[mythtv-users] MythTV as a DVD player

David Watkins watkinshome at gmail.com
Mon May 14 13:09:10 UTC 2007


On 14/05/07, Patrick Doyle <wpdster at gmail.com> wrote:
> My old DVD player died.  Instead of spending $50 to replace it with a
> standalone unit, I'm thinking of spending $500 to $1000 to replace it
> with a MythTV.  (Yes, I'm a certified, registered, geek.  So sue me.)
>
> I would like to know of people's experience using MythTV as a DVD
> player (in addition to using it's many other features).  I'm asking
> because I have a friend with a MythTV box who tried playing DVD's
> through it and was unhappy with the results.  Since he already has a
> perfectly good (actually, a fairly nice) DVD player, he saw no reason
> to pursue the matter any further than, "I tried it, I wasn't happy
> with it, it didn't really matter to me."
>
> In my case, I need to have a DVD player that my family can use the way
> they're used to using a DVD player -- press a button on the remote to
> watch DVDs, stick a DVD in, wait for all of the FBI warnings to go by,
> (well, if we could skip that part, I'm sure we'd all agree it was a
> plus), see the menu, hit play, and watch the DVD on our existing
> (analog) television.  Yes I know MythTV offers much more than this,
> but I need to have something that mimics the existing technology
> before I start selling the new technology.

Yes that's how it works for me.  I got rid of my working, standalone
DVD player and use mythtv as my only DVD player now.  Kids and wife
use it OK.

I had to change the default DVD player from mplayer to xine, to get
working DVD menus, but I believe that the default now is to use the
internal mythtv DVD player, which supports DVD menus ??

The only differences might be the way you change language tracks,
subtitles camera angle etc, but really that's just a case of getting
to grips with the configuration of your mythtv remote control, which
may not have dedicated buttons for these functions.  The advantage is
that you get to throw away another remote  :-)

Oh and my computer DVD drive was rather louder than my son's remote
control helicopter, until I found a firmware patch to reduce its speed
from X52 to something reasonable for lounge use.  I'm not sure if this
is a general problem or not.


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