[plug] MythTV project

Fri Feb 11 11:47:16 WST 2011

Hi,

On 11/02/11 11:00, Tim Bowden wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm looking (finally) at building a cheap(ish?) MythTV box.  Building
> small form factor or low power systems is something I've not done
> before, so I've got some rather basic questions.
Don't go too cheap :)
You end up with a system that cannot cope, and spoils the whole experience.

> The system will have a combined front end and back end, at least two
> and at most three tuner cards, with at least two 1Tb SATA hdd's I've
> got lying around.  I've got more spare SATA drives, but I'm not
> expecting to fit more than two into a case without size and heat
> issues.
>
> * Does anyone have any recommendations for cases, motherboards or
> tuner cards available locally at a 'reasonable' cost?

Not sure what the cost difference is to pci tuner cards, but I am using 
the PS3 PlayTV usb tuner (2 x tuners in one)
Worked 'out the box' with ubuntu 10.10, but any distro should work, as 
the drivers are available.
Works very well, no issues, been running for a few months now

It also comes with the PS3 bluetooth remote, which also works great, and 
there are many how-to's on getting it to work.

> * Do all modern tuner cards pick up the new digital channels?  I
> assume so, but I'd rather ask a dumb question than get stung.
I am picking up all channels on both tuners with the PlayTv
> * PLE has Leadtek WinFast DTV1000S PCI tuner cards going cheap ($27).
> http://ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemId=601666
> I have seen various reports on the success or otherwise of getting
> them to work under linux, though as of kernel 2.6.33 the driver is
> included.  Does anyone here have any experience using them?  I'm
> tempted to grab a couple and take the risk unless there are better
> cards at a similar price.
That is cheaper than the PS3 PlayTv, but I had it, and the PS3 TV 
interface really sucks.
> * This system will be on 24/7 in the living room, so excessive noise
> and power consumption is an issue.

I would really recommend splitting front/backend.

I am using an atom330 mb (but it is getting dated, and does not have 
HiDef), so I do intend to update that at some point.
This in only on a frontend, as my backend is an core i7 sitting in my 
office, which handles all our in house media.

To reduce noise on the atom, I ripped out the cpu fan (that small fan is 
really noisy) and placed a heatsink exactly like this one 
(http://www.klopfenstein.net/lorenz.aspx/fanless-intel-atom-d945gclf2)
Not really meant for this system, but I have monitored the system for 
day initially and it is doing well.
As a backup I placed a simple thermal detector in the box (from some 
electronics website, which is attached to the old fan, attached to the 
side of that heatsink.
It kicks in if and when the heat goes above 70. Been working like that 
for around 1 year now, and seems to be ok.

I also ripped out all hard drives, and boot the frontend over network, 
so no hd noise in there as well.
The power supply was replaced with an external (looks pretty much like a 
laptop power box)
So, zero noise from my frontend.

It is set to power down if not used for longer than 2 hours, which works 
well for us, and saves it from any real overheating issues.

> * Form factor- Micro ATX or Mini ITX?  Do any of the Mini ITX boards
> have enough PCI slots for multiple tuner cards or should I only look
> at Micro ATX boards?
Most only have one. Do not try and use one of those PCI 'splitter' 
adapters that you get, I have found that the second card in the second 
slot has some kind of timing issues, and tv cards slotted in the second 
one tends to hang. (back when I used pci tuner cards)
> I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions as I get my head around this.
I would recommend you look at XBMC as your frontend.
The interface is sooooo much nicer, and they are busy making that a 
unified frontend for most PVRs.
Mythtv support is good (you can even schedule etc from xbmc interface), 
but you have to use mythTv 0.23 or lower, as there are current issues 
with mythTV 0.24 working with xbmc. (it is being worked on - the issue 
is the new 'pin' that is required to access the mythtv backend - not 
something mythtv did to block xbmc, as there seems to be co-op between 
the two systems developers.)
I see the latest plugin can also do the advert skipping etc that mythtv 
can do :)

Xbmc also gives you a lot more regarding frontend experience - see the 
video plugins. One of the favourites here is the youTube plugin that 
allows easy access/searching etc of you tube videos via a nice frontend 
on the tv.

The setup of having xbmc as frontend and mythtv as the backend works 
very well, and your backend can be a nice beefy machine,

Ref:

http://xbmc.org/
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=MythTV

> Regards,
> Tim Bowden
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
> http://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
> Committee e-mail: committee at plug.linux.org.au

-- 
Regards
Lucas van Staden

http://www.proxiblue.com.au/ (Consumer Electronics Retail Shop)
http://www.vanstaden.com.au/ (Linux)

--
I'm happy spasmodically - If I eat a chocolate turtle I'm happy - When the box is empty I'm unhappy!
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