[mythtv-users] [svlug] xbmc vs mythtv-frontend

[Andy Sheen]

Karl Dietz wrote on Sun 11 Mar at 9:10 UK time
> Looking at http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=MythTV I see 6 variants which
> all support different feature sets. But I don't see a guide that
> explains how everything comes together. (do you use mythfrontend for
> recordings and xbmc for everything else? Or is it better to use the
> native frontend for everything but streaming content for which xbmc
> seems to be ahead?)

I don't do a lot of recordings - between 2 and 8 a week depending what
is on. I use mythtv-backend on 2 machines (that also run xbmc as it
happens) to record programs. I then manually transcode the programs -
including cutting them to the exact correct length - to avi (SD
programs) or mkv (HD programs) using ffmpeg on a powerful workstation
(overclocked i7-2600K) which 2-pass reencodes HD at near enough 1:1
speed (i.e. a 1 hour HD show takes ~ 1 hour to reencode with a 2 pass
reencode). These are then imported to the xbmc library as TV shows and
played direct through xbmc.

I never use mythtv-frontend - I've only ever used it to configure the
recording defaults. I have used mythbox (I'm on 0.23 - fixes with my
back ends) and it's OK but usability isn't as good as xbmc native. For
my habits (only a few things recorded) I find recording, transcoding
(save space) and then doing everything in xbmc native to be the best
compromise as everyone in the house only has a single UI to understand
(we have 3 dedicated xbmc systems controlled via remotes and not
keyboards and 2 PCs that run xbmc).

If I wasn't recoding, I'd just export the files to a different and
relevant name and drop the .mpg file into somewhere where xbmc could see
them directly - I';m pretty sure xbmc can play them directly. At a
guess, this would be possible through the user jobs section.

To setup recordings, I use MythWeb.