[mythtv-users] 0.22 annoyances

[Bob Cunningham]

On 12/31/2009 04:33 PM, Kevin Kuphal wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 2:55 PM, Bob Cunningham <FlyMyPG at gmail.com 
> <mailto:FlyMyPG at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     On 12/31/2009 11:51 AM, Charles Wright wrote:
>
>         On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 1:18 PM, David Engel<david at istwok.net
>         <mailto:david at istwok.net>>  wrote:
>
>             On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 09:45:48AM -0800, Paul Bender wrote:
>
>                 On 12/31/2009 9:08 AM, David Engel wrote:
>
>                     Sidenote: that TiVo I started with is now 9.5
>                     years old and still
>                     going strong in daily use by my Mom.
>
>                 I am surprised that it has continued for so long. When
>                 one of the
>
>             So am I!  To be completely transparent, it *is* on it's
>             third (maybe
>             even fourth) add-on drive.
>
>         My Tivo just died after 8 years of service this week.  I'm
>         glad that I
>         got Mythtv running with a tuner just about 1 month ago (I've been
>         using Mythvideo for a year now, but did not have a tuner).
>
>
>     Bah!  I'm still running an original ReplayTV (model RTV-2020,
>     pre-Tivo), still with the original drive.  I bought it 10 years
>     ago, back when both it and Amazon were still new
>     (http://www.amazon.com/RTV2020-ReplayTV-Recorder-Lifetime-Subscription/dp/B00002ST80).
>
>     I've been hacking at MythTV for over a year (to replace the
>     ReplayTV and to get HD), and I have yet to see MythTV perform as
>     simply and as reliably as my ancient ReplayTV.  MythTV has, for
>     me, been a time sink with little reward, so much so that I'm
>     seriously considering going with Windows MCE (the horror).  While
>     MythTV has no single big thing wrong with it, it does have a vast
>     number of annoyances, and the work it takes to address each of
>     them is making MythTV close to an Epic Fail for me.
>
>     Then again, perhaps I'm spoiled rotten by having a DVR that "Just
>     Works".  Are my standards too high?
>
>     I haven't quite given up yet: I'm still reading this list!  And
>     mythbackend is still running on my F12 workstation, though I have
>     to access it through MythWeb (streaming!) because of unresolved
>     mythfrontend issues.  But now mythbackend doesn't record SD sound
>     (probably a PulseAudio thing).  Sigh.
>
>     My 10 year old ReplayTV box just sits there, faithfully recording
>     and playing SD without any problem, silently laughing at me
>
>
> Sometimes older is better in many ways.  My CentOS 5 systems never 
> have these kind of issues because the codebase doesn't change monthly 
> like the Fedora systems.  It can be a little more challenging using 
> the latest versions of some things like QT 4.5, but it hasn't been 
> hard tracking down repositories or people that have done the work to 
> make RPMs for them.  Up until very recently, my two systems were 
> running an MX440 and FX5200 graphics card using XvMC and running HD 
> just fine...

Since I don't yet have a separate HTPC, I'm doing all my MythTV testing 
on dual Xeon workstation, which I keep current because I run my 
consulting business on it.  I do all the MythTV stuff as the myth user, 
in the hope that when the day comes, I will be able to more easily 
migrate that user to a separate HTPC box.

The reason I'm with Fedora is that it is the easiest way I've found to 
stay "just behind" the bleeding edge.  It's a policy thing, not a 
religious preference.  Plus, Fedora is the development and deployment 
platform of choice for many of my clients.

I suppose all I really want is a hardware recipe and a distro selection 
that will give me the best "bang for the buck" FE/BE system with 
"brainless setup" and "great performance" for running MythTV.  Then I 
could remove MythTV from my workstation and actually start using it in 
my living room!

- What is the best distro for running 0.22?
- Should I use one of the pre-configured MythTV+distro packages?
   (Do any of them provide 0.22?)
- Which video card?  (Is VDPAU the best way to go?)
- Which HD and SD tuners? (I presently have an HVR-950Q.  I previously 
went through hell with a pair of HD-5000 cards, which I returned.)
- Can I really expect to build a fanless HTPC that has great MythTV 
performance?
- Is a ready-to-buy HTPC available with MythTV preloaded and ready to go?

My experience indicates MythTV is simply way too fragile and complex 
(too big a time sink) to be treated as "just another Linux app" in a 
dynamic environment, meaning I should either consider other DVR 
software, or try to get a pre-configured box from a company that uses 
MythTV experts.

I want to replace my ReplayTV box with a very quiet HTPC that does as 
much of the following as possible:
- HD/SD DVR (Tivo?  WinMCE?  MythTV?)
- DVD/CD player
- Rip from DVDs, CDs and VCR (I still have a few old tapes...)
- Future support for Blu-Ray 3D disks and rips (PS3?)
- Access my local digital media (pics & vids)
- Access Internet streaming media  (Boxee?  XBMC?  MythTV?)
- Web browsing (news, weather, search)
- POP/SMTP email (Thunderbird)
- A wireless keyboard (with integrated trackball or trackpad)
- A wireless remote (I have a Sony RM-AX4000 and a PHX01RN)
- Phone integration (so I don't have to manually mute/pause the HTPC 
when I get a call)
- The HTPC truly deep-sleeps or shuts down when not in use.

Recommendations?


-BobC

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