[mythtv] Whats the deal with usability

[William Uther]

Hi,
   Setting up a MythTV _system_ is harder than it could be.  The  
problem is not with the core MythTV software though.  These are the  
issues that I had (a while ago):

Outside of Myth proper:

   - Connecting to a TV.  Most linux boxes do not use TV out, so this  
area of linux is a little rough.  In particular:
     - You want good refresh sync on a myth box to prevent tearing.   
This is much more of a problem when displaying video than when  
viewing mostly static screens in normal linux usage, so it is even  
less well honed than generic TV out.  In particular, I am in  
Australia and the PAL refresh rate is not a standard VGA refresh rate.
     - To get the sync going, I had to move away from the built-in  
video chipset on my motherboard and move to a card with binary  
drivers.  These were not in my distribution.  Those drivers then  
needed updating to the latest version.
   - Video capture drivers: I'm using DVB in Australia.  At the time  
I was putting together my box, the DVB drivers were very new.  This  
required a kernel recompile - with a very recent (at the time)  
kernel.  There were then interactions between the new kernel and the  
binary video drivers I just mentioned.
   - LIRC drivers: The IR remote that came with my DVB card didn't  
have lirc drivers.  I managed to get patches for it accepted into  
LIRC, but that's more than most people want to deal with.  (One  
solution I've heard here is to get an IR keyboard and a programmable  
remote.  You program the remote to imitate particular keys on the  
keyboard.  Don't use lirc at all.)
   - Guide data: Finding good XMLTV guide data in Aus used to be  
hard.  It isn't any more (I maintain a whole list of sources).

Problems inside Myth:
   - The only issue I had inside myth itself was DVB tuning.  This  
has since been rewritten and is much better.  Finishing touches are  
still going in, but it isn't a major issue any more.

As you can see from my list, the problems are actually outside of  
myth, but with components that are normally only used with Myth, so  
Myth catches all the flak for them.  It is also (well, was, I haven't  
checked this part recently) hard to find information to spec a box.   
There used to be a fair amount for the US, but in Australia it was a  
different story - different standards required different hardware.

Be well,

Will         :-}