[mythtv-users] Generic newbie questions

[Christopher Flynn]

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 09:41:11 +0100, Asciimonster
<asciimonster at myrealbox.com> wrote:
> Gary MacKay wrote:
> 
> > Questions:
> > 1. Does the MythTV box need a monitor?
> >   a. If yes, does the monitor have to sit next to the TV?
> >   b. What is on the monitor, the menus?
> 
> Erm. The answer to Q1 is YES and NO, but mostly yes.
> You can route the menus and myth playback to your TV (So Q1b is No, not
> necessarily) . You will need a monitor when you install (and sometimes
> when you upgrade&repair). In the other cases you could do without a
> monitor (so Q1a is a no, BUT...), but only when you are confident your
> system works flawlessly.
I agree that the answer is yes and no but for different reasons.
Depending on the size of your tv I would recommend you have a monitor
for the install because it will make things a little easier to read
HOWEVER, depending on your graphics card you should be able to do the
install via the tv-out from your video card. I know, I did it that
way. (nvidia 5700) However I was using a large rear projection TV.
Once you get everything up and running a monitor really isn't
necessary.
 
Once you get everything up and running there is a great little program
called ssh. There are ssh programs for just about any OS you could
want including windows. (On windows I would either recommend PuTTY or
install cygwin) You can then use ssh to do all sorts of really cool
things, the most basic of which is to log into your mythtv box and do
administration. However the coolest use is to enable port 22 on your
router to forward to your mythtv computer and then you can use port
forwarding to access mythweb outside of your firewall without having
to open up your web server to the world. To me this is great because
1. A lot of internet providers block port 80 (not a big deal because
you can always change the port) and 2. I don't need script kiddies
trying to hack my web server all the time. The only port open to the
outside world is 22 but for me I have access to any port. (through
port 22, the port ssh uses) If none of this makes sense, don't worry,
just know that a monitor isn't needed, though it is recommended to
have one for the install of linux itself. After that you can do
everything else through ssh. (My mythtv box has never had a monitor
attached to it)
-Chris


-- 
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. - Gandhi