[mythtv-users] Does MythTV need a Beginner's FAQ
Collection?
Ray Olszewski
ray at comarre.com
Wed Jun 25 16:10:41 EDT 2003
At 02:07 PM 6/25/2003 -0400, Isaac Richards wrote:
>On Wednesday 25 June 2003 01:49 pm, Ray Olszewski wrote:
> > Before I start this big a writing task, I'd like some indication that doing
> > it is a good idea ... especially some indication from someone who can
> > actually get the material on the Myth Website after I write it that once
> > written, it will be used (subject to quality controls, of course). If not
> > ... well, I don't have another alternative to suggest, but I think the
> > present approach will not work for much longer.
>
>You're assuming that people will actually read things, but, sure, go for it.
Yup, I sure am. Not all that bad an assumption, really, since they have to
read this list to get any help at all (you don't have an 800 number of make
house calls, after all). What I assume is that people don't have problems
*reading" explanations. They do have problems *finding* the explanations,
when they are scattered over 4 poorly-organized sources (an unsearchable
HowTo; a mishmash FAQ; a mailing list with a crummy search engine; and a
few bit sprinkled in with the source download).
I do believe that well written, easy-to-find explanations will be read ...
and I'm willing to put my money (or, more accurately, my time) where my
mouth is.
To that end, here is a DRAFT of the Beginner's FAQ List I proposed this
morning. I folded in the separate capture-card FAQ I was working on, picked
up my old TV-out FAQ, and wrote the rest. TThere are a couple of missing
pieces ... mainly URLs ... and as usual, I probably got some bits wrong. So
it is posted here for comments.
I'll be busy on other things for the next little while, so I will probably
not read, let alone respond, to comments before tomorrow sometime. Thanks
in advance for any help.
PS - Gerald, I liked your suggestions. They are incorporated here.
PPS - After writing this, I think it covers *most* of what a beginner would
want to know. The one unanswered question I am tempted to add is "11. Can I
record from my digital-cable or satellite-TV tuner with MythTV?". What do
people think? (I don't want this document to grow past the point where
people will read it, and it is already quite long.)
----------------------------DRAFT BEGINS------------------------------
MythTV FAQs for Beginners
Ray Olszewski <ray at comarre.com>
Last updated: June 25, 2003
This Q&A is not designed to tell you all the details of how to set up and
operate MythTV; there are other, more technical documents (see item 8) that
provide detailed instruction. It is designed to introduce a newcomer to
MythTV to its basic character and to provide the information that most
people need to decide whether they want to try to set up and use MythTV.
The MythTV Website referred to throughout this document is
http://www.mythtv.org/ .
These are the 10 questions I answer below:
1. What is MythTV?
2. What are the main components of MythTV?
3. What basic hardware do I need to run MythTV?
4. What TV capture cards work with MythTV?
5. How do I display the output of MythTV on my television screen?
6. How do I get and install MythTV?
7. What other software do I need to make MythTV work?
8. I'm having problems. How can I get help?
9. What else can MythTV do?
10. Will I be able to watch the the TV shows I record on my Windows computer?
1. What is MythTV?
MythTV is a collection of Linux applications that let you use a suitable PC
to record, store, and watch video captured from standard television sources
(over-the-air broadcasts, analog cable, digital cable, satellite TV). It is
in many ways a GPL'd alternative to proprietary Personal Video Recorders
(PVRs) such as the TiVo and ReplayTV devices. It includes the ability to
download your provider's TV schedule for the coming week, the ability to
select from the TV schedule shows to be recorded later, the ability to
watch "live" TV with pause-and-resume capability, and the ability to watch
previously-recorded shows. In addition, it allows others to write add-in
modules to provide addtional functions (see item 9).
One technical note here: providing pause-and-resume capability while
watching "live" TV is accomplished by recording to a buffer, then playing
back from that buffer. This process intruduces a small delay between
reception and viewing, and it means that the system is simultaneously
recording and playing back TV.
For a more complete overview of MythTV, please see the MythTV Website,
particularly the Features and Screenshots link.
2. What are the main components of MythTV?
MythTV has four principal pieces. These are pieces that can either combined
to run on a single computer or divided up among 2 or more computers. The
four pieces are:
2.1 Myth Backend. This MythTV component manages the recording and storage
of television programs. A MythTV network can have one or several backends,
with one functioning as the "master" backend.
2.2 Myth Frontend. This MythTV component manages the playback of recorded
video, the playback of "live" TV, and the main User Interface to control
fronends and backends. A MythTV network can have one or many frontends.
2.3 Myth Database. MythTV uses the mysql database package to maintain a
database of configuration information, channel settings, program-guide
data, descriptions of recorded show, and more. A MythTV network needs
exactly one Myth Database.
2.4 Storage. This piece is not technically a part of MythTV, but I separate
it to address a question that comes up repeatedly. Normally, one provides
ona a Myth Backend sufficient hard disk spare to store the video captures
the system will do. But it is possible to provide storage to a Backend
using a separate server and a networked filesystem (nfs, smbfs) if the
network connecting the two systems has sufficient capacity and you take
into account any limitations of the filesystem you use (e.g., the 2 GB
limit on smbfs files).
Although I write here of a "MythTV network" with multiple frontends and
backends, beginners hould realize that a common way, probably the most
common, to set up MythTV is as a single, standalone system, connected to a
network only for the purpose of downloading TV schedule information.
3. What basic hardware do I need to run MythTV?
As a general matter, any reasonably modern computer with an i86-compatible
CPU (e.g., Celeron, Pentium-4, Athlon) that can run Linux can also run
MythTV. Faster computers can run MythTV better or more flexibly than slower
ones, so the exact minimums for hardware depend on what you want to use
MythTV to do. In particular, a MythTV system can run multiple video-capture
cards, and more capture cards make more demands on other system resources.
Generally, a combined MythTV backend/frontend system needs the following:
3.1 CPU. Celeron 1 GHz is the bare minimum, and it will in most cases not
be satisfactory for watching buffered "live" TV. Systems that run more than
1 video-capture card require proportionally more speed, unless the system
uses capture cards that do hardware encoding (see question 4).
3.2 RAM. 256 MB is the recommended minimum RAM, and 128 MB probably the
bare minimum, for a combined frontend and backend. Systems that run more
than one video-capture card require more RAM.
3.3 Hard disk. Depending on the capture settings you select and the
video-capture card you use, captured video can range from 500 MB/hour to 4
GB/hour. Allow enough space. Any modern hard disk will be fast enough in
itself to keep up with a single video capture and a single playback, but
you do need to run your system with DMA active for the disk. The man page
for the standard Linux application "hdparm" will provide the details.
3.4 Sound card(s). Exactly what you need here depends on other components
of your system. At a minimum, you need a sound card able to provide
playback of the audio portions of captures; any card that works with the
standard OSS sound drivers in the Linux kernel will do this. Most systems
you also use the same sound card for capture of the audio portion of
incoming television; these systems need a sound card capable of
"full-dulex" operation, that is, a card that can control its inputs and
outputs independently, so it can simultaneously capture from (but not
playback) the Line-In signal while playing back (but not capturing) the
audio from a file. Most sound cards have this capability, but many require
the more advanced ALSA kerenl add-in modules to handle full-duplex.
3.5 Video-capture card(s). Question 4 addresses this part.
3.6 Video-display card. If you plan to watch TV on a computer monitor, you
can use any VGA display card that has an X driver that supports the XVideo
extensions, needed for efficient display of full-motion video on screen.
Most modern video cards have this support, but there are exceptions, so
please check the documentation for the X driver for your card to be sure it
offers this support. If you wish to use a television for diaplay, see the
separate discussion in question 5.
3.7 Network connection. MythTV expects to be able to access the Internet to
get information about TV schedules; some add-in modules also expect to
access a network. Any medium- to high-speed connection will do, though
slower connections will take a long time to acquire TV-schedule
information, especially the initial loading of the schdeule database.
3.8 Power supply, fans and case. Case selection is largely a matter of
cosmetic preference. Video capture will make fairly high demands on your
CPU, RAM, hard disk, and capture cards, so allow for that in fan and
power-supply selection. {HELP - I don't really know what to say here.]
A database of actual configurations people have tried, and their ratings of
them, is available at <add URL>.
4. What TV capture cards work with MythTV?
As a general matter, any capture card that works with the video4linux (v4l)
extensions to the Linux kernel will work with MythTV. Video-capture cards
need to provide access to both the video and and associated audio streams.
Most video capture cards that work with Linux use the Linux kernel's bttv
driver to handle the video part of the capture. A version of this driver
is included in any standard linux kernel; the latest version and other
information can be found at http//bytesex.org/bttv/ The audio is captured
separately from the video
with this hardware. Most of these cards provide an audio-out jack for
connection to a sound card's line-in jack via a patch cable; some also
provide a header on the board for connecting to an internal port on the
sound card, in the same way as CD-ROM drives do. Some cards provide
digital audio along with the capture; the Linux kernel's btaudio driver
provides a sound device for this stream to be read.
A few of the newest capture cards that work with Linux create
hardware-encoded MPEG-2 capture streams that contain both video and
audio. In this case, a separate audio capture device is not
required. There are not many MPEG encoder cards which work with linux,
some of them are supported by the ivtv driver at http//ivtv.sourceforge.net
No one individual can personally identify all the cards that do and do not
work with MythTV. The following card list is based on reports that appear
on the myth-users mailing list. It is current as of June 25, 2003. From
time to time, we will try to update the information here based on reports
to the list, but for the most current information, search the list's recent
archives.
The Linux kernel source includes, in
./Documentation/video4linux/bttv/CARDLIST, a list of the cards believed to
work with the bttv kernel driver. More information about bttv can be found
at http://bytesex.org/bttv/ .
Newer capture cards use the experimental IVTV driver, not included as part
of standard 2.4.x kernel sources. More information about IVTV can be found
at http://ivtv.sourceforge.net/ .
If a card is not mentioned below, then there are no recent (2003) reports
about it on the myth-users list.
4.01 ATI Cards
ATI All-In-Wonder 7500. Video capture does NOT work under Linux (We know
there are reports around saying it does work; we have seen them too. We
cannot confirm any of these reports. Please send us a correction for this
entry ONLY if you personally have this card working with MythTV and will
take the time to tell us how you did it.)
ATI All-In-Wonder 8500. Video capture does NOT work under Linux. (We know
there are reports around saying it does work; we have seen them too. We
cannot confirm any of these reports. Please send us a correction for this
entry ONLY if you personally have this card working with MythTV and will
take the time to tell us how you did it.)
ATI TV Wonder [not VE]. Video capture works using the bttv kernel
driver. Audio does work with btaudio.
ATI TV Wonder VE. Video capture works using the bttv kernel driver.There
are some reports that bttv autodetects the wrong tuner type for the NTSC
version (it autodetects tuner=19, but the setting needs to be tuner=2), so
check the CARDLIST documentation if you have problems there. Audio requires
using a jumper to a sound card; btaudio does NOT work.
4.02 AverTV Cards
AverTV Desktop TV PVR. Video capture works using the bttv kernel driver,
though there are some reports of unreliability for an older version of this
card (the one with the Sony daughterboard). Audio requires using a jumper
to a sound card; btaudio does NOT work.
AverTV Studio. Video capture works using the bttv kernel driver. Audio is
reported to work "badly" with btaudio ("Analog DSP - output, but has a
whiney noise to it that *almost* goes away at 32 KHz"). There are reports
of problems getting audio to select the proper audio source (main versus SAP).
4.03 Hauppauge Cards
Hauppauge WinTV Go. Video capture works with older versions of this card,
which uses a bt878-compatible chip; newer versions use a different chip
(CX21881) that is not yet supported by V4L (a driver is under development;
watch http//bytesex.org/cx88/ for news). Audio requires using a jumper to a
sound card; btaudio does NOT work.
Hauppauge WinTV dbx TV/FM Radio. Video capture works using the bttv kernel
driver; we believe this is the only Hauppauge card currently shipping that
works with bttv. Reports about audio are mixed; seemingly, the latest
version of this card does work with btaudio, but some older version does
not work with btaudio.
Hauppauge WinTV HDTV. Video capture does NOT work under Linux.
Hauppauge WinTV PVR-pci. Video capture does NOT work under Linux. (A
driver is under development; see http//pvr.sourceforge.net/ for news.)
Hauppauge Win PVR 250. Video capture works using the IVTV kernel driver.
Audio is part of the combined MPEG-2 stream provided through the IVTV
driver, so no separate audio driver or connection is needed.
Hauppauge Win PVR 350. Video capture works using the IVTV kernel
driver. Audio is part of the combined MPEG-2 stream provided through the
IVTV driver, so no separate audio driver or connection is needed. .
Hauppauge WinTV-Nexus-s. This card does not yet work with MythTV, but Isaac
reports (on June 25): "Almost. It's being worked on. Help coding/testing
would be appreciated". Audio: no information.
4.04 Hercules Cards
Hercules Smart TV Stereo. Mentioned on the myth-users list as a bttv card,
but no actual reports about its usability with Linux or MythTV.
4.05 K-World Cards
Kworld TV878RF-PRO TV card. Mentioned on the myth-users list as a bttv
card, but no actual reports about its usability with Linux or MythTV.
4.06 LeafTek Cards
Leadtek Winfast 2000 XP TV. Video capture works with this card, which uses
a bt878-compatible chip. Audio requires using a jumper to a sound card;
btaudio does NOT work.
4.07 Matrox Cards
Matrox G200 TV. Video capture probably works with this card, though reports
on the lista re not completely clear. Audio: no information.
4.08 Phoebe Cards
Phoebe Micro. Video capture works with this card, which uses a bt878 chip.
The bttv driver does not autodetect it properly, so you need to provide
bttv with the relevant settings. They are card=22, tuner=21 .Audio: no
information.
4.09 Pinnacle Cards
Pinnacle PCTV Rave. Video capture works with older versions of this card;
there are reports that newer versions have a tuner that is not supported by
V4L. Audio requires using a jumper to a sound card; btaudio does NOT work.
Pinnacle PCTV Pro. Video capture works using the bttv kernel driver. Audio
requires using a jumper to a sound card; btaudio does NOT work.
4.10 PixelView Cards
PixelView Play TV Pro. Mentioned on the myth-users list as a bttv card, but
no actual reports about its usability with Linux or MythTV.
PixelView Play TV PVR. Video capture does NOT work under Linux. It uses a
Conexant CX23883 chipset, which is not currently supported by V4L.
4.11 TerraCom Cards
Terracom Cinergy 400. Video capture works using the SAA7134 driver. Audio:
no information.
5. How do I display the output of MythTV on my television screen?
To accomplish this, you need two basic things:
One, physical connection from your video card to your TV set. This can be
either a TV-out port on the card itself, or an external adapter that
converts the VGA signal to an appropriate video signal.
Two, an X driver for your video card that supports the XVideo extensions.
These extensions transfer some of the processing needed to display
full-motion video from the CPU to the card's own hardware. While other,
more CPU-intensive ways of processing video can work with Myth, in practice
they usually impose too great a load on the CPU, so we do not consider them
here.
These two requirements can interact. We know of X drivers that do support
XVideo on their VGA outputs, but not on their TV outputs.
5.1 Cards with TV out
This list includes all the modern cards we know of that have TV-out ports.
The list is unlikely to be complete, so if you know of others, please tell
us about them (by way of the myth-users mailing list) so we can add them to
future versions of this FAQ. The list is organized by manufacturer. Reports
here are based on what users of the cards have posted on the myth-users
mailing list, so if you need configuration details, please search the
archives of that list using the card name in your search string.
5.1.1 ATI Cards
ATI makes many cards with TV-out capability, but officially it offer no
support for their use with Linux. Nor does the standard XFree86 ati driver
support TV out.
The enhanced ati2 X driver created by the GATOS project does offer some
support of TV out, but only in its "experimental" version, available only
through its CVS tree. We have seen reports from people who say they have
made this driver work with one or another ATI card. For example, Bruce
Markey <bjm at lvcm.com> writes (on the myth-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
for details. Also see http://www.retinalburn.net/linux/tvout.html for what
might be more up-to-date information.
Specific cards:
ATI Rage II+DVD (Mach 64). Ports not described. Reported to work,
but no details reported.
Rage 128 VIVO. Ports not described. Reported to work, but no
details reported.
Radeon 7500. Ports not described. Reported to work, but no details
reported.
5.1.2 Matrox Cards
The standard Matrox driver included with Xfree86 does not support TV out.
Older Matrox cards can be run with a proprietary X driver provided by
Matrox, and it does simultaneously support TV out and XVideo on some cards.
See http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/files/lnx_21.cfm for details.
Newer Matrox cards can be run with a set of kernel patches (for kernel
2.4.19) and a customized X driver, but this arrangement does not support
XVideo on TV-out. See
http://www.bglug.ca/matrox_tvout/g450_tvout_howto.html for details.
Specific cards:
Matrox G400 AGP. Uses external adapter to provide Composite and
sVideo ports. Reported to work with the proprietary Matrox X driver.
Matrox Millennium 450GX AGP. Uses external adapter to provide
Composite and sVideo ports. TV-out implementation does NOT support XVideo.
Matrox Millennium 550GX AGP. Uses external adapter to provide
Composite and sVideo ports. TV-out implementation does NOT support XVideo.
5.1.3 nVidia Cards
Some nVidia cards with TV out can be run using the standard nv driver in
XFree86, combined with the userspace application nvtv to control the TV-out
port. See http://sourceforge.net/projects/nv-tv-out/ for details.
Some nVidia cards can be run with a proprietary nvidia X driver made
available by nVidia. See
http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=linux_display_ia32_1.0-4349 for details.
Specific cards:
GeForce4 MX440-SE AGP. Has Composite and sVideo ports. Works using
the nvidia X driver.
GeForce2 GTS 64 MB DDR 4x AGP. Has sVideo port. Works using the
nvivia X driver. Reportedly works using the nv driver plus nvtv.
GeForce4 Mx420 PCI (BFG Asylum). Has sVideo port. No tests reported.
5.1.4 Savage Cards
The standard savage X driver supports TV out on some Savage cards.
Unfortunately, XVideo support for the Savage 2000 card (a very common and
inexpensive Savage card with TV out) is broken. See
http://www.probo.com/timr/savage40.html for details.
Specific cards:
Savage 2000 AGP. Has Composite and sVideo ports. Does not suport
XVideo.
S3 Savage IX 8MB AGP. Has sVideo output. Reported to work.
5.1.5 Other Options
Some devices with onboard TV-out capability, such as XBoxes converted to
Linux and some laptops, can be used as MythTV frontends to display to a
television screen. Please consult the myth-users mailing list for messages
that report the details of these special arrangements.
5.2 External Adapters
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:
AverKey iMicro (comments are generally favorable)
AITech Webcable (comments are generally unfavorable)
TVIEW Gold (mentioned once, favorably)
6. How do I get and install MythTV?
There are three basic ways to install MythTV. They range from easy to hard,
with the harder methods the ones that get bugfixes more promptly.
6.1 Use a pre-packaged version of MythTV for your Linux distribution.
MythTV itself does not support pre-packaged versions, but independent
sources have created them for some distributions. The Web Links link on the
MythTV Website provides links to the ones we know about, currently:
6.1.1 Debian-Sid. Packages for MythTV 0.9.1, and distro-specific
installation instructions, are available at
http://dijkstra.csh.rit.edu:8088/~mdz/debian/dists/unstable/mythtv/
6.1.2 Debian-Woody. Packages for MythTV 0.9.1, and distro-specific
installation instructions, are available at
http://dijkstra.csh.rit.edu:8088/~mdz/debian/dists/woody/mythtv/
6.1.3 Mandrake 9.1 Packages for MythTV 0.9.1 are available at
http://rpm.nyvalls.se/graphics9.1.html
6.1.4 Red Hat 8.0. Packages for MythTV 0.8 are available at
http://atrpms.physik.fu-berlin.de/dist/rh80/mythtv/
6.1.5 Red Hat 9.0. Packages for MythTV 0.9.1 are available
at http://atrpms.physik.fu-berlin.de/dist/rh9/mythtv-suite/ .
6.2 Download the current MythTV tarball, unpack it, and compile and install.
A relatively current and several prior releases of the MythTV source are
available as .tar.bz2 files, through the Download link on the MythTV
Website. After you download the file, unpack it in the standard way (for
example, "tar -xvjf mythtv-0.9.1.tar.bz2"). cd to the directory
./mythtv-0.9.1 and follow the instructions in the README file.
6.3 Download the current CVS tree, compile and install.
The very latest version of the MythTV source is available only through CVS.
This version incorporates up-to-date bugfixes and enhancements, can change
as often as several times a day, and it intended for people comfortable
with standard Linux procedures for compiling, installing, and (especially)
debugging applications. To use it, follow this procedure (taken from
Section 1 of the MythTV HowTo):
$ mkdir mythtv
$ cd mythtv
$ cvs -d :pserver:mythtv at cvs.mythtv.org:/var/lib/mythcvs login
Logging in to :pserver:mythtv at cvs.mythtv.org:/var/lib/mythcvs
CVS password: mythtv
$ cvs -z3 -d :pserver:mythtv at cvs.mythtv.org:/var/lib/mythcvs
checkout mythtv
If this description is not clear to you, you should not be using CVS to
download MythTV.
If you use CVS, there is a separate mailing list, mythtv-commits, to keep
you up to date on the status of CVS.
7. What other software do I need to make MythTV work?
Exactly what you need depends a bit on your hardware choices and on the
specifics of the uses you intend. How to get these components depends quite
a bit on teh Linus distribution you run, but we expect that modern
distributions includes them in their packaging systems.
As a general overview, you need the following:
7.1 A working base Linux system. Every modern Linux distribution includes a
standard collection of applications and shared libraries that application
delvelopers are available; they mention them no more often than you remark
on the presence of oxygen when you wake up in the morning. Any modern,
full-size Linux distribution, properly installed, will provide this level
of support. Specific Linux distributions that MythTV users have used
include Debian-Sid, Webian-Woody, Gentoo (ver?), Mandrake 9.0, Red Hat 8.0,
and Red Hat 9.0 <this is from memory; please add or correct>0.
7.2 A recent Linux kernel that has support for the hardware you are using.
This may require you to add in some kernel modules that are not part of
standard kernels, such as alsa-sound (for some sound cards), IVTV (for
capture cards with MPEG2 hardware encoding), LIRC (to support reomote
controls and IR Blasters). The MythTV HowTo provides some details; others
will come from your selected Linux distribution or the source sites for the
add-in modules (easily Googled).
7.3 The X Window system including an X driver that supports the XVideo (XV)
extensions needed for efficient display of full-motion video on the output
display.In most cases, you will want an X driver that also supports you
video card's TV-out capability (see question 5).
7.4 XMLTV. This package handles the process of obtaining and "scraping" the
TV Schedule listings from Web sources that provide formatted listings.
7.5 mysql. This database is used by MythTV to store configuration and
TV-Schedule information.
7.6 LAME. This is the MPG audio encoder used to capture the audio streams
whenever MythTV is using software encoding. [Is this correct?]
8. I'm having problems. How can I get help?
For MythTV itself, there are four basic ways to get help.
8.1.The MythTV HowTo (more formally, "Installing and using MythTV", by
Robert Kulagowski) is available at the Documentation link at the MythTV
Website. It provides a good overview of the procedures for setting up
MythTV, and its troubleshooting section addresses many common problems.
8.2 The MythTV FAQ is available at the FAQ link at the MythTV Website. It
is an haphazard collection of specific questions and answers.
8.3 The MythTV source package itself includes a lot of documentation,
mostly the details of specific features of MythTV. Its exact location on
your system will depend on where you unpack the source to, with a relative
path of ./mythtv-0.9.1 . It includes:
8.3.1 Complete copies of the MythTV HowTo ( ./mythtv-0.9.1/docs)
and FAQ ( ./mythtv-0.9.1/FAQ).
8.3.2 A listing of the keybindings ( ./mythtv-0.9.1/keys.txt)
8.3.3 An installation overview ( ./mythtv-0.9.1/README).
8.3.4 A contrib directory with useful supplemental scripts.
8.4 The mythtv-users mailing list allows users of MythTV to ask for and
receive help from their fellow users and, occasionally, from MythTV
developers. Subscribe at the Genreal Info/Lists link on the MythTV Website.
A link to a searchable archive of the list is also there (though possibly
not obvious, so look around, or use this URL:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/archive/MythTV_C2/Users_F11/ ).
Some problems you may encounter with MythTV are not actually MythTV
problems but involve one of the applications or kernel components MythTV
depends on. In some of these cases, the MythTV documentation or the
mythtv-users list may still provide help, but more complex or obscure
problems will require you to turn to the support resources for that
application.
9. What else can MythTV do?
Contributing developers have created add-in modules that integrate into
MythTV the ability to playback MP3- and OGG-format music; display weather
forecasts; playback non-Myth video files; and more. There is also a MythWeb
add-in that provides access to much of the MythTV User Interface from a
browser connection. The current list of modules and links to download them
are at the Doanloads link on the MythTV Website.
10. Will I be able to watch the the TV shows I record on my Windows computer?
Usually no. MythTV uses modified NuppelVideo encoding setup that is not
playable by any of the standard codecs included with, or readily available
for, standard Windows players such as WMP. The exception is files created
with the hardware encoder used by capture cards that work with the IVTV
driver (see question 4 for specific cards); they capture to standard MPEG-2
files that WMP and pther players can play back with no problem.
To watch MythTV-captured television on a Windows computer (or through a
standard Linux app such aas xine or mplayer), you need to convert the files
from the idiosyncratic MythTV capture format to a standard format. This
process is called "transcoding" and can be done with <add details>.
For non-MythTV Linux systems, another option is to use a patched version of
mplayer. More information on this is available at <add reference>.
----------------------------DRAFT ENDS---------------------------------
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