Comments on: DIY Linux HDTV – Pack a Lunch

By: me

me — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 15:25:57 +0000

Similarly, linux drivers are a lot less hastle since 2.6, udev and hotplug came along. Usually it’s just a short README file + headers; though that could be tough on a newbie.

By: Dan Mueller

Dan Mueller — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 01:40:55 +0000

You can’t READ the Wilsonet.com howto in an hour (I’ve been checking it off and on for the last two years the dude is comprehensive). My yum and or aptget updates always take an hour or more over broadband. I guess some people are just lucky in thier installs.

Mythtv is awesome and worth it. It’s just not easy.

The last time I installed it there was a faulty general public key in the dvd iso I used for the OS and sorting that out was a major PITA because I have marginal linux skills. Knopmyth didn’t work for me and my hardware (but I reccomend trying it because it’s so easy to use if it works for you)

By: Chuck Lawson

Chuck Lawson — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 17:52:07 +0000

> Linux is limited only by hardware capabilities.

…and the capability of the user to successfully install and configure Linux, the application, and the drivers.

Which is not to say that MythTV isn’t very capable, just that getting it running can be a pretty enormous task for those who aren’t already conversant in the ins and outs of configuring Linux and Linux applications.

For whatever it’s worth, item 1) is do-able on MCE – there is a fairly simple registry hack to add as many tuners (ATSC/NTSC) as you have bus bandwidth to handle.

Since both are limited to recording OTA HD today, I’m not sure how often three simultaneous HD recordings will be useful; I’m in the number 6 market, and most nights I’d be hard pressed to find 3 actual HD broadcasts OTA that I want to record at the same time. Doubtless this will change, though.

Re: Item 3) There is at least one Skype plugin that I’m aware of; probably a few others.

Re: Item 4) There is no Broadcast Flag to ignore, thus far. This may change also. I’d be happy if MCE just ignored the Macrovision flag.

Items 2, 5 and 6 would be handy, though.

I’m sure I’d probably like MythTV a lot; I’m just not willing to spend the time crawling up the learning curve it’s required of me every time I’ve tried to install it, however.

By: Jason Turner

Jason Turner — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 17:11:52 +0000

While additional time is required to get a Linux Media PC running, it is more than offset by capabilities not yet attained in the Microsoft world. As soon as MCE provides the following abilities I currently have, it’s not for me

1) Simultaneously record 3 HDTV channels while watching a 4th prerecorded show on a single PC.
2) Stream prerecorded shows, audio and video remotely to any web browser.
3) Provide free VOIP service.
4) Ignore the broadcast flag.
5) Accurately strip out commercials as a background task.
6) Allow easy expansion (lack of need to reformat or loose content) of Hardware RAID 5 and Software based RAID devices as need for additional or higher resolultion content is required.

Linux is limited only by hardware capabilities.

By: Arthur Times, Jr.

Arthur Times, Jr. — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 19:23:56 +0000

Linux has taken great strides in removing much of the installation obstacles that it had in the past by way of package management tools. Those who say otherwise are either trolls or uninformed. Tools like yum, apt-get and portage remove the headaches of dependencies because they handle it for you. If application ‘B’ needs application ‘A’ to run then the installers will download and install ‘A’ before it downloads and installs ‘B’. It’s simple.

There are guides for installing mythtv (wilsonet.com springs to mind) and if you have quality hardware and marginal linux skills you can install all necessary software and have a complete working mythtv system within an hour. I know because I’ve done it.