[plug] MythTV project

Wed Mar 16 06:27:35 WST 2011

Hi

Not 100% linux related, but related to the HTPC chat in this thread.

If anyone wants to consolidate their remotes, and have a PS3 as well,
have a look at this remote:

http://www.blu-link.com/

It contains both bluetooth and infra red, so works with all devices.

Got mine yesterday, and very happy.

This one remote now controls:
htpc (linux, so some linux-centric info ;) )
TV
ps3
surround sound amp
FoxTel

Looks and feels good, and already has WAF :)

What is nice is that it has a 'puch through' volume setting, so you
can set one device (in my case the amp) as the master volume, so no
matter what device you are on, volume goes to my amp, so don't have to
swap devices to change volume, which is great.

-Lucas

On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 4:16 PM, Lucas van Staden <lvs at dedmeet.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Just another little titbit of information regarding the Sony PS3 playTv,
> which adds to the disappointment.
>
> I have not been able to get channel 10 for some reason, and after quite a
> bit of googling, I have found some posts that mention that the device has a
> 'too high' error threshold on the signal strength. (not 100% sure if that is
> the correct terminology), to explain:
>
> The device will not accept a channel as tuned in (or locked) if the signal
> strength is below 90%. (the suggested level seems to differ from post to
> post, but avarage at 90%, but definitely above 80%)
>
> I can get channel 10 fine on my hauppauge pci card, and on that the signal
> strength is around 60%, which still gives a good picture.
>
> I for one would suggest to anyone to stay away from the playTV as a solution
> to external capture cards.
>
> -Lucas
>
> On 11/02/11 16:49, Lucas van Staden wrote:
>
> On 11/02/11 16:27, Shanon Loughton wrote:
>
> maybe ill just get the PS playtv add on... :p
>
> Hi,
>
> It is one way, but be prepared to be disappointed. :( I was very much.
>
> This is just my own experience (I have very high expectations from such
> devices), others may like it, I did not.
> (Personally  I think the PS3 interface is not geared towards such things -
> high volume data/files lists)
> The only good thing I can say about the PlayTv device is that it works on
> Linux. Period. Nothing Else. Oh wait, it was a b/day gift from the wife,
> that's another ;)
>
> Tried using it for months as my main recording PVR, and just finally gave
> up.
>
> It hardly ever recorded the right schedule times. (seems it does not update
> the set schedules to what the actual schedules become - programs seem to
> change scheduled times often enough to make that an issue - I wonder if the
> TV channels do that on purpose to prevent recordings?), and in most cases
> the PS3 either have to stay on to enable the recording (they say it should
> not, but they (sony) lie))
> Try and play a game whilst it is recording and the game stutters badly.
>
> Also in Australia the capability to save your recordings to external media
> is disabled.
> The whole thing seemed a bit haphazard/not well done. Very disappointed in
> sony for that.
>
> I was very happy a few years back when I got my first PS3, had high hopes to
> use it as my main PVR/frontend to media,
> and after many months of just frustrating dissatisfaction, I reverted back
> to XBMC/MythTv setup.
>
> I now use it for what it is best : play games and watch BD's, nothing else.
> Nice hardware, Pitty it is so locked down. Even running linux on it was a
> great disappointment.
>
> Note:
>
> Did you see my PS3/mediatomb movie poster setup? Makes the display in the
> PS3 with mediatomb a bit nicer, as you get the movie posters as the icons :)
>
> http://www.dedmeet.com/software-projects-mainmenu-12/mediatomb-movie-posters.html
>
> -Lucas
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 11, 2011 at 4:15 PM, Lucas van Staden <lvs at dedmeet.com> wrote:
>>
>> That plugin is still active and works pretty well. called MythBox -
>> http://code.google.com/p/mythbox/
>>
>> I use it in conjunction with the 'built-in' mythtv// protocol, which you
>> set as a source to video content, in XBMC.
>> The built in mythtv// protocol is just to do playback, and makes it easier
>> to get to the recordings from mythtv.
>>
>> -Lucas
>>
>>
>>
>> On 11/02/11 16:03, Alvin Teh wrote:
>>
>> A long long long time ago, i saw a plugin for XBMC where you can control a
>> MythTv backend to do schedule recording. It might still be available.
>>
>>
>>
>> XBMC is only a frontend player, so it does not have any recording
>> capabilities itself, however I believe the guys at XBMC is working on it.
>> (Don’t wait for it as it may be a while before it’s implemented)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> From: plug-bounces at plug.org.au [mailto:plug-bounces at plug.org.au] On Behalf
>> Of Lucas van Staden
>> Sent: Friday, 11 February 2011 3:57 PM
>> To: plug at plug.org.au
>> Subject: Re: [plug] MythTV project
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> On 11/02/11 15:47, Shanon Loughton wrote:
>>
>> My ubuntu media server is not connected to my tv - i use mediatomb to
>> serve and ps3 to play it all.  If I replace mediatomb with xmbc on the
>> ubuntu server can you control the record settings through the ps3 client?
>>
>> Mediatomb and XBMC are two very different things.
>>
>> XBMC can serve its files to your network, but I am not sure if that is
>> compatible with the PS3 (have never tried that)
>> XBMC is only a playback frontend, cannot do any recording, for tat you
>> need MythTV (as one example), which can also serve the files to your network
>> (I forget the term right now).
>> again not sure if the PS3 can be used for picking up that served content
>> from MythTv.
>>
>> The PS3 client is just a playback service, so no, you cannot set any
>> schedules with it to mythtv. (that I am aware of)
>>
>> I stopped using my PS3 as a frontend client a long time ago as the
>> interface is very cumbersome/lacking.
>>
>> -Lucas
>>
>>
>>
>> Shanon
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 11, 2011 at 2:27 PM, Lucas van Staden <lvs at dedmeet.com> wrote:
>>
>> On 11/02/11 13:43, Tim Bowden wrote:
>>
>> Thanks for all the advice.  WAF is a big factor here, so I'd like to
>> get it right before I roll it out.
>>
>> It looks like I'll go with a Micro ATX motherboard for the PCI slots.
>> I'd like to run a separate back end system, but at the moment that's
>> not practical.  I've got nowhere out of the way to run a 24/7 noisy
>> backend system as I had to give up my study a while back for a kids
>> bedroom, and won't get one back till we move.  I have an old AMD-64
>> dual core system lying around with a dead motherboard that would make
>> an excellent back end if I could find a new motherboard for it.  If I
>> could find a Micro ATX motherboard that would still take it, I'd
>> consider it as as a front end, but I suspect it would be a bit noisy
>> with the cooling it would need.
>>
>> Interesting with the xbmc option Lucas.  What are the advantages of
>> that over using the MythTV front end with MythVideo/Music plugins?
>>
>>
>>
>> Mostly mine is WAF related. (look and feel/ease of use)
>>
>> Last time I used mythtv frontend was a bout 4 years ago, and wife did not
>> like the interface at all.
>> Tried skin after skin after skin....
>>
>> xbmc  just LOOKS way better than any of the mythtv skins/screen layouts
>> that I have seen and tried.
>> I started using it a long time ago when I did not have mythtv running, as
>> I had no need to record stuff (had a pvr box that did that job back in the
>> UK)
>> and just wanted a frontend to view d/loaded content. and stuck with it.
>>
>> I am very happy with it, and I myself think it is way better looking than
>> mythtv's frontend, and simpler to use.
>>
>> Now that xbmc is gearing towards integrating their frontend with as many
>> PVR backends as they can (mythtv seeming to be a main one), it keeps the
>> frontend the same no matter what backend I am using, which again comes back
>> to WAF.
>>
>> Other than that, not much else, off the top of my head.
>>
>> The xbmc plugins are great (and there are MANY), easy to install using
>> just the menus, no technical requirements, so wife can install her own
>> plugins as she sees fit.
>>
>> Can't comment on the music side, as I do not use that at all. (xbmc or
>> mythtv - I find those interfaces really cumbersome, but not as bad as the
>> PS3 interface to music - try and browse a couple of thousand songs there!
>> using just a remote)
>>
>> Our music is run on the same mini-itx box (as it is next to the amp), but
>> the interface we use is MiniRok, which I run over the network via xorg's
>> network transparency stuff (and dxpc), and it allows the wife to play music
>> using her own actual pc, which sits in the dining room area. (easy
>> navigation/searching etc using actual kb and mouse - but the music blasts
>> out over the amp)
>>
>> see
>> http://www.dedmeet.com/software-projects-mainmenu-12/remote-music-player.html
>> (little bit dated. Changed teh way i used dxpc to allow swapping teh display
>> about and I had wired the whole house with cat6e since then. Also, we have
>> moved on to MiniRok, which my wife likes the most of all music players
>> tried.- it is simple, fast, and uses file navigation, not mp3 tags.)
>>
>> Minirok is run using dxpc, which is a compression layer and speeds things
>> up, not much use on the homes gigabit network now, but it has one huge
>> advantage:
>> Minirok is always running on the mini-itx box, inside a dxpc session, so I
>> can just connect to that session via a call from any pc in the home (all
>> linux of course)
>>
>> So, I can 'seamlessly' swap the display from one pc to another, and the
>> music is not interrupted.
>> Great for parties!
>>
>> -Lucas
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> 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!
>> --
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>> 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!
>>
>> --
>>
>> --
>> 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!
>> --
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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!
> --
>
> --
> 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!
> --