[mythtv-users] Where to find Myth Setup Information?

[Nick Rout]

On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 12:25 PM, R. G. Newbury <newbury at mandamus.org> wrote:
> On 01/10/2011 03:11 PM, Eric Sharkey wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 2:31 PM, Jacob Mansfield<cyberjacob at gmail.com>
>>  wrote:
>>>
>>> On 10/01/11 08:08, mark Deneen wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Good luck to you all, and really, I am sorry if I offended you
>>>> personally. I'll unsubscribe from the list now.
>>>
>>> well good riddance to bad rubbish is all I have to say.
>>
>> Jacob, that's a bit harsh.
>>
>> mark's messages were undeniably offensive, but (to me) they read as
>> the kind of offense generated by ignorance rather than being
>> intentionally insulting.  He clearly has no idea what's involved in
>> large application development and responding to his ignorance in this
>> way isn't helpful.
>>
>> Eric
>
> Sorry, Eric. I disagree. I read every word that he wrote as being
> intentionally insulting of the project and the programmers involved. He had
> enough, call it 'lack of ignorance', to be well outside the "he's just an
> ignorant noob" mapping. You may be right that he has no idea what is
> involved, but I think I can assure you that he thinks that he does. I agree
> with Jacob. No loss here.

Please note this is not supposed to be a criticism of anyone, except
perhaps the OP.

But he did make one good point (despite otherwise being rude, arrogant
and plain wrong in some respects).

The documentation is, for want of a better word, "wanting". And before
the obvious point is made, no i do not have the time to do more than
occasionally dabble in the wiki and lurk the list (and mythbuntu
forums, and run a mailing list for NZ myth users), answering and
helping where i can, which is why I ask for this post to be viewed as
an observation, and not a criticism!

The particular passage the OP identified, on setting up a capture
card, says (as previously quoted) "Choose the appropriate settings for
your particular tuner. Use the arrow keys to move around and to make
your choices, and press RETURN when complete. Pressing RETURN will
take you back to the Capture Cards screen; if you have additional
capture cards in this machine, press the space bar when the highlight
is on the (New Capture Card) row to define another card."

Now you don't have to be around myth for long to know that is a VERY
once over lightly version of what you need to do to set up a capture
card. There are numerous types of capture device supported (analogue,
dvb, hdpvr, network, dummy, etc etc) each with their own options.
Ideally there should be a sub-section on configuring each type of
device, maybe with a link to a page that explains the technology
behind the device. And that particular passage is not the only one
that could be pointed to.

Go the wiki you will say: but the wiki is a mass of very helpful
pages, until you want something in particular, and often it ain't easy
to find. As I say, I don't have the time, or indeed the in depth
knowledge, to do any better. Go to the mailing list you say: again a
lot of useful information, but a newbie doesn't necessarily know about
it. I see a lot of questions on mythbuntu forums too, that can be
answered by a referral to this list or the wiki or the docs, but
people clearly aren't finding the answers, nor can either of those
sources of info be guaranteed to be the correct answer today, as they
may refer to a previous version.

I would love to be able to take a leave of absence from work and work
solely on the documentation, trying to better tie together the
disparate sources of knowledge (which obviously includes what is
inside the minds of the developers and other experts.

Anyway, I am pleased to say I have been able to get myth going for the
last few years, and am by and large happy with it (given the much
referred to 'zero' in the version number). And for that I thank the
devs, and the helpful people on this list.