Future Meeting? (MythTV)

[Travis Roy]

Jared Watkins wrote:

> Travis Roy wrote:
> 
>> I was talking to Ben Scott about this and brought up doing a meeting 
>> about this and he seemed interested so I thought I would put a feeler 
>> out to see who would be interested.
> 
> 
> Though it runs only on windows... check out one called Sagetv 
> http://www.sage.tv/

heh, MythTV is only on linux. SageTV looks okay, but it's missing some 
of the functions I like.

> 
> I just started testing it out this week with their 15 day demo but it 
> seems very cool...  one of the differences with this is that it uses a 
> client/server model... so you can have multiple servers recording and 
> storing content with mpeg encoding hardware..  and multiple 
> software-only clients that can stream live tv or stored content from the 
> servers (which includes music and movies you already have).  

Myth does this, you can have one or many servers, and many clients. A 
lot of people set up servers and then use EPIA-M's for clients.

 > Also.. it
> records everything in simple mpeg formats so it's easy to burn something 
> off to disk if you want to save it.

If you use a PVR-x50 card it saves the files in normal mpeg files. If 
you use a bttv card it saves it in NUV but includes a transcoder that 
will re-encode it to mpegs, divx files, or even make bin/cue files for 
VCDs or SVCDs

> The best part is that the software is inexpensive. Which is good 
> considering the cost of the mpeg encoding hardware.  One thing I'd like 
> to try is using multiple usb attached encoders to one server as a 
> directivo replacement... it is supposed to support that.

MythTV is free :) I think MythTV only supports up to 4 TV cards, but I'm 
not positive.

> I've looked at Mythtv before... and it seemed like too much work and too 
> little benefit compared to the directivo I already had... this sagetv 
> looks to beat them both out.

Following Jarrod's guide I had MythTV setup in about 3hrs. It does MUCH 
more then my stand alone TiVo. Things like the CD and DVD ripping, 
picture gallery, MythGame (play Mame/SNES games), MythWeather, MythNews. 
Plus it uses themes so you can change the look to whatever you like.