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OK, lets start with the fact I LOVE TIVO. I think i've had one in my house from Tivo Year 0 and its a fantastic product. That being said the features have not stayed up to date with modern life.
On my list of what tivo does wrong/does not have include: No Keyboard, No Email, Lack of browser, no weather, PC connection SW SUCKS (might I say SUCKS). Digital DRM interferes with kool features such as TivoToGo, transferring content, One "Tivo" many devices (i.e. each tivo has its own database of preferences, recording schedule, etc)
What Tivo does right: Wishlists, Profiling my shows, annoying me with commercials that link to tivo features.
So why is this blog about replacing Tivo with something else. Well it has to do with the fact that Primetime viewing means I want to record shows on 4 channels at once, I want to watch something in the livingroom, but pause and move to the bedroom when i'm tired without having to plan ahead.
MythTV is one of the many open source DVR projects out there and it gets alot of things right. While not obvious as to the pieces of the product, there are three main components.
MythFrontend is the display subsystem that allows you to navigate menu's, watch content on the harddrive, download from the internet and schedule recordings. What is does not do/have is record shows.
MythBackend is the subsystem that uses capture cards to record content to the harddrive and decide which backend will record what show. That is the magic of MythTV, there can be more than one backend and a backend can have more than 1 tuner. While this is complicated when you try to have more than 1 tuner / backend or more than one backend, when its setup its very powerful.
The third piece is less obvious, but one backend is the "master backend" and that is the node that runs MySql and maintains the global recording schedule, downloaded guide data and co-ordinates the platform (yes you can run MySql on a independent server, but lets pretend)
Last year I bought a mid-priced motherboard, a good capture card and downloaded MythDora. It seemed to be the right collection and installed rather easily. As soon as I wanted to install another backend so I could record on two machines (was going to have 2 pc's both running FrontEnd/BackEnd) it got complicated. When I started using the ATSC capture and wanted to watch TV at 1680x1050 (my display max) the Fedora base did not include the OpenGL nvidia drivers. So I installed the compiler tools, downloaded the nvidia drivers and installed. Video performance went up, but now the ALSA sound drivers for the advanced soundchip (HiDef) on the motherboard stopped loading. Download and compile those and now the remote control stuff stopped loading. Ok BOATANCHOR time, and it went on a shelf.
This weekend I dusted off the machine and downloaded MythBuntu. Ok I am a RedHat admin through and through so this is not easy for me. Well installed and there were a few shocks. A nice GUI that helps install other tools and configure Front/Back ends properly. a "nvidia" install tool and other tuning tools.
Have I gotten it all setup and several machines online yet, the answer is no. But its been running for 4 days without a lock-up and the picture is great. Sound works as well and this weekend I will move it to the media cabinet and connect it to my plazma TV. Will keep everyone posted on the progress
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