I got Mythtv running on our desktop last night on Ubuntu Edgy. It wasn't super smooth, but I did get it.

I'm using a Hauppauge PVR-150 from Circuit City (actual 150 inside the box, not a 1600 thankfully) and have a Geforce4 MX with video outs.

It's hooked up to our standard digital cable, standard definition, so watching it on a 15" lcd looks pretty bad IMO. I'm a bit worried about that because that's what I'll have in our pj also. We may have to stick with dvds or upgrade to hdtv.

The pc is a Shuttle xpc from several years back that I built, Athlon 1700, 512mb, single ide hard drive (20 or 40gb, can't remember), I have a second drive in it but that has Windows on it so I'll probably pull it for storage and toss in a big drive for recordings, DVD burner, surround builtin to the motherboard though I've never tested with it.

I think I need to bump the ram up to speed things along in myth as it seems like mysql is lagging some. Moving the swap to a different drive may help also.

Overall, fairly pleased so far. $80 for the tuner card, ZERO for software. I still need to get the remote working and test with the surround sound to see if it's functional or not.

Be sure to turn on deinterlacing in myth... they have other filters as well (you will burn cpu cycles though)... just remember though NTSC signals are pretty basic... but my mythbox on a 800x600 monitor is pretty good with no filters.. Can't wait until I manage to get my projector together.

I'll try that tonight. Thanks for the tip.

I'm using the WinTV-500 which is a dual tuner version of the WinTV-150.. I had a bit of trouble out of the driver versions with the kernel. But once everything was setup not a problem after that... The WinTV cards can capture at different bit rates. I don't remeber the setting of the top of my head... I'm using kernel 2.6.16 /w gentoo patches and IVTV drivers 0.6.3.

I remember having to play with some of the setting to get a good picture... can't remember now if it was something the fixed or if I have it in a cfg file somewhere.

Here is the dump from my ivtvctl -a -d /dev/video0


ioctl IVTV_IOC_G_CODEC ok
Codec parameters
aspect : 2
audio : 0x00e9
bframes : 3
bitrate_mode: 0
bitrate : 4500000
bitrate_peak: 6000000
dnr_mode : 0
dnr_spatial : 0
dnr_temporal: 8
dnr_type : 0
framerate : 0
framespergop: 15
gop_closure : 1
pulldown : 0
stream_type : 0
ioctl VIDIOC_G_FMT ok
Type : Video Capture
Width : 640
Height : 480
ioctl VIDIOC_QUERYCAP ok
Driver name : ivtv
Card type : WinTV PVR 500 (unit #1)
Bus info : 0000:02:08.0
Driver version: 1539
Capabilities : 0x01070011
ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUMINPUT
Input : 0
Name : Tuner 1
Type : 0x00000001
Audioset: 0x00000007
Tuner : 0x00000000
Standard: 0x000000000000B000 ( NTSC )
Status : 0

Input : 1
Name : S-Video 1
Type : 0x00000002
Audioset: 0x00000007
Tuner : 0x00000000
Standard: 0x0000000000FFFFFF ( PAL NTSC SECAM )
Status : 0

Input : 2
Name : Composite 1
Type : 0x00000002
Audioset: 0x00000007
Tuner : 0x00000000
Standard: 0x0000000000FFFFFF ( PAL NTSC SECAM )
Status : 0

Input : 3
Name : S-Video 2
Type : 0x00000002
Audioset: 0x00000007
Tuner : 0x00000000
Standard: 0x0000000000FFFFFF ( PAL NTSC SECAM )
Status : 0

Input : 4
Name : Composite 2
Type : 0x00000002
Audioset: 0x00000007
Tuner : 0x00000000
Standard: 0x0000000000FFFFFF ( PAL NTSC SECAM )
Status : 0
ioctl VIDIOC_G_INPUT ok
Video input = 0
ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUMOUTPUT
ioctl VIDIOC_G_OUTPUT failed: Invalid argument
ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUMAUDIO
Input : 0
Name : Tuner 1

Input : 1
Name : Line In 1

Input : 2
Name : Line In 2
ioctl VIDIOC_G_AUDIO ok
Audio input = 0: Tuner 1
ioctl VIDIOC_G_FREQUENCY ok
Frequency = 1940
ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUMSTD
index : 0
ID : 0x000000000000000F
Name : PAL-BGH
Frame period: 1/25
Frame lines : 625

index : 1
ID : 0x00000000000000E0
Name : PAL-DK
Frame period: 1/25
Frame lines : 625

index : 2
ID : 0x0000000000000010
Name : PAL-I
Frame period: 1/25
Frame lines : 625

index : 3
ID : 0x0000000000000100
Name : PAL-M
Frame period: 1001/30000
Frame lines : 525

index : 4
ID : 0x0000000000000200
Name : PAL-N
Frame period: 1/25
Frame lines : 625

index : 5
ID : 0x0000000000000400
Name : PAL-Nc
Frame period: 1/25
Frame lines : 625

index : 6
ID : 0x00000000000D0000
Name : SECAM-BGH
Frame period: 1/25
Frame lines : 625

index : 7
ID : 0x0000000000320000
Name : SECAM-DK
Frame period: 1/25
Frame lines : 625

index : 8
ID : 0x0000000000400000
Name : SECAM-L
Frame period: 1/25
Frame lines : 625

index : 9
ID : 0x0000000000800000
Name : SECAM-L'
Frame period: 1/25
Frame lines : 625

index : 10
ID : 0x0000000000001000
Name : NTSC-M
Frame period: 1001/30000
Frame lines : 525

index : 11
ID : 0x0000000000002000
Name : NTSC-J
Frame period: 1001/30000
Frame lines : 525

index : 12
ID : 0x0000000000008000
Name : NTSC-K
Frame period: 1001/30000
Frame lines : 525
ioctl VIDIOC_G_STD ok
Video standard = 0x0000b000
ioctl: VIDIOC_QUERYCTRL
Brightness = 128
Contrast = 63
Saturation = 63
Hue = 0
Volume = 58880
Balance = 32768
Bass = 32768
Treble = 32768
Mute = 0

I turned on deinterlacing and it's quite a bit better, watching it now while I work on my laptop. Thanks. I may compare my config with your's too.

I'll probably upgrade to a hd-capable tuner down the road but wanted to go the most painless route for now and so far this has been pretty easy.

Also, Myth can upscale to any resolution you want (I have 2 PVR-150s coming in the mail; $105). I think it's somewhere in settings.

I spent an hour or so tonight on it and got the remote functioning and finally set the correct password for mythweb to access it. That's a very nice function right now as the myth pc is downstairs, so now we can start recording without going down there. I do need to get it on wired network instead of 802.11b. B only averages around 3mbps throughput and trying to transfer a show up here is ludicrous at 440Kb/sec when a 1 hour show is over 1Gb.

Anyway, still cranking along and liking it. I guess I've learned enough about Linux to get by as the instructions I've found aren't 100% of course, due to the many flavors of Linux/Ubuntu/etc.

Today I got myth running on the laptop, and quickly realized having the backend machine on a 802.11B adapter just won't cut it for serving up video. Gonna have to move the modem/router down there to get it up to 100mpbs. The laptop is 802.11G so it shouldn't have a problem pulling in enough bandwidth.

welcome to Myth you won't be able to go back to lesser media centers now heh

Yeah an 802.11b network will not work at all... Wire that puppy up

You might end up like me and just keep buying stuff here and there and upgrading
my myth system

Oh and I prefer fedora core 6 and the myth fedora guide to ubunto but to each their own.

I did rearrange things Sunday, put the modem/router downstairs close enough to wire it for now and things are fine. On downloads I can get 3Mb/sec+++ so that's 25-35mbps (fluctuated some) throughput which is good for G on the laptop.

Now if I can just get this projector built so I can really use Myth!

Guys if you want a quick and easy Mythtv install use KNoppmyth. This is working very well. They are up to R5E50 and work fine.

Also Mythdora take all the work out of Mythtv. They both work great!

I tried Knoppmyth with no luck. Ubuntu installs so easily and getting Myth running on it was a piece of cake really. Plus, I like having a full version of Ubuntu to use also.

If you get an hd qam card like an avermedia a180 or an ati hdtv wonder let me know and I can give you the qam config for the area. I never like the channel scan in myth much and did the scan by hand

I'm finding that out about the channel scan. It doesn't pick up the channel names on most channels, and I believe because of that, the program guide can't decipher a lot of the info mythfilldatabase retrieves.

I really haven't messed with it much in the past week or so as far as configuring, just been using it to catch some of the regular shows in case we miss them live due to the kids or whatever.

I have a KWORLD ATSC 115 that I just bought. Will that work with MythTV? I have XP Media Center and ArcSoft Totalmedia installed right now and I think it sucks. Looking for something better. Also will Myth/Linux be able to run my b-Enspirer (Cmedia 8788) sound card? I use that to send all sound to the receiver via TosLink. I am thinking I should at least dual boot Linux and MCE.

Kworld atsc 110/115
supposedly it uses the same chip as the 110 model which is compatible with myth

and the sound card... most likely it will work out of the box, but the sound was the hardest thing for me to get working correctly.