MythTV 0.17 Released 337
foobar01 writes "MythTV 0.17 has been released. Changes include Mac OS X frontend support, big improvements to DVB and HDTV support, "timestretch" feature (for changing playback speed but not the pitch so you can watch shows more quickly), firewire capture support for cable boxes with firewire output, and widescreen user interface support. See the changelog for the full list of changes."
Why Apple? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why Apple? (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory disclaimer... I own a couple of Apples.
Re:Why Apple? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why Apple? (Score:2)
Re:Why Apple? (Score:5, Funny)
You mythpelled "honetht."
Re:Why Apple? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Why Apple? - Good for Me! (Score:2, Interesting)
Mistake or not, it works for me!
-Pie
Re:Why Apple? - Good for Me! (Score:2, Informative)
For example, you've got a big computer in your basement doing all of the capturing, encoding, crunching, etc. It's got gobs of RAM, a Terabyte RAID setup, and it sounds like a fuckin hoover sucking the entrails out of a cat... You don't want to have this in your TV room, or bedroom, but you would like to have a PVR that has access to all of this, and everything on the server (music, photos, whatever).
MythTV allows you to do this
Re:Why Apple? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Why Apple? (Score:2)
http://macteens.com/more.php?id=410_0_1_0_C
As an unrelated aside, MythTV hackers/ contributors have been making strides, writing code to assist in changing channels and complelely controlling
Re:Why Apple? (Score:2)
Re:Why Apple? (Score:2)
Re:Why Apple? (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't know. Put it in the apple category, but I'm disagree that the primary category should be Apple.
Just my opinion, I guess.
Mac Mini Frontend (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Mac Mini Frontend (Score:3, Funny)
"Who's ready for a Mac Mini frontend?"
Did I miss something? Since when did the Mac Mini not run OS X?
Re:Mac Mini Frontend (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Mac Mini Frontend (Score:2)
Re:Mac Mini Frontend (Score:2)
Re:Mac Mini Frontend (Score:3, Informative)
All ATI Radeon cards have hardware offload support.
Nvidia GeForce4 MX, GeForce FX, and newer cards support MPEG2 accel. All the others did not.
Re:Mac Mini Frontend (Score:2)
Ooooh... timestretch! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ooooh... timestretch! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ooooh... timestretch! (Score:2)
Re:Ooooh... timestretch! (Score:2, Interesting)
24 is 18
I can do ya one better! (Score:5, Funny)
I've got ya beat by 18 hours, plus I haven't suffered through a mindless, repetitive story about a guy who likes to yell at people.
Re:I can do ya one better! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I can do ya one better! (Score:2)
Re:I can do ya one better! (Score:2)
Oh, wait... Sorry. Wrong show.
Time Savings (Score:2, Funny)
Isn't that what's left after skipping all the commercials?
i watch 7 of 9 in 5
Why is this in the Apple section? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why is this in the Apple section? (Score:2)
I think it's wayyyyy overpriced if that's all you're going to use it for.
But then again, I'm one of the ones who would get a boner from seeing the mac mini in the HT setup.
Re:Why is this in the Apple section? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why is this in the Apple section? (Score:2)
Shouldn't Apple put something like this out? (Score:4, Interesting)
Not that I should respond to my own post but... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Not that I should respond to my own post but... (Score:2)
Gates on DOS memory allocation "640KB should be plenty"
Jobs at NeXTStep on ethernet "Why does a computer need an umbilical cord".
Re:Shouldn't Apple put something like this out? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hopefully this new version will fix some of these issues, but don't kid yourself. Call me when it comes with a graphical installer and I dont have to edit conf files.
Re:Shouldn't Apple put something like this out? (Score:3, Interesting)
However, it IS ready for prime time - records stuff from 8:00 - 11:00 perfectly =)
Native or X11? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Native or X11? (Score:3, Informative)
Bryan
or... (Score:5, Funny)
Or, if you're from the south, you can slow down the show for easier understanding.
Re:or... (Score:5, Funny)
But, does it add the extra syllables?
Re: (Score:2)
myth (Score:4, Funny)
ok what am I saying? Sounds like a fun weekend for me
Re:myth (Score:2)
Re:myth (Score:2)
sometimes...
been thinking about mythtv for a while... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd like to have a mythtv box in the basement, drops in a few rooms and some sort of wireless system to remote control it all from wherever, but if the video quality will drop noticeably it wouldn't really be worth it.
Re:been thinking about mythtv for a while... (Score:2)
no, I mean... (Score:2)
having mythtv would mean that I might be tempted to rip all my DVDs to avoid the constant disk shuffling, but I wouldn't be able to do that due to, again, the video quality issues.
The PVR from my cable company (which would cost me not that much more than a mythtv setup) although abysmal from the functionality standpoint does output in component *and* even downconverts HDT
Re:been thinking about mythtv for a while... (Score:2)
I know I'm just being pedantic, but don't you mean from component to RF? Your component cables probably are coaxial.
Re:been thinking about mythtv for a while... (Score:2)
I don't know about your first question, but the second part I know about. MythTV is setup as a frontend and backend. The backend has the tuner and storage (or you can use NFS). The frontend is the part that displays material. They can be on separate machines. You can have multiple frontends and backends. A backend can have multiple tuners. It's all very flexible. I think you can even have separate machines for the commercial detection and other CPU-hungry tasks.
So, don't go running coax or anything arou
HDTV. (Score:3, Interesting)
Does that mean that I need to have both a regular TV-in card and a HDTV-in card to record both types?
Re:HDTV. (Score:2)
Also, for cable, you still need to have a HDTV cable box or HDTV cablecard that is compatible with your cable provider's service.
For satellite you would obviously need their equipment.
For OTA broadcasts you can just use an antenna to pick up whatever the local channels are. Even tho
Re:HDTV. (Score:5, Informative)
The answer to this at EFF:
"As EFF describes on our Digital Television Liberation page, recent regulations in the United States will ban the manufacture of DTV-receiving hardware described here after July 1, 2005. While we challenge these regulations in court, the clock is ticking, and it's safest to assume that it will be difficult to get unrestricted DTV receiving equipment in the future the way you can today.
However, despite the manufacturing ban, existing equipment will continue to work (and to be lawful to possess and operate); it will be immune from the restrictions imposed on future equipment. That means that the equipment you can buy today is more functional and more useful than what you may be able to buy after July 1, 2005."
Re:HDTV. (Score:2)
Re:HDTV. (Score:2)
Also, starting July 1, companies are accountable to the FCC to make their software+hardware difficult to be "defeated or circumvented merely by an ordinary user using generally-available tools or equipment ... [including] specialized electronic tools or software tools that are widely available at a reasonable price" [paperlined.org]. Before July 1, companies have no incentive to do this, and while they may
Re:HDTV. (Score:2)
Is there any other option for someone stuck with cable/satellite to run myth-HDTV? I've heard about IR kludges and the like. Can that do it? What kind of signal comes out of the back side of the cable/sate
Re:HDTV. (Score:2)
Thanks for the info. While I 100% disagree with HDTV (as many of you well know) I also disagree with the broadcast flag and because TV is going HDTV and I know I should be allowed to do whatever I want with what comes over the lines (regardless of what companies have paid the FCC to say we can) I want to make sure I am covered.
Thanks for the info.
Re:HDTV. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:HDTV. (Score:2)
The ATSC PCI board I had supported NTSC too. Only the half-assed designs don't have backward compatibility. I need to get one before all the designs sold enforce the broadcast flag.
You are right that it will work on other sets. There only needs to be a means to scale the image. Most set-top tuners scale with at most a switch setting, and PC video cards scale automatically.
Re:HDTV. (Score:2)
There are LOTS of HD OTA tuner cards. It records the digital signal directly. There are also HD tuner cards that can do digital cable, but none of them are CableCard so you only get unencrypted channels. (Although with Comcast where I live thats 5-6 HD channels, virtually all of the digital cable channels, and bizarrely the entire NBA p
20mbps? No... (Score:2)
Its raw, uncompressed digital frames. 165 megabytes per second just for the base video data in a 720P stream. Slightly more than that for 1080i.
That 20mbps figure is low for even the compressed bitrate.
Totally changes the way you watch TV (Score:5, Informative)
I'm using a Pundit-R that sits beside my TV, and it uses a 802.11b wireless card to get programming data.
Since I've been using it for 2 weeks, it's totally changed the way the wife and I watch TV. We never miss an episode of our favourite shows, and never watch commercials.
The commercial marking function is like magic, it looks for blank frames in the data stream and flags that as a commercial. I'd say it gets it right 80% of the time, 15% of the time it will include the station ID clip, and 5% it will grab an extra commercial, but I'll just hit forward on the remote to skip it.
My favourite part is using it to watch a new show that's 'almost' live. I'll set it to record the show, but then start watching it 5-10 minutes after it's started. When I get to the commercials I skip over them, and by the end of the show I'll have hopefully synced up perfectly with the real time stream.
Re:Totally changes the way you watch TV (Score:2)
Re:Totally changes the way you watch TV (Score:3, Informative)
I'd get 2 250's and save yourself the $50.
Is there a good mythtv live cd? (Score:3, Interesting)
Is there a standalone CD that I can try out with Mythtv ready to go for my GeForce FX 5700 personal cinema?
Re:Is there a good mythtv live cd? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Is there a good mythtv live cd? (Score:5, Informative)
KnoppMyth definitely makes MythTV more accessible. The entire install and configuration takes about 20 minutes provided that you are using linux compatible hardware. Pretty much if you are using a Hauppauge card then you are set.
Re:Is there a good mythtv live cd? (Score:2)
The PVR-350 that I got was the newest version, so I had weird "color issues" and had to download new ivtv drivers (and feed them non-default arguments). Also, the new PVR-350s come with a cooler remote, but it has different IR codes. So I had to find a config file for those too.
Still: MythTV is awesome, KnoppMyth is fantastic, and I love my time-shifting
Re:Is there a good mythtv live cd? (Score:3, Informative)
Is there a standalone CD that I can try out with Mythtv ready to go for my GeForce FX 5700 personal cinema?
No. In order to use Myth, you must have an installed system somewhere. There's enough setup to a Myth system, you wouldn't want to use it on a Knoppix boot type cd anyway.
After you get a Myth server running on your network, you can use
Re:Is there a good mythtv live cd? (Score:4, Insightful)
-N
YES! (Score:2)
HD CSI? Have you heard/read yourself? (Score:2)
Really.
Real life is less interesting than the crime lab in Miami but its real. The crime lab in Miami is fictional.
Re:HD CSI? Have you heard/read yourself? (Score:2)
I'd be using it to record 24 and shows like that. Sure, I can download it from bittorrent, but I like uncompressed goodieness =)
Is this possible? (Score:3, Interesting)
With Lokitorrents getting taken down [theinquirer.net] today, and left with a rather tasteless warning [lokitorrent.com], I wonder if the MPAA will start looking to litigate the source of illegal content, like MythTV?
Do you (slashdot readers) think it's a possibility?
Sony v. Universal (Score:3, Informative)
I wonder if the MPAA will start looking to litigate the source of illegal content, like MythTV?
MythTV merely turns your computer into a VCR. The movie studios lost that battle back in 1984.
HDTV capture devices which ignore broadcast flag? (Score:2)
Re:HDTV capture devices which ignore broadcast fla (Score:2)
I'm talking without any knowledge of what's out there, but if I were designing an HDTV capture card I would make sure that the hardware didn't do anything with any flags in the data stream except pass them on to the driver/OS and let them decide how to handle them.
There's no value to having separate hardware versions for each region the device is sold in, depending
Re:HDTV capture devices which ignore broadcast fla (Score:4, Informative)
Re:HDTV capture devices which ignore broadcast fla (Score:4, Informative)
pcHDTV 3000 [pchdtv.com]
This card is the successor to the original pcHDTV 2000. Its chipset allows you to record either standard over-the-air NTSC or digital over-the-air ATSC. I believe that drivers are in the works to allow you to record unencrypted QAM channels from digital cable.
Air2PC [pchdtv.com]
This newer card allows you to record digital over-the-air ATSC. It allows you to record unencrypted QAM channels from digital cable.
From what I've heard, there's no clear winner for which of these two cards is better. The pcHDTV 3000 can be purchased at the pcHDTV web site for $189. The Air2PC is on sale here [mythic.tv] for $169. If you plan to purchase, do so before July 2005. After that date, it's questionable at best whether they will still be sold.
Search the MythTV user group mailing list archives [gossamer-threads.com] for more information about these cards and support in MythTV.
Have they put in the nagravision decoding algos? (Score:2, Interesting)
My prediction for the DVR market (Score:5, Funny)
Disclaimer: I own a DirecTivo. I don't really know why I needed to declare that. I think I just wanted to sound important.
[1] Tivo is starting to look like it might become "beleaguered" much like Apple was declared during the years 1970 through 2005. Yes, Apple was called beleaguered by the tech media even before it existed.
[2] Tivo is (I think) Linux based. Making it compilable on BSD Unix is, like, what? Two man hours? What? Different motherborads? Ok, four man hours.
[3] Steve Jobs wants the Mac to be the center of our digital media warm fuzziness thing where we go for brief respites from the wacky demon haunted world in which we live.
[4] The Grammys have become dominated by hip hop and gangsta rap. Only a vast array of Mac powered DVRs spread across the nation can protect us from whatever.
It can't be any more obvious that that! You savvy?
You heard it here first.
Re:My prediction for the DVR market (Score:2, Informative)
But the bigger problem is that TiVo's software is, I believe, encumbered by the GPL. That's a show-stopper for Apple.
Re:My prediction for the DVR market (Score:3, Interesting)
I think that the bigger news here... (Score:4, Insightful)
That right there just tripled the number of channels I could record, and gave me HDTV capabilities as well as premium channels.
I'm one of the people scratching my head over why this was put in the Apple category where few people would see it. Most of the people running Myth are on PC/Linux platform.
Re:I think that the bigger news here... (Score:2)
Too little too late (Score:3, Interesting)
I have since put XP and Beyond TV on my box. The single biggest contributing factor to dropping Myth was the lack of a standard format. I couldn't view
Myth: Record to mpeg or avi!
Re:Too little too late (Score:5, Informative)
"timestretch" feature (for changing playback speed (Score:2, Funny)
And there are already plans to support blipverts in the next version!
Would it now be worth it.... (Score:2)
DVB support improved. (Score:2)
Particularly troublesome were time shared channels that only broadcast during part of the day, as the mechanism to insert channels would feed incorrect values into the various fields. Even when I correct this when the channels were on air didn't help with a coupld of channels. I hope this mechanism is better.
I'll have to spend the next week or three re-loading this box, as
FireWire cable box? (Score:2)
I have Comcast digital cable in Massachusetts, which is about 700 channels (including 100 or so of just music and a handful of HDTV feeds). The cable box is Motorola, black, but I've seen some silver ones at friends houses. Are these the FireWire ones?
Re:FireWire cable box? (Score:2)
Nice software, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Nice software, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
My first attempt at "networked MythTV": I installed the full MythTV suite on a stationary PC, played with it, works fine. Then i installed mythfrontend only on a laptop, pointed it to the PC, boom! it works!
No fiddling required. It just works. Just tell mythfrontend to use another backend than 127.0.0.1
TV = a huge time waster (Score:3, Interesting)
My partner and I (yes, a girl!
End result? We watch a *lot* less TV. And... it's bloody great. We've gone from, say, 4 hours a night of TV - 28 hours a week, over 9 hours(!) of ads - to maybe 8 hours a week, no ads.
Break your TV. Cut off the cord. Move it to another room. Give TV a break... it's phenomonal what you can acheive without it - PetRescue [petrescue.com.au] is my example.
Finally, and a little more on-topic:
"timestretch" feature (for changing playback speed but not the pitch so you can watch shows more quickly)
So can you slow it down, for the stoners? Damn cartoons are getting too quick for me....
Re:timestretch? (Score:5, Informative)
...for some definitions of fairly easy (Score:5, Informative)
If you mean "sounds exactly the same, only faster" then you're wrong. Considering the quality of these things now, I'm not sure I wouldn't rather just let the pitch raise.
The problem is how to represent pitch. Most of the time, this is done by converting to a frequency domain and doing a shift, or by convolving the signal with a waveform that causes a signal shift (the classical example of this is using a sine wave, as is done for RF encoding). The problem is that this technique is only really good for a signal that doesn't change over time.
In fact, even the best pitch shifters assume that the pitch can be modeled as function of time and are unable to deal with randomly changing pitches very well. Lots of artifacts are still introduced when dealing with an "instrument" as complex as the human voice (on the other hand, they work great for flutes). Of course, if you don't change the pitch very much, you can get away with less artifacts.
Re:timestretch? (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure that should have been:
;-)
The Second Rule Of MythTV (Score:3, Funny)