[mythtv-users] Easiest installation method far a non-guru?

[Ray Olszewski]

At 08:37 PM 6/22/2003 -0500, Brian Blalock wrote:
>What is the easiest way to get a MythTV system up and running for a non-guru
>like myself?

Hire someone with the needed skills to set up your Myth system for you.

That answer is only half facetious; your question is so open-ended that 
there is no good answer to it. That's mainly because the question in the 
Subject: line ("easiest installation method") is not equivalent to the 
question in the Body above ("get a MythTV system up and running").

If you are concerned *only* about installing the Myth packages themselves, 
the answer is probably to pick a distribution that has pre-compiled Myth 
packages and follow that distro's procedure for installing them. Someone 
else suggested Red Hat; Debian is also a possibility. The packages will 
take care of most dependencies, the exceptions being things that are not 
technically dependencies (mysql is the main example) but are in some sense 
still needed for Myth to work in a satisfactory way

But if you read through the list archives, you will see that *installing* 
the Myth packages themselves is only a small part of what you need to do to 
get a system "up and running".

There are issues at the kernel level, in hardware selection (CPU power, 
choice of capture card, choice of video card), in X configuration (making 
XV and TV-out work together, dealing with overscan), in audio 
configuration, in LIRC or other remote contro configuration, and in 
filesystem setup, all needing to be addressed before you install Myth.

After Myth is installed, there may be configuration issues particular to 
your geographic area (read the list about tuning TV stations in the 
Netherlands, for example), learning issues related to the "button, button, 
who's got the button" problems with documentation being spread among at 
least 3 locations (not counting this list or its archives), the need to 
find a way to control an external channel selection mechanism if you have 
digital cable or satellite ... the list goes on.