encoding of the analog video; hardware known as a
Digital-Analog Converter (DAC) takes the video and presents it to the
computer in an essentially raw digital form.
For a list of video capture cards known to work with Linux, please see
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/video4linux/bttv for a partial listing;
even if your specific card is not listed, it may be that the vendor is
actually using a standard reference design and placing their own name
on it. See the video4linux mailing list
(https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/video4linux-list
<https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/video4linux-list>) for
more information and for specific hardware questions.
The most common inexpensive cards available use the Bt848, Bt878 or
CX2388x series of video capture chips; examples are the "Hauppauge
WinTV Go" card and the "AverTV Desktop PVR" card, both of which use
the bttv kernel module.
______________________________________________________________________
NOTE: The ATI TV Wonder series and the ATI All-in-Wonder series of cards
are not the same. The All-in-Wonder cards will not work with MythTV.
______________________________________________________________________
NNOOTTEE: The ATI All-in-Wonder cards (which are not the same
as the ATI TV Wonder, TV Wonder VE or TV Wonder Pro) _w_i_l_l _n_o_t work as
a MythTV capture device because the GATOS http://gatos.sourceforge.net
<http://gatos.sourceforge.net> drivers that are available provide only
a limited subset of the V4L API. The TV Wonder series of cards are
supported by the Bt8x8 Video4Linux driver.
After you have installed a suitable capture device, you can check that
the kernel sees it with lspci. Look for an entry labeled "Multimedia
video controller". To get more detailed information about the card,
use lspci -v or lspci -vv. Ensure that your system is loading the bttv
modules by typing:
# lsmod |grep bttv
You want to see the bttv module listed.
33..11..55..22.. HHaarrddwwaarree MMPPEEGG--22 eennccooddeerrss..
While inexpensive video-capture cards simply capture raw frames,
leaving encoding to software, some higher-end cards incorporate
hardware-based encoding. Using either a G200 MJPEG encoder card, or a
MPEG-2 encoder card supported by the IvyTV project
http://ivtvdriver.org <http://ivtvdriver.org/> such as the Hauppauge
PVR-150/250/350/500, Avermedia M179, Hauppauge "Freestyle" or Yuan
M600 cards will allow you to use dedicated hardware encoders rather
than your CPU. Using the on-board MPEG-2 encoder greatly reduces the
CPU requirements for encoding.
NNOOTTEE: Motherboards with the Via chipset are notoriously bad with DMA
and have caused numerous issues with ivtv, including hard locks. See
the ivtv website http://ivtvdriver.org <http://ivtvdriver.org> for the
latest information on what works and what doesn't.
Here are some data points for encoding:
+o A Celeron 450 uses 2% CPU for encoding a 480x480 16Mbps MPEG-2
stream.
Here are some data points for decoding:
+o An Athlon 1800XP can decode a 720x480 8Mbps MPEG-2 file using 10%
CPU
+o An Athlon 1GHz can decode a 720x480 16Mbps MPEG-2 file using 30-50%
CPU, can decode a 480x480 16Mbps MPEG-2 using 30% CPU and
approximately 30% for Live TV at 416x480.
33..11..55..33.. DDVVBB ccaappttuurree ccaarrddss..
DVB is a video standard primarily found in Europe (where it comes in
DVB-C, DVB-T and DVB-S varieties for Cable, Terrestrial and Satellite)
and is also used as the programming interface for HDTV capture cards
in Linux. To see if your DVB card is supported, see the list of cards
in the "Supported Hardware" section of the DVB Wiki at
http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
<http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page> for more
information.
In the United States, you may use a card such as the TwinHan to obtain
unencrypted Free-To-Air satellite channels. See
http://www.lyngsat.com/ <http://www.lyngsat.com/> for the types of
content which is available.
33..11..55..44.. HHDDTTVV..
There are a number of HDTV cards with Linux drivers which are known to
operate in the United States; a complete list of cards with DVB
drivers can be found at http://www.linuxtv.org/
<http://www.linuxtv.org/> Some cards support capture of unencrypted
digital cable TV (utilizing QAM256), others will only work with Over
The Air signals captured with an antenna (with 8VSB).
_N_o_n_e of the capture devices listed above perform any encoding; they
merely allow your computer to save a copy of a HDTV stream which has
already been converted to MPEG-2 at the broadcast facility.
33..11..55..55.. HHaauuppppaauuggee HHDD PPVVRR
Hauppuage makes a device called the HD PVR, which accepts component
HDTV signals and TOSLINK / SPDIF audio and performs a real-time encode
into H.264. See http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html
<http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html> for
additional information.
33..11..66.. PPllaayybbaacckk ooff HHDDTTVV uussiinngg CCPPUU
To playback HDTV content, plan on a powerful CPU if your video card
does not provide support for offloading video decode. (See below for a
description of VDPAU)
"How powerful?" depends on a number of factors, such as the capture
resolution, whether the video is progressive or interlaced, and
whether your display card has hardware-assist support for Linux.
The Simple Answer: Once you are in the 3.2 Ghz P4-class of CPU you
should have no issues with viewing HDTV.
The Complicated Answer:
For 720p content (1280x720), a 2.4GHz P4 should be sufficient.
For 1920x1080i->1920x1080p with the better deinterlacing methods done
in real time a 2.4GHz CPU is taxed, but should work if you use "Bob
and Weave" deinterlacing, or if you have an NVIDIA card with video
decode acceleration.
33..11..77.. PPllaayybbaacckk ooff HHDDTTVV uussiinngg VVDDPPAAUU
NVIDIA now incorporates MPEG-2 and H.264 decode acceleration in their
binary driver; this is now officially supported in MythTV 0.22. Use of
VDPAU offloads the decompression and deinterlacing of video to the
video GPU rather than the CPU of the frontend, so the CPU requirements
are drastically lowered. A fanless frontend using an Intel Atom CPU
running a single-core at 1.6Ghz is sufficient to decode and
deinterlace MPEG-2 and H.264.
33..11..77..11.. FFiirreewwiirree..
You may use the Firewire output of the Motorola DCT6200 or the SA3250.
If your provider uses 5C encryption on a particular channel, you won't
be able to get any content.
33..11..77..22.. DDBBooxxIIII oorr ootthheerr ddeevviicceess rruunnnniinngg NNeeuuttrriinnoo
You may use the Ethernet port of an DBoxII or a similar device to
capture MPEG-2. Your set top box has to be running the Neutrino GUI.
33..11..77..33.. UUSSBB CCaappttuurree DDeevviicceess..
The Plextor ConvertX PVR devices are supported through Linux drivers
available from http://go7007.imploder.org/
<http://go7007.imploder.org/>. MythTV uses the Plextor to capture
hardware encoded MPEG-4, so the host CPU requirements are low.
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2 and variants are supported by the Linux
Kernel as of 2.6.18. Additional information is available at
http://www.isely.net/pvrusb2/ <http://www.isely.net/pvrusb2/>).
33..11..77..44.. IIPP RReeccoorrddeerr ((RRTTSSPP,, RRTTSS,, UUDDPP))
MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and H.264 stream recording is supported using the IPTV
recorder in MythTV. This recorder expects the channels to be supplied
as a m3u playlist. If your DSL/Fiber provider supplies television
service, but does not provide a m3u playlist for the channels, you can
construct one for your own use. You do not need to download it from
the same server as the streams themselves, and it can also be read
from a file if this is more convenient.
NNOOTTEE: Some DSL providers only allow you to use one recorder at a time,
so you may need to limit yourself to one recorder in MythTV and turn
off any set top box the cable provider sold or rented to you with your
service. This limitation is independent of the bandwidth you have
purchased.
33..11..88.. SSoouunndd ccaarrdd
The system needs a sound card or an on-board equivalent on the
motherboard to play back and in some cases, to record sound. Any sound
card that can be operated by the ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound
Architecture) kernel modules will work with MythTV. However, some
cards and drivers will provide better quality or compatibility than
others.
NNOOTTEE: Analog video capture cards are the only ones which
require a sound card for capturing audio. DVB, HDTV, and other
hardware encoder cards all provide a combined audio / video stream. If
you're not using a V4L analog device, you may skip this section.
The usual practice for capturing the audio associated with the video
is to run a cable from an audio output on the video capture card to
the Line input on a sound card. However, some video capture cards
provide on-board audio capabilities that work with the kernel btaudio
module instead, thereby eliminating the need for a cable. This is
useful if you will be using multiple capture cards in a single
chassis, since each capture card will not need its own sound card.
Note that a separate sound card is still required for playback when
using btaudio, and that often the audio recorded in this way will be
mono only. See the ``btaudio'' section for more information.
NNOOTTEE: Plugging a Line-level device into the Mic input is
not recommended. Line-level devices have higher voltages and can
damage the sound card. In addition, even if it doesn't break your
card, you will be getting Mono sound. See the Linux MP3 HOWTO at
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/MP3-HOWTO.html
<http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/MP3-HOWTO.html> for additional information.
33..11..99.. VViiddeeoo DDiissppllaayy CCaarrdd
MythTV will work with just about any video card. However, it is highly
recommended that you use a card which supports XVideo (XV) extensions.
If your card does not support XV, color conversion and scaling will be
performed by your CPU rather than the video card. This is very CPU and
memory intensive and will often result in dropped frames and a
corresponding degradation of quality. Check the X documentation for
details if you are uncertain about your preferred card. You may also
run xvinfo; look for your video card to be listed as one of the
adapters.
If you want to use MythTV with a standard television, you will need a
physical connection from your video card to your TV set, which can
either be a TV-out port on the card itself or an external adapter that
converts the VGA signal to an appropriate video signal. "Appropriate"
depends on a number of factors, such as video standard (NTSC vs. PAL),
the type of input connection (Composite vs. SVideo), etc.
Note that with some video cards and X drivers, XVideo extensions are
only supported on the VGA output, and not on the TV output.
33..11..1100.. CCaarrddss wwiitthh TTVV--oouutt
The next section deals with a number of cards that are known to have
TV-out ports. The list is unlikely to be complete, so if you know of
others, please post a message to the mythtv-users mailing list so the
information can be included in future versions of the HOWTO. The list
is organized by manufacturer.
Reports here are based on what users of the cards have posted on the
mythtv-users mailing list, so if you need configuration details,
please search the archives at http://www.gossamer-
threads.com/lists/mythtv/ <http://www.gossamer-
threads.com/lists/mythtv/> using the card name in your search string.
33..11..1100..11.. AATTII
ATI makes many cards with TV-out capability, but only offers Linux
drivers for Radeon 8500 and above cards. See the Drivers and Software
section of http://www.ati.com <http://www.ati.com/> for the driver and
additional information.
The enhanced ati.2 X driver created by the GATOS
http://gatos.sourceforge.net <http://gatos.sourceforge.net> project
offers some support for TV-out on other ATI cards, but only in its
"experimental" version, available through CVS. There have been reports
from people who say they have made this driver work with one or
another ATI card. For example, Bruce Markey <mailto:bjm@lvcm.com>
writes (on the mythtv-users mailing list): "I got this to work. You
can quote me on that. I've used TV-out on several models of ATI cards
both All-In-Wonder and regular cards with TV-out." See the
"Adventurous Setup" section of
http://gatos.sourceforge.net/watching_tv.php
<http://gatos.sourceforge.net/watching_tv.php> for details. Also see
http://www.retinalburn.net/linux/tvout.html
<http://www.retinalburn.net/linux/tvout.html> for more information.
33..11..1100..22.. NNVVIIDDIIAA
Some NVIDIA cards with TV-out can be run using the standard nv driver
in X, combined with the userspace application nnvvttvv to control the TV-
out port. See http://sourceforge.net/projects/nv-tv-out/
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/nv-tv-out/> for details. Recent
versions of the NVIDIA driver have better support for overscan and
other features useful with TV-Out, so the nnvvttvv application may not be
required.
Some NVIDIA cards can be run with a proprietary NVIDIA X driver made
available by NVIDIA. See http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html
<http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html> for more information.
NNOOTTEE: It's strongly recommended that you use the proprietary NVIDIA
drivers; they have excellent support for XvMC and ship with a good
configuration utility. XvMC provides MPEG-2 hardware acceleration,
which is important if you want to display HDTV. VDPAU is another new
feature and it provides an API for offloading MPEG-2 and H.264 to the
GPU.
33..11..1100..33.. HHaauuppppaauuggee PPVVRR--335500
As of MythTV 0.22, the TV-out and MPEG-2 decoder functions of the
PVR-350 are no longer supported. This functionality is currently
unmaintained, and will be removed in MythTV 0.23.
33..11..1111.. EExxtteerrnnaall AAddaapptteerrss
External adapters convert standard VGA output to a form suitable for
display on a television. The output format varies by region, since
different countries have different TV standards. People on the mythtv-
users list have mentioned these adapters:
+o AITech Web Cable Plus, powered by external transformer or takes
power from PS/2 keyboard connector, support resolutions up to
1024x768, outputs composite and SVideo, provides position
adjustment.
+o Averkey lite, powered by a USB port, has Composite, SVideo, YPbPr
outputs; pan, brightness, overscan/underscan controls; supports up
to 1024x768 outputs; and supports PAL and NTSC.
+o ADS TV Elite XGA
+o AverKey iMicro (comments are generally favorable)
+o AITech Web Cable (comments are generally unfavorable, different
than the "Plus" version above)
+o TVIEW Gold (mentioned once, favorably)
33..22.. SSooffttwwaarree
There are a few ways of installing programs on Linux systems; you can
either use a pre-compiled package, or install from a tarball after
satisfying any prerequisites.
NNOOTTEE: you must have the MySQL database software installed on a
system to store the master database. This does not necessarily mean
that MySQL must run on one of the MythTV boxes. The minimum MySQL
version is 5.0.15.
33..22..11.. PPrree--ccoommppiilleedd ppaacckkaaggeess
A number of people have created pre-compiled packages for MythTV that
may make your installation easier.
BBIIGG FFAATT WWAARRNNIINNGG: This HOWTO assumes that you have _n_o_t
installed MythTV from a package. All example command lines and file
locations are based on the MythTV tarball defaults. Some packagers
have modified the filenames, binaries and file locations to match what
is commonly found in that distribution. Any issues with MythTV
installed via a pre-compiled package MMUUSSTT be raised with the packager.
If you use any of the pre-compiled packages you may not need to
perform any additional configuration steps in this HOWTO. The next
logical step is ``configuring MySQL'', which you may or may not have
to perform. See your package documentation.
33..22..11..11.. RReedd HHaatt LLiinnuuxx // FFeeddoorraa CCoorree // MMyytthhDDoorraa
The definitive documentation on installing MythTV on Red Hat Linux /
Fedora Core can be found in Jarod Wilson's (mailto:jcw@wilsonet.com
<mailto:jcw@wilsonet.com>) HOWTO at http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/
<http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/> Just like 3rd-party packages, any 3rd-
party documentation problems should be brought up with the 3rd-parties
(maintainer, lists, bugzillas etc.). The installation instructions
which follow should be used as a guide only; refer to Jarod's guide.
Red Hat Linux and Fedora Core packages for MythTV and all of its add-
on modules and some themes have been packaged by
mailto:Axel.Thimm@ATrpms.net <mailto:Axel.Thimm@ATrpms.net> and are
available at http://ATrpms.net/topic/multimedia/
<http://ATrpms.net/topic/multimedia/>. All of the prerequisites for
MythTV (such as XMLTV) are available as RPM packages. If you have
problems with the RPMs, please contact the ATrpms lists at
http://lists.ATrpms.net/ <http://lists.ATrpms.net/> or file a bug
against http://bugzilla.ATrpms.net/ <http://bugzilla.ATrpms.net/>.
Given the large number of dependent RPMs you are advised to use tools
like apt or yum for automatic retrieval and installation of the
required RPMs. (http://ATrpms.net/install.html
<http://ATrpms.net/install.html>) In this case a special meta-package
called mythtv-suite will allow you to install all of MythTV and its
add-ons, plus all dependencies.
If you don't have aapptt or yyuumm on your machine, download and install the
atrpms-kickstart package from http://ATrpms.net/name/atrpms-kickstart/
<http://ATrpms.net/name/atrpms-kickstart/>. Install the package with:
# rpm -Uvh atrpms-kickstart*
Then run:
# apt-get update
# apt-get dist-upgrade
# apt-get update
And finally:
# apt-get install mythtv-suite
These steps however, do NOT perform the installation of any drivers
required for AALLSSAA, capture cards, lliirrcc kkeerrnneell mmoodduulleess, etc., nor do
they set up your MythTV database. Check http://ATrpms.net/topic/multi-
media/ <http://ATrpms.net/topic/multimedia/> for the drivers you need.
33..22..11..22.. DDeebbiiaann
Debian packages for MythTV and most of its add-on modules are
maintained by Christian Marillat mailto:marillat@free.fr
<mailto:marillat@free.fr> and are available at http://www.debian-
multimedia.org/ <http://www.debian-multimedia.org/>. Installation
instructions can be found on those pages as well. All of the
prerequisites for MythTV are available as Debian packages, most of
them from the official Debian archive.
After adding the appropriate commands to your /etc/apt/sources.list
file you can run aapptt--ggeett uuppddaattee and then execute aapptt--ggeett bbuuiilldd--ddeepp
mmyytthhttvv which should install all the pre-requisites required to compile
MythTV.
33..22..22.. MMaannuuaall iinnssttaallllaattiioonn
You may use the graphical tools that come with your distribution, or
you can use command-line utilities. Either system will get the job
done, and it all depends on your comfort level with Linux.
In order to compile MythTV, we need to make sure that the software it
needs is installed. This list includes mmyyssqqll, ggcccc, ffrreeeettyyppee22--ddeevveell,
xxoorrgg--xxsseerrvveerr--ddeevveell, qqtt--ddeevveell and llaammee. If you're going to use a remote
control with MythTV, you're going to need the ccddiiaalloogg package in order
to compile lliirrccdd if your distribution doesn't have a pre-packaged
lliirrcc. If you are using XXMMLLTTVV as a grabber, you will need ppeerrll.
______________________________________________________________________
NOTE: Qt v4.4 or higher is required.
NOTE: If you are going to be using packages to install various
components, you should be aware that not all packages include the necessary
headers for compiling. If you're having trouble compiling, ensure
that you've installed the -devel version of a prerequisite.
______________________________________________________________________
33..22..33.. CCoommmmaanndd--lliinnee iinnssttaallllaattiioonn
This section details the various methods for installing prerequisites
from the command line.
33..22..33..11.. FFeeddoorraa // MMyytthhddoorraa
Assuming that you've configured ATrpms, you can execute:
# yum-builddep mythtv
Alternatively, you may use the build script located in packaging/rpm,
or install the "requires" found in the mythtv.spec file located in the
same directory.
33..22..33..22.. MMyytthhbbuunnttuu
You can run
$ sudo apt-get build-dep mythtv
33..22..33..33.. DDeebbiiaann..
Build-dependencies for MythTV can be satisfied by adding the following
to your /etc/apt/sources.list
# Christian Marillat's packages (mplayer, lame)
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org sid main
deb-src http://www.debian-multimedia.org sid main
and executing:
# apt-get build-dep mythtv
# apt-get source mythtv --compile
44.. SSyysstteemm CCoonnffiigguurraattiioonn RReeqquuiirreemmeennttss ffoorr CCoommppiilliinngg MMyytthhTTVV..
Before you compile MythTV from the current source tarball or from
ssuubbvveerrssiioonn, you may need to modify your system configuration in a few
ways.
In general, if you install MythTV from pre-packaged binaries for your
Linux distribution/version, you don't need to be too concerned about
the issues in this section of the HOWTO - the install script for the
packages should take care of them. However, this section is still
recommended reading which may help if the packager skipped a step in
their packaging.
44..11.. SSooffttwwaarree rreeqquuiirreemmeennttss ffoorr ccoommppiilliinngg MMyytthhTTVV
44..11..11.. GGeenneerraall rreeqquuiirreemmeennttss
MythTV is written in C++ and requires a fairly complete, but standard,
compilation environment, including a recent g++ compiler, make, and
appropriate header files for shared libraries. Any standard Linux
distribution should be able to install a suitable compilation
environment from its packaging system. Section 3.2 of this HOWTO
provides some details of how to install the required environment for
many distributions.
Subsequent sections of this chapter address the few oddities that you
may have to adjust by hand before you compile MythTV.
The reference compilation system for MythTV is Ubuntu.
44..22.. SShhaarreedd--LLiibbrraarryy rreeqquuiirreemmeennttss ffoorr MMyytthhTTVV
44..22..11.. MMooddiiffyyiinngg //eettcc//lldd..ssoo..ccoonnff
The runtime manager for shared libraries, //lliibb//lldd..ssoo, gets information
about the locations and contents of shared libraries from
/etc/ld.so.cache, a file created by llddccoonnffiigg from information in
/etc/ld.so.conf. Because MythTV installs some shared libraries in
/usr/local/lib, that directory needs to be added to the list of
directories for lldd..ssoo to search when doing runtime linking of
programs, if it is not already there. You do this, as root, by
editing /etc/ld.so.conf, then running llddccoonnffiigg. There are many ways to
do this; one that works is to enter this series of commands:
$ su -
# echo /usr/local/lib >> /etc/ld.so.conf
# /sbin/ldconfig
# exit
$
44..33.. EEnnvviirroonnmmeenntt vvaarriiaabbllee rreeqquuiirreemmeennttss ffoorr MMyytthhTTVV
44..33..11.. GGeenneerraall rreeqquuiirreemmeennttss
44..33..11..11.. QQTT lliibbrraarriieess aanndd bbiinnaarriieess
The compiler needs to be able to locate QT binaries and libraries in
order to compile MythTV. QTDIR needs to be set and the directory
holding the QT binaries needs to be added to your PATH. Your
distribution may already be making these changes as a part of the
installation of the software prerequisites detailed earlier.
One way to do this is as follows:
Open a shell and execute the following:
$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/usr/lib/qt3/bin:/home/mythtv/bin:/usr/lib/qt3/bin
$ echo $QTDIR
/usr/lib/qt3
$ which qmake
/usr/lib/qt3/bin/qmake
For Mandriva, you should see a value like /usr/lib/qt3 for QTDIR and
/usr/lib/qt3/bin should be in $PATH.
For Gentoo, you should see a value like /usr/qt/3 for QTDIR and
/usr/qt/3/bin should be in $PATH.
If you don't, do not proceed past this step until you have resolved
this error. You may need to manually specify the QTDIR and PATH at the
shell prompt before compiling.
Also, check that there has been a link created in /usr/lib/qt3/mkspecs
(/usr/share/qt3/mkspecs for Debian) called default. If not, you'll get
errors during the compile. See the Troubleshooting Section for more
information.
44..33..22.. DDeevviiccee PPeerrmmiissssiioonnss
MythTV will need access to the video4linux devices on your system. By
default, your distribution may restrict access to these devices to the
logged-in user, so if you will be automatically starting mmyytthhbbaacckkeenndd
from a script rather than an interactive terminal session you will
need to make some adjustments.
NNOOTTEE: The following instructions are accurate for Mandriva.
Check for a file called /etc/security/console.perms. Open the file in
your favorite text editor and look for a line that has:
<console> 0600 <v4l> 0600 root.video
and replace it with
<console> 0666 <v4l> 0666 root.video
What we're doing is allowing read and write access to the files in the
video4linux directory.
55.. DDoowwnnllooaaddiinngg aanndd ccoommppiilliinngg..
Get MythTV from the http://www.mythtv.org <http://www.mythtv.org> web
site. There are two installation methods you may choose from. The
first is to download the latest release in tarball format and compile.
The tarball release of MythTV should work on a wide variety of systems
and should be the preferred method for new users. If you wish to use
the ssuubbvveerrssiioonn copy of MythTV you may obtain it from
http://svn.mythtv.org <http://svn.mythtv.org>
NNOOTTEE: If you are going to use ssuubbvveerrssiioonn to
compile MythTV rather than using the distribution tarball, you _m_u_s_t
join the http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-commits/
<http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-commits/> and
http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev/
<http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev/> mailing lists to
keep up to date with the current status of the code. Code obtained
from subversion has no guarantees regarding stability, etc.
If you are in North America you will use the Schedules Direct grabber
which is built-in to MythTV. You _d_o _n_o_t need to install XMLTV (so you
may skip XMLTV-related instructions), but you need wwggeett version 1.9.1
or higher.
Get XMLTV from http://xmltv.sourceforge.net
<http://xmltv.sourceforge.net>. Download the latest version (0.5.51).
55..11.. CCoonnffiigguurriinngg tthhee SScchheedduulleess DDiirreecctt sseerrvviiccee
Schedules Direct is a non-profit organization which has licensed
Television program data from Tribune Media Services and makes it
available to users of Freeware and Open Source applications.
If you wish to use Schedules Direct, you'll need to establish a user
account. Go to http://www.schedulesdirect.org
<http://www.schedulesdirect.org> and click on the "Membership" link.
Once you've read and agreed to the Subscriber Agreement, Terms of Use
and Privacy Policy proceed to the lineup choices and configure your
account for your particular location and the channels that you have.
This configuration will be imported into MythTV when you first run the
mmyytthhttvv--sseettuupp program.
55..22.. MMaannuuaallllyy bbuuiillddiinngg MMyytthhTTVV
If you are going to use ssuubbvveerrssiioonn, execute the following instructions
to obtain the latest trunk version of MythTV:
$ mkdir mythtv
$ svn co http://svn.mythtv.org/svn/trunk/ mythtv
$ cd mythtv
To use a release version, you can execute:
$ mkdir mythtv-release-0.22-fixes
$ svn co http://svn.mythtv.org/svn/branches/release-0-22-fixes/ mythtv-release-0.22-fixes
$ cd mythtv-release-0.22-fixes
NNOOTTEE: Using a svn version of the code allows you to stay up-to-date
with changes. So, if there's an update to the 0.22 release and you
originally obtained it using svn, you could enter the mythtv-
release-0.22-fixes directory and type "svn up", which will update your
copy with the fixed version from the website. You would then recompile
and install the updated 0.22 code.
If you are using the tarball, then unpack it:
$ tar -xjf mythtv-0.22.tar.bz2
$ cd mythtv-0.22
$ ./configure
If you wish to change options, run ..//ccoonnffiigguurree ----hheellpp to see what is
available and to override and automatically detected options. See the
config.log file after running ccoonnffiigguurree to see previous runs.
To compile:
$ make -j 2
The MythTV compile can take advantage of multiple CPUs, SMP and
Hyperthreading. If you want to build MythTV on a multi-CPU machine (or
with ddiissttcccc), specify "-j numjobs", where "numjobs" is greater than 2.
In the above example, we had two concurrent jobs executing, which is
recommended for a single CPU system. Do not set the number of jobs too
high, or your compile will actually take longer to complete than it
would if you did a "normal" build.
If you are using ddiissttcccc, and you had two other host machines (red,
blue) participating, you would do something like:
$ export DISTCC_HOSTS='localhost red blue'
$ make -j 6 CXX=distcc
The actual speed-up, if any, is dependant on a number of factors, such
as number of CPUs / hosts, etc. The ddiissttcccc documentation recommends
using a -j value of twice the number of CPUs available to keep all of
them busy.
Some timing information. The following should only be used for
illustration; your actual results may vary. The test involves a
complete make distclean to the final binary.
+o P4 3.2Ghz HT: "standard" make: 12m 49s
+o P4 3.2Ghz HT: make -j 2: 11m 24s
In the above example, we see that with a single CPU, a multi-stage
mmaakkee does not significantly decrease compile time.
Once the compile is done, switch to superuser:
$ su
# make install
# exit
NNOOTTEE: subsequent configuration steps assume that you are within
the MythTV directory that you cd'd to above.
55..22..11.. EEnnaabblliinngg rreeaall--ttiimmee sscchheedduulliinngg ooff tthhee ddiissppllaayy tthhrreeaadd..
MythTV supports real-time scheduling of the video output thread. There
are three ways to go about enabling this: You can use rlimits, you can
use the realtime security module, or on older systems you can SUID the
executable. Enabling real-time scheduling is optional, but can make
the video display smoother, especially if you are decoding HDTV.
55..22..11..11.. rrlliimmiittss
The rlimits method is the preferred method and is included in Linux
2.6.12 and above. Unfortunately, you need PAM version 0.79 or above,
which may not be supported by your distribution yet. Assuming anyone
running mmyytthhffrroonntteenndd is in the audio group and rlimits are supported,
all you need to do is place this in your /etc/security/limits.conf
* - rtprio 0
* - nice 0
@audio - rtprio 50
@audio - nice 0
55..22..11..22.. rreeaallttiimmee mmoodduullee
The second option is to use the Linux realtime kernel module. This is
will be phased out over time, but is currently supported by many
distributions that do not yet support rlimits. If you are not using
the distribution kernel you must configure your kernel with:
Security options : [*] Enable different security models
Security options : [M] Default Linux Capabilties
You may also need to install the realtime module, using your distribu-
tion's realtime package. Assuming the users who will be running mmyytthh--
ffrroonntteenndd will be in the audio group you can get the GUID of a named
group like so:
$ grep audio /etc/group
If the number printed out from the grep was 18, you can now load this
module as root before starting mmyytthhffrroonntteenndd:
# modprobe realtime gid=18
55..22..11..33.. rruunn aass rroooott ooppttiioonn ((nnoott ssaaffee))
The final and least preferred option is to set the sticky bit on the
mmyytthhffrroonntteenndd executable. This ooppeennss aa sseeccuurriittyy hhoollee, but is the only
option on systems that do not support either rlimits or the realtime
module. This does not work on modern distributions either, and is _n_o_t
_r_e_c_o_m_m_e_n_d_e_d on any system connected to the Internet. This may also
make it impossible to debug MythTV without running ggddbb as root. If you
would still like to do this, you just need to run this as root:
# chmod a+s /usr/local/bin/mythfrontend /usr/local/bin/mythtv
55..22..22.. FFrroonntteenndd--oonnllyy ccoonnffiigguurraattiioonn
Since MythTV uses a client/server architecture, multiple frontend
computers can simultaneously access content on a Myth system. Live TV,
watching and scheduling recordings, etc. are all possible from
multiple frontends.
To get a better picture of what is needed to run a frontend, note the
following:
You do NOT need the MySQL server installed on your remote frontend
You do NOT need XMLTV installed on your remote frontend
You do NOT need to run the mythtv-setup program on your frontend
machine
Other than the exclusion of the MySQL server and XMLTV, the MythTV
compilation procedure is the same as when you're setting up both a
backend and a frontend. However, you _w_i_l_l need to install the database
access libraries.
Once MythTV is compiled and installed:
Run the mythtv-setup program on your Master backend. Under the
"General" menu, change the IP address of the current machine (by
default, "127.0.0.1") to the real external IP address - 127.0.0.1 is
the loopback address and no external machine can access it. Change the
Master Server IP setting to the same IP address as well.
Run the mythfrontend program on your frontend machine, and a "Database
Configuration" screen should appear. Set the "Host name" field to
point to your Master backend's IP address.
55..33.. GGeennttoooo
Installation of MythTV on Gentoo consists of simply emerging the
desired ebuild because all of the packages are now part of the
official Portage tree.
$ su -
# emerge --sync # make sure portage is up to date.
# vi /etc/make.conf
Add mysql to your USE variable. i.e. USE="mysql ...."
# emerge mythtv
66.. MMyySSQQLL..
You will also want to comment out "log-bin" in your my.cnf
configuration file. This option will quickly fill your "/var" disk
partition with many gigabytes of data, unless you are doing database
replication and deleting these files regularly.
66..11.. DDiissttrriibbuuttiioonn--ssppeecciiffiicc iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn
66..11..11.. MMaannddrriivvaa
If this is the system maintaining the database, make sure that MySQL
is running and started at boot. Click on Mandriva Control
Center->System->Services, find MySQL and click the "On Boot" button
and the "Start" button if the MySQL status shows that it isn't running
yet.
NNOOTTEE: There have been reports that MySQL isn't starting at boot.
If this is happening to you, try running the following commands.
$ su
# chkconfig --level 35 mysql on
# /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysql start
# exit
66..11..22.. RReedd HHaatt LLiinnuuxx aanndd FFeeddoorraa CCoorree
If this is the system maintaining the database, make sure that MySQL
is running and started at boot. Click on Redhat menu>Server
Settings>Services and enter the root password when asked. Check
"mysqld" and then click Start. Click Save, then close the window.
This can be done from the command line by typing:
# /sbin/chkconfig mysqld on
# /sbin/service mysqld start
66..11..33.. GGeennttoooo
After installing MySQL you need to initialize the database by running
mmyyssqqll__iinnssttaallll__ddbb as root.
66..22.. SSeettttiinngg uupp tthhee iinniittiiaall ddaattaabbaassee
This step is only required on the system maintaining the database,
which may or may not be one of your MythTV boxes. If the database is
on a non-MythTV machine you'll need to copy the database/mc.sql file
to it.
To setup the initial MySQL databases:
$ cd database
66..22..11.. MMaannddrriivvaa aanndd RReedd HHaatt LLiinnuuxx//FFeeddoorraa CCoorree
$ mysql -u root < mc.sql
66..22..22.. DDeebbiiaann 33..00
$ mysql < mc.sql
66..22..33.. GGeennttoooo
$ su
# mysql < /usr/share/mythtv/database/mc.sql
NNOOTTEE: It is good practice to set a root password for MySQL.
Instructions for doing so can be found on MySQL's web site at
http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Security.html
<http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Security.html>.
66..22..44.. MMooddiiffyyiinngg aacccceessss ttoo tthhee MMyySSQQLL ddaattaabbaassee ffoorr mmuullttiippllee ssyysstteemmss
If you're going to have multiple systems accessing a master database,
you must grant access to the database from remote systems. By default,
the mc.sql script is only granting access to the local host.
To allow other hosts access to your master database, you can either
set it up for no security at all, or with more granularity. Note that
the "%" is the wildcard character in MySQL.
NNOOTTEE: The "no security" option is _v_e_r_y dangerous unless
you're in a controlled environment. This example has no security at
all, and allows access from any host.
$ mysql -u root mythconverg
mysql> grant all on mythconverg.* to mythtv@"%" identified by "mythtv";
mysql> flush privileges;
For a more secure setup, you can restrict which machines or subnets
have access. If you have a complete DNS system operational, you could
do the following:
$ mysql -u root mythconverg
mysql> grant all on mythconverg.* to mythtv@"%.mydomain.com" identified by "mythtv";
mysql> flush privileges;
Finally, if you just want to restrict by IP subnet (in this example,
the 192.168.1. network):
$ mysql -u root mythconverg
mysql> grant all on mythconverg.* to mythtv@"192.168.1.%" identified by "mythtv";
mysql> flush privileges;
You'll also need to check that the "networking" feature of MySQL is
turned on. Check that /etc/mysql/my.cnf _d_o_e_s _n_o_t contain skip-
networking. If it does, remove it. Also verify that bind-address is
set to your IP address instead of 127.0.0.1. If you change either of
these items, restart MMyySSQQLL.
NNOOTTEE: Your distribution may have a customized MySQL configuration
file; in Mandriva, check /etc/sysconfig/mysqld for additional
configuration.
77.. CCoonnffiigguurriinngg SSoouunndd..
If your video doesn't appear to be in-sync with your audio and you're
using an analog video capture card and a soundcard to capture audio,
it could be because you are listening to the real-time audio from your
video card rather than after it's been processed and synchronized to
the video by MythTV. Because MythTV is a personal video recorder,
"Live TV" isn't really live - to let you pause live TV, MythTV is
actually encoding the video, saving to disk, and then playing it back.
This procedure puts your MythTV "live" TV about 2 seconds behind real-
time, so it's important that you're not listening to the live audio.
However, if you're having an issue where the audio and video aren't
synchronized by small but varying amount, it's most likely because the
sound driver that you're using doesn't have the DSP_CAP_REALTIME
capability. This was the case with ALSA (0.5), but not with newer
versions. See the ``Troubleshooting Audio'' section for more
information if you're having issues with sound. Also, ensure that no
other programs are grabbing the audio output, like aarrttss or eessdd.
What you need to do is to mute the "line-in" of your sound card and
also set it as the recording source.
There are two ways to do this. Graphically, and from the command line.
77..11.. GGrraapphhiiccaallllyy sseettttiinngg uupp tthhee mmiixxeerr
77..11..11.. MMaannddrriivvaa aanndd RReedd HHaatt LLiinnuuxx//FFeeddoorraa CCoorree
Open Kmix by clicking K->Multimedia->Sound->Kmix for Mandriva, or
RedHat Menu>Sound & Video>Volume Control
Click on Settings->Configure Make sure that "Tick Marks" and "Show
labels" have "X"'s in them. This will make it easier to find the
correct audio source. Click OK.
On the mixer page, look for Line-In on your sound card. You should see
two LED's - a green one at the top, and a red one at the bottom. The
green one at the top is for muting; you want to make sure that the
green LED is a dark green, meaning that it's "off". You also want to
click on the red LED so that it turns bright red, indicating that it's
"ON"; this insures that the Line-in is used as the source. Click OK,
and make sure that you save the settings so that this is your default.
77..11..11..11.. UUssiinngg AALLSSAA..
To use ALSA, you'll need to correctly setup your asoundrc file.
Configuring this file is beyond the scope of this HOWTO. Once ALSA is
working correctly, change the output sound device in
mythfrontend->setup->Audio from /dev/dsp to ALSA:default. This field
may be edited to suit your ALSA requirements.
77..22.. SSeettttiinngg tthhee mmiixxeerr ffrroomm tthhee ccoommmmaanndd lliinnee
If you have installed the alsa-utils package, then the aammiixxeerr program
can be used to setup the mixer. The "Master" volume setting is only
required on a frontend machine to ensure that the sound channels are
unmuted and configured for outputting sound. The "Line" and "Capture"
controls are required for your sound card to actually capture audio
from the external Line-in if it's connected to an analog frame
grabber. Not all sound cards have a "Capture" control, but if yours
does and you don't set it then MythTV will not capture audio.
______________________________________________________________________
Note the spelling in the following commands.
______________________________________________________________________
$ amixer set Master,0 100%,100% unmute
$ amixer set PCM,0 100%,100% unmute
$ amixer set Line,0 75%,75% mute captur
$ amixer set Capture,0 100%,100% captur
$ su
# alsactl store
# exit
$
If you have multiple sound cards, then use the -c parameter to specify
which card to adjust. Note that the first card will be "0", the second
will be "1", etc.
That takes care of setting the volume correctly, and the ALSA startup
script will restore the volume after a reboot. If you find that your
sound is distorted, it's possible that the levels in the above
examples are too high for your particular hardware combination. Try
reducing the percentages by 5-10% and checking again. Once you're
satisfied, re-run the alsactl store command.
You may also use the aallssaammiixxeerr program to set the volume. If you are
using an ALSA version after 1.0.6, use aallssaammiixxeerr --VV aallll First, start
aallssaammiixxeerr from the command line. You should start out on the "Master"
volume control slider. Use the up and down cursor to set the master
volume to around 75%. Next, use the left and right cursor keys to move
around on the screen until you find the "Line" slider. Press SPACE to
set it as the capture source, set the level to around 50-75% and press
"M" to mute it. You can now press ESC to exit out of the aallssaammiixxeerr
program. You can also have MythTV manage all volume and mute settings,
but this will only affect the "Master" or PCM volume, not the capture
volume. See the mythfrontend setup page for options.
Finally, if you've performed all of the above steps, and you still
don't seem to have any sound, it's possible that your video capture
device is muting the audio output.
$ v4lctl -c /dev/video0 setattr mute off
88.. SSeettttiinngg uupp aa rreemmoottee ccoonnttrrooll..
MythTV does not have native remote control receiver and decoder
software built-in. Instead, remote control functions are implemented
by cooperating with lliirrcc, the Linux Infrared Remote Control program.
lliirrcc handles the IR hardware and passes keystrokes to MythTV, which
then acts as if the user had pressed the keys on the keyboard. The
file keys.txt describes the keys used to control MythTV.
NNOOTTEE: If you are running Mandriva, you may install
lliirrcc by executing: # urpmi lirc lirc-remotes and bypass the manual
compilation steps described below by jumping to the ``Completing the
lirc install'' section. See the
contrib/mandrake91.etc.sysconfig.lircd file for an example of how to
configure lircd.
Some IR devices require a kernel recompile, and some don't. However,
all at least require having the kernel source available as a resource
for the lirc build process.
88..11.. GGeennttoooo
To install lirc on Gentoo, all you need to do is:
# emerge lirc
The third option is to dispense with lirc altogether by purchasing an
IR keyboard (various options exist, although Chicony appears to work
for some people) and a learning remote control. The IR keyboard
receiver plugs into the PS/2 keyboard port on your PC and you would
train your learning remote to emulate the various keystrokes from
keys.txt of your IR keyboard. Using this method removes lirc entirely
from the picture - your remote will be sending keypresses that your PC
"sees" on the keyboard port.
pulses may correlate to "Channel Up". The lircd.conf file will then
contain a line that looks something like this:
ChannelUp 0x0000000000001020
The lircd.conf file can have multiple remote controls defined.
The second file is lircrc, which takes the name of the button which
was pressed ("ChannelUp") in the above example, and correlates that to
an action to be performed by a program using the remote control. So in
MythTV, ChannelUp means one thing, while in mmppllaayyeerr it means something
different. lircrc gives you the flexibility of taking the name of the
button and having it perform different actions depending on which
program you're using at the time.
NNOOTTEE: The definitions in lircd.conf come from the user community, and
there is no standard for the common button names. One lircd.conf file
may contain a definition for a button called "ChannelUp", while
another may contain a definition for "Chan+". Your lircrc file must
therefore be configured appropriately, or it won't work.
If this fails, complaining of a missing lircd.conf file, then you must
find or make one. First look for a pre-made configuration file at
http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes/
<http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes/>. Mandriva 9.1 users, look in
/usr/share/lirc-remotes. If you find one your remotes either on the
website or in /usr/share, download or copy the file, name it
lircd.conf and put it in your /etc directory. If you couldn't find
your remote, you must make your own lircd.conf file.
To make your own lircd.conf file
$ irrecord myremote
Follow the on-screen directions to train your remote and define keys.
If your remote ends up working well, you should consider submitting
your lircd.conf file back to the lirc developers. Once finished:
$ su
# cp myremote /etc/lircd.conf
now try to start lircd again:
# /usr/local/sbin/lircd
Now, we're going to add the commands necessary for lircd to run each
time we boot. Mandriva 9.1 users, you can execute:
$ su
# chkconfig --level 35 lircd on
# exit
All other distributions:
# cd /etc/rc.d
# cat >> rc.local
echo "Starting lircd"
/usr/local/sbin/lircd
^D
# exit
$
This takes care of the lircd portion, which "listens" for the IR
signals. If everything went well, the install script for lircd put an
appropriate configuration file for your remote into /etc/lircd.conf
This file maps the buttons on the remote control to the IR pulses
coming from the receiver.
The next step is to convert those signals into something that can be
used to control MythTV. MythTV now includes native support for lirc
and can interact directly with
$ cd ~/mythtv-0.22/contrib/configfiles
$ cp lircrc.example ~/.lircrc
or
$ cp lircrc.example.pinnaclestudiopctv ~/.lircrc
if you've got a Pinnacle Studio PCTV remote.
$ irw
Start pressing the keys on your remote; iirrww will print the name of the
button as it is defined in your /etc/lircd.conf. If you don't see any-
thing at this point, you need to troubleshoot further by going back to
the lirc home page and investigating from there.
If it is working, then press CCTTRRLL--CC to abort the program. Once you
know that your remote is working, you can either recompile MythTV with
native lirc support by enabling it in ccoonnffiigguurree or you need to run the
iirrxxeevveenntt program, which takes the key presses and sends them to
MythTV. If you use native lirc support, you don't need to run
iirrxxeevveenntt. If you are going to use irxevent, then you need to run it
like this:
$ irxevent &
If iirrxxeevveenntt isn't running, then MythTV will not respond to your remote
control unless you're using native lirc support.
88..22.. AAddddiittiioonnaall iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn ffoorr lliirrcc
Take a look at the lircrc.example files in the contrib/configfiles/
directory. In my case, (Pinnacle Studio card) the channel up and down
functions weren't working, due to the fact that the button names were
different than the default lircrc.example file that came with MythTV.
The lircrc.example file has this:
begin
prog = irxevent
button = ChannelUp
config = Key Up CurrentWindow
end
begin
prog = irxevent
button = ChannelDown
config = Key Down CurrentWindow
end
but the /etc/lircd.conf that comes in the lircd package defines the
buttons for the Pinnacle Studio PCTV as:
channel+ 0x0000000000000017
channel- 0x000000000000001C
rather than "ChannelUp" and "ChannelDown". I added the following to my
/home/[yourusername]/.lircrc file:
begin
prog = irxevent
button = channel+
repeat = 3
config = Key Up CurrentWindow
end
begin
prog = irxevent
button = channel-
repeat = 3
config = Key Down CurrentWindow
end
which took care of basic functionality. Because the PCTV Studio remote
has additional buttons, look at the contrib/configfiles/lircrc.exam-
ple.pinnaclestudiopctv for an example of how to define additional but-
tons, and how to debug potential button name conflicts between the
lircrc.example file and how yyoouurr remote defines the button names.
By examining the button names defined in /etc/lircd.conf and using the
iirrww program to make sure that your remote is working, you can create
the appropriate mappings in .lircrc to get excellent remote
functionality with MythTV.
Note the rreeppeeaatt == parameter. This informs the irxevent program to pass
through every third keypress. By default, lirc will only send one
keypress to the application, even if you're holding down the key. The
actual rreeppeeaatt == number will vary from system to system, so experiment
and see which value works best for you.
88..33.. CCoonnffiigguurriinngg lliirrcc ffoorr uussee wwiitthh aann IIRR bbllaasstteerr
Lirc has support for various IR transmitters. A popular model is the
Actisys IR-200L http://store.snapstreamstore.com/accessories.html
<http://store.snapstreamstore.com/accessories.html>. It was originally
designed for IRDA communication, but can be used to transmit A/V
remote control codes. By using the lirc SIR driver, this device can
easily be integrated with MythTV. I have tested this device with an
AT&T DCT2000 digital cable box but the instructions can be used to
configure other IRDA devices and A/V remotes.
Follow the steps in the previous section. When you run setup.sh,
select option 1, driver configuration. From here select option 6, IrDA
hardware. Select your appropriate device and the corresponding serial
port, then Save configuration & run configure from the main menu. Once
configure is done type:
$ make
Please note: unlike the Pinnacle receiver above you will be compiling
lircd in addition to a kernel module for the SIR transmitter.
Depending on whether you have your serial port driver configured as a
kernel module you might see the following message during make:
lirc_sir.c:56:2: warning: #warning
"******************************************"
lirc_sir.c:57:2: warning: #warning "Your serial port driver is compiled into "
lirc_sir.c:58:2: warning: #warning "the kernel. You will have to release the "
lirc_sir.c:59:2: warning: #warning "port you want to use for LIRC with:"
lirc_sir.c:60:2: warning: #warning "setserial /dev/ttySx uart none"
lirc_sir.c:61:2: warning: #warning
"******************************************"
If you do receive this statement make sure to run the sseettsseerriiaall
command before you load the lirc_sir module. Follow this with the
install:
$ su
# make install
You will notice that lirc installs the kernel module in
/lib/modules/uname -a/misc.
The configuration for starting lliirrccdd differs if you're going to be
sending and receiving IR versus just receiving.
# cd /etc/rc.d
# cat >> rc.local
echo "Starting lircd"
setserial /dev/ttySx uart none # (if required)
modprobe lirc_sir
/usr/local/sbin/lircd
^D
# exit
$
At this point you have to populate the /etc/lircd.conf file with the
proper codes for your A/V remote. You should be able to find your
remote within the lirc remote tar file located at
http://www.lirc.org/remotes.tar.bz2
<http://www.lirc.org/remotes.tar.bz2>. In my case I extracted the file
from remotes/motorola/DCT2000 (gi-motorola-dct2000)
To test the lirc_sir module you can run iirrww to verify the codes are
being received. If everything is configured correctly you should see
something similar to the following:
$ irw
0000000000007ff0 00 1 gi-motorola-dct2000
000000000000bff8 00 2 gi-motorola-dct2000
000000000000f7f0 00 ENTER gi-motorola-dct2000
Once you've verified lirc is working you can press CCTTRRLL--CC to exit iirrww
and configure the channel changing script.
The path to the channel changing script will need to be entered on the
mythtv-setup screen for Input Connections.
This csh script will be called each time MythTV needs to change the
channel. Below is a copy of the script followed by the corresponding
perl script. Make sure both are in your path. Also make sure you
leave the #!/bin/csh setting and not change it to Bourne or bash. This
will create a frustrating symptom to diagnose where MythTV cannot open
/dev/device. Unlike Bourne or bash, csh scripts automatically close
parent file descriptors before they start.
$ cd /usr/local/bin
# su
# cat > change_channel.csh
#!/bin/csh
echo "changing to $1"
/usr/local/bin/channel.pl $1 &
^D
# chmod a+x change_channel.csh
# exit
$ exit
See contrib/channel.pl for the actual file. Copy it to /usr/local/bin/
The last statement within the perl script is the lirc rc command. This
is the command that transmits the code to your cable/DSS box. Make
sure to have the IRDA device within a few feet of the box.
99.. CCoonnffiigguurriinngg MMyytthhTTVV..
By this point, all of the compile-time prerequisites have been
installed, mmyyssqqll is running and has had its initial database setup.
It's now time to configure MythTV.
99..11.. CCoonnffiigguurriinngg tthhee MMaasstteerr bbaacckkeenndd ssyysstteemm
Open a shell and decide where you will store your video files. This
may be one directory or multiple directories on the same or different
filesystems. There is no default directory used for new recordings, so
you mmuusstt create at least one storage directory and configure Myth to
use it by running mmyytthhttvv--sseettuupp. If you do not do this, then MythTV
will be unable to record anything. The following example is specific
for /var/video, but the same instructions would apply for any
directory name you choose to use. See the ``Advanced Partition
Formatting'' section for hints on creating a partition for MythTV.
$ su
# mkdir /var/video
# chmod a+rwx /var/video
# exit
NNOOTTEE: The last slash "/" is not required.
TTIIPP: Try not to have your video mount point on the same partition as
your root partition, which could lead to the filling up of your root
partition with video data if the mount fails. For example:
If /var/video is created on your root partition and you then perform a
mount of another drive to this directory there won't be any problems
if everything is working the way it should. However, if the mount
fails for some reason, /var/video still exists, so MythTV will find
the directory and write files to it. If your / mount point is space
limited, /var/video will aallssoo be space limited, and it won't take long
to fill the partition. This will cause a number of side-effects, most
of them bad. Instead, create subdirectories as the destination for the
storage group.
Your directory structure could then look something like this:
/mnt/video/drive1/video
/mnt/video/drive2/video
Your /etc/fstab would look like this:
/dev/hdb1 /mnt/video/drive1
/dev/hdc1 /mnt/video/drive2
Because the Storage Group path is /mnt/video/drive1/video, if the
mythbackend can only find /mnt/video/drive1 it will _n_o_t write files to
that share.
After you create the desired directory or directories for storing your
video files, you will need to add them to the proper Storage Group
using mmyytthhttvv--sseettuupp. This procedure is described below in the ``Storage
Groups'' section.
The first thing to configure is the Master backend system. If you are
running multiple backend systems, the Master backend will make all
decisions about which programs will be recorded on which tuners. If
you have only one backend, then it will be its own master.
The Master backend will always choose the first available tuner in the
same order as you add cards through "mythtv-setup". In other words,
the second card you add will only be used when there are two
overlapping recordings, the third when there are three, and so on.
NNOOTTEE: It is possible to _n_o_t have the cards on the Master
backend be the first ones used. However, if you are new to MythTV it
is easier to configure the Master backend first before moving on to
the Slaves, at least until you become more familiar with the MythTV
system. See ``Advanced Backend Configurations'' for information on
configuring multiple backend systems in various ways.
Because MythTV uses a database to store all configuration variables,
part of the bootstrap of MythTV is to indicate the location of the
MySQL database server. If the frontend, backend and MySQL database
server are all going to be running on the same box, you can continue
to the next step. If not, you'll need to change the Host Name in the
"Database Configuration" screen of the mythfrontend program.
Run the setup program:
$ mythtv-setup
The backend setup program will start and offer you a number of
choices. It is _s_t_r_o_n_g_l_y recommended that you go through them in order.
The first question will ask if you wish to clear out your existing
configurations for your capture cards. Initially, you should say "YES"
so that there are no surprises later.
The next question will ask you if you wish to clear out your video
source information. You should answer "YES" to this as well.
Once the graphical setup starts, you'll see that there are six
choices:
1. General
2. Capture Cards
3. Video Sources
4. Input connections
5. Channel Editor
6. Storage Directories
Use the arrow keys to move around, and press the space bar to select
which option you wish to configure.
99..11..11.. GGeenneerraall
The first screen of the General configuration deals with IP addresses
of the system that you're running mythtv-setup on and any master
backend you may have. If you've only got one machine, then the
default values are fine and you can move to the next page by pressing
the space bar. If you need to move around the screen, use the arrow
keys to move focus between settings, not the mouse.
If you will be deploying multiple backends, or if your backend is on
one system and you're running the frontend on another machine then _d_o
_n_o_t use the "127.0.0.1" IP address.
NNOOTTEE: If you modify the 127.0.0.1 address and use a "real" IP address,
you must use real IP addresses in both fields, otherwise your frontend
machines will generate "Unexpected response to MYTH_PROTO_VERSION"
errors.
Changing any of the port settings is very strongly discouraged. (If
you do accidentally change them, the defaults are 6543 for the
master/backend server, and 6544 for the HTTP requests)
Once you're satisfied with the values, move the focus down to Next and
hit the space bar.
The next screen details the Host-specific Backend setup. This is where
you will set the specific directory paths for this particular backend.
Make sure that you've followed the steps at the beginning of this
section and created a directory that exists and that MythTV will have
write privileges to. When you're done, press Next to continue, taking
you to the Global Backend Setup.
On the Global Backend Setup configure your backend with the
appropriate settings. Use the left and right arrow keys to iterate
through the choices available on each setting, and the up and down
keys to move between settings. Move to Finish when you're done and
press the space bar, taking you back to the main configuration screen.
99..11..22.. CCaappttuurree CCaarrddss
You should have no capture cards defined, so the highlight will be on
(New Capture Card). Press space to begin.
Choose the appropriate settings for your particular tuner. Use the
arrow keys to move around and to make your choices, and press RETURN
when complete. Pressing RETURN will take you back to the Capture Cards
screen; if you have additional capture cards in this machine, press
the space bar when the highlight is on the (New Capture Card) row to
define another card.
If you have made a mistake, you can delete a card by highlighting it
and pressing the 'D' key, or you can highlight it and press the RETURN
or 'E' key to edit it.
Once you have no additional cards to setup, press ESC.
NNOOTTEE: If you have a dual digital/analog card, such as the pcHDTV
cards and some DViCO cards, then you should not configure this as two
separate cards. Configure the digital portion as a DVB card, then
click on the "Analog Options" button within the DVB configuration
panel for the card and configure the analog portion of the card there.
99..11..33.. VViiddeeoo SSoouurrcceess
When you start, the highlight should be on (New Video Source). Press
the space bar to begin. The first field asks for the name of the video
source. You may choose something easy to remember, like "Antenna" or
"Cable". Once you've chosen a name, press the down arrow to move to
the next field.
If you're in North America, change the grabber to
"SchedulesDirect.org(Internal)", then continue pressing the down arrow
to move to the next field. Fill in the username (lowercase only) and
password that you have established with Schedules Direct, then move to
the "Retrieve Listings" button and press the space bar.
NNOOTTEE: You need wwggeett version 1.9.1 or higher to use Schedules Direct.
The mythtv-setup program will contact the Schedules Direct servers and
get your account information. Once you're done, you may click the
Finish button and skip the next few paragraphs in this document since
they only apply to users that are using the external XMLTV script to
get their guide data.
If you wish to continue using the XMLTV grabber, then move to the
Zip/postal code field and put in the appropriate value.
If you're outside of North America, then some manual interaction will
be required with XMLTV. You may need to switch from the MythTV setup
program to the console it was run on to interact with XMLTV.
Once you have chosen your provider, press RETURN to continue. XMLTV
will now begin collecting the initial data for your location. The
screen may blank for a few seconds to several minutes, depending on
the load of the listings provider and the speed of your connection to
the Internet. Be patient!
You will then be returned to the Video Sources screen. If you have
multiple video sources available, such as Antenna, Cable, etc, go
ahead and define them all, even if they're not all going to be
physically connected to the master backend server. Once you're done,
press ESC to return to the main screen.
99..11..44.. IInnppuutt CCoonnnneeccttiioonnss
The final configuration item is Input Connections. On this screen, you
will associate the various video sources you defined earlier with a
physical input to a encoder card. It's entirely possible that you have
multiple tuners, and each tuner has a different input, so on this
screen you let MythTV know which device will connect to which input
source.
When you start this screen, you should see a listing of the various
input connections available on each of the Capture cards you defined
earlier. For example, you may have a capture card with a tuner, a
SVideo and a Composite connection. If you wanted to associate the
tuner (a.k.a., "Television") with an "Antenna" source you defined in
Video Sources, you would move to the /dev/videodevice (Television) ->
line and press the space bar. Using the left and right arrow keys
will show you the various choices you have already created for video
source. In our case, you would use the left/right cursor keys until
"Antenna" was shown in the Video Source field. Press down to move to
the next setting.
On the connection pane there is a "Scan for channels" button, if you
are configuring a digital source such as a DVB card, you need scan for
channels and you must do this before pressing the "Fetch channels from
listings source" button. You may scan for analog channels on an analog
input, but this is not needed.
The other button is called "Fetch channels from listings source". As
long as you have a real listings source you should fetch channels from
them for analog channels. You can do this for digital sources as well
(unless the listing source is transmitted EIT data). If you are using
XMLTV, you may need to switch from the MythTV setup program to the
console it was run on to interact with XMLTV after pressing this
button. It is possible to fetch the channels on the command line using
mythfilldatabase. But if you need to do this, you will probably need
to re-enter the MythTV setup program to configure the "Starting
channel" setting for this source->input connection.
NNOOTTEE: If you have a Hauppauge PVR-500, you must think of
it as two PVR-150's on a single PCI card. For example, if you have a
single PVR-500 card, it will appear as /dev/video0 and /dev/video1.
Each /dev/video device will have a Tuner input. Once you're done,
press RETURN to go back to the Input Connections screen. You would
then finish associating the video sources to any other hardware
devices you have available.
NNOOTTEE: Don't add a video source to a hardware input if you don't
actually have anything connected there. For example, adding "Cable" to
the Tuner and to the Composite inputs without having something
connected to Composite will lead to blank recordings.
Press ESC to return to the main menu, and press ESC again if you have
no further items to configure, thereby returning you to the command
line.
99..11..55.. CChhaannnneell EEddiittoorr
The channel editor is used to globally alter channel information,
including items like hue, contrast, fine tuning and others. Users in
North America shouldn't run the channel editor until you've completed
the initial mythtv-setup and ran mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee at least once to
populate the database.
99..11..66.. SSttoorraaggee GGrroouuppss
99..11..66..11.. IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn..
Storage Groups are lists of directories that are used to hold MythTV
recording files, giving you a flexible way to add capacity to your
MythTV system without having to use exotic solutions such as LVM,
filesystem expansion or RAID Online Capacity Expansion. You can also
use Storage Groups to organize recordings and to put recordings of a
certain type into one subdirectory.
Storage Groups do not offer redundancy in case of hard drive failure,
but unlike LVM, if you lose a hard drive, you only lose the recordings
that were on that drive. With LVM, if you lose a hard drive, you will
most likely lose eevveerryytthhiinngg.
99..11..66..22.. HHooww ttoo uussee SSttoorraaggee GGrroouuppss..
By default, there is only one Storage Group called "Default", and it
is used for all recordings and Live TV.
NNOOTTEE: You need to add at least one directory to the Default
Storage Group or else you will not be able to record anything with
MythTV.
For example, if you have 5 hard drives in your system, your first hard
drive could be your "boot" drive, and the remaining four could be
dedicated to media storage. You could format the drives and mount them
as /mnt/store/d2, /mnt/store/d3, /mnt/store/d4 and /mnt/store/d5.
Within each mount point, it's _s_t_r_o_n_g_l_y recommended that you use a sub-
directory and make that the destination path for the Storage Group.
See the ``Tip'' in the "Configuring the Master backend" section for
additional information.
You would then add the four subdirectories you created under the mount
points (/mnt/store/d1/video, etc) into the "Default" Storage Group.
At recording time, if there were four simultaneous recordings, MythTV
would put one recording onto each drive.
MythTV will balance concurrent recordings across the available
directories in a Storage Group in order to spread out the file I/O
load. MythTV will prefer filesystems that are local to the backend
over filesystems that are remote until the local filesystem has 2
concurrent recordings active or other equivalent I/O, then the next
recording will go to the remote filesystem. The balancing method is
based purely on I/O, Myth does not try to balance out disk space
unless a filesystem is too low on free disk space in which case it
will not be used except as a last resort.
Or, say that you originally installed MythTV to a 750GB hard drive,
and that hard drive is now filling up. You could simply add a new
drive to your system, mount it and update the Storage Group to add the
additional space.
You may create additional Storage Groups to store specific recordings
in their own directories. Storage Groups are edited via the 'Storage
Directories' section of mythtv-setup.
You can also create multiple Storage Groups to group recordings
together; recording schedules now have an option to specify which
Storage Group to use.
Storage Groups are global, but can be overridden on a slave backend by
creating a local Storage Group by running mmyytthhttvv--sseettuupp on the slave.
If a problem occurs and the slave backend is unable to use the desired
Storage Group, it will fail back and try the directories defined in
the master's Storage Group.
There's also a special 'LiveTV' Storage Group, but the directory list
starts out empty. If you add a directory to the Storage Group, it will
be used instead of putting LiveTV recordings in the Default Storage
Group and will allow you to put your LiveTV recordings on their own
filesystem.
Of course, you don't have to do anything, and Live TV recordings will
just go into the Default Storage Group where they'll be the first
programs eligible for expiration if the system needs free space for
recordings.
Usage information for all Storage Group directories is visible on the
mythfrontend status screen as well as the mythbackend status webpage.
MythTV is smart enough to determine which directories are on shared
filesystems so it should not count free or used space multiple times
if you have more than one directory on the same filesystem.
99..11..66..33.. MMiiggrraattiinngg ttoo SSttoorraaggee GGrroouuppss..
Migrating to Storage groups is very simple: if you have existing
recordings in a storage directory, then the system will automatically
add that directory to the Default Storage Group. If you then add
additional directories to a storage group, the system is flexible
enough to check _a_l_l Storage Groups for a file before deciding that it
can't be found, which means that you can use the mmvv command from the
Unix command line to arrange files however you'd like.
99..11..66..44.. AAddvvaanncceedd:: AAllggoorriitthhmm uusseedd bbyy tthhee SSttoorraaggee GGrroouupp
This section details the logic of the Storage Group allocation engine.
The current load-balancing preferences (in order) are:
+o Local filesystems over remote
+o Less-busy (less weight) over more-busy (more weight)
+o More Free Space over Less Free Space
The 'business' of a filesystem is determined by weights. The following
weights are added to a filesystem if it is in use for the following
things:
+o recording = +10
+o playback = +5 (mythfrontend)
+o comm flagging = +5 (mythcommflag)
+o transcoding = +5 (mythtranscode)
If a recording is due to end within 3 minutes, it is not counted
against the weight of a filesystem. This is done to account for the
pre/post-roll and start-early/end-late settings.
99..22.. PPoosstt--ccoonnffiigguurraattiioonn
Run the mythfilldatabase program as directed. The master backend will
obtain guide data for all the video sources you defined during setup.
NNOOTTEE: If you are using Schedules Direct and watching the output
messages on the console or the log file it is normal to see a "401
Unauthorized" error followed by a "200 OK" when the connection to
Schedules Direct is being established.
From : Sun Jun 13 05:00:00 2004 To : Mon Jun 14 05:00:00 2004 (UTC)
--02:58:01--
http://datadirect.webservices.zap2it.com/tvlistings/xtvdService
=> -'
Resolving datadirect.webservices.zap2it.com... 206.18.98.160
Connecting to datadirect.webservices.zap2it.com[206.18.98.160]:80...
connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 401 Unauthorized
Connecting to datadirect.webservices.zap2it.com[206.18.98.160]:80...
connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: unspecified [text/xml]
[ <=> ] 114,125 63.57K/s
02:58:03 (63.53 KB/s) - -' saved [114125]
Your subscription expires on 08/20/2004 12:00:00 AM
Grab complete. Actual data from Sun Jun 13 05:00:00 2004 to Mon Jun 14
00:00:00 2004 (UTC)
Once mythfilldatabase has finished, start the master server before
continuing.
$ mythbackend
mythbackend will print information about connections and what it's
doing to the console. If you'd like to see the options that are
available for mythbackend, type mythbackend -h for help.
As of MythTV v0.22, the available options are:
$ mythbackend --help
Valid options are:
-h or --help List valid command line parameters
-l or --logfile filename Writes STDERR and STDOUT messages to filename
-p or --pidfile filename Write PID of mythbackend to filename
-d or --daemon Runs mythbackend as a daemon
-v or --verbose debug-level Use '-v help' for level info
--printexpire List of auto-expire programs
--printsched Upcoming scheduled programs
--testsched Test run scheduler (ignore existing schedule)
--resched Force the scheduler to update
--nosched Do not perform any scheduling
--nojobqueue Do not start the JobQueue
--noautoexpire Do not start the AutoExpire thread
--version Version information
Running mythbackend as a daemon and using the logfile option will
allow you to have mythbackend automatically start up during boot. You
can follow the steps outlined in the section called ``Automatically
starting mythbackend at system boot time'' for configuration steps.
If you enable the -l parameter, you will want to keep your logfiles
rotated (so that they don't fill up a partition). See the section
called ``Automatically rotating logs'' for more information.
99..33.. CCoonnffiigguurriinngg aa nnoonn--mmaasstteerr bbaacckkeenndd
Ensure that you've granted access to the master MySQL database for
remote backends as discussed in the section titled ``Modifying access
to the MySQL database for multiple systems'' and that you have the
correct IP address for the database server in the "Database
Configuration" screen of the mythtv-setup application on this slave
backend.
NNOOTTEE: Slave backends mmuusstt nnoott run a local MySQL
daemon. By default, they will connect to their local daemon rather
than the central database, causing unexpected behavior such as empty
"Watch Recordings" lists and a failure to locate the Video Sources
defined on the master backend. Modify the
/usr/local/share/mythtv/mysql.txt file on all slave backends to ensure
that the DBHostName has the address of the MySQL server. Caveat: You
may make a slave backend the primary MySQL server, or run a non-MythTV
database on a slave backend as long as you have edited the mysql.txt
file on aallll systems and made it consistent. There can be only one
authoritative MySQL database in a MythTV system - errors such as the
one above ensue if backends and frontends have differing ideas of
which MySQL database they should talk to.
Make sure that the IP addresses on the General setup screen are
accurate. If the slave backend can't communicate with the master
backend due to IP address misconfiguration then MythTV will not
function properly.
Configuration of a non-master backend follows the same general
procedure as that of the master backend, with the exception that you
skip over the "Video Sources" step. All possible video sources need to
be defined on the master backend system; only the master backend will
query a listings provider to obtain guide data for all the non-master
backends.
NNOOTTEE: Do not run mythfilldatabase on a non-master backend.
99..44.. CCoonnffiigguurriinngg aanndd rruunnnniinngg mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee
NNOOTTEE: mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee might take a while to complete,
depending on any number of factors, most of which you can't control.
It's best to just let the program run to completion. mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee
----hheellpp will give a full listing of the options available.
mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee ----mmaannuuaall is another option; the manual option will
allow you to fine tune channel frequencies and specify which channels
will be added to the database.
mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee ----ffiillee is an option if there isn't an XMLTV grabber
for your country, but you ddoo have an XML formatted listings file
created by some other program.
mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee ----xxaawwcchhaannnneellss is an option if you have used xxaawwttvv to
fine-tune your channels and would like to import the fine tuning
offsets into MythTV.
mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee ----rreeffrreesshh--ttooddaayy will only pull guide data for today
(in case of late-breaking changes to the schedule).
99..44..11.. PPeerriiooddiiccaallllyy rruunnnniinngg mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee
In order to keep your database filled, mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee should be run
once a day.
To use MythTV's built-in capability, you'll need to run the
mmyytthhffrroonntteenndd Setup option. From the mythfrontend, enter the
Setup>General screen and advance to "Mythfilldatabase", the fourth
screen. Select the checkbox, then complete the options as you see
fit. The mmyytthhbbaacckkeenndd program will now run mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee for you.
99..55.. GGrraabbbbiinngg cchhaannnneell iiccoonnss ffoorr SScchheedduulleess DDiirreecctt uusseerrss
While the Schedules Direct TV listings service has several advantages,
it does not support grabbing logo icons for the stations you receive.
However, there are utilities provided with MythTV which you may use to
grab your initial set of icons and to keep them updated if your
lineups change.
First, you need to generate or obtain an XML file with the information
for your stations.
If you have XMLTV software installed, there is a perl script in
MythTV's contrib/ directory which will generate this file for you. Run
the command:
$ perl mkiconmap.pl
You will be asked for your zip code and the service that you use. If
there are no errors, the iconmap.xml file that you need for the next
step will be created.
If you do not have XMLTV software installed and do not want to install
it for the sake of this minor task, there is a generic
contrib/master_iconmap.xml which you can copy and use but this may not
be as complete as using the specific information for your service.
Once you have an iconmap.xml file, add the icon information to your
database and grab any new icons with the command:
$ mythfilldatabase --import-icon-map iconmap.xml --update-icon-map
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Once you have completed configuration of your backend systems, the
next step is to configure the frontend client.
When you start mythfrontend for the first time, it will attempt to
connect to a configuration database on the local machine. If there is
none, a "Database Configuration" screen will appear, and you will need
to fill in some details. The "Host name" field needs the backend or
database server's IP address or DNS name, and the User or password
fields may need to be set to match your database user accounts. After
editing those fields, press Enter twice to write these configurations
on your local machine, and attempt to connect to the database. If you
make any mistakes, the screens will pop up again.
Now that mythfrontend has started up, you should have a number of
buttons/choices. Before doing anything, go to TV, then to Setup and
configure the frontend client.
NNOOTTEE: You should go through the various setup screens in
mythfrontend before using any other modules to ensure that the the
database is correctly initialized.
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The General screen has configuration items that don't really fit
anywhere else. The first few configuration items ask you to indicate
the number of seconds to record before or after a program, which is
useful if the broadcast network or your system clock are out of sync
and will help prevent you missing the beginning or end of a program.
To change the value, use the left and right arrow keys to increment
and decrement the number of seconds. When you're satisfied with the
result, use the down arrow to put the input focus on the Next button
or press RETURN to continue to the next page.
The next page has a number of options to do with how channels are
displayed on your system. The help text will give you more
information. Move the focus to Next and press the space bar to
continue.
The last General page sets up some final configuration items. See the
help text for more information.
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This set of screens is mostly concerned with how MythTV will look on
your system. From here, you can choose different themes and set the
resolution of your system.
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Fairly self explanatory. Note that the alternate program guide does
not use the same font settings as defined in Appearance, so if the EPG
is unreadable this is where you make the adjustments to fonts, number
of elements displayed, etc.
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The one configuration item which may cause problems on your system is
the "Deinterlace playback" setting. MythTV uses a linear blend
algorithm for deinterlacing, which will improve how the image looks on
your screen. Deinterlacing requires that your processor support SSE.
(Streaming SIMD Extensions, aka "MMX2"). Early Intel Celeron (those
that don't use the Coppermine 0.18um core and are usually <600MHz),
Pentium Pro and Pentium II CPUs do not have SSE, so make sure you
haven't enabled deinterlacing if your processor doesn't support it. If
you enable it, and your processor doesn't support SSE, you will get
"Illegal Instruction" errors.
To determine if you've got SSE on an Intel processor, you can:
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
[snip]
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca
cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse
Notice the ssssee at the end of the line - this tells you that this
processor will be able to deinterlace correctly.
On an AMD processor, look for "3dnow" in the cpuinfo line; "3dnow" is
AMD's implementation of SSE instructions, so if your processor has
3dnow you shouldn't have any issues with deinterlacing.
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MythTV provides a means of employing video filters while recording and
during playback. These filters can be used to improve or modify the
video image, including hiding the effects of an interlaced image or
reducing the impact of noise in a poor video signal. The following is
a brief introduction to introduce you to the filters that are
available in MythTV version 0.20 and higher.
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One or more filters can be included in a "filter chain". The filters
to be used are identified in a "filter string". A filter string is a
group of filter names and parameters separated by commas. To include
parameters, the filter name is followed by "=" and the parameter
information. There should be no spaces in the filter string. Here is
an example filter string:
With parameters: kerneldeint=10:1,denoise3d=12
Without: kerneldeint,denoise3d
Recording filters are set for each individual channel. These may be
used when encoding in software (MPEG-4, RTjpeg) but do not apply when
using a capture card with hardware encoding such as those supported by
the ivtv driver, DVB, HDTV or MJPEG cards. You can run MythTV's
"setup" program and select the "Channel Editor". On the first page for
each channel, you can enter a filter string in the box titled "Video
filters". If you are running "mythweb" on your web server, you can
click on "Settings" then "Channels" and enter filter strings in the
"videofilters" column.
Playback filters are per-host and apply to any recording you watch
from the frontend where filters have been applied. Playback filtering
can only work with software decoding so the viaslice, xvmc, and ivtv
outputs ignore filters entirely. From "mythfrontend" go to Setup->TV
Settings->Playback. Enter your filter string in the box titled
"Custom Filters".
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"Deinterlace Playback" checkbox.
This implements special behavior needed for the "bobdeint" filter but
can also be used to choose any of the deinterlace filters. If you
prefer, you may leave this unchecked and include any of the
deinterlace filters, other than "bobdeint", in your custom filter
chain.
o The "invert" filter
Invert ignores any parameters and inverts the pixel values of the
video frames. In other words, a negative image. This would rarely be
useful but may be a good example to verify that your filter strings
take effect.
o The "linearblend" filter
It is a simple deinterlacing filter that ignores parameters and works
by blending adjacent lines. It replaces combing in interlaced video
with a less distracting "ghost" image.
o The "bobdeint" filter
This filter splits the interlaced image into two separate fields that
can be line doubled then displayed at twice the frame rate. If the
display is at the same refresh rate as the recording (59.92Hz NTSC or
50Hz PAL) this will cause each refresh to show objects in motion in a
new position with no jagged edges. However, if the display is not
synchronous, it will cause flickering or the appearance of the picture
moving up and down by one line.
NNOOTTEE: This filter requires the frame rate to be doubled
and therefore can only be used with the "Deinterlace Playback"
checkbox. Do not include this in your filter chain.
o The "kerneldeint" filter
Kerneldeint is a more complex deinterlacing filter which applies a
filter kernel using input from several lines. It generally removes
combing without a "ghost" image, sometimes leaving a faint outline of
the image from the other field. It is considered to be less
distracting to watch than linearblend or no filter at all. It accepts
one or two integer parameters separated by a colon.
The first parameter is the filter threshold and defaults to 12.
Adjacent lines differing by more than the threshold value are
filtered. The second option defaults to 0. If set to a non-zero value,
it will cause the filter to skip chroma, and filter only the
luminance. It may be useful on some capture cards which do not capture
the chroma fields of interlaced video correctly.
o The "onefield" filter
This is a simple one-field deinterlacing filter that uses only one
field of the interlaced video. By default it keeps the top field,
though passing the parameter "bottom" will cause it to keep the bottom
field instead.
This filter is primarily useful for those who display 1080i HDTV
signals with a video mode that has 540 pixels vertically. The
advantage over other deinterlacing filters is that scenes with motion
never show combing or ghosting.
o The "adjust" filter
This filter adjusts the digital values for luma and chroma to ensure
that they will fall within the ranges specified in the ITU-R601
standard. By default, this corrects a known problem for the luma range
used by bt8x8 chips which causes video to look washed out. If
parameters are passed, there need to be exactly six. However, passing
a single parameter of "-1" will disable the filter.
1: luma minimum input value (int) 2: luma maximum input value (int) 3:
luma gamma correction (float) 4: chroma minimum input value (int) 5:
chroma maximum input value (int) 6: chroma gamma correction (float)
The default bt8x8 correction values are equivalent to
"16:253:1.0:2:253:1.0". Output ranges are fixed at ITU-R601 values
(16-235 luma, 16-240 chroma).
NNOOTTEE: If it is not already specified in the filter chain, this filter
will be automatically applied when recording with the "bttv" driver.
o The "quickdnr" filter
A fast temporal denoiser. This can take 1, 2 or 4 parameters, each
being a value from "0" for the least filtering to "255" for the
greatest filtering. With one parameter, the filter will compute the
values it should use for all of its variables. Two parameters will set
the filter strength for luma and chroma independently. If you are
interested in how the algorithm works, you may examine the source code
to see how four parameter are used.
o The "denoise3d" filter
A slower denoiser that applies a spatial and temporal low-pass filter.
The spatial filter can remove some noise that quickdnr can't, but a
more powerful CPU is needed. This filter accepts 3 float parameters:
+o luma spatial filter strength
+o chroma spatial filter strength
+o luma temporal filter strength
Reasonable defaults will be selected for omitted parameters. The
chroma temporal filter strength is calculated from the other filter
strengths.
o The "crop" filter
Covers edges of video with black bars. This helps improve video
quality when the edges of the frame are distorted. By default, this
removes 16 pixels from each edge. This can optionally take four
parameters representing top:left:bottom:right. The number times 16 is
the number of pixels to remove so, for example, the default is
"=1:1:1:1".
o The "forceyv12" and "forceyuv422p" filters
These force the filter manager to use the given format. You can use
one of these at the head of a filter chain to change the capture
format. The most likely use would be forceyuv422p to use YUV422P
capture on cards with known chroma interlacing problems with YV12.
There are some filters included in the MythTV source code that should
not be used:
o The "forcergb24" and "forceargb32" filters
The two RGB formats should not be used because there is no conversion
filter for them yet.
o The "convert" filter
It exists but don't use it. The filter manager uses this filter
automatically when it is unable to match the input/output formats of
two adjacent filters.
o The "postprocess" filter
While this exists in MythTV source code, it is currently not
recommended for use.
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There are trade-offs to consider when deciding if it would be wise to
use a filter. Any processing will modify the original image so you
should assess if the filter has made a noticeable improvement to the
picture in order to justify the impact of the processing. Adding any
filter will inherently increase CPU usage. The impact can vary
dramatically depending on your CPU type and speed, the resolution of
the recording, which filters you are using and other factors. You can
only determine what is right for you through experimentation. However,
as a starting point, here are some filter strings that you may find
useful:
For typical broadcast stations: "kerneldeint,quickdnr"
For stations with poor signal quality: "linearblend,denoise3d=12"
For synchronous TV-out: check Deinterlace with "Bob (2x framerate)"
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Depending on your capture card, MythTV offers different video
encoders. The following types of hardware encoding cards are
supported:
+o MJPEG - Zoran-based cards; see http://mjpeg.sourceforge.net
<http://mjpeg.sourceforge.net>
+o MPEG-2 - iTVC15/16 based cards (Hauppauge PVR-250/PVR-350); see
http://ivtvdriver.org <http://ivtvdriver.org>
+o HDTV - pcHDTV cards; see http://pchdtv.com <http://pchdtv.com> and
the Air2PC-ATSC-PCI
+o H.264 - HD PVR
+o DVB - cards supporting DVB; see http://linuxtv.org
<http://linuxtv.org>
+o HD Homerun
For cards without hardware encoding capabilities (all cards supported
by V4L not listed above), Myth includes two methods for software
encoding: RTjpeg and MPEG-4. RTjpeg has significantly fewer CPU
demands than MPEG-4, but it generates larger files than MPEG-4 for a
given recording.
Any cards which simply demodulate MPEG-2 which has been encoded by the
broadcaster will not offer much in the way of configuration because
the broadcaster will be choosing the bitrate, etc.
For all other cards, configuration is done through MythFrontend.
Selecting 'Recording Profiles' from the 'TV Settings' screen will list
the profiles currently available for the cards in your system.
Depending on what types of cards you have installed you may see:
(Create new profile group)
Software Encoders
Hardware MPEG Encoders
Hardware MJPEG Encoders
Transcoders
The '(Create new profile group)' option will allow you to create cus-
tom profiles in case you have multiple backends. Note that custom pro-
files are per backend and card type. If you have 2 MPEG-2 encoders in
a given backend system, creating a custom profile will affect both of
them. This option should not be needed otherwise.
The 'Transcoders' group is a little different from the others.
Selecting this group will result in a menu with the following options:
'RTjpeg/MPEG-4' and 'MPEG-2'. These types indicate what transcoder
options will be used for a given input type (i.e. the 'MPEG-2'
settings would be used to transcode MPEG-2 files into MPEG-4. The
source of the MPEG-2 stream (DVB, HDTV, or PVR-x50) does not matter.
Configuration of the options is the same as below (although any
resolution settings will be ignored).
Selecting any of the other options will show a new screen with a list
of four profiles:
+o Default
+o Live TV
+o Low Quality
+o High Quality
The Default profile will be used for any recording which does not
otherwise have a specific profile assigned. The 'Live TV' profile will
be used when watching TV. The remaining two profiles are available for
customizing to allow for more precise control over what quality is
used for a given program.
Selecting a profile will allow you to adjust the relevant options for
that card. The most significant setting is the recording resolution,
but you can also choose encoding format, audio format, and tweak other
encoder specific properties.
NNOOTTEE: although the width and height can be changed to almost
anything, if you start MythTV and don't see video or you get
"segmentation fault" errors, it is likely that the video4linux (v4l)
subsystem did not like the height and width parameters specified. It's
best to leave the default as-is until you're sure that MythTV is
operational.
See the ``What capture resolution should I use? How does video work?''
section for more information.
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The keys.txt file describes what the various keyboard commands are.
If you have loaded mythweb, you may change the default keys to your
liking.
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Arrow keys used to move the highlight point around
ALT-F4 exit out of the application
Space/Enter take action on the item under the highlight point
P play in both "Watch a Recording" and "Delete a Recording"
D delete in both "Watch a Recording" and "Delete a Recording"
U to view details for the currently selected show on the Watch or Delete screens, EPG, "Program Finder", "Fix Scheduling Conflicts" and search results screens
O to list the upcoming episodes for the currently selected show on the EPG, "Program Finder", "Program Recording Priorities", "Fix Scheduling Conflicts" or search results screens
I edit recording options from the EPG, "Program Finder", "Program Recording Priorities", or "Fix Scheduling Conflicts" screens. From the Playback and Delete screens, 'I' presents options for recorded shows such as Auto Expire or Stop Recording. Pressing 'I' while on the Recording Options screen will take you to the Advanced Recording Options screen.
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G rotate between the various Picture Adjustments (Colour, Hue, etc.) for recording. These values affect the look of the resulting .nuv file, and are independent of the playback picture settings. While Picture Adjustment is on-screen, use Left and Right arrows to adjust.
H Channel history. Each repeat steps back through the previous channels.
O Turns on 'Browse' mode, allowing user to browse channels and program info while watching current show FullScreen.
Y switch between multiple capture cards. NNOOTTEE: you will lose your LiveTV buffer on your current card. Useful for different-sourced cards (such as Dish Network on one, HDTV over-the-air on another card.)
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Left browse program prior to current listed program
Right browse program following current listed program
Up browse program on channel above current listed channel/program
Down browse program on channel below current listed channel/program
/ browse program on next favorite channel
0-9 enter a channel number to browse
Space/Enter change channel to channel of current listed program
R/r Toggle recording of current program (cycles through types)
ESC/O Exit Browse mode
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Left Move video to Left
Right Move video to Right
Up Move video Up
Down Move video Down
PageUp Zoom In
PageDown Zoom Out
Space/Enter Exit Zoom mode leaving picture at current size and position
ESC Exit Zoom mode and return to original size
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V toggle Picture-in-picture on or off
B toggles the window focus (lets you change channels on the PiP window)
N swaps the two channels by changing channels on both cards
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Up or down keys change the channel
num pad Type a number to enter a channel number or jump amount (HHMM format)
P pause / play. You may also add an explicit keybinding for 'Play' through MythWeb, returning you to normal speed if you are in slow motion, rewind fast forward or pause mode.
C change inputs on TV Tuner card
ESC quits
I puts the On-screen Display up again. During playback, 'I' toggles between position and show description info. If a jump amount is entered, jump to that position.
M brings up the electronic program guide (Grid) -- see the EPG section
Page Up jump back the configured number of minutes (default is 10)
Page Down jump ahead the configured number of minutes (default is 10)
End or Z skip to next commercial break marker
Home or Q skip back to previous commercial break marker
T toggle close caption support Pressing 0-9 (preferably 3 times) + T changes teletext page and turns on teletext.
F rotate between the various Picture Adjustments (Colour, Hue, etc.) While Picture Adjustment is on-screen, use Left and Right arrows to adjust. These settings adjust the look of the video playback, and are independent of the G-key settings used at record-time.
[ or F10 decrease volume
] or F11 increase volume
or F9 toggle mute
/ jump to the next "favorite" channel
? mark/unmark the current channel as a "favorite"
U increase the play speed
J decrease the play speed
A Adjust time stretch (speed up or slow down normal play of audio and video
W cycle through zoom and fill modes: 4:3 aspect ratio, 16:9, 4:3 Zoom (like Pan and Scan), 16:9 Zoom, and 16:9 Stretch (eliminates black sidebars in TV signal)
F8 toggle the sleep timer 30m->1hr->1hr30m->2hr->Off
CTRL-B Jump to the beginning of the recording / ringbuffer
+ Switch between audio streams
Left (if a jump amount is entered) to jump back that amount
Right (if a jump amount is entered) to jump ahead that amount
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Left rewind the configured number of seconds (default is 5)
Right fast forward the configured number of seconds (default is 30)
< starts rewind mode as if stickykeys are selected
> starts fast forward mode as if stickykeys are selected
WWiitthh SSttiicckkyykkeeyyss ooppttiioonn sseelleecctteedd
Right starts fast forward mode
Left starts rewind mode
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Left/Right increases the ff/rew speed
0 plays at normal speed, but leaves the time indicator on screen
1 or 2 plays back more slowly than normal ff/rew speed (1 is slowest)
3 plays back at normal ff/rew speed
4-9 plays back faster than normal ff/rew speed (9 is fastest)
Space exits fast forward or rewind mode
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Left rewind 1 frame
< rewind 1 second
Right advance 1 frame
> advance 1 second
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Space/Enter set a bookmark at that point. Next time you start the recording, you will automatically jump forward to this point and clear the bookmark.
X queues the current recording for transcoding
O brings up menu to allow toggling settings such as Commercial Auto-Skip, Auto-Expire, etc.
D exits the current recording and displays the Delete menu
E or M enters/exits edit mode.
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Left/Right move forward and backward
Up/Down alter the amount of time you jump forward and backward. Increments are: nearest cutpoint, nearest video keyframe, 1 frame, 0.5 seconds, 1 second, 20 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes.
PageUp/PageDown move forward and backward to the nearest cut point
< or > move forward or backward by 10 times the normal jump amount
Space/Enter allows you to set or delete a cut point
Z loads the commercial skip list (if one exists) into the cutlist
C or Q clear all cut points in the cutlist
I Inverts the cutlist
Arrows are used to move the highlighted program point around
A, D, S, W perform the same as left, right, down and up
PageUp/PageDown move the channel list up or down a page
Home/End move the highlight left or right by one day
Ctrl+Left or < move the highlight left by one page
Ctrl+Right or > move the highlight right by one page
9, 3, 7, 1 (like a numeric keypad) perform the same as PageUp, PageDown, Home and End
I bring up more information about a show, and allow you to schedule a recording. If you select "Record this showing" while watching Live TV you can "Instant Record" a program.
Space/Enter allow you resolve conflicts or change overrides. If the program is not already scheduled to record, it will instead act like pressing 'I'.
M when on a channel will change to that channel
ESC or C exits without changing the channel
R change the current item from Recording/Not-Recording. Successive keypresses cycle through the scheduled recording type list.
X change the channel to the currently selected channel without leaving the EPG (Most useful in the alternate EPG)
? mark/unmark the current channel as a "favorite"
/ or 4 toggle the guide listing between all channels and filtered "favorites"
Right increases priority value
Left decreases priority value
1 sorts by title
2 sorts by priority
Home/End toggle sort priority
I edit recording options
ESC commits changes and exits
1 show all recordings
2 show only important recordings
Home/End toggle show showing all/important
I edit recording options
Space/Enter resolve conflict or override
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Home change to the previous view if applicable
End change to the next view if applicable
M select another view if applicable. In the title and description search popup, press M again to edit or delete the selected view.
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D on a custom profile group displays a popup to delete the group
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In the Watch Recordings screen, Recording Groups allow you to separate
programs into user-defined categories, such as "Kids", "Alice", "Bob",
etc. This can be used to reduce clutter, or to segregate content if
you use the PIN function.
M change the view or to set a group password
I move a program from one Recording Group to another
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1 or F1 Meaning of the icons
/ Tags a recording. Tagged recordings can be played either in order or shuffled and deleted as a group. You can also change the recording group for several recordings at once by tagging them and using the Menu (m) button, selecting "Playlist options", then "Change Recording Group".
? Clear the tagged list.
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If you are using MythTV with just a remote control then it is
suggested that you map the remote control keys as described below.
Your remote control may not have the same set of keys as those named
below, the names are only a suggestion that roughly correspond to the
function.
If you are adding new key bindings to the program then consideration
of this suggested list will help users with remote controls.
This list assumes a minimal remote control that only has 20 keys,
nearly all features can be used with this configuration. If you have
more keys then you can access all of the features. With only 16 keys
most features are usable.
REMOTE CONTROL LIRC KEYSTROKE FUNCTION
0 - 9 0 - 9 channel selection, EPG navigation, ff/rew speed setting (with stickykeys)
Left Arrow Left scroll left, rewind
Right Arrow Right scroll right, fast forward
Up Arrow Up scroll up, channel change up
Down Arrow Down scroll down, channel change down
Select / OK / Play Space Select item, play (with stickykeys) set bookmark
Cancel Escape Cancel, quit playback
Menu m EPG (from watching TV) edit (from playback).
Pause p Pause
Other key 1 i Information
Other key 2 c Change tuner card input
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MythTV is "themeable", meaning that the visual appearance of the
program can be modified by the user without re-compiling or altering
the program functionality. Download the MythThemes tarball from the
website and untar it:
$ tar -xjf myththemes-0.22.tar.bz2
$ cd ~/myththemes-0.22
$ qmake myththemes.pro
$ su -
# make install
# exit
$
The theme will now be available in the mythfrontend Appearance
section.
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MythTV supports changing the channel on an external tuner. If you have
an external tuner, such as a DirecTV or digital cable set top box, you
should add /usr/local/bin/changechannel to your Input Connections in
the mythbackend configuration GUI.
However, there is not cchhaannggeecchhaannnneell program per-se, because this is
going to be dependent on what sort of external tuner you have. Look in
the contrib/channel_changers directory for a number of programs and
scripts which may be used to change channels. Once you find one which
works, copy it to /usr/local/bin/changechannel.
Feel free to browse some of what sort of hardware is available at
http://store.snapstream.com/accessories.html
<http://store.snapstream.com/accessories.html>, or if you wish to
assemble your own, rather than purchase, the following may be helpful:
http://www.dtvcontrol.com/ <http://www.dtvcontrol.com/> for cable
pinouts.
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What does the MythTV Shutdown/Wakeup function do? The scheduler on the
Master backend (MBE) keeps track of the idle status of the entire
MythTV system, including the Slave backends (SBE). If it considers the
system to be idle, and thus ready to shutdown, it sets the wakeuptime
to the time of the next recording and then proceeds to shut down all
Slave backends and then itself. Once it is time to begin recording,
the Master backend and the Slave Backends are automatically woken up.
This system allows MythTV to record like a normal VCR, thereby
conserving power when not in active use.
In order to use the Shutdown/Wakeup function there must be some method
of waking up the Master backend. There are any number of solutions,
but we will discuss in detail two possibilities:
+o Use another server that runs 24/7 and have it send a WakeOnLAN
(WOL) packet to wake the Master backend. This assumes that you have
the WOL tools installed, and that your Master backend motherboard
supports WOL.
+o Use your motherboard's BIOS wakeup capability. You'll need a
motherboard that supports BIOS wakeup, and some tools. Two that
work are: http://sourceforge.net/projects/nvram-wakeup
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/nvram-wakeup> and
http://www.malloc.de/tools/wakeup_clock.html
<http://www.malloc.de/tools/wakeup_clock.html>
1111..44..11.. AA ddeeeeppeerr llooookk iinnttoo tthhee ooppeerraattiioonn
The scheduler keeps track of the idle status of the MythTV system. To
determine whether or not the MythTV system is idle, the following
conditions must be met for a period of time defined in the "Idle
timeout (secs)" parameter.
+o no client is connected to the server
+o no recording (neither LiveTV nor a regular recording) is currently
taking place
+o no recording starts within a definable amount of time ("Max. wait
for recording (min)")
+o the "pre Shutdown check-command" returns 0
If we get to this idle state the Master backend will set the
wakeuptime using the "Set wakeuptime command", which is the same for
WOL and BIOS wakeup. The Master backend will then shut down the Slave
backends and itself using the "Server halt command".
One caveat is that the scheduler tries to guess if the Master backend
was started by a wakeup call or by the user. If it thinks it was woken
up by a user, it blocks shutdown until a client connects to the Master
backend, after which it will behave as described above. To disable
this feature, unset "Block shutdown before client connected" in the
mythfrontend Setup->Setup->General screen.
Once it is time to startup the system, the Master backend is woken up
first and will wakeup the Slave backends using the "Wake command for
slaves". At this time, there is no support for starting only the
required Slave backend, so all Slave backends will startup.
1111..44..22.. SSeettttiinngg uupp tthhee MMyytthhTTVV ssiiddee ooff tthhiiss eexxtteennssiioonn..
There are a number of options that are used to control the Shutdown /
Wakeup feature.
Shutdown/Wakeup Options:
+o "Idle timeout (secs)" is the time the server waits while idle until
a shutdown occurs.
+o "Max. wait for recording (min)" is the time the Master backend
waits for a recording without shutting down. For example, this
would be used to prevent a 10 minute system shutdown if a recording
is set to start 15 minutes from now.
+o "Startup before rec. (secs)" Sets how long before a programmed
recording the MythTV system will be woken up. This should be
roughly be the time your systems need to bootup, and if you have
Slave backends, you'll need to ensure this value is long enough for
all your machines to perform their bootup cycle.
+o "Wakeup time format" is the format of the wakeup time that is given
in the "Set wakeuptime command" as a parameter "$time". You need to
set this according to your wakeup mechanism. If you need seconds
since the epoch (1970-01-01) set the "Wakeup time format" to
"time_t".
+o "Set wakeuptime command" is the command executed to set the new
wakeuptime.
+o "Server Halt Command" is the command executed to shutdown the
Master backend and the Slave backends.
+o "pre Shutdown check-command" is used to give a "Go/NO-GO" decision
from a non-MythTV source. This command is executed immediately
before the shutdown would occur. The return value is use to make
the following choices:
+o If it returns a "0" the shutdown will occur as scheduled.
+o If it returns a "1" the "idle timeout" will be reset and the
system waits again for the timeout.
+o If it returns a "2" the entire shutdown sequence is reset. This
means that a new client connect is needed before a shutdown
occurs, unless you have the "Wait for client connect" setting
disabled, in which case this is the same as returning "1". An
example of a use for this return value is to prevent the
shutdown if a user is currently logged in, or if a specific
program (i.e. transcode, automatic updates, etc.) is currently
running. If you don't need it, leave the field blank.
The "WakeOnLan settings": These settings have nothing to do with using
BIOS or WOL wakeup, they are the same for both.
+o "Master backend" This setting defines timings for the frontends to
wakeup the Master backend using WOL. Useful if your frontend can
emit a WOL packet so you don't need to physically go to the Master
backend if you're trying to watch TV.
+o "Reconnect wait time (secs)" is the time the frontend waits after
executing the "Wake command" before attempting to retry the
connection. This should be roughly the amount of time your Master
backend needs for bootup. Set to "0" to disable. The frontends
will retry to connect for "Count of reconnect tries" times before
giving up.
+o "Wake command for slaves" is the _o_n_e command executed to wake your
Slave backends. This should be a script that contains the calls to
wakeup all Slave backend systems.
1111..44..22..11.. UUssiinngg WWOOLL ttoo wwaakkee yyoouurr MMaasstteerr bbaacckkeenndd..
To use WOL to wake your Master backend you will need a WOL capable
Master backend, a machine that runs 24/7 which can execute an at-job
and nc (netcat) on the Master backend. I use some little bash scripts
to make my DSL router wakeup my mythbox if required.
Replace $SERVER and $PORT with your own settings! On my Master
backend I have a script that gets called as 'setwakeuptime command'
which looks like the following:
#! /bin/sh
echo $@ | nc $SERVER $PORT
This simply cats the parameters (that is $time) to my 24/7 server. On
my $SERVER I have (x)inetd listening on $PORT starting a little script
which cares about setting the at-job. The following additions are nec-
essary on the $SERVER:
If you use iinneettdd:
In /etc/inetd.conf add:
mythwake stream tcp nowait mythtv /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/local/bin/mythwake
If you use xxiinneettdd, save the following as mmyytthhwwaakkee in your
/etc/xinet.d/ directory:
service mythwake
{
socket_type = stream
wait = no
user = mythtv
protocol = tcp
id = mythwake
server = /usr/local/bin/mythwake
}
and add the following to /etc/services:
mythwake $PORT/tcp
Finally, /usr/local/bin/mythwake looks like:
#! /bin/bash
#this should be a command to wake your server
WAKECMD="#!/bin/sh\n /usr/local/bin/wakeMBE"
#first we need to delete all wake jobs in queue
for JOB in atq | cut -f 1 ; do
atrm $JOB;
done
#now we read the date from 'nc'
read date;
#now set the atjob
echo -e "$WAKECMD" | at $date ;
SSEECCUURRIITTYY WWAARRNNIINNGG: Be sure to secure $SERVER:$PORT from untrusted net-
works, because this allows 3rd parties to run arbitrary code on your
server!
1111..44..22..22.. UUssiinngg BBIIOOSS wwaakkeeuupp ttoo wwaakkee yyoouurr MMaasstteerr bbaacckkeenndd..
Since I don't use this, I cannot say much about this. If your
motherboard supports any wakeup tool you have to call that tool as
"Set wakeuptime command" with the "Wakeup time format" suitable for
that tool.
1111..44..33.. WWaakkeeuupp tthhee MMyySSQQLL sseerrvveerr uussiinngg WWOOLL
If your MySQL server and your Master backend are not on the same
machine, you can have the Master backend wake your MySQL server using
WOL. You will find the settings for this in the second page of the
mythtv-setup program, or at the end of mysql.txt. The meanings are the
same as discussed in "The WakeOnLan settings" above.
1111..44..44.. TTiippss//TTrriicckkss::
If, for example, one of the Slave backends is also your desktop
computer, you could simply use a little script as 'server halt
command' which first calls /sbin/shutdown -t TIMEOUT where TIMEOUT is
a value sufficient for you to react. You could then popup a window
using *dialog, asking for permission to shutdown. If you cancel the
shutdown, simply call /sbin/shutdown -c.
If you get "nvram-wakeup: /dev/rtc: Device or resource busy" your set-
wakeuptime-script should stop the program that uses /dev/rtc before
setting the wakeuptime.
1111..55.. CCoonnttrroolllliinngg tthhee mmyytthhffrroonntteenndd vviiaa tteellnneett
To use this feature you must first enable it in
Settings>General>General
The network control listens on port 6546, as demonstrated below:
$ telnet basement 6546
Connected to basement.
Escape character is '^]'.
MythFrontend Network Control
Type 'help' for usage information
---------------------------------
# help
Valid Commands:
---------------
jump - Jump to a specified location in Myth
key - Send a keypress to the program
play - Playback related commands
query - Queries
exit - Exit Network Control
Type 'help COMMANDNAME' for help on any specific command.
# help jump
Usage: jump JUMPPOINT
Where JUMPPOINT is one of the following:
channelpriorities - Channel Recording Priorities
channelrecpriority - Channel Recording Priorities
deletebox - TV Recording Deletion
deleterecordings - TV Recording Deletion
guidegrid - Program Guide
livetv - Live TV
livetvinguide - Live TV In Guide
mainmenu - Main Menu
...snip...
# exit
$
Please note that this feature only allows one connection at a time, so
any new connections will automatically terminate prior ones.
1122.. SScchheedduulliinngg RReeccoorrddiinnggss..
The MythTV master backend is responsible for managing the schedule for
all TV tuner cards on the master and any slave. Its job is to search
the TV listing for the shows you have requested and assign recordings
to the TV tuner cards. If none of the shows that you've chosen
overlap, it simply records all of them. However, if there are shows
where the beginning and end times overlap, the scheduler follows rules
that you've specified or makes logical decisions about what would be
best if you haven't expressed your preference. Further, the "Upcoming
Recordings" page allows you make specific decisions about what you
really do and don't want to record.
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When you choose a show that you would like to record from the Options
Page, there are eight different types of rules to help the scheduler
find which showings you would like to record.
+o Single Record -- record only this title at this specific time and
this station. This is the best way to be sure that a certain
showing will be recorded. However, if the TV listings change and
the show is not broadcast at that time, the show will not be
recorded but will be marked as Not Listed to let you know that you
should investigate.
+o Find One -- this will record a title once from any of the times
that appear in the TV listings. This is useful for recording a
movie or special that has multiple showings because it allows the
scheduler to choose one that doesn't conflict. It is not a good
choice for recording a single episode of a series because it
records the first available showing of the title without regard to
the episode information.
+o Record Weekly -- this records a show whenever the title is listed
on the same channel, weekday and time. Note that if the TV station
changes the schedule for a special episode, it would not be
recorded. However, you can add a Single record for the special
episode. If there are no matching showings in the TV listings, a
Not Listed item will be added to your schedule for the next time
slot to let you know that you should investigate.
+o Find Weekly -- this will record a title once per week from any of
the times that appear in the TV listings beginning from the time of
the showing that was selected when the rule was set. This is useful
for news, current events or other programs where the same episode
is shown several times each week but the listings may not include
descriptive information. This may not be a good choice if there are
different episodes shown during the week.
+o Record Daily -- this records a show whenever the title is listed
for the time and station on any day of the week. Here again, a show
will not be recorded if the time was altered by the station. If
there are no matching showings in the TV listings, a Not Listed
item will be added to your schedule for the next time slot to let
you know that you should investigate.
+o Find Daily -- this will record a title once per day from any of the
times that appear in the TV listings beginning from the time of the
showing that was selected when the rule was set. This is useful for
news, current events or other programs where the same episode is
shown several times each day but the listings may not include
descriptive information. This may not be a good choice if there are
different episodes shown during the day.
+o Channel Record -- records one showing of each unique episode from
any of the times the title is listed on this station. This is
perhaps the most common rule to use for most shows.
+o Record All -- records one showing of each unique episode from any
of the times this title is listed on any channel. This can be
useful if a station has sister stations where shows are rebroadcast
allowing the scheduler to record rebroadcasts on the other station
when the original airing cannot be recorded.
1122..22.. SScchheedduulliinngg OOppttiioonnss
1122..22..11.. PPrriioorriittyy
By default, all shows you select have equal value to the scheduler.
There are a set of rules to make good choices when two or more shows
are in conflict. However, priority values let the scheduler know what
you prefer so that it can set the schedule based on your preferences.
Initially, recording rule priority values are set to zero. You may
choose to leave everything at "0" and let the scheduler follow rules
to guess what you might prefer when there are conflicts. However, if
you have one or two favorite shows, you may want to increase the
priority value so the scheduler will know that you would prefer
recording these over other shows. You might use certain values to rate
shows so that all favorites are 2. good shows are 1 and extra 'filler'
shows are all -1 for example. You could sort each title on the "Set
Priorities" page to have a unique value so the scheduler can know
which show you'd prefer versus any other show. The choice and style
are entirely up to you. However, the more information you give to the
scheduler, the more likely it will make the choices you would prefer
in the first place.
The scheduler choices are based on the total priority for a showing by
adding up all priority factors that match the showing. By default,
most of these factors are "0" but you may use any combination to
express your likes and needs.
+o Per record rule -- this is the "priority" selection in the
"Scheduling Options" section of the options page and this value is
included for any showings that match the recording rule. You may
choose to only use these values and not use the other factors for
the sake of simplicity and clarity.
+o Per record type -- Setup->TV Settings->Recording
Priorities->General allows you to add to the priority based on the
type. It may make sense to increase the value for "Single" so that
by default they have an extra advantage over other shows. The
default is +1. You may want to decrease the value for Find rules so
that they will be less likely to interfere with regularly scheduled
shows and will be more likely to record in a non-conflicting time
instead. The default is -1.
+o Per channel -- Setup->TV Settings->Recording Priorities->Channel
Priorities can be useful if you believe that you prefer any of the
shows on certain channels. This would give all shows on a channel
an advantage by default.
+o Input priority -- in the "mythtv-setup" program, the "Input
Connections" section allows you to add additional priority in the
"Input priority". This is simply another priority factor but has
an interesting effect. If a card input has a higher value than the
other cards, the scheduler will see that you would rather record
showings of episodes on this input rather than a showing on other
inputs. If you have multiple cards of different quality, you may
want to set input priority to encourage the scheduler to record
shows on your best card(s) whenever possible. This can also be
useful if you have multiple video sources which include the same
stations. For example, with digital and analog cable you could
increase the digital cable input preference by 1 to tell the
scheduler that you want to record from the digital channel whenever
possible but the channel on the analog input could still be used
when the digital input is busy.
+o Custom Priority -- this allows you to add any specialized factors
you would like in order to influence scheduling decisions. See the
``Custom Priority'' section below.
For any single showing of any show you've chosen to record, these
factors are added together to find the "total priority". This is
the priority that the scheduler uses to decide which showings are
given the first choice when filling in the schedule.
The scheduling priority of a show may also be used to determine auto-
expiration of recordings when disk space gets full (see ``Auto-
Expire'', below).
1122..22..22.. DDuupplliiccaatteess
Singles will record without regard to duplicate matching.
The standard recurring methods of All, Channel, Weekly and Daily use
the descriptive information in the TV listings to try to record only
one showing of each unique episode. However, This goal is sometimes
complicated by the fact that the stations may not include a
description for a specific episode but use a generic description for
the series instead. When there is a generic description, the default
behavior is to assume that it may be an episode that you have not seen
and to record it for you. One of the duplicate matching options is
"Record new episodes only". If this is selected, listing that have an
original air date of more than 14 days earlier are considered repeats
and are not eligible to record. Generally, generic episodes will be
marked as repeats also.
Because of generic episodes and other situations, MythTV offers an
alternative approach where shows may be recorded by choosing from
multiple showings even when the descriptive information is not
reliable. All of the "Find" record types look for matching titles in
the listings. If there is a showing with specific episode information
and that episode has recorded before, that showing is marked as
previously or currently recorded. The scheduler will then choose to
record the earliest non-conflicting showing from any of other
remaining showings regardless of the descriptive information.
Generally, Find One is most useful for movies or specials and the Find
Daily and Find Weekly rules are best for news or current events shows
that are repeated. However, these may be useful in other situations
where the standard recording rules may not work correctly.
1122..22..33.. CCoonnfflliiccttss
As you add more shows that you would like to record, the scheduler
will eventually encounter conflicts. If there are two shows at the
same time and you have two or more TV tuner cards, both shows will
record. However, if there are more shows than cards, the scheduler
will have to decide what it thinks it should not record based on the
information you have given. If you see an unexpected situation you are
not "stuck" with the scheduler's choice. You can still tell the
scheduler exactly which shows you do want to record and/or don't want
to record in any situation.
1122..22..44.. SScchheedduulliinngg ddeecciissiioonnss
Here are the actual decisions made by the scheduler as it fills in the
schedule.
+o Currently recording beats not currently recording -- A recording in
progress can not be moved to another input or time so it "wins" its
current timeslot.
+o Single, Daily, or Weekly rules with no match are marked Not Listed
-- If these or Overrides do not match the current listings because
the listings have changed, they are added to the schedule and
marked to indicate that they will not record.
+o Rules that could record beat rules that can not record a showing --
If two rules match the same showing of a program, a rule marked as
inactive or a showing marked as a repeat, for example, yield to the
other rule.
+o More specific record type is used in place of less specific -- If
two rules match the same showing of a program, preference is given
to Don't Record then Override, Single, Find One, Record Weekly,
Find Weekly, Record Daily, Find Daily, Channel and finally All.
+o Higher total priority beats lower total priority -- This is the
core of the scheduling process. Episodes of the highest priority
show are placed on the first available input followed by the next
highest priority show and so on.
+o Future start time beats past start time -- If there is an episode
in progress and also a later showing of the same episode, it is
better to record the complete episode. If there isn't another
showing, it will start recording immediately to record the
remaining portion. This should only happen if you add a new rule
while the show is in progress or if the master backend is started
after the start time of a scheduled show.
+o More specific record type beats less specific record type -- If two
shows are on at the same time and have the same total priority but
different types they will be sorted by Single then Find One, Record
Weekly, Find Weekly, Record Daily, Find Daily, Channel and finally
All. This only applies if the priorities are the same.
+o If both start times have passed, later start time beats earlier
start time -- This attempts to miss the least amount of time.
+o If neither start time has passed, earlier start time beats later
start time -- This helps assure that the earliest showing of an
episode has the advantage.
+o Lower input id beats higher input id -- The scheduler fills in open
time slots on the first available input for the video source. The
next input is used when there is another show already placed for
the card of the first input.
+o Older record rule beats newer record rule -- If two shows are still
equal after all of these other checks, the show whose record rule
was added first is preferred over a more recent addition.
+o Postpone showings to resolve conflicts -- If Reschedule Higher
Priorities is set or if a conflict has the same priority as a show
that was scheduled at the same time, the scheduler will check to
see if a scheduled show can be moved to another input or later
matching showing without creating a new conflict so that the
conflicting show can be scheduled to record.
1122..22..55.. RReesscchheedduullee HHiigghheerr PPrriioorriittiieess
Setup->TV Settings->Recording Priorities->General has a checkbox for
"Reschedule Higher Priorities" which tells the scheduler to try to be
a little smarter in certain situations. If this is checked, the
scheduler will look for situations where a show cannot record because
all inputs for the channel are used for higher priority shows. It will
check to see if any of the other shows could be recorded at another
time so that the conflicting show can be recorded in its place.
Generally, this is a good strategy but there are tradeoffs. If a
higher priority show is postponed, you will not get to watch it until
it is recorded in the later timeslot. There is also a risk that the TV
listings may change and the later showing may go away. In this rare
case the higher priority show may never record. On the other hand, if
you do not use this option you will miss recording some lower priority
shows unnecessarily unless you manually make similar changes.
By using Reschedule Higher Priorities, the scheduler will do a better
job of recording as many of your shows as possible when left
unattended. It will also be easy to see that shows have been marked to
record at a later time. You can then decide for yourself when you
would prefer to record the first showing by clicking "Record anyway".
1122..22..66.. CCoonnttrroolllliinngg YYoouurr SScchheedduullee
The Manage Recordings->Upcoming Recordings page is your control center
for the MythTV scheduler. Unlike other DVR systems, this one page
gives you all of the information and tools you need to see all of your
alternatives and make whatever adjustments you desire.
The upper half of the screen has a scrollable box listing items that
match your record rules sorted by time. The lower half shows the
details for the highlighted item. There are two 'views' available.
Press "1" to include all of the items that match record rules even if
they do not need to be recorded. Press "2" to focus on just the things
that will record and items that may need your attention. The message
in the upper right-hand corner will remind you when there are
conflicts that would prevent one or more shows from being recorded.
The items in the list are colored in the record color for things that
will record, white for things that may need attention, gray for those
that do not need to record and yellow when there is a time conflict.
Items at the top of the list may also be highlighted indicating that
the recording is in progress.
Along with the channels, start times and titles, the right-hand column
has a status code. Numbers indicate which card number has been
assigned to record the show. Letters are used to indicate the reason
that something will not be recorded. Just below the box is a short
status message for the highlighted item that indicates the type of
record rule that was matched, the "total priority" for this showing
and a one or two word explanation of the status code. If you press
SELECT, you will see more information about the status.
There are a few status codes that may require your attention. "C"
indicates that there are more overlapping shows to record than there
are TV tuners to record them. "L" indicates that the scheduler found
that it may be better to record a later showing of this episode. These
states happen as a result of your choices and should normally reflect
your preferences. However, you may notice situations where you would
like to modify the scheduler's initial choices.
The first thing you can do is to highlight an item and press INFO to
see the recording options page. From this page you can change the
record rule type, the duplicate matching rules, or raise or lower the
priority to resolve whatever problem you noticed.
Additionally, you can treat any individual showing as an exception
that you do want to record or don't want to record. To use these
"override" features, highlight the item and press SELECT. You will see
a message explaining the current status and at least an "OK" button to
exit without making changes.
For items scheduled to record, there will be a button for "Don't
record" which will prevent recording this showing but will still allow
the same episode to record in the future. If there is episode
description information, you may also see a button for "Never record".
This prevents recording this showing and tells MythTV to remember that
this is an episode that you've seen or don't need to see if it is ever
in the TV listings again.
For items that are not scheduled to record, the message will describe
the reason and in the case of "C" or "L" it will include a list of the
shows that are scheduled to record instead. For any item that could
potentially be recorded there will be buttons for "Edit Options" and
"Add Override". "Edit Options" will allow you to change the options
for the existing record rule such as raising the priority so that the
show will record. These changes would apply to this and all future
showings that match this record rule. "Add Override" will allow you
to set options that apply to the specific showing without affecting
the recurring record rule.
If you return to an override page after an override has already been
set, you will also see a "Clear Override" to undo your changes. This
option makes it very easy to try out some "what if" attempts when
deciding on your best strategy in a difficult situation.
For a recording in progress, there will be a "Change Ending Time"
button. This will take you to the options page for a Single or
Override or create an Override if it is a recurring rule. Here you can
go to the Recording Options section to change the program end time
offset. If you extend the end time so that it overlaps upcoming
recordings, the schedule will change to accommodate the new end time.
This may cause a conflict or later showing even for a show with higher
priority. Therefore, it is a good idea to check your schedule after
changing the end time of a recording in progress.
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1122..33..11.. RReeccoorrddiinngg PPrrooffiillee
Each recording rule can be configured with a different recording
profile. For example, colorful cinematography can be configured with a
"High Quality" profile, while 'talking heads' interviews shows can be
configured with a "Low Quality" profile. These recording profiles need
to be configured before using them (see ``Recording'', above).
1122..33..22.. RReeccoorrddiinngg GGrroouupp
For organization of the "Watch Recordings" screen and the MythWeb
interface, recordings can be assigned into "recording groups".
1122..33..33.. ````SSttoorraaggee GGrroouuppss''''
This allows you to select any special "Storage Groups" you may have
created to determine where recordings from this rule should be stored
on your disks. The "Default" storage group is always available.
1122..33..44.. PPllaayybbaacckk GGrroouupp
This selects a set of pre-configured playback parameters which can be
created and edited in Setup->TV Settings->Playback Groups. When the
recording is played, the values from this playback group will be used.
This allows you to choose a default time stretch value, skip and jump
amounts appropriate for this type of television program.
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MythTV will "autoexpire" old recordings to make room for new
recordings when disk space gets filled up. This option can be set to
"Don't allow auto expire" to prevent these recordings from being
automatically deleted when disk space fills up.
The default setting is for all scheduled recordings to be eligible for
auto-expiration; this can be changed in the Settings->TV
Settings->General page by manipulating the "Auto Expire Default"
checkbox.
The default auto-expire policy is "Oldest Show First"; the oldest
recordings are deleted first. The "Lowest Priority First" method
chooses to expire the lowest-priority recordings first.
1122..33..66.. EEppiissooddee LLiimmiitt
An episode limit can also be configured to limit the maximum number of
episodes recorded of a single series, to restrict that series' disk
usage. If this is set, you can further decide what to do when this
limit is reached; either stop recording that series, or to delete the
oldest episodes in favor of the new ones.
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Select whether or not to automatically flag commercials for these
recordings. Commercial Flagging parameters can be set in Setup->TV
Settings->General.
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Select whether or not to automatically transcode recordings to save
disk space. Before using this, you must first enable auto-transcode in
the recording profile and configure the transcoding parameters; see
``Recording'', above.
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User Jobs allow you to configure up to 4 custom commands to run on
recordings. They can be configured in mythtv-setup. The following
tokens have special meaning when used in the User Job commands:
+o %DIR% - the directory component of the recording's filename
+o %FILE% - the filename component of the recording's filename
+o %TITLE% - the title of the recording (e.g., name of the series)
+o %SUBTITLE% - the subtitle of the recording (e.g., name of the
episode)
+o %DESCRIPTION% - description text for the recording (from guide
data)
+o %HOSTNAME% - the backend making the recording
+o %CATEGORY% - the category of the recording (from guide data)
+o %RECGROUP% - the ``recording group''
+o %CHANID% - the MythTV channel ID making the recording
+o %STARTTIME% - the recording start time (YYYYMMDDhhmmss)
+o %ENDTIME% - the recording end time (YYYYMMDDhhmmss)
+o %STARTTIMEISO% - the recording start time in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-
MM-DDTHH:MM:SS)
+o %ENDTIMEISO% - the recording end time in ISO 8601 format
+o %PROGSTART% - the recording's start time (from guide data;
YYYYMMDDhhmmss)
+o %PROGEND% - the recording's end time (from guide data)
+o %PROGSTARTISO%, %PROGENDISO% - the recording's start and end time
in ISO 8601 format.
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1122..55..11.. CCrreeaattiinngg PPoowweerr SSeeaarrcchh rruulleess wwiitthh CCuussttoomm RReeccoorrdd
MythTV's "Custom Record" feature gives you unlimited control for
creating specialized search recording rules to meet your needs. It
allows you to choose your criteria to search for matching shows based
on any of the information in the program listings, channel
information, time functions and more. This goes beyond the
capabilities of any other DVR system and it is unlikely that this
level of scheduling customization will ever be available in any
commercial DVR system.
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Go to Schedule Recordings->Custom Record. This page, helps you build a
database search one clause at a time. Each added clause further limits
which showings will be matched in the TV listings. You can test the
search at any time and when you are done, you can save your search as
a recording rule.
To familiarize yourself with how you can create custom rules, create a
simple rule to record "Nova" only in primetime.
The first item at the top of the page allows you to edit an existing
rule or create a new rule. Leave it on "<New rule>". Arrow down to the
third item which says "Match an exact title". Right and left arrows
would allow you to select any of several prefabricated pieces or full
examples but leave it on the default for now. Arrow down to "Add this
example clause" and press SELECT (Enter or Space on a keyboard). The
large text box should now show:
program.title = 'Nova'
As you have probably guessed, this says that we want to search for all
programs with the title "Nova" regardless of the time, day, channel,
etc.
If you do not receive a PBS station that carries "Nova" or would like
to use another title, edit the title by pressing the down arrow to
highlight the text box and right arrow over the the word "Nova". If
you are using a keyboard you can simply delete the four letters and
type a different title between the quotes. With a remote control, you
can do 'cell phone' style text entry with the number pad. The delete
key is the "X" in the grouping for "1", zero is grouped with "9" and
"0" acts as the "Caps Lock" key. You can press ENTER in the text box
to popup a virtual keyboard.
Note: the text box honors many familiar Emacs control keys. It is also
possible to cut and paste text into the text box so you can edit with
a favorite editor or insert a rule sent in email or from other
sources.
In any case, choose a title that is shown both in primetime and late
night or daytime. Next, click the "Test" button. You should see a list
of the upcoming episodes for "Nova" just as if you had clicked the
Upcoming button for "Nova" elsewhere in MythTV.
Press ESC to go back to the Custom Record page. Move to the example
selector then press the right or left arrows until you find "Only in
primetime". Click "Add this example clause". You should now see:
program.title = 'Nova'
AND HOUR(program.starttime) >= 19
AND HOUR(program.starttime) < 23
Click "Test". You should now see a shorter list with only the showings
that begin between 7PM and 11PM. To create a rule for this, press ESC
to go back to the custom page and move to "Rule Name:" then type
"Nova" or anything else you would like. This is only a label and will
not affect the search results. Once a name has been entered, the
"Record" button will light up. Click this to enter the recording
options page. If you named it "Nova" the title will say "Nova (Power
Search)". Set whatever options you would like then click "Save these
settings". You now have a special rule to record "Nova" but only when
it is shown in primetime.
You can make further modifications to this rule by returning to the
Custom Record page then press the right or left arrow keys on "Edit
Rule:" until you find "Nova". You can experiment and test but the
saved rule will not be updated until you click "Record" then "Save
these settings".
To remove this, or any other rule, you can go to the "Recording
Priorities" page, arrow down to the title, press Enter and change the
the recording type to "Do not record this program" then "Save these
settings".
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MythTV stores TV program information in a database and uses the
Structured Query Language (SQL) to access the data. Information about
each TV program is stored in the 'program' table and information about
each TV station you receive is stored in 'channel'. These two tables
are used in the scheduler queries and their columns are available to
be used in your rules. The rules you create are stored in 'record'.
Normal rules in MythTV simply match the title in the rule with the
titles in the 'program' table. MythTV also has search rules for
"Titles", "Keywords" and "People". These store the key phrase in the
description column of the rule and includes them in specialized SQL
replacements for the normal title check. There is also a type called
"Power Search" which takes the raw SQL in the description as the
replacement for title matching.
Custom Record is a tool to help you build valid SQL for Power Search
rules. You do not need to be a SQL expert to use Custom Record
because the examples are known to work correctly and are usually self-
explanatory so you can choose the pieces you need then modify them.
Many powerful solutions to unique problems are possible by combining
the examples. With some creativity and some knowledge of SQL, the
possibilities are limitless.
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The example clauses marked "complete example" are actual rules that
have been used to address specific problems. You may find that some of
these are useful for you as-is or with slight modifications. These
show off how powerful custom rules can be but there are also several
simple idioms that you may find useful for many of the shows you would
like to record.
Wait for a known title -- If there is a movie that you anticipate will
be televised in the coming months but is not yet in the listings, you
can select "Match an exact title", edit the movie title, click
"Record" then choose "Record one showing of this title". The rule will
wait weeks, months or years until this title shows up in your listings
then it will record one showing. These rules have no impact on the
scheduler throughout the day and only take a tiny fraction of a second
when the master backend starts or when the listings are updated.
Silence series out of season -- "Celebrity Poker Showdown", for
example, will have new episodes for a while then long periods where
reruns are shown dozens of times per week. By checking the previously
shown flag you can create a rule that will only match new episodes.
Therefore, your schedule won't be polluted with dozens of entries
marked as "Repeat" or "Previously Recorded".
program.title = "Celebrity Poker Showdown"
AND program.previouslyshown = 0
This allows you to keep rules for your favorite shows that are dormant
while out of season but will spring back to life when new episodes
appear.
Choose showings on certain days -- Several cable stations will show
their highest rated shows a dozen on more times per week. However, the
scheduler only needs two or three choices to do a good job of making a
flexible choice.
program.title LIKE "Celebrity Fit Club%"
AND DAYNAME(program.starttime) = "Sunday"
This says to choose any showing of an episode that hasn't been
recorded when it appears on Sunday. This prevents all the other show-
ings during the week from being listed in the schedule.
Notice the word "LIKE" and the "%" at the end. This does wildcard
matching so that this would match even if the title ended with "2".
"III" or ":Revenge of the Snapple Lady". This can be useful where the
title may change from one season to the next like "Survivor: %", "Big
Brother%" or "The Amazing Race%".
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As you experiment, it is possible that you may misplace a quote or
mistype a word. If there is a mistake when you press "Test" or
"Record" you will see an error message returned from the database.
This will usually give you a good idea about what needs to be fixed.
However, for more subtle MySQL syntax errors, you can find more
information in the documentation at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/
<http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/>. This contains a lot of
information that can be useful for Power Search rules such as the
"Date and Time Functions". There are many other good resources for SQL
on the Web.
While the example clauses demonstrate how to use many of the data
columns, you can get a more complete list of all the columns that are
available by using a MySQL client program:
$ mysql -u mythtv -pmythtv mythconverg
mysql> describe program;
mysql> describe channel;
This will show the names of all of the columns along with their type
and default value. Most are easy to understand but a few need some
explanation in order to use them effectively with Power Search.
+o "program.category_type" holds one of these exact four strings:
"movie", "series", "sports" or "tvshow".
+o "program.airdate" is a string representing the year of release for
movies and may have no meaning for other types of shows.
+o "program.stars" is a floating point number from 0.0 to 1.0. On a
four star scale, 1.0 would be four stars, 0.75 would be three stars
and so on.
+o "program.originalairdate" if provided is the date when a show was,
or will be, first televised. This may be useful for finding
episodes before or after a certain date such as finding just the
original series of "Battlestar Galactica".
+o "program.previouslyshown" is a column created by MythTV to try to
determine if a showing is more than 14 days after its original air
date or if the show was marked as a repeat and did not have a date
for the first airing. If this is "0" it usually means that this is
a brand new show or a rebroadcast within the first two weeks.
+o "program.generic" is a column created by MythTV to try mark
showings for a series where the specific episode information is not
included. When these generic showings appear, it is impossible for
the system to determine if they are repeats of the same episode(s)
or if they are all different episodes.
+o "program.first" is a column created by MythTV to mark the first
showing in the current listings for each episode, movie or special.
Choosing to match only the "first" showing can be useful for sports
that are brodcast live then repeated.
+o "program.last" is a column created by MythTV to mark the last
showing in the current listings for each episode, movie or special.
If a showing is marked both "first" and "last" then it is the only
showing of that program in the current TV listings.
+o "program.programid" is the Tribune Media Service database record
identifier for each program description. In general, these start
with a two letter prefix, MV, EP, SP or SH that correspond to the
"program.category_type". For most, the last four digits are "0000"
except EP where the last four digits are the episode number in the
series. Note that these are generated by TMS and not the show's
producers but they are usually in the same order as the original
air dates for the episodes.
+o "program.videoprop" also "audioprop" and "subtitletypes". These
columns contain bit flags for a variety of attributes that may be
associated with a program. These are filled with information
offered by the TV listings provider. However, your listings source
will not have information for all of the available flags.
Therefore, some of these may not be useful for your search rules.
This information is organized in "sets" and the MySQL function
FIND_IN_SET() can be used to test for any of these flags. For
example:
FIND_IN_SET('SURROUND', program.audioprop) > 0
would be true for the programs where the surround sound bit is
present. To see all of the available attribute names:
$ mysql -u mythtv -pmythtv mythconverg
mysql> SHOW COLUMNS FROM program LIKE '%prop'\G
mysql> SHOW COLUMNS FROM program LIKE 'subtitletypes'\G
Finally, if you are doing something very experimental and a column is
not giving you the results you had anticipated, you can always check
the MythTV source code to see exactly how a column is used. The open
source for MythTV is available from http://www.mythtv.org/
<http://www.mythtv.org/> .
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MythTV is designed to allow recording television programs from one or
more service providers, or video source, on one or more video input
from each provider. Some inputs may not be allowed to record at the
same time as each other while others may record simultaneously.
A television station may be broadcast on more than one channel from
one provider or may be available on channels from two or more
providers. If a TV station is available from more than one source, the
video quality or type of broadcast may differ. Therefore, MythTV
allows you to control how you would like the scheduler to select the
best channel and input for a show which is available on more than one
input or more than one channel.
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A single TV capture card may have video connections to more than one
of its inputs and each input may be from a different service. The card
may only be allowed to record from one of these inputs at one time
because there is only one encoder on the card that actually captures
the content.
These are mutually exclusive meaning that only one input or the other
may record at a given time but not both.
Usually, inputs on different cards can record at the same time but two
or more inputs on the same card cannot. However, there are cases where
inputs on different cards should not be allowed to record at the same
time, for example, a firewire card and s-video analog card connected
to the same set top cable box.
|
| coax +--------------+ firewire ------------------+
| .-=|Cable Provider|=------------=| Card 1 input 1 | HDTV
| | |HD/Cable STB |=--. +-----||||||||||||
| | +--------------+ | s-video ------------------+
| | `---------=| input 2 | Digital
|wall | coax | Card 2 |
|=---=^=------------------------------=| input 3 | Cable
| +-----||||||||||||
Input 1 and input 2 receive content from the same set top box and the
channels can not be tuned independently. Therefore only one of these
two inputs should be used at any given time. The solution is to create
an "Input Group" with mmyytthhttvv--sseettuupp in "Input connections". Including
these two inputs in the same Input Group will tell the scheduler that
these are mutually exclusive and may not record at the same time.
Inputs 2 and 3 are automatically mutually exclusive because they are
on the same card so there is no need to create an Input Group for
these inputs.
Cards such as the Hauppauge PVR-500 are able to record as two cards
simultaneously because it has two MPEG-2 encoders and each encoder
appears as a separate device. DVB cards may be allowed to capture
content from more than one channel at a time if the channels are in
the same MUX.
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Although we may be accustomed to thinking of a broadcast station and
its channel number as being synonymous, stations and channels are very
different things. A "station" is in a building with wires and
employees. A "channel" is a carrier frequency or digital ID that
carries a broadcast stream. The same TV station may be broadcast over
different frequencies in different cities or by different providers in
the same city. The same frequency will carry different stations in
different cities. In the digital realm of DVB and ATSC (HDTV), it is
even possible for a single frequency to carry multiple program streams
but each of these streams of content are actually different channels
that the receiving devices can 'tune' to independently.
+o Station: building
+o Channel: frequency
In MythTV, a "video source" is a set of channels from a provider, or
over the air, that can be received by an input. The set defines the
channels and the broadcasters primarily associated with each of those
channels. If you have more than one device or cable from the same
provider connected to more than one card and input, you only need to
create one video source in mythtv-setup then associate that one source
with each of these connected inputs. This will let your MythTV system
know that the same channels and their TV listings are available to be
recorded from any of these inputs.
For example. A MythTV system may have two capture cards. Both have a
cable connected to the coaxial connectors. These cables carry the
local cable TV service. In mythtv-setup, the user should create one
"Video source" called "Cable", for example. Under "Input connections",
"Cable" should be associated with each of the two tuner inputs. The
scheduler will then know that any program on one of the channels from
the "Cable" source could be recorded by either card from the card's
tuner input.
You need to create a different video source for each provider or
service that has a different set of channels. Each input with a
connection to that service should be associated with the video source
for that service so the system will know which set of channels are
available for each of your active inputs.
Let's say that this user also has one digital cable set top box. The
digital cable service carries channels that are not available over
basic cable. The user would create another source called "Digital".
This set top box is connected to the second card by S-Video so under
"Input connections", "Digital" is associated with the S-Video input of
card 2. The system would then know that programs on channels from the
Digital source can only be recorded from this input. Further, the
scheduler understands that it can only record one show at a time from
card 2 so it can assign Cable or Digital shows to the card but not
both at the same time.
Some TV stations may be broadcast over a channel from the Cable source
and also broadcast over a channel from the Digital source. Note that
two channels carrying the same primary station may not have the same
TV listings due to carrying the primary station part time, including
local programming exclusive to one of the channels, the channels may
be in different timezones, etc. Listings information must be
associated with each channel even if two or more channels report that
they carry the same station.
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By default the scheduler chooses the first (lowest numbered) input
which has a showing of the scheduled program as it fills the schedule.
If a lower priority show is on at the same time as a higher priority
show that has been assigned to input 1, then input 2 will be used next
and so on. Therefore, configure your best card and input first and
next best card and input second. There may be differences in the type
or brand of capture card, signal quality from the cable, system
resources such as disk space, CPU, etc. By configuring your best input
first, more recordings, and your highest priority recordings, will use
that input.
A common situation is that a newer and better card is added last. For
example, you may initially setup your system with two analog cable
cards and then add a HDTV card. If NBC is on a cable channel and "The
Apprentice" is shown in HDTV on an NBC HD channel, the scheduler would
still prefer analog inputs 1 and 2 over the new HD input 3.
So, if you'd like the scheduler to prefer a new source, the simplest
thing is to run mmyytthhttvv--sseettuupp and "Delete all capture cards" then enter
your cards and inputs in your preferred order. This will not remove
your sources and channels - you want to keep those and only renumber
your cards and inputs. In this example, once the changes have been
made and the Master Backend is restarted, the scheduler would then
choose "The Apprentice" in HD on the new input 1 and only use the
analog inputs (now numbered 2 and 3) when the HDTV input was occupied
with another show.
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If a recording rule is a type that can record from any channel, "The
Apprentice" would match for any channel that shows episodes which may
include CNBC or BRAVO. However, for Single, Timeslot, Weekslot or
Channel rules, "The Apprentice" would only match showings on the
selected station as identified by the "callsign". For example, KVBC is
an NBC affiliate on channel 3. Channel 733 is KVBCDT which is HDTV
over cable from the same station. If a Single record rule was set for
"The Apprentice" on KVBC channel 3, it could not record this showing
from KVBCDT on 733. If 733 was chosen when the rule was saved, channel
3 could not be used to record.
However, the "Channel Editor" in mythtv-setup can be used to change
the Callsign for channel 733 to "KVBC". MythTV would then understand
that both of these channels are from the same broadcast station.
Assuming the HDTV input was input number "1", "The Apprentice" would
record on 733. If, however, this HDTV input already had a higher
priority show assigned to it in that time slot, "The Apprentice" would
be assigned to KVBC channel 3 on input 2.
Having two channels with the same callsign may affect how program
information is shown in mythfrontend. If two sources have the same
callsign and channel number, the program guide and program lists will
only show one instance of the channel number and callsign. If the same
callsign is on two different channel numbers, both will be shown and
if two sources have different callsigns with the same channel number,
both of those will be shown.
Continuing with the example above, the Electronic Program Guide would
include rows for both "3 KVBC" and "733 KVBC". If channel 3 KVBC was
also included in the Digital cable source, the EPG would still include
just one line for "3 KVBC" even though there are two different
channels, Cable and Digital, with this identification. Regardless of
how these are displayed and which "KVBC" channel you select to add a
rule to record "The Apprentice", the scheduler will pick the best
channel, source and input to record "The Apprentice" on "KVBC".
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The fundamental concept to keep in mind is that the MythTV scheduler
will choose the lowest numbered input available when showings have the
same priority. If there are factors that cause two showings of the
same show to have different priorities then the higher priority
showing will be considered before the showings with lower priority.
1122..66..66.. IInnppuutt PPrriioorriittyy
"Input Connections" in mythtv-setup includes a box to set "Input
priority" which defaults to "0". If a value is set, that amount will
be added to the "total priority" for showings on that input. This can
be used to influence using favored cards or not using less favored
cards unless necessary.
Let's say the "The Apprentice" is on at 8:00pm with a priority of 3.
"Who Cares" is -2 and an episode is shown at 8:00pm then repeated at
11:00pm. The scheduler would assign "The Apprentice" to card 1 and
"Who Cares" to card 2 at 8:00pm. If the input priority for the input
on card 2 was changed to -1, "Who Cares" would have a total priority
of -2 for showings on card 1 and -3 for showings on card 2. The
scheduler would assign "The Apprentice" to card 1 at 8:00pm and "Who
Cares" to card 1 at 11:00pm when the better card is available. If
there was another higher priority show at 11pm, the next best choice
for "Who Cares" would be card 2 at 8pm with the priority -3.
Card 1 and 2 have input priority "0":
Time Title Priority Card Status
8:00 The Apprentice +3 1 Will Record
8:00 Who Cares -2 2 Will Record
11:00 Who Cares -2 1 Earlier Showing
Card 2 with input priority "-1":
Time Title Priority Card Status
8:00 The Apprentice +3 1 Will Record
8:00 Who Cares -3 2 Later Showing
11:00 Who Cares -2 1 Will Record
Card 2 at "-1" but higher priority shows at both 8 P.M. and 11 P.M.:
Time Title Priority Card Status
8:00 The Apprentice +3 1 Will Record
8:00 Who Cares -3 2 Will Record
11:00 The Daily Show +1 1 Will Record
11:00 Who Cares -3 2 Earlier Showing
Note the two different effects, each of which may be what you desire
depending on circumstance. If input priorities are equal, shows will
record at the earliest time if any input is available. If input
priorities differ, shows may be postponed to a later time in order to
record on the best input.
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Priority can be added for individual channels (remember, frequencies
from a video source, not stations). This can be used to tell the
system that you generally prefer the content of the station on a
channel over the formats of other stations. You may want to raise the
priority for ESPN, SciFi, Comedy Central or lower the priority for
CSPAN, CourtTV, etc. If the same station is on two different channels,
you can use channel priority to have the same effect for these
channels as input priority would have for whole inputs.
For example, say CNN is on analog channel 20 and there is an HD CNN on
750. You may not want to tie up the HD input for news originating in
standard definition. Under TV Settings->Recording Priorities->Channel
Priorities you could set channel 750 to -1. The scheduler would then
prefer to record CNN shows on any analog channel 20 before considering
using 750 only when there are no analog inputs available.
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For an even finer grain of control, there is a per rule option to
specify which input should be preferred for showings that match the
rule. By default, this adds +2 to the priority for showings on the
specified input.
For illustration, let's say there will be a Space Shuttle launch on
CNN that will be broadcast in high definition. Adding a rule to record
the launch with priority "0" should default to channel 20 on input 2.
Channel 750 would have this at -1 due to the channel priority set in
the previous example. If on the recording options page for this rule,
the "Scheduling Options" had the input set to prefer the HD input on
card 1, then the showing on channel 750 for this input would be
increased in value by +2 for a total of +1 and would be the best
choice for this launch coverage. While this one rule would prefer the
HD input with channel 750, all other rules that match shows on CNN
would still prefer channel 20.
Note that this will not work properly if the preferred input priority
does not out weigh differences in input and channel priorities. The
value of the priority boost when this option is chosen defaults to +2
but can be modified in TV Settings->Recording Priorities->Set
Recording Priorities.
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In the preceeding fictious example, the Space Shuttle launch is
broadcast in high definition and a preferred input is selected to give
preference to the HD input. However, TV listings from zap2it.com
through the DataDirect service may allow this to work without having
to use this per rule option.
In Settings->Recording Priorities->Set Recording Priorities there is
an option for "HDTV Recording Priority". This value will be added
automatically if the listings for the show have the "hdtv" flag set.
DataDirect will set this flag for shows known to be broadcast in HDTV
on HD channels. However, the flag is not set for standard definition
channels. This is another example of the listings being different for
the same station on a different channel. If the HDTV priority is set
to "+2", the shuttle launch would automatically have a total priority
of +1 so that channel 750 would be preferred over channel 20 for this
HDTV broadcast.
Channel "750 CNN" at priority "-1" and HDTV broadcast priority at
"+2":
1122..66..1100.. CCuussttoomm PPrriioorriittyy
While Input, Channel, and HDTV Priority can be used for indicating a
preference for certain programs and inputs, there may be circumstances
that cannot be resolved easily with these standard features. MythTV
version 0.22 includes a feature for "power priority". The Custom
Priority editor in mythfrontend's "TV Settings" screen is similar to
Custom Record, however, Custom Priority allows you to create
specialized power priority factors to influence scheduling decisions.
For example, the 'program.closecaptioned' flag can be used in a
similar way as the 'program.hdtv' flag.
Priority Rule Name: Closed Captioned priority
Priority Value: 2
program.closecaptioned > 0
This will raise the priority of shows marked with "CC" over those that
are not by applying the "Priority Value" whenever the SQL fragment
evaluates to true. If the expression evaluates to false for a showing,
the "Priority Value" is not applied.
Priority Rule Name: Priority when shown once
Priority Value: 1
program.first > 0 AND program.last > 0
The "first" and "last" flags for an episode will only be set for the
same showing when there is only one showing of that episode in the
current TV listings. This rule would raise the priority in these cases
so that these shows would have an advantage to record in their only
available time slot.
Priority Rule Name: Input 1 signal quality
Priority Value: -1
cardinput.cardinputid = 1 AND
channel.channum IN (3, 5, 39, 66)
A common issue with two or more analog capture cards is that one of
the cards may have more interference on some channels than the same
channels on other cards. This example gives a disadvantage to the
channels in this list but only for the first input. Therefore, a show
on channel 39 would choose input 2 or 3 if possible but for channels
not in this list, input 1 is still the first choice.
The Custom Priority editor includes many example fragments and
complete examples that can be used or you can create your own to suit
your needs.
1133.. MMyytthhPPlluuggiinnss..
MythTV has a rich set of plugins available. Once you have downloaded
the tarball, untar it and run the ccoonnffiigguurree script:
$ tar -xjf mythplugins-0.22.tar.bz2
$ cd mythplugins-0.22
$ ./configure --help
Usage: configure [options]
Options: [defaults in brackets after descriptions]
NB: all --enable-* options can be reversed with --disable-*
Generic options:
--help print this message
--enable-all Enable all options
--enable-opengl enable OpenGL (Music and Gallery) [default=no]
MythBrowser related options:
--enable-mythbrowser build the mythbrowser plugin [default=yes]
MythDVD related options:
--enable-mythdvd build the mythdvd plugin [default=yes]
--enable-transcode enable DVD ripping and transcoding [default=no]
--enable-vcd enable VCD playing [default=no]
MythGallery related options:
--enable-mythgallery build the mythgallery plugin [default=yes]
--enable-exif enable reading of EXIF headers [default=no]
MythGame related options:
--enable-mythgame build the mythgame plugin [default=yes]
MythMusic related options:
--enable-mythmusic build the mythmusic plugin [default=yes]
--enable-fftw enable fftw visualizers [default=no]
--enable-sdl use SDL for the synaesthesia output [default=no]
--enable-aac enable AAC/MP4 audio file decompression [default=no]
MythNews related options:
--enable-mythnews build the mythnews plugin [default=yes]
MythVideo related options:
--enable-mythvideo build the mythvideo plugin [default=yes]
MythWeather related options:
--enable-mythweather build the mythweather plugin [default=yes]
The sections detailing configuration of the plugins assume that you
are already in the ~/mythplugins-0.22/ directory.
Note that a single ccoonnffiigguurree script now does configuration for all
modules. By default, it will compile all modules. If you do not wish
to compile a module, either because it is of no use to you, or you do
not have the prerequisites, the simplest course of action is to go
through the various sections below, satisfying the prerequisites, and
then compile all modules at once.
For example, you would only like to compile and install MythGallery
and MythMusic. For MythGallery, you would like to use the EXIF data in
the .JPG file to present additional information onscreen. For
MythMusic, you would like to enable support for the opengl and FFT
visualizations. The command line would look like:
$ cd ~/mythplugins-0.22
$ ./configure --disable-all --enable-opengl --enable-mythgallery --enable-exif --enable-mythmusic --enable-fft
$ qmake mythplugins.pro
$ make
$ su -
# make install
# exit
$
For simplicity, the examples below will disable compilation of all
other modules other than the one being discussed.
1144.. MMyytthhWWeebb..
MythWeb allows you to use a web page to control various aspects of
your MythTV system. MythWeb is a separate application, but it's
dependent on MythTV being installed and operational.
1144..11.. IInnssttaallllaattiioonn aanndd pprreerreeqquuiissiitteess
Mythweb is a part of the mmyytthhpplluuggiinnss package. See ``MythPlugins'' for
instructions on downloading the tarball. The next step depends on
whether your distribution has a web server and if you have PHP
support.
1144..11..11.. MMaannddrriivvaa
Mandriva has aappaacchhee and PPHHPP pre-packaged, so installation is quite
simple.
NNOOTTEE: Mandriva 9.1 users, perform the following:
# urpmi apache2 apache2-mod_php php-mysql
# chkconfig --level 345 httpd on
# /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd restart
1144..22.. CCoommpplleettiinngg tthhee iinnssttaallllaattiioonn
$ cd ~/mythplugins-0.22/mythweb
$ su
# mkdir /var/www/html/mythweb
# cp -r . /var/www/html/mythweb
# exit
$
By default, MythWeb uses an Apache .htaccess file to restrict access
to the website and to configure some variables.
To create the password file for Apache (if your system doesn't already
have one), you could do something like this:
# cd /var/www
# htpasswd -c htpasswd mythtv
New password:
Re-type new password:
Adding password for user mythtv
See the man page for hhttppaasssswwdd for more examples.
To access the web page, open a web browser and use hhttttpp::////[[nnaammee oorr iipp
aaddddrreessss]]//mmyytthhwweebb//
NNOOTTEE: Make sure that you have a trailing slash on the URL,
otherwise you will get a 404 Page not Found error.
1144..33.. RReesseettttiinngg tthhee kkeeyy bbiinnddiinngg ttaabbllee
MythWeb allows you to configure which keys are bound to which actions
within MythTV. If you'd like to reset this back to the default,
execute the following command:
$ echo "delete from keybindings ;" | mysql -u mythtv -pmythtv mythconverg
1144..44.. RReesseettttiinngg tthhee tthheemmee..
If you find yourself wedged into a theme that isn't working, open your
web browser and go to site:
http://mythweb_name_or_ip_address/mythweb/settings.php?RESET_THEME=yes
1155.. MMyytthhGGaalllleerryy..
MythGallery is a photo and slideshow application. MythGallery is a
separate application, but it's dependent on MythTV being installed and
operational.
1155..11.. IInnssttaallllaattiioonn aanndd pprreerreeqquuiissiitteess
MythGallery is a part of the mmyytthhpplluuggiinnss package. See ``MythPlugins''
for instructions on downloading the tarball.
There are a number of transitions available, some requiring OpenGL
support. You will also need to install a TIFF library. Under Mandriva,
you would perform the following command:
# urpmi libtiff3-devel
Once you have satisfied the prerequisites for your distribution,
install the application:
$ cd ~/mythplugins-0.22
$ ./configure --disable-all --enable-opengl --enable-mythgallery
$ qmake mythplugins.pro
$ make
# su
# make install
# exit
$
The configuration for MythGallery is accessed through the main Setup
option in mythfrontend. Make sure you set your pictures directory to
wherever you're storing your photos.
The controls for MythGallery can be found in the README that comes
with the application.
1155..22.. UUssiinngg MMyytthhGGaalllleerryy
When you first start MythGallery, you will see a thumbnail view of any
folders and pictures in the Gallery Directory you specified in setup.
If this is the first time you have accessed this directory, the
thumbnails will be generated on the fly. If the Gallery Dir is
writable, these thumbnails will be cached thus speeding up future
access. On the left is a greyed-out menu of options.
Use the arrow keys to select a folder or picture to open/view with the
Select key, or use the Menu key to toggle access the menu on the left.
The menu options are as follows:
+o Slideshow - Will cycle through all the pictures in the current
folder. The currently selected item must be a picture (not a
folder) for this to work. It does not currently traverse
subfolders.
+o Rotate CW - Rotate the current image 90 degrees in the clockwise
direction. This change persists if the current directory is
writable.
+o Rotate CCW - As above except the direction of rotation is
counter(anti) clockwise.
+o Import - Import pictures into your Gallery Dir. This option is
described in the next section.
+o Settings - Access the MythGallery settings screen.
1155..33.. IImmppoorrttiinngg PPiiccttuurreess
The import path in the setup dialog is a colon separated list of
directories and/or executable files. When the import key is pressed, a
new directory (the destination directory) under the current directory
will be created and the import path will be searched. If the item in
the import path is a directory (the source directory), the contents of
that directory will be copied to the destination directory. If you
would like the source directory to be that of a removable device, it
might be a good idea to use autofs. See the automount howto at
www.linuxdoc.org <www.linuxdoc.org> for info on how to get it working.
If the item in the import path is an executable file, MythGallery will
attempt to execute it with the destination directory as its sole
argument. Be careful when using executable scripts that the script
runs unattended (doesn't need user intervention) and returns properly,
otherwise it could create the appearance of MythGallery hanging (e.g.
running ssmmbbcclliieenntt and prompting for password). Also be sure that
scripts have executable permissions set.
Here is an example script that a user may want to run on import:
#!/bin/csh
if ($#argv == 0) then
echo "Usage: $0 dest_dir"
exit
endif
cd $argv[1]
# get stuff over the network
wget http://www.somesite.dom/dir/file1.jpg
wget http://www.somesite.dom/dir/file2.jpg
wget http://www.somesite.dom/dir/file3.jpg
# stuff that requires manual module loading and/or fs mounting
modprobe camera_module
mount /dev/camera /mnt/camera
cp /mnt/camera/* $argv[1]
umount /mnt/camera
rmmod camera_module
# perform some processing
foreach pname (`ls *.jpg`)
jpegtran -flip vertical $pname > $pname.new
mv $pname.new $pname
end
1166.. MMyytthhGGaammee..
MythGame can used as a frontend to start any emulator that your host
OS runs. This is an example of how to set up xmame on Linux.
http://www.mameworld.net/ <http://www.mameworld.net/> is an excellent
resource for all things mame.
Installation overview:
1. Setup directory structure
2. Download and install xmame
3. Download and place extra files (artwork/catver.ini/etc..)
4. Download and install MythGame plugin
5. Setup xmame in MythGame
6. Hints
1166..11.. SSeettuupp DDiirreeccttoorryy SSttrruuccttuurree
To keep things organized, create the following directories for xxmmaammee
to use in /usr/local/share/xmame: hiscore, roms, and snaps.
$ mkdir -p /usr/local/share/xmame/{highscore,roms,snaps}
1166..22.. DDoowwnnllooaadd aanndd IInnssttaallll xxmmaammee
NNOOTTEE: There may be pre-packaged versions of xxmmaammee available for your
distribution. Check http://x.mame.net/download.html
<http://x.mame.net/download.html> for the latest version.
Download the source to xxmmaammee from
http://x.mame.net/download/xmame-0.103.tar.bz2
<http://x.mame.net/download/xmame-0.103.tar.bz2>
$ wget http://x.mame.net/download/xmame-0.103.tar.bz2
$ tar -xjf xmame-0.103.tar.bz2
$ cd xmame-0.103
Edit the Makefile with your favorite editor. Adjust the options as
required for your system.
$ joe Makefile
Then make and install xmame
$ make
$ su
(enter password)
# make install
# exit
After mmaammee has been installed, we need to create some defaults.
$ mkdir ~/.xmame
$ cp docs/xmamerc.dist ~/.xmame/xmamerc
Because some ROMS work better with different display toolkits, or
possibly even older versions of xmame, it's convenient to keep all of
your xxmmaammee binaries and to rename them to include the version number.
MythGame allows you to match individual roms to preferred binaries.
$ su
(enter password)
# mv /usr/local/bin/xmame.x11 /usr/local/bin/xmame-0.103.x11
# exit
NNOOTTEE: Depending on how you compiled xxmmaammee, you may have xxmmaammee..XX1111,
xxmmaammee..SSDDLL or xxmmaammee..xxggll based on what display toolkit you used. Also,
you may need to remove and recreate xmamerc after upgrading since some
of the default options may have changed.
### Fileio Related ###
rompath /usr/local/share/xmame/roms
snapshot_directory /usr/local/share/xmame/snaps
cheat_file /usr/local/share/xmame/cheat.dat
hiscore_file /usr/local/share/xmame/hiscore.dat
hiscore_directory /usr/local/share/xmame/hiscore
history_file /usr/local/share/xmame/history.dat
mameinfo_file /usr/local/share/xmame/mameinfo.dat
Confirm that xxmmaammee works before running it inside MythTV. Place your
ROM in the /usr/local/share/xmame/roms directory you created earlier.
NNOOTTEE: There are three public domain ROM sets available at
http://www.mame.net/downmisc.html <http://www.mame.net/downmisc.html>
Launch xxmmaammee with your game of choice. In this example, we are using
Gauntlet.
$ xmame gauntlet
Some basic mmaammee keyboard commands:
5 = Insert coin
1 = Player 1 start
arrow keys = movement
left control = button 1
left alt = button 2
SPACE = button 3
ESC = exit
TAB - menu
~ to adjust Volume
< and >
1166..33.. DDoowwnnllooaadd eexxttrraa ffiilleess
The following files allow you to add extra functionality. Place them
into /usr/local/share/xmame
- catver.ini is a catalog of categories and versions of popular mame
ROMs.
Useful for keeping large libraries of ROMs organized.
It may be downloaded from http://www.catver.com
<http://www.catver.com> or http://www.mameworld.net/catlist
<http://www.mameworld.net/catlist>
- Screenshots aka "snaps"
These may be downloaded from http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa/
<http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa/>
Screenshots are displayed when you are browsing your ROMS in mmyytthhggaammee.
Unzip and place them in /usr/local/share/xmame/snaps
- history.dat
Download from http://www.arcade-history.com/ <http://www.arcade-
history.com/> This file fills in a bit of background about each ROM.
- hiscore.dat
Download from http://www.mameworld.net/highscore/
<http://www.mameworld.net/highscore/>
- Cheats
Download from http://cheat.retrogames.com/
<http://cheat.retrogames.com/>
1166..44.. DDoowwnnllooaadd aanndd IInnssttaallll MMyytthhGGaammee..
MMyytthhGGaammee is part of the mythplugins package. See the instructions in
the ``Downloading and Compiling'' section to obtain mythplugins.
Switch to the mythplugins directory:
$ cd ~/mythplugins-0.22
Compile and install mythgame:
$ ./configure --disable-all --enable-mythgame
$ qmake mythplugins.pro
$ make
$ su
(enter password)
# make install
# exit
1166..55.. SSeettuupp xxmmaammee iinn MMyytthhGGaammee
Start mmyytthhffrroonntteenndd and navigate to Utilities/Setup > Setup > Media
Settings > Game Settings > Game Players. Select (New Game Player).
To set up a new player for xmame enter the following:
Player Name: xmame-0.103.x11 (Name by which you want your emulator or game called)
Type: xmame (This is used for display purposes only and does not affect the function of your system)
Command: xmame-0.103.x11 -vidmod 1 -fullscreen (Path and name of binary + any optional parameters)
Rom Path: /usr/local/share/xmame/roms (This tells MythGame what directories to scan for roms to be used with this emulator)
ScreenShots: /usr/local/share/xmame/snaps (This tells MythGame what directories to scan for snapshots to be used with these roms)
Working Directory: (Directory to change to before launching game or emulator. Blank in our case ignores this setting)
File Extensions: (List of all file extension to be used for this emulator. Blank menas any file under the Rom Path)
[] Allow games to span multiple roms/disks (will treat game.1.rom game.2.rom game.3.rom as one game)
1166..66.. HHiinnttss::
+o Rom name before options: %s can be used as a standin for rom names
on the command line.
+o Multiple disk/rom games: %d1 %d2 etc can be used as standins for
multiple disc games on the command line.
+o Associating a rom with an emulator: Browse to the desired rom and
press 'M' to enter the settings page for that rom.
+o Assign a Game Favorite Status: Browse to the desired game and press
"/".
1177.. MMyytthhMMuussiicc..
MythMusic has a number of prerequisites that must be satisfied before
it is operational. Depending on your distribution, some of these
prerequisites can be satisfied through the various package managers.
If your distribution doesn't offer pre-compiled versions of the
software below, then follow the generic instructions for manually
compiling and installing the software.
The prerequisites for MythMusic are:
+o MAD
+o taglib
+o libogg and libvorbis
+o FLAC
+o libcdaudio
+o CDParanoia
1177..11.. MMaannuuaall iinnssttaallllaattiioonn ooff pprreerreeqquuiissiitteess
These instructions are for distributions which don't have pre-compiled
versions of the software necessary to run MythTV.
Download MAD from http://www.underbit.com/products/mad
<http://www.underbit.com/products/mad> and install:
$ tar -xzf mad-0.15.1b.tar.gz
$ cd mad-0.15.1b
$ ./configure
$ make
$ su
# make install
# exit
Download TagLib from http://developer.kde.org/~wheeler/taglib.html
<http://developer.kde.org/~wheeler/taglib.html> and install:
$ tar -xzf taglib-1.4.tar.gz
$ cd taglib-1.4
$ ./configure
$ make
$ su
# make install
# exit
Download libogg and libvorbis from http://www.xiph.org/downloads
<http://www.xiph.org/downloads> and install in a similar manner to the
above packages.
Download FLAC from http://flac.sourceforge.net
<http://flac.sourceforge.net> and install:
$ tar -xzf flac-1.1.2.tar.gz
$ cd flac-1.1.2
$ ./configure
$ make
$ su
# make install
# exit
$
Download libcdaudio from http://libcdaudio.sourceforge.net
<http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=27134> and
install:
$ tar -xzf libcdaudio-0.99.12p2.tar.gz
$ cd libcdaudio-0.99.12p2
$ ./configure
$ make
$ su
# make install
# exit
$
Download cdparanoia from http://www.xiph.org/paranoia/down.html
<http://www.xiph.org/paranoia/download/cdparanoia-III-
alpha9.8.src.tgz>.
$ tar -xzf cdparanoia-III-alpha9.8.src.tgz
$ cd cdparanoia-III-alpha9.8
$ ./configure
$ make
$ su
# make install
# cd /usr/lib
# ln -sf libcdda_interface.so.0.9.8 libcdda_interface.so
# ln -sf libcdda_paranoia.so.0.9.8 libcdda_paranoia.so
# exit
$
1177..22.. MMaannddrriivvaa
Mandriva has a number of the prerequisites available on the
installation CD. Some of the software you're going to need will have
to be obtained from the "contrib" or "cooker" development
repositories. Applications downloaded from "cooker" come from the
development branch, so there may be issues with some software. It
isn't recommended that you mix cooker and release-level software.
uurrppmmii is the simplest tool for installation of packages from the
command line. The difficult part is the configuration, but this has
been made easier at the following website:
http://addmedia.linuxfornewbies.org/
<http://addmedia.linuxfornewbies.org/> The website will allow you to
choose a mirror site and then present the command-line configuration
text for that mirror. You will most likely need to add a "Contrib"
mirror to your setup. Once you have done that, you can proceed. If
uurrppmmii prompts you about other modules that need to be installed to
satisfy dependencies, say "Yes".
# urpmi libmad0 libmad0-devel libflac4 libflac4-devel libcdaudio1 cdparanoia
# urpmi libcdda0 libcdda0-devel libvorbis0 libvorbis0-devel
# urpmi libcdaudio1-devel libid3tag0 libid3tag0-devel
1177..22..11.. AAddddiittiioonnaall ooppttiioonnss wwiitthh MMyytthhMMuussiicc
Additional visualizations have been added to MythMusic. If you wish to
use these, there are some prerequisites you must install prior to
compiling.
+o fftw
+o OpenGL
+o SDL
fftw may be obtained from http://www.fftw.org/ <http://www.fftw.org/>.
In Mandriva it may be installed by typing:
# urpmi libfftw2 libfftw2-devel
OpenGL should be installed on practically all distributions. However,
you will need the devel module. In Mandriva it may be installed by
typing:
# urpmi libMesaGLU1-devel
SDL may be obtained from http://www.libsdl.org
<http://www.libsdl.org>. In Mandriva it may be installed by typing:
# urpmi libSDL1.2 libSDL1.2-devel
1177..33.. RReedd HHaatt LLiinnuuxx 99
Red Hat provides packages for several of the prerequisites, making
installation very simple. Of the prerequisites, Red Hat provides
packages for Vorbis, cdparanoia, SDL, and OpenGL (which you probably
already have installed). To install these all at once, simply type
(all on the same line):
$ up2date --solvedeps libvorbis libvorbis-devel vorbis-tools cdparanoia-devel cdparanoia-libs cdparanoia SDL-devel SDL
If you get the following message: "None of the packages you requested
were found, or they are already updated" it probably means you already
have all of those packages installed.
You must install the remaining packages, (MAD, FLAC, libcdaudio and
optionally fftw) manually following the installation directions above.
When installing fftw do not use the rpm package offered on the website
because it will cause an error, so use the source package instead.
NNOOTTEE: you can use the instructions given at the ``automated
installation section'' to install all of MythMusic in one
step.
1177..44.. CCoommppiilliinngg MMyytthhMMuussiicc
Once all the prerequisites have been installed, you can proceed with
compiling MythMusic.
$ cd ~/mythplugins-0.22
$ ./configure --disable-all --enable-mythmusic --enable-fftw --enable-sdl --enable-aac
$ qmake mythplugins.pro
$ make
$ su
# make install
# exit
1177..55.. CCoonnffiigguurriinngg MMyytthhMMuussiicc
Configuration of MythMusic occurs in two places. The main mythfrontend
Setup is for global MythMusic configuration. Go to the
Setup/MythMusic/General Setup screen and adjust it for your particular
configuration.
The second configuration screen is within the MythMusic program and
will allow you rescan your music library, etc.
Here's some explanation about the Ignore_ID3 and The
NonID3FileNameFormat:
If Ignore_ID3 is set to TRUE, MythMusic will try to determine the
Genre, Artist, Album, Track Number, and Title from the filename of the
mp3 file. The NonID3FileNameFormat variable should be set to the
directory/file format where the mp3 files are stored. For instance, I
store mine in the above shown Genre/Artist/Album/Track format.
MythMusic will then use this information to fill in the proper fields
when it populates the musicmetadata table rather than searching for an
ID3 tag in the mp3 file.
The files can be laid out in any format, such as:
Genre/Artist/Album/Title Artist/Genre/Album/Title Artist/Album/Title
(with Genre left as Unknown)
The track number is optional but can be specified with the title by
using the TRACK_TITLE keyword instead of TITLE. If TRACK_TITLE is
used, then the filename can have a space, hyphen, or underscore
separating the track number from the track title. Keywords are case
insensitive, so if you specify GENRE it's the same as Genre in the
format field.
The Ignore_ID3 option does not disable the code that determines the
track length, just the portion that tries to read ID3 info.
1177..66.. UUssiinngg MMyytthhMMuussiicc
MythMusic is fairly simple to use. It is recommended that you insert
the CD before selecting "Import CD". You should also ensure that your
system doesn't try to automount the CD and begin playing it
automatically.
Here's some information on playlist management:
Q: How do I create a new playlist? A: Using the MythMusic "Select
Music" menu option, setup the playlist as you normally would by adding
songs or other playlists as needed. When you are ready to save the new
playlist, highlight "Active Play Queue" at the bottom of the selection
tree and hit the "i" key. This will pop up a menu allowing you to name
and save the new playlist. You can also hit Enter to bring up the
popup on the Active Play Queue. This does not work on the playlists
above, as Enter is obviously bound to checking/unchecking the boxes.
Any number (i.e. keypad on remote) will also bring up the menu in both
cases.
Q: How do I enter the playlist name in the text field without a
keyboard? A: Use the keypad number keys (bound to your remote) to
select letters quasi-cell phone style. Keys 2-9 work pretty much like
any cell phone text entry. 1 cycles through a few special characters,
delete, and space. 0 is like a CAPS LOCK. Hard to describe, fairly
easy to use. You will soon be able to specify the cycle timing in a
Setup screen. You can type fairly quickly through a combination of
jumping around the number keys AND hitting a non-number key (right
arrow is particularly good for this) to force the current character.
Q: How do I edit a playlist? A: Highlight the playlist in the
selection tree and hit the "i" key then select "Move to Active Play
Queue" in the popup. You can now modify the "Active Play Queue" like
normal, adding songs and playlists by selecting them from the song
tree. When you are done, highlight the "Active Play Queue" in the
selection tree and hit the "i" key then select "Save Back to Playlist
Tree". And whatever you were editing as your Active Queue before you
moved an existing playlist "on top" of Active reappears. Think of
Active has having a push on, pop off capability, but with a depth of
only 1.
Q: How do I delete an item from a playlist? A: Highlight the item in
the selection tree and hit the "d" key.
Q: How do I rearrange the songs in my playlist? A: Highlight a song
and hit the "space" bar, the song will now have pair of red arrows in
front of it. Use the up and down arrow keys to move it around in the
playlist. When you have it where you want it, hit the "space" bar
again.
Q: How do I delete a playlist? A: Highlight the playlist in the
selection tree and hit the "i" key then select "Delete this Playlist"
from the popup.
1177..77.. TTrroouubblleesshhoooottiinngg MMyytthhMMuussiicc
You may run into errors when running MythMusic.
1177..77..11.. WWhheenn II rruunn MMyytthhMMuussiicc aanndd ttrryy aanndd llooookk uupp aa CCDD,, II ggeett aann eerrrroorr
mmeessssaaggee
The full text of the message will say:
databasebox.o: Couldn't find your CD. It may not be in the freedb
database. More likely, however, is that you need to delete /.cddb
and /.cdserverrc and restart mythmusic. Have a nice day.
If you get this message, you should go to the home directory of
whatever user MythMusic is running as and type:
rm .cdserverrc
rm -rf .cddb/
These files aren't automatically deleted because of a conscious design
decision by the author that programs that automatically delete things
are bad.
The files are used to locally cache CD lookups. If you are re-
inserting CDs, your machine will not actually have to go out to the
Internet to determine what is on them. However, the URL used to access
the freedb database has recently changed, so the stale information in
the files from previous runs of MythMusic would cause the error above.
Once the files have been deleted the stale information will be gone
and your local database will be rebuilt as you use CDs.
1188.. MMyytthhWWeeaatthheerr..
MythWeather is a part of the mmyytthhpplluuggiinnss package. See ``MythPlugins''
for instructions on downloading the tarball.
$ cd ~/mythplugins-0.22
$ ./configure --disable-all --enable-mythweather
$ qmake mythplugins.pro
$ make
$ su
# make install
# exit
MythWeather uses MSNBC.com as its source for weather data and
weather.com for its radar image.
These are the keyboard commands for MythWeather:
Left Key Goes back one page, and extends the time spent
on the page you are on.
Right Key Goes forward one page, see above.
Space Pause, wait on the current page until space is hit
again.
Numeric Keys You can check other weather by keying in other ZIP codes.
Enter Key Switch between Celsius and Fahrenheit. Can also
be used a way to force a data update.
"m" Key Resets the location to the database default, then updates the data.
"i" Enter / Save settings
ESC Exit the settings screen without saving / Exit the program
MythWeather also has an "Aggressiveness" setting. This affects how
long MythWeather waits for data from the msnbc.com website before
timing out. If you are on a slow connection, or have a slow DNS, or
MythWeather just doesn't seem to be working and you've already tried
everything else, then try increasing the aggressiveness level
parameter. This parameter is inverse; a higher number actually means
that MythWeather will be less aggressive, and will therefore wait
longer before timing out.
MythWeather will print debugging information on the terminal. If you
wish to see additional debugging information while MythWeather is
running, run mythweather from the command line with as mythweather
--debug
You may also force mythweather to re-run the configuration by starting
it on the command line as mythweather --configure. These two options
are mutually exclusive.
1199.. MMyytthhVViiddeeoo..
MythVideo is a part of the mmyytthhpplluuggiinnss package. See ``MythPlugins''
for instructions on downloading the tarball.
MythVideo will allow you to use an external program to watch media
files that are not directly supported by MythTV.
$ cd ~/mythplugins-0.22
$ ./configure --disable-all --enable-mythvideo
$ qmake mythplugins.pro
$ make
$ su
# make install
# exit
See MythVideo's README file for additional information.
2200.. MMyytthhDDVVDD..
MythDVD is a part of the mmyytthhpplluuggiinnss package. See ``MythPlugins'' for
instructions on downloading the tarball. MythDVD is an application
which rips DVDs and makes them available for use with MythVideo. You
may also transcode the DVD content from MPEG-2 to other formats which
should greatly reduce the amount of space the DVD material takes up on
your hard drive.
MythDVD has a number of prerequisites to enable transcoding
functionality. If you only wish to play DVDs rather than convert them
to something like MPEG-4 or xvid you may skip the prerequisite
installation step.
2200..11.. MMaannuuaall CCoommppiillaattiioonn ooff PPrreerreeqquuiissiitteess
2200..22.. PPrree--ccoommppiilleedd bbiinnaarriieess
Mandriva users may install the prerequisites this way:
# urpmi libdvdread3 libdvdread3-devel a52dec liba52dec-devel
# urpmi mplayer ogle xine
Assuming that you've added a PLF mirror, you may also load the rest of
the prerequisites using the following command:
# urpmi xvid xvid-devel fame libfame0.9-devel transcode libdvdcss
In the example below, we have enabled support for transcoding and for
VCD playing. You may remove these options if you don't need them.
$ cd ~/mythplugins-0.20
$ ./configure --disable-all --enable-mythdvd --enable-transcode --enable-vcd
$ qmake mythplugins.pro
$ make
$ su
# make install
2200..33.. RRuunnnniinngg tthhee MMyytthh TTrraannssccooddiinngg DDaaeemmoonn
Transcoding ("ripping") a DVD requires you to run the Myth Transcoding
Daemon (mtd). To ensure that mtd is configured correctly, you should
first test it at the command line.
$ mtd -n
The last line of text should show something like:
mtd is listening on port 2342
This indicates that mtd is ready for use. Once you've successfully
tested mtd in the foreground, type CCTTRRLL--CC to stop mtd. You may then
start it as a background (daemon) process.
$ mtd -d
Running mtd as a daemon will allow you to automatically start it
during the boot process. For example, you may add mtd -d to your
rc.local file, or you can adjust the script/steps outlined in the
section called ``Automatically starting mythbackend at system boot
time'' to start mtd instead of mythbackend.
2211.. MMyytthhNNeewwss..
MythNews is a part of the mmyytthhpplluuggiinnss package. See ``MythPlugins'' for
instructions on downloading the tarball. MythNews is a RSS reader.
$ cd ~/mythplugins-0.22
$ ./configure --disable-all --enable-mythnews
$ qmake mythplugins.pro
$ make
$ su
# make install
2222.. TTrroouubblleesshhoooottiinngg..
2222..11.. CCoommppiilliinngg
2222..11..11.. CCoommppiillee eerrrroorrss
Some compile errors are worse than others. If you get an error that
doesn't abort the compilation, and says something like:
cc1plus: warning: changing search order for system directory
"/usr/local/include"
cc1plus: warning: as it has already been specified as a non-system
directory
then it shouldn't be a problem.
If you get an error like /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lXext, the compiler
is telling you that you don't have XFree86-devel installed, or that
your distribution hasn't set it up correctly. This needs to be fixed
before MythTV will compile.
2222..11..22.. mmaakkee:: ****** NNoo rruullee ttoo mmaakkee ttaarrggeett
//uussrr//lliibb//qqtt33//mmkkssppeeccss//ddeeffaauulltt//qqmmaakkee..ccoonnff'',, nneeeeddeedd bbyy MMaakkeeffiillee''.. SSttoopp..
This error happens when there's a missing link in the
/usr/lib/qt3/mkspecs directory. There are two ways to fix this error:
1. Create the link manually:
$ su
# cd /usr/lib/qt3/mkspecs
# ln -sf linux-g++ default
and then restart the compile,
or
2. Run qqmmaakkee mmyytthhttvv..pprroo in the mythtv directory. Rerunning qqmmaakkee will
create a new Makefile for you, however this still doesn't fix the root
cause of the issue, which is that your distribution didn't create the
symlink for you when the qt3 package was installed. The first choice
is the better solution.
2222..11..33.. mmaakkee:: ****** NNoo rruullee ttoo mmaakkee ttaarrggeett
//mmkkssppeeccss//ddeeffaauulltt//qqmmaakkee..ccoonnff'',, nneeeeddeedd bbyy MMaakkeeffiillee''.. SSttoopp..
You didn't set your QTDIR. Re-read the section on ``Setting up
paths''.
2222..11..44.. IInntteerrnnaall SSeeggmmeennttaattiioonn FFaauulltt..
This is most likely to be caused by an overheating processor rather
than an actual programming fault within gcc.
2222..22.. DDeebbuuggggiinngg
2222..22..11.. MMyytthhTTVV sseeggffaauullttss
2222..22..22.. MMyytthhTTVV iissnn''tt ddooiinngg aannyytthhiinngg
2222..22..33.. DDeebbuuggggiinngg wwiitthh GGDDBB
Without details, the developers will not be able to determine if you
have discovered a genuine code-bug, or if the problem is with your
system. In order to determine what's going on, you must recompile
MythTV with debugging support and run MythTV within ggddbb, the GNU
debugger. Note that, on OS X, some data is provided without going
through these steps. See
/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MythFrontend.crash.log
Re-run the ccoonnffiigguurree script and add --compile-type=debug to any
previous configuration options you may have used. Check the config.log
file if you have forgotten.
Now, you need to clear out the old versions of the software to ensure
that you're running with the debugging code, then compile and install.
$ make distclean
$ ./configure --compile-type=debug
$ make
$ su
# make install
# exit
At this point, you now have debug-enabled software ready. To make sure
that you don't forget to type a command required for debugging, it's
best to setup a gdbcommands file. This will be read by ggddbb when it's
started. Put the following into gdbcommands in your home directory:
handle SIGPIPE nostop noprint
handle SIG33 nostop noprint
set logging on
set pagination off
set breakpoint pending on
break qFatal
set args -l myth.log -v record,channel,siparser
run
thread apply all bt full
set logging off
Let's assume that the problem you're having is in mmyytthhbbaacckkeenndd.
$ gdb mythbackend -x gdbcommands
GNU gdb 6.3-debian
Copyright 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are
welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions.
Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
There is absolutely no warranty for GDB. Type "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i386-linux".Using host libthread_db library "/lib/tls/libthread_db.so.1".
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
ggddbb will automatically read the commands that you've placed in the
gdbcommands file and begin running the program you specified on the
command line.
If the program appears to be locked up, press CTRL-C to create the
backtrace file.
All of the output from gdb.txt should be posted to the mythtv-dev
mailing list, along with the steps you followed to get the program to
crash.
NNOOTTEE: If you're trimming the gdb.txt file to remove extraneous
information from the beginning of the file, make sure you include at
least 10 lines _p_r_i_o_r to the point where the backtrace actually begins.
This ensures that there is some context to the backtrace, and so that
it's possible to see what exactly caused the segfault.
ggddbb has a number of options, read the man page for more information.
Using the gdbcommands file in conjunction with a wwhhiillee loop will
ensure that ggddbb creates a trace file and then restarts:
$ while true; do date >> gdb.txt; gdb mythbackend -x gdbcommands; done;
NNOOTTEE: To exit this loop you will need to kill the while loop.
If you're trying to troubleshoot and you can't get back to the ggddbb
window for some reason, it may be easier to use two systems or to
start mythfrontend from the text console.
If you're going to troubleshoot from a remote system, connect to the
machine that you're going to test using sssshh or tteellnneett. Next, type $
export DISPLAY=localhost:0.0. This will allow the graphics to be
displayed on the X console (usually ALT-F6 or ALT-F7) and still give
you output and control of mmyytthhffrroonntteenndd, either from the sssshh session,
or by switching back to the text console by pressing CTRL-ALT-F1. You
can now continue troubleshooting using ggddbb as detailed in the
instructions.
2222..22..44.. MMyytthhTTVV iiss ccrraasshhiinngg yyoouurr ssyysstteemm
When run as a non-privileged user, MythTV _c_a_n _n_o_t crash your system.
If your system is crashing when you run MythTV, then you have some
issue with the drivers for your capture card or other hardware, or the
CPU fan has fallen off/broken and your system is overheating when
asked to perform a CPU intensive task like encoding video.
If you are running as root, which is ssttrroonnggllyy ddiissccoouurraaggeedd, it is
possible that your system may crash due to the real-time thread using
all available CPU. You will not be able to interrupt the process, so
for all intents and purposes your computer will have crashed.
2222..33.. IInnssttaalllliinngg
2222..33..11.. WWhheenn ttrryyiinngg ttoo rruunn mmyytthhttvv--sseettuupp,, yyoouu ggeett aann eerrrroorr lliikkee tthhiiss::
""mmyytthhttvv--sseettuupp:: eerrrroorr wwhhiillee llooaaddiinngg sshhaarreedd lliibbrraarriieess::""
You didn't add /usr/local/lib to /etc/ld.so.conf. See the section on
modifying ``/etc/ld.so.conf''.
2222..44.. UUssiinngg
2222..44..11.. NNoo pprrooggrraammss aarree ddiissppllaayyeedd iinn ""WWaattcchh RReeccoorrddiinnggss""
This situation occurs most often with a system that acts as a frontend
and a slave backend. MythTV supports system-global and user-specific
configuration files, with user-configuration files taking precedence.
99% of the configuration for MythTV is in the MySQL database, but
MythTV still needs to know where the MySQL server is running. This
information is in the mysql.txt file. By default, it will be installed
to /usr/local/share/mythtv, but a copy placed into ~/.mythtv will
over-ride the global configuration.
You must ensure that there aren't multiple, conflicting versions of
this file on your system!
$ locate mysql.txt
/usr/local/share/mythtv/mysql.txt
/home/mythtv/.mythtv/mysql.txt
$
As you can see, in this example there are two mysql.txt files. If they
are not identical, then there may be unintended consequences.
You may also see this error if you completely fill the /var partition.
The most likely _m_y_t_h_t_v_-_r_e_l_a_t_e_d reason for this is an overly large
mythbackend or mythfrontend log file in /var/log. If you have logging
enabled for the backend, and myth runs for weeks at a time, this may
creep up and surprise you. Note that many system processes also write
to /var and the system may not boot if it is unable to write to /var
due to a full partition.
2222..44..22.. MMyySSQQLL nnoott ccoonnnneeccttiinngg ccoorrrreeccttllyy
Your MMyySSQQLL installation may have networking turned off. Check that
/etc/mysql/my.cnf _d_o_e_s _n_o_t contain skip-networking. If it does, remove
it. Also verify that bind-address is set to your IP address instead of
127.0.0.1. If you change either of these items, restart MMyySSQQLL.
2222..44..33.. MMyySSQQLL ddaattaabbaassee iiss ccoorrrruupptt
If you have reason to believe that your MySQL database is corrupt,
execute the following commands to attempt to repair it.
NNOOTTEE: Ensure that there are no programs accessing the database while
you attempt to repair it. Make sure that all backend and frontend
programs have exited.
mysqlcheck -r -umythtv -p<password> mythconverg
2222..44..44.. UUssiinngg aa MMPPEEGG--22 eennccooddeerr ccaarrdd aanndd tthhee vviiddeeoo aappppeeaarrss ""jjiitttteerryy""
2222..44..55.. UUssiinngg aa MMPPEEGG--22 eennccooddeerr ccaarrdd aanndd tthhee vviiddeeoo iiss jjuummppiinngg uupp aanndd
ddoowwnn
This is a different problem than the one discussed in the previous
section. Currently, the ivtv driver or firmware appear to have some
issues if the vertical capture resolution is not the full screen
height. If you are having a jitter problem then ensure that you are
capturing either 480 lines (for NTSC) or 576 lines (for PAL). The
default capture profiles may need to be edited for your setup. Go to
Settings->TV Settings->Recording Profiles and adjust the DDeeffaauulltt and
LLiivvee TTVV options to 480 or 576 from their defaults.
2222..44..66.. SSccrreeeenn ggooeess bbllaannkk bbuutt rreettuurrnnss wwhheenn mmoouussee iiss mmoovveedd oorr kkeeyybbooaarrdd
iiss uusseedd
This is due to DPMS, the Display Power Management System, which is
used to save power by turning off your monitor when the system decides
that it's not being used or due to a screensaver that has defaulted to
a blank screen. MythTV now has DPMS support built-in, and should
intelligently handle the screen. Continue reading if you wish to
override DPMS and force it off.
Since it's likely that watching TV will not generate keyboard or mouse
events for a time, you need to turn off DPMS and the screensaver.
There are a few ways to do this. You may also need to check your BIOS
for power saving modes and disable screen blanking there as well.
Edit your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 or /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, and look
for:
Section "ServerFlags"
#DontZap # disable <Ctrl><Alt><BS> (server abort)
#DontZoom # disable <Ctrl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)
AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse doesn't work
Option "blank time" "0"
Option "standby time" "0"
Option "suspend time" "0"
Option "off time" "0"
Option "NoPM" "1"
EndSection
Also, look for:
Section "Device"
Identifier "device1"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 256 (generic)"
Driver "nv"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
In this case, you would need to either delete the Option "DPMS" line,
or change it to # Option "DPMS" to comment it out. The next time you
start XFree this change will take effect.
Finally, check:
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "monitor1"
VendorName "Plug'n Play"
HorizSync 30-85
VertRefresh 50-160
# Sony Vaio C1(X,XS,VE,VN)?
# 1024x480 @ 85.6 Hz, 48 kHz hsync
ModeLine "1024x480" 65.00 1024 1032 1176 1344 480 488 494 563 -hsync -vsync
# TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.
# 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync
ModeLine "768x576" 50.00 768 832 846 1000 576 590 595 630
# 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync
ModeLine "768x576" 63.07 768 800 960 1024 576 578 590 616
EndSection
Ensure that there isn't an Option "DPMS" in the Monitor configuration.
You can also turn off DPMS from the Command Line, but this will not
survive a reboot.
$ xset -dpms
Using xset +dpms will turn it back on.
Another technique to try, which will turn off the screensaver:
$ xset s off
You may also combine the command to turn off DPMS and the screensaver:
$ xset -dpms s off
Finally, depending on your distribution, you may be able to turn it
off from within the control panel.
2222..55.. MMiisscceellllaanneeoouuss
2222..55..11.. mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee ffaaiilliinngg
If mythfilldatabase suddenly appears to be failing, there are at least
two things to check.
First, if you are in North America, ensure that your DataDirect
subscription is still valid, otherwise, check to see what version of
XMLTV you're running and that it's the latest version.
NNOOTTEE: It is highly recommended that you run the latest
version of XMLTV available. Your listings provider may have made
changes which negatively impact XMLTV.
2222..55..22.. FFaasstt CCPPUU,, cchhooppppyy oorr jjiitttteerryy vviiddeeoo
First, you should check that your kernel has been enabled for DMA:
[mythtv@pvr mythtv]$ dmesg |grep DMA
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xd800-0xd807, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xd808-0xd80f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
hda: 156301488 sectors (80026 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=9729/255/63, UDMA(33)
hdb: 80043264 sectors (40982 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=4982/255/63, UDMA(33)
From the listing above, you can see that hda, hdb and hdc are set for
DMA, and hdd is set for pio. If your kernel is not reporting DMA being
enabled, you may need to recompile your kernel. Check your
motherboard's chipset (look in the "ATA/IDE/MFM/RLL support" section
in "make menuconfig") for more information.
Next, check that the hard drive has DMA enabled. Use the hhddppaarrmm
program to check and enable DMA.
# hdparm -d /dev/hd?
will tell you the DMA status for your hard drives. If you run hhddppaarrmm
with the -d1 parameter, it will turn DMA on.
You may also setup your PC to do this at boot time, either by adding
the command to your /etc/rc.local file, or by adding files to
/etc/sysconfig.
On Mandriva and other distributions, if you install hhddppaarrmm from an RPM
you will most likely get a /etc/sysconfig/harddisks file installed.
This file will be parsed by the /etc/rc.sysinit script. If you use the
default harddisks file, your changes will affect all IDE devices
(including CD ROMs). If you wish to use different parameters for
various devices, rename and/or copy the file to harddiskhda,
harddiskhdb, etc. Edit the file to your liking and on the next reboot
your setting will be preserved.
2222..55..33.. FFrroonntteenndd aappppeeaarrss ttoo bbee ssllooww aatt jjuummppiinngg // sseeeekkiinngg..
2222..55..44.. OOnn--ssccrreeeenn DDiissppllaayy sshhoowwss iinnccoorrrreecctt pprrooggrraamm lleennggtthh..
This may occur when MythTV doesn't have an accurate seek table. Run
mmyytthhccoommmmffllaagg ----rreebbuuiilldd
2222..55..55.. TTrroouubblleesshhoooottiinngg aauuddiioo
NNOOTTEE: the following instructions do not apply to PVR-250/350
encoders; the MPEG-2 file will have the audio embedded in the stream
so it is not accessible using /dev/dsp.
Audio appears to be one of the bigger issues that users run into on
the mailing list. If the audio isn't configured correctly, then MythTV
will often appear to hang, when in fact it is trying to manipulate the
audio subsystem and failing. You may or may not receive error messages
indicating that the source of the error is the audio subsystem.
You can not use xxaawwttvv to determine if your audio is working correctly,
since xxaawwttvv is simply using the analog sound patched through line-in
to line-out. It doesn't need to digitize the sound unless you are
using the recording function.
A better test to verify that sound will work for MythTV (and recording
with xxaawwttvv for that matter) is to startup xxaawwttvv, mute the line-in then
run aplay /dev/dsp. You should hear the recorded audio slightly
delayed behind the real-time video. You should see messages about
"underrun". These can be ignored but they do confirm that the driver
is loaded and there is an active device. Once this test succeeds,
MythTV should work correctly because it writes to and read from
/dev/dsp in the same way that aappllaayy does.
To record audio along with video the audio signal must be digitized by
a DSP so that the audio data can be stored in a file. On playback, the
audio data is written to /dev/dsp and converted back to an analog
signal. This analog signal should then be sent to your speakers. Here
is what is needed in aallssaammiixxeerr. If you are using an ALSA version after
1.0.6, use aallssaammiixxeerr --VV aallll:
CAPTUR source - the analog source to be sent to the DSP. This should
be set to the input source from the tuner card to the sound card. In
most cases this is Line but this could also be Aux, CD, Mic, etc.,
depending on how you connect the input cable. This source should be
muted to prevent patching through the analog sound. The volume of this
source will not affect the record level.
Capture mixer - this sets the level for the analog to digital
recording. While a volume of 100% is recommended for testing,
distortion may occur. Lowering this level to 75% to 85% may result in
better audio quality. "Capture" should be marked as the CAPTUR
destination.
PCM mixer - this sets the level for the digital to analog playback.
While a volume of 100% is recommended for testing, distortion may
occur. Lowering this level to 75% to 85% may result in better audio
quality.
Master mixer - sets the level for the analog signal sent to line-out
or the speakers.
You may also want to ensure that /dev/dsp , or whatever device file is
being used, hasn't already been grabbed by another process, like eessdd
or aarrttssdd. If the device file isn't available, then MythTV won't work.
You may wish to run ccoonnffiigguurree and enable support for these.
If you wish to see what application is grabbing a resource, you can
use the fuser command:
# fuser -v /dev/dsp
To disable aRts in KDE, go to KDE->Control Center->Sound->Sound System
and uncheck the "Start aRts soundserver on KDE startup" box. Run #
killall artsd from the command line to stop the artsd program.
If you're using multiple sound cards and multiple tuners, use
alsamixer -c 1 to work with the second sound card. The first card is
#0, the second card is #1, etc.
2222..55..66.. MMyytthhbbaacckkeenndd rreeppoorrttss tthhaatt yyoouurr ccaarrdd iiss nnoott rreeppoorrttiinngg ffuullll
dduupplleexx ccaappaabbiilliittiieess
2222..55..77.. TThhee mmyytthhbbaacckkeenndd pprrooggrraamm ttoolldd mmee ttoo llooookk aatt tthhiiss sseeccttiioonn
mythbackend does a check to see if your sound device is capable of
full duplex operation. If it's not, it's most likely that you're going
to run into issues when you try to record and play sound at the same
time. If your backend is a separate machine than your frontend, then
there's no problem, since you're only going to be doing one thing at a
time with the card. Likewise, if you're running the frontend and
backend on the same machine, but you're using btaudio or a hardware
encoder card such as the Hauppauge PVR-250, DVB cards or HDTV capture
cards as your recording source and you're only using the playback
function of your sound card, then you also shouldn't have an issue,
since the sound card isn't being asked to perform two functions at
once.
If you can't get your sound card to go full-duplex and need it to,
then check your distribution for updated sound drivers. If your sound
card is not capable of full-duplex operation, either because the
drivers don't support it, or it has been designed that way, then
you're pretty much out of luck and will either need to purchase a new
sound card, or will need to get btaudio ``operational''.
2222..55..88.. MMyy rreemmoottee ddooeessnn''tt wwoorrkk // wwoorrkkss ssoommeettiimmeess aanndd nnoott ootthheerrss //
""gghhoosstt"" kkeeyypprreesssseess
This can be due to a number of factors. The simplest case is the
"ghost" keypresses. For me, it was due to compact fluorescent lights
in the same room as the IR receiver, which the receiver was picking up
as keypresses. Once the lights were switched to incandescent bulbs,
the ghost went away.
You may have an issue with lliirrcc misinterpreting IR commands from a
different remote. I also have an issue where the TiVo "Peanut" remote
will eventually cause lliirrccdd to stop responding; even though lliirrccdd is
configured for the Pinnacle Systems remote, the TiVo remote IR
patterns are being seen by the IR receiver.
If your remote has been properly configured, and iirrww and iirrxxeevveenntt are
working correctly, then it's highly likely that your window manager is
not giving focus correctly to the various Myth programs as they run.
The following window managers are known to work correctly:
+o fvwm
+o blackbox (using "Sloppy Focus" and "Focus New Windows")
NNOOTTEE: You do not need to use iirrxxeevveenntt if you are using MythTV's native
LIRC support, so the window manager focus issue does not apply in that
case.
2222..55..99.. WWhheerree''ss ""ccaannaaddaa--ccaabbllee""??
2222..55..1100.. CChhaannnneellss aarree ooffff bbyy oonnee
There is no such thing as "Canada Cable"; Canada uses the same
frequencies as the United States. "Canada Cable" was a hack that some
people used when they would discover that their channels were off-by-
one, i.e. when tuning to channel 42, they might get channel 41 or 43.
This is actually due to the tuner on the video capture device being
mis-detected. You must manually specify the tuner type in your
/etc/modules.conf. See the video4linux mailing list
(https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/video4linux-list
<https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/video4linux-list>) for
more information.
2222..55..1111.. MMyytthhwweebb iiss sshhoowwiinngg aa ddbb__ooppeenn eerrrroorr wwhheenn II ccoonnnneecctt ttoo iitt
Find your php.ini file. Make sure you've got a line in it like this:
extension=mysql.so
Restart aappaacchhee for it to take effect.
2222..55..1122.. MMoouussee ppooiinntteerr ddiissaappppeeaarrss wwhheenn ppllaacceedd oovveerr tthhee MMyytthhTTVV wwiinnddoowwss
This is the intended behavior. The MythTV interface is meant for use
with a remote control or a keyboard.
2222..55..1133.. WWhhaatt ddooeess ""ssttrraannggee eerrrroorr fflluusshhiinngg bbuuffffeerr"" mmeeaann oonn tthhee ccoonn--
ssoollee??
Nothing, really. It's just lame (the mp3 encoder) complaining for some
obscure reason. This seems to be fixed in more recent versions of the
libmp3lame library.
2222..55..1144.. CCaann''tt cchhaannggee tthhee cchhaannnneell wwhheenn wwaattcchhiinngg LLiivvee TTVV..
Something's wrong with your program database. Did mythfilldatabase run
with no major errors? Or, MythTV may not have permissions to the
appropriate video4linux devices. See the section titled ``Device
Permissions'' for an example.
2222..55..1155.. SSccrreeeenn ggooeess bbllaacckk wwhheenn yyoouu ttrryy ttoo ppllaayy ssoommeetthhiinngg
MythTV prints error and status messages to the shell that was used to
start the application. If nothing seems to be happening when you try
to view a program, try switching back to the shell and look for error
messages there, or, if you're running from a startup script, check the
log file.
2222..55..1166.. PPoooorr ppeerrffoorrmmaannccee wwiitthh NNVViiddiiaa ccaarrddss aanndd XXvvMMCC
XvMC is a NVidia driver feature which is supposed to help with
decoding video. Users have reported that rather than speeding up their
video it appears to be doing the opposite. You may want to check that
your color depth is set for 24bpp.
2222..55..1177.. CCoommppuutteerr iiss llooaaddiinngg aa mmeeddiiaa ppllaayyeerr aapppplliiccaattiioonn wwhheenn yyoouu
iinnsseerrtt aa CCDD oorr DDVVDD
You need to disable any sort of auto-running media player in your
environment, otherwise MythDVD or MythMusic will not be able to work
properly.
In KDE, you may want to perform the following:
$ rm ~/.kde/Autostart/Autorun.desktop
2233.. MMiisscceellllaanneeoouuss..
2233..11.. II''dd lliikkee ttoo wwaattcchh tthhee ffiilleess wwiitthhoouutt uussiinngg MMyytthhTTVV // II''dd lliikkee ttoo
ccoonnvveerrtt tthhee ffiilleess ttoo ssoommee ootthheerr ffoorrmmaatt
First, check if the mmyytthhaarrcchhiivvee plugin does what you want. If not,
then read on:
MythTV comes with a utility called mmyytthhttrraannssccooddee which can decode nuv
files into raw format for use with other applications. This command-
line utility was not designed to be used by the end-user, but instead
to be called by other applications or scripts. Programs like nnuuvveexxppoorrtt
(http://forevermore.net/myth/ <http://forevermore.net/myth/>) are
better suited for the end user. However, since mmyytthhttrraannssccooddee can be a
useful tool, directions on using it follow.
mmyytthhttrraannssccooddee creates raw streams, which means that they do not
contain any container information such as resolution, frame-rate, or
audio sampling rate. In order to process the output, you must supply
this information to the processing utility. mmyytthhttrraannssccooddee provides the
relevant information on STDOUT.
There are two modes in which mmyytthhttrraannssccooddee can create raw streams.
The first has no synchronization and assumes that the processing
utility will read audio and video at a constant rate. This method is
useful when a single application will be processing the raw output,
such as mmeennccooddeerr or ffffmmppeegg. The second method assumes that two
separate applications will be processing the audio and video streams
independently, and there is no rate control between them which means
that the two programs don't coordinate their efforts to maintain
synchronization.
2233..11..11.. mmyytthhttrraannssccooddee eexxaammppllee
First, start mmyytthhttrraannssccooddee. You will need to determine the channel and
the start time manually.
$ mythtranscode --chanid 1036 --starttime 2003-10-20T15:30:00 --profile \
autodetect --fifodir . &
When mmyytthhttrraannssccooddee begins executing, it will create two FIFOs
("audout" and "vidout") in the directory specified (in this case ".",
meaning the current directory) and will print out information about
the video stream.
The next step is to start the processing application. The following
assumes that the stream is NTSC 640x480 with 32Kbps audio.
To use mmeennccooddeerr you would enter a command like:
mencoder -audiofile audout -audio-demuxer 20 -rawaudio rate=32000 \
-rawvideo on:w=640:h=480:fps=29.97 -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -o out.avi \
vidout
NNOOTTEE: You must use mencoder 1.0PRE1 or later. mmeennccooddeerr
version 0.9x _W_I_L_L _N_O_T _W_O_R_K_! Using ffmepg:
ffmpeg -f u16le -ar 32000 -ac 2 -i audout -f rawvideo -s 640x480 -r 29.97 \
-i vidout -vcodec mpeg4 -b 2000 -acodec mp3 -ab 128 out.avi
Or to play directly using mplayer (again 1.0PRE1 or later is needed):
mplayer -audiofile audout -audio-demuxer 20 -rawaudio rate=32000 \
-rawvideo on:w=640:h=480:fps=29.97 vidout
If you wanted to write the raw data to separate audio and video files
for later processing, the following would work (note the use of
--fifosync for rate-control):
$ mythtranscode --chanid 1036 --starttime 2003-10-20T15:30:00 \
--profile autodetect --fifodir . --fifosync &
$ cat audout > audio.raw &
$ cat vidout > video.yuv
2233..22.. UUssiinngg aa ddiiffffeerreenntt wwiinnddooww mmaannaaggeerr
MythTV is not dependent on any particular window manager. If you wish
to run a lightweight window manager, the contrib/configfiles/
directory has an example of a .twmrc and .fvwmrc file you may use.
2233..33.. WWhhaatt ccaappttuurree rreessoolluuttiioonn sshhoouulldd II uussee?? HHooww ddooeess vviiddeeoo wwoorrkk??
While MythTV allows you to set various GUI and capture resolutions,
not all combinations make sense.
First, analog video signals have a defined vertical resolution. In
NTSC, the video standard specifies that there are 525 vertical scan
lines. Once the "extra" lines are removed (they're used to synchronize
the video signal, and encode closed captioning data), you have 480
horizontal lines stacked vertically.
In PAL, there are 625 "raw" lines of resolution, with a net of 576
horizontal lines stacked vertically.
Horizontally, the maximum value allowed for a Bt8X8 chip is 720.
However, due to limitations in the chip and other limitations of
broadcast television, there may not be a noticeable improvement in
image quality beyond 400 or 500 pixels.
With this in mind, there are certain commonly accepted values for
resolution. While other values may be accepted for the vertical
resolution, they will cause scan lines to be repeated or dropped.
From "best" to "worst", in NTSC:
+o 720x480 "DVD" resolution. ReplayTV High and medium resolution
+o 704x480 DVD standalone recorder standard resolution
+o 640x480 4:3
+o 544x480 TiVo Best resolution
+o 480x480 SuperVCD (SVCD) Video CD resolution, TiVo High resolution
+o 352x480 ReplayTV "Standard" quality, TiVo Basic and Medium
resolution, DVD "LP" resolution
+o 320x480
+o 544x240
+o 480x240
+o 352x240 Video CD (VCD) resolution
+o 320x240
As you can see, the lower quality values are half of the better ones.
720x240 is possible, but isn't a good tradeoff relative to the number
of vertical lines lost. In a PAL country, the you would use values
like 720x576 or x288.
The higher resolutions will be more CPU intensive if you're using
software encoding (PVR-250/350 will have minimal host CPU impact even
if you're using 720x480). If the CPU is overtaxed, frames will be
dropped causing uneven motion. You will likely see the best results at
resolutions which average at least 10% CPU idle time. You can use
system tools such as top or sar to check the CPU % idle while
recording. If the CPU average usage is consistently exceeding 90%,
frames will need to be dropped during peak times when more than 100%
of the available CPU would be needed to process all of the frames.
If you'd like to read more on this, go to the vcdhelp website at
http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/userguides/94382.php
<http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/userguides/94382.php>.
2233..44.. MMyytthhTTVV GGUUII aanndd XX DDiissppllaayy SSiizzeess
MythTV is designed to be run as dedicated full screen TV application
but can also be run as a desktop application on a computer monitor.
Here are a few consideration for configuring sizes to best suit you
needs.
2233..44..11.. XX DDiimmeennssiioonnss
For output to a Television, common resolutions are 640x480, 800x600,
and some rare devices support 1024x768. Generally, higher resolutions
are better. However, you may find that you prefer the picture quality
at one of the lower resolutions. Everything in MythTV is scalable and
should 'fit' regardless of the resolution you choose.
Edit your X configuration file, usually /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 for
XFree, or /etc/X11/xorg.conf for Xorg, so that the resolution you want
to use is listed first in the lists under "Screen". If this resolution
is higher than the resolutions supported by your output device, you
will see a 'panning' effect where moving the mouse to the edge will
scroll around a desktop area which is larger than the display size. If
this happens, edit your X configuration file to match the display size
then restart X.
2233..44..22.. MMyytthhTTVV DDiimmeennssiioonnss
From "mythfrontend" go to Setup->Appearance. The default for the
height and width is "0" - this will cause MythTV to automatically size
itself to full screen.
If the MythTV GUI width and height are not 0, mythfrontend uses these
GUI dimensions and is anchored to the upper left corner of the X
Desktop. If the GUI X and/or Y are not 0, the upper left corner is
positioned at the specified coordinates. If the "Run the frontend in a
window" box is checked, the window will have a frame and can then be
dragged to any position on the desktop.
NNOOTTEE: When the GUI is full screen, you may see windows rapidly
flipping on top of each other. If this happens you will need to set
your window manager to 'Click to Focus' for windows to stack properly.
The fonts for the GUI and OSD will scale to whatever sizes you use.
Most font sizes can be changed in setup selections or in the .xml
files under /usr/local/share/mythtv/ . Make sure to use fonts large
enough to be read on a TV screen from a distance.
The full screen TV size is based on the X display size. For Xinerama,
you can specify a screen in Setup->General. The TV picture will be
stretched to fit the entire GUI area regardless of the ``capture
resolutions'' used. However, during playback, the "W" key can to used
to correct differences between 16:9 and 4:3.
2233..44..33.. OOvveerrssccaann DDiimmeennssiioonnss
Because picture edges can be ragged and screen edges aren't straight,
Television is designed to project an image larger than the physical
screen. This is called "overscan". Underscan is fitting the entire
image inside the screen. Underscan is useful for computer monitors so
that toolbars and scrollbars at the edges can be seen.
For best results, match the X display area as close as possible to the
edges of the physical screen. This can only be adjusted by your tv-out
device or by the settings for the television set. Many sets have these
adjustments in a 'service mode'. If you cannot make these adjustments,
there will be black borders around the edges of the X desktop, MythTV
GUI and TV playback.
MythTV has settings for "Overscan" in Setup->Playback. These can not,
and do not, cause the image to display beyond the edge of the X
display area. The purpose of these settings are to cut off rough edges
and to expand the image so that objects will appear to be the same
size as a normal overscanned TV picture.
2233..55.. SSaavviinngg oorr rreessttoorriinngg tthhee ddaattaabbaassee
MythTV includes one script for backing up the MythTV database and
another for restoring it. Generally, the scripts are easiest to use
after configuring the backup directory in a backup resouce file:
$ echo "DBBackupDirectory=/home/mythtv" > $HOME/.mythtv/backuprc
changing the directory location as desired.
Once the backup directory is configured, you may back up your database
by simply running the backup script. The backup and restore scripts
will be installed in your MythTV share directory
($PREFIX/share/mythtv, where $PREFIX is usually either /usr or
/usr/local). Ensure you have a link to the scripts in an executable
directory (such as /usr/local/bin) or use the entire path when
executing the scripts.
$ mythconverg_backup.pl
The script will compress and rotate backups. For more information on
usage and details, see the help output:
$ mythconverg_backup.pl --help
To restore: (assuming that you've ``dropped the database'' and
``created a new database'')
$ mythconverg_restore.pl --filename mythconverg-1214-20091010150513.sql.gz
For more information on usage and details of the restore script, see
the help output:
$ mythconverg_restore.pl --help
You may need to alter the MySQL permissions if this database is being
shared with multiple systems. See the ``Modifying access to the MySQL
database for multiple systems'' section for more information.
2233..66.. DDeelleettiinngg tthhee MMyySSQQLL ddaattaabbaassee
NNOOTTEE: Performing this step will remove the entire database.
You will lose all of your settings and will need to ``re-run the
mc.sql script'' to setup the database structure before running the
mythtv-setup program or performing a database restore.
$ mysql -u root
mysql> DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS mythconverg;
mysql> quit
2233..77.. bbttaauuddiioo
btaudio allows you to obtain the audio data from your tuner card
directly over the PCI bus without using a sound card. This is useful
if you would like to use multiple tuner cards in a system without
adding a sound card for each one, or if your existing sound card is
not capable of full-duplex operation.
In order to use btaudio, your tuner card will need certain hardware
installed on it, and that hardware must be wired correctly. The chip
that will allow you to use the btaudio module is the MSP34xx. However,
having a MSP34xx is no guarantee that you will be able to use the
btaudio module.
As of 2003-03-31, this is the current list of cards and their status:
Works with btaudio:
+o Hauppauge WinTV-radio with dbx-TV stereo, model 401
+o Hauppauge WinTV-Theater, model 495, 498 (Europe)
+o ATI TV Wonder
The following cards do not work:
+o Pinnacle Studio PCTV Pro - note: this has a MSP34xx, but it's not
wired correctly to the BT878 chip.
+o ATI TV Wonder VE
+o Leadtek Winfast 2000 XP (PAL, UK and NTSC)
+o I/O Magic PC-PVR. No MSP34xx chip.
The following cards have been reported to work, but have issues:
+o Avermedia AVerTV Studio (no digital DSP output, "whiney noise" on
analog)
Once btaudio loads, it should register additional /dev/dsp and
/dev/mixer devices. Typing $ dmesg will let you know what's going on.
2233..88.. RReemmoovviinngg uunnwwaanntteedd cchhaannnneellss
If mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee grabbed a channel which you do not want to include
in your TV listings, you can remove the entries from the grabber
configuration and the MySQL database. This often happens with premium
channels; for example, HBO or Showtime may be available on your cable
TV system, but is scrambled because you're not a subscriber to that
channel. Since you can never watch it, you want to get rid of it.
If you are using the DataDirect service, login to your account at
http://labs.zap2it.com/ <http://labs.zap2it.com/> to modify your
lineup. Uncheck the boxes for any unwanted channels, and they will no
longer be included in your download.
If you are using a grabber from XMLTV, comment out the channel from
the ~/.mythtv/<sourcename>.xmltv file by inserting the word "not "
(including the space) in front of the unwanted entry. This will
prevent xxmmllttvv from grabbing future listings.
Next, delete the unwanted item from the channel table so that it will
not appear in the EPG or when changing channels. To delete the data
from the database we need to perform some steps. First, assuming that
HBO is channel 15, we need to find out the internal chanid used by
MySQL:
$ mysql -u root mythconverg
mysql> select chanid from channel where channum=15;
+--------+
| chanid |
+--------+
| 1015 |
+--------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> delete from channel where chanid = 1015;
Old program data will be removed over the course of a week. However,
you may want to immediately delete any current program listings for
the channel that has been removed:
$ mysql -u root mythconverg
mysql> delete from program where chanid = 1015;
2233..99.. NNFFSS
You may want to use a central server to store your files.
On the host machine, (in this case, the hostname is "masterbackend")
you'll want to edit your /etc/exports file and use something like:
/var/video (rw)
To export the /var/video directory with read / write privileges.
On the "slave" machine, you'll want to edit the /etc/fstab file and
add something like:
masterbackend:/var/video /var/video nfs rsize=8192,wsize=8192,hard,intr,nfsvers=3,actimeo=0
Then run # mount -a to re-read the file to mount the file system.
In this case, the source is a machine called "masterbackend" which is
exporting the directory "/var/video", which we're mounting locally at
"/var/video". The rsize and wsize options are used to increase the
performance of NFS; "hard,intr" is there because that's the
recommendation of the NFS-HOWTO, the nfsvers is required for filesizes
over 2GB and actimeo is used to turn off file attribute caching.
Attribute caching for a shared media point causes problems; you always
want to see the latest state of the directory and files. See
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Optimizing_Performance
<http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Optimizing_Performance> for
additional information regarding performance optimization.
2233..1100.. AAuuttoommaattiiccaallllyy ssttaarrttiinngg mmyytthhffrroonntteenndd aatt ssyysstteemm bboooott ttiimmee
Here's an example submitted to the mythtv-dev list by Pat Pflaum
mailto:pat@netburp.com <mailto:pat@netburp.com> using fvwm:
$ cat > .xinitrc
fvwm &
mythfrontend
^D
$ cat > .fvwmrc
Style myth* NoTitle, NoHandles, Sticky, WindowListSkip, SloppyFocus, GrabFocus, BorderWidth 0
^D
$
The following also works with blackbox:
$ cat > .xinitrc
xset -dpms s off &
irxevent &
mythfrontend &
blackbox
Make sure that your .blackboxrc file has:
session.screen0.focusNewWindows: True
session.screen0.focusModel: SloppyFocus
in it.
2233..1111.. AAuuttoommaattiiccaallllyy ssttaarrttiinngg mmyytthhbbaacckkeenndd aatt ssyysstteemm bboooott ttiimmee
2233..1111..11.. RReedd HHaatt AAnndd MMaannddrriivvaa
Here's a method for automatically starting mythbackend submitted by
Mike Thomson (mailto:linux@m-thomson.net <mailto:linux@m-thomson.net>)
and Stu Tomlinson (mailto:stu@nosnilmot.com
<mailto:stu@nosnilmot.com>).
Copy the files from the MythTV contrib directory or from Mike's web
site (http://m-thomson.net/mythtv/ <http://m-thomson.net/mythtv/>) as
follows:
etc.rc.d.init.mythbackend should be made executable and copied to
/etc/rc.d/init.d/:
$ cd contrib
$ su
# chmod a+x etc.rc.d.init.d.mythbackend
# cp etc.rc.d.init.d.mythbackend /etc/rc.d/init.d/mythbackend
etc.sysconfig.mythbackend should be copied to /etc/sysconfig/:
$ cd contrib
$ su
# cp etc.sysconfig.mythbackend /etc/sysconfig/mythbackend
Edit /etc/sysconfig/mythbackend if you want to change the defaults
(the userid that should start mythbackend, location of the logfile and
(if required) the name and location of the mythbackend binary).
Use cchhkkccoonnffiigg to make sure the script is called when entering
runlevels 3, 4 or 5:
$ su
# chkconfig --level 345 mythbackend on
# exit
$
2233..1111..11..11.. LLoogg ffiilleess
By default, the log file for mythbackend will be written to
/var/tmp/mythbackend.log. This has been tested and is known to work on
Mandriva and Red Hat, but many people prefer to place logs under
/var/log/.
To do this, create a group called mythtv (or anything you prefer) and
add your usual MythTV users to that group. If you changed the user
that starts mythbackend from the default of root you _m_u_s_t perform this
step.
Create the directory /var/log/mythtv and set its permissions as
follows:
$ su
# mkdir /var/log/mythtv
# chown root:mythtv /var/log/mythtv
# chmod 0775 /var/log/mythtv
# exit
$ ls -ld /var/log/mythtv
drwxrwxr-x 2 root mythtv 4096 Apr 28 21:58 /var/log/mythtv/
$
Create a mythtv file in /etc/logrotate.d:
$ su
# cat > /etc/logrotate.d/mythtv
# Set default values for all log files first...
# Rotate the logs once a week, or more frequently if they
# exceed 10Mb in size (size is checked daily).
weekly
size 10M
# 'copytruncate' is used for logs generated by
# currently-running programs that should not be restarted
# (and can't be signalled to start a new log) after the
# rotation. It duplicates the existing log file and then
# sets the length of the existing file to 0. The only time
# this would break would be if the program writing the log
# was using lseek.
copytruncate
# After rotating the files, leave the most recent rotated
# copy alone but gzip everything else to save space.
compress
delaycompress
# If a log isn't present then don't worry about it.
missingok
# Don't rotate an empty file.
notifempty
# end of the global options
/var/log/mythtv/mythbackend.log /var/log/mythtv/mythfrontend.log {
# Keep logs until they are 2 months old or the number of
# logs reaches 12. If the log files stay small, the age will
# kick in first and you'll only have 8 log files. If they
# get larger than 10Mb then you won't keep all 60 days.
rotate 12
maxage 60
}
# Different options for mythfilldatabase:
/var/log/mythtv/mythfilldatabase.log {
rotate 2
}
^D
#
2233..1111..11..22.. MMaannddrriivvaa
Mandriva adds one more twist in the form of the msec utility, which
runs regularly and (at the default or any higher security level) sets
permissions on many files, including those under /var/log.
To tell msec about the MythTV log files and their directory, you need
to edit the /etc/security/msec/perm.local file to include the
following:
# /etc/security/msec/perm.local
# Local overrides to the msec program
#
# Full file path user.group permissions
/var/log/mythtv/ root.mythtv 775
/var/log/mythtv/* root.mythtv 664
A copy of the above has been included in the contrib/ directory. You
may add it by typing:
$ cd contrib
$ su
# cat etc.security.msec.perm.local >> /etc/security/msec/perm.local
# exit
Finally run the msec tool to check and implement your changes.
$ su
# msec
# exit
$
NNOOTTEE: msec can only _r_e_d_u_c_e the permissions of files, so if
you don't get the results you expect, check that you're not asking
msec to add missing permissions to the files or directories you
created.
2233..1111..22.. GGeennttoooo
The portage file for MythTV has scripts that will allow you to run
mythbackend at startup.
To run mythbackend as a daemon which starts at boot time:
# rc-update add mythbackend default
To stop mythbackend as a daemon:
# /etc/init.d/mythbackend stop
To obtain a list of options:
# /etc/init.d/mythbackend
2233..1122.. AAddvvaanncceedd BBaacckkeenndd CCoonnffiigguurraattiioonnss
MythTV is flexible in the way that you define multiple backend tuner
configurations. The only hard-and-fast rule is that the Master backend
_m_u_s_t have a capture device defined, but shouldn't imply that the
capture device in the Master backend must be the first capture card
defined in the database.
One example of an advanced configuration is the round-robin scheme.
Rather than defining all of the cards on the master, you could first
go into mythtv-setup on the master to define globals such as the
general configuration and the channel lineup but not the host-specific
configuration item like the capture card. In this example, we will use
a 4 tuner configuration, where two slaves have one card each and the
master has two.
1. Add the first capture card on one of the slaves. Complete the
configuration, connecting the input source to the card. This will
get cardid #1 in the database. Exit mythtv-setup.
2. Configure the first capture card on the master backend. This will
get cardid #2 in the database. Exit mythtv-setup.
3. Configure the first capture card on the second slave. This will be
cardid #3 in the database. Exit mythtv-setup.
4. Configure the second capture card on the master backend. This will
get cardid #4 in the database. Exit mythtv-setup.
Using this scheme, the master backend will not use both capture cards
until one of the following happens:
+o There are four recordings scheduled for the same time
+o Both slaves are unavailable
The scheduler in MythTV checks whether an encoder is available; if a
slave backend isn't running, its encoder isn't available, so the
scheduler will look for the next available encoder. This makes MythTV
very flexible; slave tuners can come and go, and as long as there are
enough tuners for what you'd like to record it doesn't matter which
tuner in particular is going to be used.
Using this round-robin scheme along with a shared storage directory
like NFS and enabling the Master Backend Override setting will allow
you to view content even if the slave backend that recorded a program
is not available.
2233..1133.. UUssiinngg tthhee ttrraannssccooddeerr
MythTV's built-in transcoder re-encodes recordings from one codec to
another. The transcoder has three primary uses; it can transcode
MPEG-2 files captured using a hardware encoder (PVR cards, DVB cards,
ATSC HD, etc.) to MPEG-4, it can be used to transcode RTjpeg files
(usually only used on systems that can not real-time encode to MPEG-4
using a framegrabber) to MPEG-4, and finally it can be used to remove
commercials from a MPEG-2 file while leaving the file in MPEG-2
format.
When MythTV transcodes a file to MPEG-4 or RTjpeg the resulting file
format is NuppelVideo (nuv). NuppelVideo is a container which provides
a method of keeping the audio and video in sync throughout the
recording, which is why it is used instead of the .avi format. You may
have difficulty playing .nuv files in non-MythTV systems.
The original file is removed when the transcoding process is complete.
Unless you're sure that you will be satisfied with the result you may
want to enable the mmyytthhttvv--sseettuupp option which causes mmyytthhbbaacckkeenndd to
keep the original file after transcoding. This option is on the second
page of the General section in mythtv-setup. Enabling this allows you
to compare the two files and restore the original if you like. Outside
of the initial setup phase it usually isn't necessary to leave this
option enabled. A recording can be transcoded in two ways:
+o Automatically transcode the file once it has completed recording.
+o Manually choosing to transcode a recording, usually after importing
a cutlist or manually marking commercials to be removed.
The second method can be used on files that have already been
transcoded (or files which were are already in the desired format), so
only the frames immediately following a cut section will be re-
encoded, resulting in a minimal loss of quality when removing
commercials with the added benefit of being extremely quick.
The current transcoding system has a lot flexibility, but there are a
number of steps involved in setting it up. In order to automatically
transcode a given recording you must do the following:
1. Configure recording profile for your capture source and enable
transcoding on one or more profiles.
2. Configure one or more transcoding profiles.
3. Create or alter existing scheduled recordings to enable transcoding
for that recording.
2233..1133..11.. CCoonnffiigguurriinngg RReeccoorrddiinngg PPrrooffiilleess ttoo AAllllooww TTrraannssccooddiinngg
Enter the Utilities/Setup > Setup > TV Settings > Recording Profiles
section in mmyytthhffrroonntteenndd. Choose the option that corresponds to your
capture source (ignore the Transcoders for now.) Choose the quality
profile you are interested in using for transcoding. Ensure that
"Enable auto-transcode after recording" is checked.
2233..1133..22.. CCoonnffiigguurree TTrraannssccooddiinngg PPrrooffiilleess
Enter the Recording Profiles > Transcoders menu. There are three
quality settings to choose from and a two special Autodetect settings.
Later, when scheduling recordings you'll have to choose one of
Autodetect, High, Medium, and Low Quality transcode settings in
addition to the recording profile we set up above. If you choose the
Autodetect transcoding profile for a recording, MythTV will use the
"Autodetect from RTjpeg/MPEG-4" profile for recordings which are
RTjpeg/MPEG-4 files. Otherwise, it will use the "Autodetect from
MPEG-2" profile provided it's an MPEG-2 recording. If you choose one
of the others (High, Medium, Low) it will use the settings in that
profile regardless of the codec of the original recording.
There are a number of options for transcoding but the simplest is to
enable lossless transcoding (the first option) which subsequently
removes all other options. Enabling lossless encoding simply removes
commercials (if you've marked them) and attempts to clean up MPEG-2
streams. Note that with this option MythTV will not apply any sort of
filters and will only attempt to normalize the stream into something
cleaner and less likely to have trouble with other less forgiving
MPEG-2 hardware/software (including players, video editors, etc.)
If you enable resizing of the recording the next page has the settings
for choosing the final resolution. MythTV will scale the video as
appropriate, not crop it to this resolution.
The final two pages allow configuration of the video and audio codecs.
Although RTjpeg is an option for video codec there is no reason to
transcode _t_o this format because it will produce larger files than
MPEG-4 and the recording will take _m_o_r_e CPU power to play back. The
MPEG-4 settings are described in the documentation for the ffffmmppeegg
project at http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/ffmpeg-doc.html
<http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/ffmpeg-doc.html>. It's a matter of
trial and error to discover which settings achieve a good compromise
between size and quality.
If you wish to return to the default settings, they are Bitrate:
2200-2500, MaxQ: 2, MinQ: 15, MaxQDiff: 3, and "Scale bitrate for
frame size" is enabled. The other options are unchecked.
2233..1133..33.. CCrreeaattee//AAlltteerr SScchheedduulleedd RReeccoorrddiinnggss ttoo EEnnaabbllee TTrraannssccooddiinngg
Transcoding is actually enabled on a per-recording basis. Two things
must be true before any given recording will be auto-transcoded,
however. The first is that the recording must have been made with a
recording profile that has auto-transcode enabled. Under "Storage
Options" for the recording you must set the "Record using the "X"
profile" to the profile you configured in the first step. In addition,
under the "Post Recording Options" section of the recording you must
also set "Transcode new recordings." This is also where you specify
the Transcoding profile to use (Auto, High, Medium, Low.)
It may not be obvious from above but the flexibility of this system is
primarily to make it possible to auto-transcode a show recorded via
one source (ie: pcHDTV 3000), and not transcode that same show if it's
recorded on another kind of card (ie: PVR-250.) There are other uses
however. You could have a PVR-250 and a V4L card. You may want to
transcode the MPEG-2 from the PVR-250 but there is no need to
transcode the recordings made with the V4L card, as it's already
likely to be MPEG-4.
As an example, you could configure the Default profile for "Hardware
DVB Encoders" (the profile group used for DVB cards, including ATSC
cards like the pcHDTV 3000) to "Enable auto-transcoding". In the
Default profile for MPEG-2 Encoders (PVR cards) you'd leave "Enable
auto-transcoding" unchecked. For programs that are available on both
kinds of cards you'd set the recording profile to Default and enable
auto-transcoding in the record settings. Then you pick your
transcoding profile. The result is that when a program is recorded on
your DVB card, it will get transcoded. When it plays on a channel
available via your PVR card, it won't be.
2233..1133..44.. MMaannuuaall TTrraannssccooddiinngg
Manually transcoding is activated while watching a show by hitting
'x', from the OSD menu by choosing the Transcode option, or by
choosing Job Options/Transcode from the info menu from the Watch or
Delete Recordings screens.
The transcoding profile used for manual transcoding is whatever was
set when the recording was originally configured, even if you didn't
enable auto-transcoding. The only way to change what transcoding
profile will be used is to alter the transcoder column in the recorded
table in the database. The transcoder column contains a number which
corresponds with the id column in the recordingprofiles table. You can
find out the id number for each profile in the transcoder group with
an SQL command like:
mysql> select r.* from recordingprofiles r,profilegroups p where p.name='Transcoders' and p.id=r.profilegroup;
+----+----------------+------------+------------+--------------+
| id | name | videocodec | audiocodec | profilegroup |
+----+----------------+------------+------------+--------------+
| 21 | RTjpeg/MPEG4 | MPEG-4 | MP3 | 6 |
| 22 | MPEG2 | MPEG-4 | MP3 | 6 |
| 27 | High Quality | MPEG-4 | MP3 | 6 |
| 28 | Medium Quality | MPEG-4 | MP3 | 6 |
| 29 | Low Quality | MPEG-4 | MP3 | 6 |
+----+----------------+------------+------------+--------------+
5 rows in set (0.01 sec)
mysql>
Armed with the knowledge of what the profile ID's are you can also
choose to run mythtranscode from the command line and explicitly
specify the transcoder profile. Run mythtranscode --help for usage
information.
2233..1144.. CChhaannggiinngg yyoouurr hhoossttnnaammee
If you need to change the name of the computers used with MythTV
you'll need to perform a sequence of steps. There are a number of
pieces of information that MythTV keeps track of which are tied to the
hostname of the box, so changing the hostname involves altering the
name in the operating system and in the MySQL database. In the
examples below, the old name of the system was "frontend1" and we're
going to change it to "kidsroom".
NNOOTTEE: Changing the hostname using direct SQL update commands will
break things. You _M_U_S_T use this indirect method.
1. Stop all backends. If you run mmyytthhbbaacckkeenndd from a terminal session,
press control-c. If your backends are started with an init script, you
would do something like the following:
$ su
# /etc/init.d/mythbackend stop
2. Change the hostname.
For Red Hat and derived distributions, edit the /etc/sysconfig/network
file. Look for HOSTNAME=frontend1 and change this to HOSTNAME=kidsroom
or whatever you'll be using. For other distributions, refer to the
documentation, such as the
hostname(1)
To alter the hostname in the current session, run:
# hostname kidsroom
3. Back up the database in case something goes wrong. See ``Saving or
Restoring the database'' for instructions.
4. Rename the host in the database. First, ensure that the new
hostname you'll be using isn't already in the database.
$ mysql -umythtv -p mythconverg -e "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM settings WHERE hostname LIKE '%kidsroom%';"
If the count is anything other than 0, you'll need to choose another
hostname.
Now we're actually going to change the name. The following should all
be typed on the same line:
$ mythconverg_restore.pl --change_hostname --old_hostname="frontend1" --new_hostname="kidsroom"
See ``Saving or Restoring the database'' for information on configur-
ing the script.
If you are running slave backends or frontends, don't forget to re-
enable access as detailed in ``Modifying access to the MySQL database
for multiple systems''.
5. Start the backends. If you use init scripts, do the following,
otherwise start them from terminal consoles.
# /etc/init.d/mythbackend start
6. Quit and restart all frontends.
2233..1155.. CCaann II rruunn MMyytthhTTVV oonn mmyy TTiiVVoo??
2233..1166.. CCaann II rruunn MMyytthhTTVV oonn mmyy RReeppllaayyTTVV??
No.
While it is true that the TiVo runs the Linux kernel, and TiVo has
released their changes to the kernel under the GPL, the TiVo is _n_o_t a
general-purpose computer, and there is no programming information
available for the custom hardware contained within a TiVo. TiVo is
under no obligation to release the source code to their _a_p_p_l_i_c_a_t_i_o_n.
The ReplayTV runs VxWorks, a Real Time Operating System from Wind
River Systems.
2233..1177.. CCaann aa wwiirreelleessss ccoonnnneeccttiioonn bbee uusseedd bbeettwweeeenn tthhee ffrroonntteenndd aanndd tthhee
bbaacckkeenndd??
Yes, assuming that your wireless connection has sufficient bandwidth
to maintain the datarate between the frontend and the backend. 802.11b
should be sufficient if the encoded bitrate of the content is less
than the datarate of your wireless connection, which in the case of
802.11b would be approximately 4 Mbps. (The advertised rate of 11Mbps
gives an actual throughput of 4 Mbps.) 802.11a and 802.11g, if
operating in their high-speed modes, or proprietary 802.11b "Turbo"
schemes should be adequate. Multiple wireless frontends, poor signal
strength or other factors can severely impact the viewing experience
on the frontend.
2233..1188.. HHooww ccaann II bbuurrnn sshhoowwss tthhaatt II hhaavvee rreeccoorrddeedd ttoo aa DDVVDD??
Use the mytharchive plugin.
2233..1199.. UUssiinngg tthhee DDBBooxxIIII wwiitthhiinn MMyytthhTTVV
The configuration of the DBoxII for use within MythTV is tricky (as of
May 16 2005), that's why it's covered here. Your DBoxII has to be
running linux and the Neutrino GUI instead of the stock BetaNova
firmware. For further information, please refer to
http://www.tuxbox.org <http://www.tuxbox.org>. Additionally, you need
to enable the SPTS mode in Neutrino.
+o Add a new "Capture Card" in the setup. The "Card type" is "DBOX2
Input", the other values have to be adjusted according to your
setup. The default values, except for the "DBOX2 host ip", should
work fine.
+o Define a new video source. It doesn't need to be configured, you
just need to define it. MythTV grabs the EPG from the DBoxII.
+o Connect the DBoxII to the newly defined input source in "input
connections".
+o Since channel scanning is not implemented yet, you need to define
channels in the "Channel Editor". Make sure that you use the same
value for "Channel Name" as on the DBoxII. You can get a list of
available channels from the web interface of Neutrino at http://ip-
of-your-box:80/. Associate the channel with your new video source
and repeat when needed.
You may leave the Setup now and proceed as usual.
2233..2200.. WWhhaatt ddoo tthhee iiccoonnss oonn tthhee WWaattcchh RReeccoorrddiinnggss ssccrreeeenn mmeeaann??
Press "1" or F1 to get a popup.
2233..2211.. WWhhaatt ddoo tthhee lleetttteerrss mmeeaann wwhheenn II cchhaannggee cchhaannnneellss??
These letters let you know what's going on with the backend as it
tries to tune to a channel.
Lower case = seen
Upper Case = seen & good
+o l/L = Lock : This could be seen by PVR-250/BTTV users
+o a/A = PAT : Any recording transmitted in MPEG
+o m/M = PMT : Any recording transmitted in MPEG
+o g/G = MGT : ATSC only
+o v/V = VCT : ATSC only
+o n/N = NIT : DVB only
+o s/S = SDT : DVB only
2233..2222.. WWhhaatt iiss tthhee ddiiffffeerreennccee bbeettwweeeenn tthhee vvaarriioouuss HHaauuppppaauuggee PPVVRR mmoodd--
eellss??
This is covered in the hardware section, and extensively covered on
the Hauppauge website.
(http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/compare_pvr.html
<http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/compare_pvr.html>) Please check the
Hauppauge website for the most accurate information.
A PVR-150 comes in a number of versions:
+o The PVR-150 (Model 1045) is the retail kit. It comes with a remote
control and an IR Blaster. It does not have a radio tuner.
+o The PVR-150 MCE (Model 1042) will usually come in a plain white box
and is sold as an OEM device. It does not come with a remote
control, since it's usually used as the second, third, etc capture
device.
+o The PVR-150 MCE Kit (Model 1062) does not have a radio tuner and
comes with a Microsoft Media Center remote control instead of
Hauppauge's.
+o The PVR-150 low profile (Model 1086) is a low-profile card. It has
a radio tuner and is approximately half the height of a standard
card. However, it comes with a low-profile PCI bracket, so it is
not suitable for use in a standard PCI slot without removing the
bracket, which may not be worth the trouble.
A PVR-250 (Model 980) is a retail kit which comes with an IR receiver
and a remote control.
The PVR-250 MCE (Model 975) contains a FM radio tuner. The PVR-250 MCE
does not contain a IR receiver or a remote.
The PVR-250 Rev 1 contained an MPEG-2 decoder. However, this function
was not connected to any output jacks, and there doesn't appear to be
any way to pull decoded video from the card, so it's a fairly useless
feature.
The PVR-350 (model 990) has the features of the PVR-250 as well as
being able to decode MPEG-2. The encode and decode functions may be
used simultaneously. The MPEG-2 decoder function gives superior video
quality compared to what you'll find on a standard video card.
However, the decoder function is only available once Linux has
started, so you will not see any boot-time messages. Also, the card is
not capable of resolutions higher than 720x480, so it cannot be used
with HDTV. Make a conscious decision (and ask for advice on the
mailing list) that you want to tradeoff potential HDTV use in the
future compared to video quality.
The X-driver for the PVR-350 support playback using Xv efficiently but
does not support any other 2D or 3D acceleration. For some application
this may place a large load on the host CPU, some will run without any
problem and others (mplayer, xine, xmame etc.) should be configured to
utilize the Xv interface.
Note that for the PVR-350 there are some ``considerations'' regarding
the way audio is handled.
The PVR-500 is a dual-encoder version of the PVR-150 card, so you can
simultaneously record two different programs at the same time, because
there are two encoder chips on the PCI card. Hauppuage has also
installed an onboard splitter, so you can use one COAX to feed both
tuners. Current versions of the PVR-500 should come with an adapter to
allow you to connect a second S-Video or composite input, but this
will take up a second PCI slot. Early adopters may need to purchase
this item separately.
2233..2233.. CChhaannggiinngg cchhaannnneellss oonn aann eexxtteerrnnaall SSeett TToopp BBooxx
If you need to use an external Set Top Box (STB), such as for
satellite TV or for digital cable you will need some way for MythTV to
tell the STB to switch to a new channel. There are several methods:
1. Use an IR blaster. An IR blaster is an infrared transmitter
connected to your computer. When MythTV needs to change channels it
will send IR pulses, thereby emulating a remote control.
2. Use a direct serial connection. Some STB's have a serial port on
the back, although it may not look like a serial port. It may look
like a phone jack, or a strange VGA connector. It may be labeled
"Low Speed Data". A direct serial connection is more reliable than
an IR blaster. Not all STB's that have a Low Speed Data port have
it enabled; you may need to convince your service provider to turn
it on. Stating that you have a Tivo may help; the Tivo has a
direct-connect capability.
3. Use a firewire connection. There is a 6200ch.c in the MythTV
contrib directory which may work for you.
2233..2244.. CCoonnffiigguurriinngg oonnee mmaacchhiinnee ttoo ffllaagg aallll ccoommmmeerrcciiaallss
Commercial flagging can be CPU intensive. By default, the backend that
created a recording is the one which will flag commercials. You may
wish to use a different machine to run commercial flagging.
On the slower machine:
Start the mythtv-setup program. Advance through the pages until you
get to the Job Queue page. Turn off the setting that says "Allow
Commercial Detection jobs", thereby preventing any commercial flagging
jobs from running on this machine.
Next, make sure that "Run Jobs only on original recording host" is
turned OFF so that new jobs are allowed to run anywhere.
Restart mmyytthhbbaacckkeenndd since it only reads this setting when it starts
up.
On the faster machine:
Start the mmyytthhttvv--sseettuupp program. Advance through the pages until you
get to the Job Queue page. Ensure that "Allow Commercial Detection
jobs" is turned ON for this machine.
Run mmyytthhjjoobbqquueeuuee. mmyytthhjjoobbqquueeuuee will examine the JobQueue and run any
jobs it finds. mmyytthhjjoobbqquueeuuee should be left running so that it will
pick up any new commercial flagging jobs that are added to the queue,
otherwise new jobs will be added to the queue and your programs won't
be flagged until you run manually run mmyytthhjjoobbqquueeuuee.
Using this technique it's possible to add commercial flagging machines
as needed, even on systems that aren't running a backend. It's also
possible to run the commercial flagger in a virtual machine
environment such as VMWare.
2244.. EExxaammppllee CCoonnffiigguurraattiioonnss..
2244..11.. AAddvvaanncceedd PPaarrttiittiioonn FFoorrmmaattttiinngg
The partitions that your distribution sets up for you may not be
optimized for large files.
Unlike a typical filesystem, a MythTV video partition is usually a
very large filesystem filled with a fairly small number of large
files. Filesystem I/O is usually not an issue, even in multi-tuner
and/or multi-frontend setups.
There is however, one aspect of filesystem performance that can have a
bearing on the performance of MythTV. In Linux, deleting a file will
utilize I/O bandwidth until the deletion has been completed. If
deleting the file takes long enough, the video capture buffer may
overrun, thereby resulting in dropped frames. Some filesystems are
faster at deleting files than others and, for multi-gigabyte MythTV
video files, these differences can be significant.
Fortunately, there are published tests
(http://aurora.zemris.fer.hr/filesystems/big.html
<http://aurora.zemris.fer.hr/filesystems/big.html>) that provide
insight into filesystem performance under conditions relevant to
MythTV usage. In addition, some limited testing (archived at
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/52672
<http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/52672>) with very
large files (10 gigabytes) was reported in the MythTV Users mailing
list.
2244..11..11.. EExxtt22
Ext2 was the defacto standard Linux filesystem for many years. It is
stable, provides good I/O performance and can quickly delete large
files. The primary disadvantage of Ext2 is that it is not a
journaling filesystem, so a file system consistency check (fsck, which
is normally only performed after a system crash) can take many hours
on a filesystem the size of a typical MythTV partition.
2244..11..22.. EExxtt33
Ext3 is Ext2 with a journal, so your biggest gain is that in case of a
crash and reboot you won't have to wait very long for your partition
to be remounted.
There are options available when formatting an Ext3 partition, as in:
# mkfs.ext3 -T largefile4 /dev/hdb1
This example assumes that /dev/hdb1 has already been created using
ffddiisskk. If you're using LVM, /dev/hdb1 may be something like
/dev/VGforMyth/video.
The "-T largefile4" option creates one inode per 4 megabytes, which
can provide a few percent more storage space. However, tests indicate
that using the "-T largefile4" option can drastically increase the
amount of time required to delete a large file and thus it should only
be used with encoder settings that produce small video files (YMMV).
You can check on your filesystem using the dduummppee22ffss program. See the
man page for details.
2244..11..33.. RReeiisseerrFFSS
The Reiser filesystem is another journaling filesystem commonly
distributed with Linux. It is known to be an extremely efficient
filesystem and it especially excels at managing partitions containing
a large number of small files. However, tests indicate it is not the
fastest at deleting very large files. For that reason, it may not be
the best choice when using encoder bitrates that produce very large
files.
2244..11..44.. JJFFSS
JFS (Journaling File System) is a journaling filesystem originally
developed by IBM for AIX which was later released as open source.
While not as common as Ext3 or ReiserFS, it is distributed with RedHat
9 (RH9), Fedora Core and Mandriva as well as other distros. According
to tests, JFS is the file deletion speed king, deleting virtually any
file in under one second, even files as large as 10 gigabytes.
2244..11..55.. XXFFSS
XFS is a journaling file system originally developed by SGI for Irix,
and later released as open source. While not a part of the default
RedHat Linux 9 or Fedora Core installation (although it is a part of
Mandriva and Fedora Core 2+), it can be easily installed via ATrpms.
XFS provides deletion speeds for large files only slightly slower than
JFS. According to the test results shown at
(http://aurora.zemris.fer.hr/filesystems/big.html
<http://aurora.zemris.fer.hr/filesystems/big.html>), XFS provide
higher I/O rates than JFS, albeit at a higher CPU loading. This may
cause issues if you do not have the spare CPU capacity to handle XFS,
potentially leading to dropped frames.
2244..22.. CCaacchhiinngg ssuuppppoorrtt ffoorr SScchheedduulleess DDiirreecctt
MythTV 0.20.2 or later supports caching of downloaded information from
Schedules Direct, so devices that share a common source do not require
multiple downloads.
Before beginning, perform a backup of your existing database. See
``Saving or restoring the database'' for instructions.
In the following scenario, assume that you have the following:
1. A PVR-150 MPEG-2 encoder card connected directly to a CATV source.
2. A PVR-250 MPEG-2 encoder card connected via S-Video to a CATV Set
Top Box.
What we are going to do is to create a single lineup at Schedules
Direct and then create two Video Sources which use the same login
information but have different channels associated with them.
On your Schedules Direct account, create a lineup that has all of the
channels that you can receive. Because we have a Set Top Box (STB),
choose a Digital lineup. Yes, this means that you may have 900
channels in this lineup, but that's OK.
Use the Schedules Direct channel editor and unselect any channels that
you can't tune without the STB. This will usually be channels higher
than 125, but check your CATV provider lineup if you're not sure. Once
you've deselected them (using a click on the first channel you can't
receive and then a shift-click on the last channel you can't receive
will deselect all the channels in between those two.) click the Save
Changes button at the bottom of the screen.
In mmyytthhttvv--sseettuupp, create a Video Source with an appropriate name. "SD-
Analog Only" will be used in this example. Click "Retrieve Lineups"
and select the digital lineup you just created at Schedules Direct.
Click "Finish" to return to the Video sources selector and then press
the ESC key to go back to the main screen.
Now choose Input Connections. Select the PVR-150 which is connected
directly to the CATV. Set the Video Source to "SD-Analog Only" and
click "Fetch channels from listings source".
Set the start channel to an appropriate value.
NNOOTTEE: There is a bug where the "Fetch" command may not work; you can
tell that the Fetch did not retrieve any channels in one of two ways:
in the text-mode console, you will see a connection to Schedules
Direct, but it doesn't appear to retrieve any channel information:
2007-08-25 15:03:05.526 New DB DataDirect connection
2007-08-25 15:03:05.526 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: localhost
2007-08-25 15:03:05.536 DataDirect: Your subscription expires on 11/23/2007 01:12:10 PM
2007-08-25 15:03:05.707 New DB connection, total: 3
2007-08-25 15:03:05.707 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: localhost
2007-08-25 15:03:05.708 sourceid 2 has lineup type: CableDigital
2007-08-25 15:03:06.623 Data fetching complete.
2007-08-25 15:03:06.624 DataDirect: Deleting temporary files
or, the "Please add channels to this source" message in the "Starting
channel" field stays on the screen.
If either of these happens, save the information on this screen by
clicking the "Finish" button. Exit back to the Input connections
screen by pressing ESC, then select this Input Connection again. This
time the Fetch will work and the "Please add channels to this source"
message will disappear.
If you look at the text-mode console, you'll see this if the channel
retrieval is working:
2007-08-25 15:04:32.437 New DB DataDirect connection
2007-08-25 15:04:32.437 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: localhost
2007-08-25 15:04:32.447 DataDirect: Your subscription expires on 11/23/2007 01:12:10 PM
2007-08-25 15:04:32.622 New DB connection, total: 3
2007-08-25 15:04:32.622 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host: localhost
2007-08-25 15:04:32.623 sourceid 2 has lineup type: CableDigital
2007-08-25 15:04:33.418 DataDirect: Adding channel 41 'AMC' (AMC).
2007-08-25 15:04:33.422 DataDirect: Adding channel 32 'A & E Network' (AETV).
2007-08-25 15:04:33.425 DataDirect: Adding channel 66 'Black Entertainment Television' (BET).
2007-08-25 15:04:33.427 DataDirect: Adding channel 180 'Bravo' (BRAVO).
2007-08-25 15:04:33.430 DataDirect: Adding channel 51 'ABC Family' (FAM).
2007-08-25 15:04:33.432 DataDirect: Adding channel 146 'Country Music Television' (CMTV).
2007-08-25 15:04:33.435 DataDirect: Adding channel 39 'CNBC' (CNBC).
2007-08-25 15:04:33.437 DataDirect: Adding channel 36 'Cable News Network' (CNN).
2007-08-25 15:04:33.440 DataDirect: Adding channel 35 'CNN Headline News' (CNNH).
Repeat the Input Connection configuration for any other capture
devices that are connected directly to the CATV system. You do not
need to click Fetch once you've done one successful download of the
channel information - the Starting channel should be automatically
populated.
Go back to Schedules Direct and re-enable the channels that you had
previously deselected, then click Save Changes.
Create a new Video Source, here called "SD-All Digital Channels".
Perform the same "Retrieve Listings" you did before.
Go back to the Input Connections screen, select the PVR-250 which is
connected to the STB, assign the "SD-All Digital Channels" video
source and perform a retrieve channels. This will pull down the
complete channel listing, but only for _t_h_i_s device.
When mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee runs, it will cache the "big" download which is
appropriate for the STB, and then copy the information to the channels
that can only be accessed without the STB. But by default
mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee is going to notice that the "Analog only" video
source is missing the channels that are in the Digital lineup you
created at Schedules Direct, so we need to override the addition of
new channels.
When you run mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee to populate your database, you'll need
to run it like this:
$ mythfilldatabase --remove-new-channels
You will also need to modify how the mmyytthhbbaacckkeenndd calls
mmyytthhffiillllddaattaabbaassee when it performs its automatic listings update.
In mmyytthhffrroonntteenndd, select "Setup" -> "General".
Continue press ENTER until you reach the Mythfilldatabase
configuration screen. In the "mythfilldatabase Arguments" field, type
--remove-new-channels
then press the TAB key until you reach Finish, then press ENTER to
save. You can then press ESC until you return to the main screen.
