[mythtv-users] Does MythTV need a Beginner's FAQ Collection?
Achint Sandhu
sandhu at kilo.dyndns.org
Wed Jun 25 19:27:09 EDT 2003
Ray,
As a beginner in the MythTV world, I certainly appreciate this effort...
Hopefully in the future (as soon as the parts arrive), I will be able to
contribute to this myself...
Thanks again...
Cheers,
Achint
On June 25, 2003 18:10, Ray Olszewski wrote:
> 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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> mythtv-users at snowman.net
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