MythTV: Success, darn it.
May. 31st, 2007 09:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnridleyOK, I spent about 6 hours last night (probably as many DAYS in previously failed attempts), and I FINALLY got a working MythTV configuration.
I don't like it.
This time I used the MythDora distribution. That actually wasn't necessary, and I may redo the install in order to get away from Fedora (I don't like any of RH's distros). The only problem I had been having in the past was that I couldn't get LIRC to run my PVR150's remote. MythDora didn't help with that, I wound up having to do a bunch of stuff that I just never was willing to do before.
Anyway, I got it working completely including the IR blaster to run my satellite box. I made some recordings. I got the Samba share working so I can access the raw MPG from my other boxes to burn DVDs and such.
Before I left for work this morning, I swapped the Windows hard drive back in again, though mainly because the kids have a lot of shows set up for recording and I didn't want them to get missed during the day.
Before I start, I should tell the Myth converts out there that yes, I know a lot of these are probably configurable, and I may get them fixed up. This is just my out-of-the-box impressions.
It's possible that I will wind up with Myth in the end. But I'll have to work on it first. It has a lot of beautiful features that I haven't seen elsewhere, but it's got a lot of crap in the way too that I need to strip out.
OK, technically it works better than the Windows solution I've been using for a while now. The OSD is better during video playback. It is MUCH more smooth in handling shuttling around on the video. The recording controls are very pretty, they work properly (GBPVR often didn't show you what was recording accurately, you had to actively go and search for conflicts, otherwise it would fail silently, etc).
Cons:
The remote is very sluggish under this system (perhaps LIRC could sample more frequently, but it's already doing 10/sec which SHOULD be fine) I'm not sure this can be fixed easily without buying different hardware.
The system forces you through at least one more menu than GBPVR does. Adding a whole layer of menus is pretty irritating, and it seems counter-intuitive the way things are laid out. I have to look into menu customization, it's possible I can fix this.
The menus don't give any info. Heck, a clock would be nice. GBPVR has a rotating display of "recording now..." "recording soon..." etc along with the menu, clock, and some other info. Maybe there are skins for those.
There doesn't appear to be a way to just record something on the program guide without noodling through all the options. GBPVR had a one-button "quick record with default options" - Myth seems to make you go into the recording menu, then select "record this show once" then arrow down to "save settings".
I haven't figured out how to adjust the video quality beyond the "low/normal/high" settings, and I haven't noticed any space difference between low and normal. It's taking 2GB per hour. I've been recording in SVCD format at 1950kbps CBR, which results in about 1GB per hour/700mb per 42 minutes, and I'm fine with that for most things. It allows me to put six one-hour shows on a DVD.
The default remote keybindings seem really clunky. GBPVR seems to have put a lot more time into it, or at least they put more time into the Hauppauge remotes (which I think are probably the most popular single card/remote out there, yet Myth still requires development tools, compiling a custom patched bit of code, running test scripts and manually tweaking conf files to get the blaster working). I'm sure this can be fixed but it seems silly that they're as bad as they are out of the box.
THIS IS THE BIGGIE-If anything kills this for me, it'll probably be this problem:
The video is stored in an entirely cryptic manner on the hard drive, making it nearly impossible to find a recording in order to do a final edit-down on another machine for compilation.
On GBPVR, the shows are named like this:
d:\Mythbusters\Mythbusters_20070530_2059_2201.mpg
On Myth, there's one big directory which will eventually be full of hundreds of MPGs, and they're named like this:
\recordings\PV02352097353097230207.mpg
yeah, great. Thanks for that. I'll have a good time as I sit looking at the share from my editing machine how many episodes of "Modern Marvels" are on the machine, and trying to open them up for editing. If I can't fix this, the whole thing may be a no-go.
Also I hope that Myth deals gracefully with the disappearance of the MPG files from the storage area. GBPVR would automatically notice the file missing and just silently remove it from the available recordings. That is necessary for me as I tend to sit in the back and compile a group of recordings to DVD then just delete the MPG files. I'd hate to have to go to the PVR box and manually delete the files.
I don't like it.
This time I used the MythDora distribution. That actually wasn't necessary, and I may redo the install in order to get away from Fedora (I don't like any of RH's distros). The only problem I had been having in the past was that I couldn't get LIRC to run my PVR150's remote. MythDora didn't help with that, I wound up having to do a bunch of stuff that I just never was willing to do before.
Anyway, I got it working completely including the IR blaster to run my satellite box. I made some recordings. I got the Samba share working so I can access the raw MPG from my other boxes to burn DVDs and such.
Before I left for work this morning, I swapped the Windows hard drive back in again, though mainly because the kids have a lot of shows set up for recording and I didn't want them to get missed during the day.
Before I start, I should tell the Myth converts out there that yes, I know a lot of these are probably configurable, and I may get them fixed up. This is just my out-of-the-box impressions.
It's possible that I will wind up with Myth in the end. But I'll have to work on it first. It has a lot of beautiful features that I haven't seen elsewhere, but it's got a lot of crap in the way too that I need to strip out.
OK, technically it works better than the Windows solution I've been using for a while now. The OSD is better during video playback. It is MUCH more smooth in handling shuttling around on the video. The recording controls are very pretty, they work properly (GBPVR often didn't show you what was recording accurately, you had to actively go and search for conflicts, otherwise it would fail silently, etc).
Cons:
The remote is very sluggish under this system (perhaps LIRC could sample more frequently, but it's already doing 10/sec which SHOULD be fine) I'm not sure this can be fixed easily without buying different hardware.
The system forces you through at least one more menu than GBPVR does. Adding a whole layer of menus is pretty irritating, and it seems counter-intuitive the way things are laid out. I have to look into menu customization, it's possible I can fix this.
The menus don't give any info. Heck, a clock would be nice. GBPVR has a rotating display of "recording now..." "recording soon..." etc along with the menu, clock, and some other info. Maybe there are skins for those.
There doesn't appear to be a way to just record something on the program guide without noodling through all the options. GBPVR had a one-button "quick record with default options" - Myth seems to make you go into the recording menu, then select "record this show once" then arrow down to "save settings".
I haven't figured out how to adjust the video quality beyond the "low/normal/high" settings, and I haven't noticed any space difference between low and normal. It's taking 2GB per hour. I've been recording in SVCD format at 1950kbps CBR, which results in about 1GB per hour/700mb per 42 minutes, and I'm fine with that for most things. It allows me to put six one-hour shows on a DVD.
The default remote keybindings seem really clunky. GBPVR seems to have put a lot more time into it, or at least they put more time into the Hauppauge remotes (which I think are probably the most popular single card/remote out there, yet Myth still requires development tools, compiling a custom patched bit of code, running test scripts and manually tweaking conf files to get the blaster working). I'm sure this can be fixed but it seems silly that they're as bad as they are out of the box.
THIS IS THE BIGGIE-If anything kills this for me, it'll probably be this problem:
The video is stored in an entirely cryptic manner on the hard drive, making it nearly impossible to find a recording in order to do a final edit-down on another machine for compilation.
On GBPVR, the shows are named like this:
d:\Mythbusters\Mythbusters_20070530_2059_2201.mpg
On Myth, there's one big directory which will eventually be full of hundreds of MPGs, and they're named like this:
\recordings\PV02352097353097230207.mpg
yeah, great. Thanks for that. I'll have a good time as I sit looking at the share from my editing machine how many episodes of "Modern Marvels" are on the machine, and trying to open them up for editing. If I can't fix this, the whole thing may be a no-go.
Also I hope that Myth deals gracefully with the disappearance of the MPG files from the storage area. GBPVR would automatically notice the file missing and just silently remove it from the available recordings. That is necessary for me as I tend to sit in the back and compile a group of recordings to DVD then just delete the MPG files. I'd hate to have to go to the PVR box and manually delete the files.
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Date: 2007-06-07 10:15 am (UTC)