[mythtv-users] Xbox MythTv with SVN trunk?

ikke ikke at iki.fi
Tue Jul 3 07:24:52 UTC 2007


Hi Daniel,

On 7/2/07, Daniel Arfsten <darfsten at hotmail.com> wrote:
> I noticed that you mention that you run Mythtv on your xbox. I have setup
> Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn and mythtv from it's repositories (
> 0.20-svn20070122-0.0ubuntu6).
> I have an Xbox running an older version of XBMC (I think 10-2006). I can

I have also feisty on my backend, but mythtv is svn trunk updated
every few weeks.

> watch all my recording's over samba but I want to take it a step further and
> make my xbox a frontend. My question is whether it's worth installing Linux
> on it and running myth-frontend on it

I have the same question... the problem is that it takes time to set
it up. MythTV svn pretty much requires debian etch, and Xebian is
sarge. I'm currently in the phase of having upgraded Xebian to etch,
but still trying to install all dependencies for MythTV compilation.
The problem is that RL takes too much time to get this done quickly :)

So I have no experience on running mythtv on xbox linux. Instead I've
been running it on linux and mac (frontend).

> or just going with the XBMC python
> script xboxmythtv or whatever it's called. If you have experience with
> either can you suggest which distro to go with and if you have experience
> with the second, what functions are all included?

This is the way that I've been doing it. I have been happy with it for
long. I shoot myself in leg though by running svn, xbmcmythtv needs
some updating from time to time since stuff changes occationally in
svn. But if you stick to one version of mythtv for long then it's
fine. It's not that often that it needs fixing with the latest either,
though. And there is a great developer giving support for the
xbmcmythtv on the mailing lists. If something get's broken, fix is
normally in CVS within few days.

Now that I changed to widescreen TV it's amazing how much better the
xbmcmythtv is to use compared to 4:3. The menus were little too small
until getting bigger TV. Also the boot time is fast with XBMC. You
really can't compare mythtv and xbmcmythtv, they are like comparing
apples and bananas. xbmcmythtv is so small compared to mythtv, MythTV
is the real thing, but xboxmythtv is a great addition. but great
addition to whole system if you happen to have xbox1. Just waiting to
get composite cables to get menus even bigger with 1080i resolution.

One thing bugs me a bit with xbox, though. Sometimes the picture is
kind of full of stripes when there is movement on the picture. That
get's corrected if you find a correct aspect ratio scale for the show.
Luckily that's just one remote button that needs to be pressed, and
this is mostly just watching mythtv transcoded recordings (.nuv).

> Like can I watch livetv
> thru the xboxmythtv python script?

I assume yes, but I never do myself, that's why I have TV :) .
Seriously, it used to work fine until mythtv changed to have split
recording files. After that it was a mess for some time, but I guess
it works now. I don't use, I don't know.

> Will I just be able to use the Logitech
> wireless controller I have to control everything or do I need a keyboard or
> mouse with xboxmythtv python script?

There is nothing you need keyboard or mouse with xbmc. It works
totally from remote. Probably you can use, I don't know, I've never
had a reason to try.

> If there's a forum which has ton's of
> info related to this I would appreciate it's link. I have looked thru the
> Sourcefourge forum for xboxmythtv python script but it's seems like no one
> is really playing around with the xbmc mythtv python script anymore? Is that
> where I get the script from or is there a better source for downloading the
> actual xbmc python script for mythtv? Thank you if you can answer these
> questions.

That's the source. Use CVS version. And there is not much traffic on
the mailing list, since it kinda just works and there is probably only
one active developer for it. But you'll get answer soon if you post
there. In that sence it's active.

And it's a brief to install it. Just cvs the source, copy it in your
xbmc/scripts directory, and do about ten configs and use it. There
used to be some tweaks you had to do for XBMC to get samba working
properly, but I don't know if it's still an issue. You just needed to
set samba buffers small enough. It's decribed in mail archives.

If you are already running XBMC, I would say you must give xbmcmythtv
a try! It's such a small effort to install it, and you get at least
one more plays to have mythtv running.

Good luck, you always need that with mythtv ;), I'm happy with it
 - i


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