[mythtv-users] First MythTV System

[Charles Wright]

Hello All,

I've just successfully put together my first MythTV system using
Mythbuntu 8.10.  My goals were to basically setup a hard disk based
DVD juke box, because my children manage to scratch their DVDs
rendering them unplayable.  My TiVo box with lifetime subscription
also died, so I eventually want to replace the stop gap spare box that
has a yearly subscription.  After a couple weeks of futzing around, I
think I am well on my way to accomplishing both tasks; and am very
happy with the results.  There are still a few things that I would
like to add/ work out (and some questions at the end); but for now I'm
very pleased.   [When my Tivo first broke a few months ago, I thought
about trying to build the MythTV box right away, but am glad I got the
year-long subscription as a stop gap measure so that I didn't need to
rush this build/setup].

Anyway, I figured I would post what has worked for me; and some of the
problems/solutions I ran into.

The system has an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual core 4800+ on an XFXForce 8200
motherboard with an nVidia chipset and 2GB of RAM.  I used a
silverstone LC17 case, which is nice and clean looking.  I've got a
500GB SATA disk and a 24x DVD burner in there as well.  The power
supply is just a cheap one from TigerDirect, but it works and isn't
overly loud.

My first goal was to get DVD ripping working.  I wasn't able to do
that through MythDVD that came with MythBuntu, but using gddrescue and
the script referenced in this help page, I am able to get full ISOs
onto the hard disk.  I actually like this very much because all the
menus and subtitles just work.
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-575130.html
For some of my DVDs, there are still frames that end up hanging the
internal player, seemingly like this:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/commits/356154?page=last
I haven't yet upgraded to trunk (not sure that I will); but hopefully
in a future MythBuntu release this will sort itself out.

The good news is that after an evening of futzing, I had a working
system and was convinced the original $430 in parts was not a waste of
money.

I have a few disks that were damaged and not all the data was rescued
for which MythTV's player just stops.  It would be nice if it were a
bit more robust to errors in the stream.

In the meantime, I've been able to rip some of the primary tracks
using VLC's streaming mode.  This bypasses all the still frames, so
there are no hang issues.  It is also useful on those DVDs that are
damaged enough that the menus do not work when the whole ISO is
ripped.  The problem I have with this method is that I haven't figured
out if it is possible to have subtitles that can be turned on and off
like the ISO rip.

The next problem was getting it hooked to my TV.  I have a 36" tube
HDTV that is about 4 years old with a DVI port.  This got me video,
but it was only in a letterboxed eportion of the screen and there were
some artifacts around the edges.  The solution to this for me was to
get a VGA to component converter like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815117102
This worked out well, and gives me what I consider to be good video
quality; the text is much more legible and I am able to use 800x600
instead of just 640x480.  The motherboard includes an HDMI output, so
if I get a newer TV in the future I should be able to convert to that.

A contemporaneous problem was that I was getting buzz from the onboard
sound card.  Enter USB sound card, which fixed the issue.
Unfortunately, it does not have mixer support on Linux so the mute
button on the remote doesn't work.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102020&Tpk=creative%205.1%20usb

Somewhat related (actually fixed before the sound card), was that the
CPU fan I got was too loud, and could be heard from the couch:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?Sku=ULT40030
This Zalman fan runs at 1/2 the speed, keeps the system just as cool,
and is virtually silent:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118036

The other problem that required some money to solve was that I forgot
[not entirely, I was using a wired one that is usually connected to my
laptop docking station] to buy a keyboard originally.  I got a
wireless keyboard which has proven to be very nice for administration
and configuration.  I also picked up a Microsoft Media Center Remote,
which dropped into MythUbuntu seamlessly.  It includes an IR blaster,
but I haven't tried that out.  It also lets you program the TV Power
and Volume keys, which is very nice.  I wish it would also let you
program the mute key and had a TV input key.

The final piece of my setup is a firewire card and cable (total $13),
which I have connected to a CableVision Scientific Atlanta 4250HDC.
After getting a schedules direct account and setting up the video
source MythTV was able to see the box, but was not able to tune it.  I
tried mythprime and it didn't work; after a couple of days of that I
ended up disconnecting the cable and putting it back in the next day.
 I ran scanfw (for the first time) and it just started working; maybe
I switched ports on the back of the cable box, I don't know.  But now
I can tune pretty much every analog channel I've tried.  I can also
tune some of the HD channels, but not WLIW's HD version (721).  I need
to run scanfw again, the first time it said that no channels were
encrypted; and it is surprising that the PBS affiliate would be
encrypted when others like USA are not.  One other wrinkle I had was
that I needed to go back to mythtv-setup to enable VBI to get captions
working.

I do hope to eventually add an NTSC tuner, so that I can get dual
tuning without an extra cable box (and I haven't gotten the extra box,
right now MythTV is sharing with Tivo).

Now for some questions:
1) Is there a way to record something you are watching on LiveTV
(basically saving the start of the program you've been watching
seemlessly with the rest)?  I am looking for Tivo equivalent
functionality of just hitting the record button whlie watching
something.
2) The remote seems to map to keys, is there a way in 0.21 to have
certain keys bring you to a particular function regardless of the
current screen (e.g., the Live TV button and Guide Buttons).
3) Is there a way to stop escape on  main menu from exiting?  It would
be nicer if it was ignored and I could add a "Menu" exit item
elsewhere; trying to make the whole system appear more blackbox like.
As an aside I really like the customizability of the menus, it lets me
make it friendlier for my wife to use by putting Watch Videos and Play
DVD right on top (since we use those for the kids a lot).
4) Can you make DVD subtitles default to on, like you can with closed captions?
5) Does anyone know if I can use a generic remote with the MCE IR reciever?
6) Is it possible to do mute in software without a mixer?
I am sure that I am missing a bunch of questions, that I am missing,
but this is a (long-winded) start.

All in all, I am very impressed and happy with this solution.
Thanks to all who have worked hard to make MythTV such a great piece
of technology.

Regards,
Charles