[CentOS] MythTV on Centos 4

[Scot L. Harris]

On Mon, 2005-09-26 at 16:29, Kirk Bocek wrote:
> Scot L. Harris wrote:

> Groovy! I also found several detailed instructions on getting X running on the 350. 
> Now I can say bye-bye to the Radeon 7000 and just use the VGA that's onboard the 
> motherboard during setup. That'll leave another slot for capture cards. UPS just 
> showed up with my PVR-350...
> 
> 

This is exactly what I am doing with the new slave backend system.  The
ECS board has built in VGA which is what I am using during setup.  By
next week this box will be using the PVR-350 for all output.  But I
wanted to try and test the DVD first.  :)

> > I have not worked with the DVD much yet.  On my todo list. :)  I have
> > read where it should be possible to run xine out the PVR-350 but it is
> > not clear to me if the quality is going to be acceptable.  Until then I
> > use the old Apex DVD player.
> 
> I hope this works. Replacing the DVD player in the AV shelving is a primary goal for me.
> 
> 

Me too!  The Apex player I have does not like DVD-R or +R for that
matter.  


> > 
> > You want at least two so you can record two shows at once or watch live
> > TV through the mythtv box and record a show at the same time.  You don't
> > have to have a capture card available to watch recordings.
> 
> Duh! I forgot about that scenario. Note to self - plan to get another tuner.
> 
> 

I assume you are just connecting the cable straight from the wall to the
capture card?  I find this works very well.


> > Start with one capture card to get it working.  Then you can easily add
> > a second card.  I installed a PVR-250 in the first box as a second
> > card.  Takes just a minute or two to add it.   You just run mythtv-setup
> > again and add the card and video source.  The system then starts using
> > it.  
> 
> I'm glad it's that easy.
> 

Where it got confusing was getting the capture cards in slave backends
working.  

> > I tried a PVR-500 card in the second box...
> 
> Too bad that's not working. But since it's easy to add cards, it sounds like I can 
> afford to wait until support for that card settles out.
> 

I kept watching the list and it seemed that lots of people have it
working.  It could be a hardware problem in the card I received.  Have
not figured out how to test for that yet.  I was able to get video and
sound going on the first tuner but the second tuner just did not work. 
The system recognized both tuners but I was unable to adjust the various
settings on the second tuner using the tools provided.  I found a few
people on the list reporting the same exact problem.  So it may be a
driver issue which why I need to eventually try the 0.3.8 ivtv drivers.


> 
> Right now I'm going to go with just the scenario you describe: everything on this one 
> box. Already have a 'house server' in the garage providing net connection, etc. I 
> hope to upgrade it at some point and make it the backend with a bunch of raided, 
> hot-swap storage. Maybe do video capture too on it. Your idea to do diskless 
> workstations is a good one. Might even be able to do something fanless!
> 

That is exactly where I want to go with the frontend systems, fanless,
silent, cool.  No moving parts.  

Right now the big box with the four 300GB drives in it is not to bad.  I
only really notice it once it finishes recording a show and runs the
commercial flagging job.  The processors kick in high gear and the power
supply fan revs up.  Almost sounds like it is rewinding the show.  :)

> Just did the ATrpms install of mythtv-suite. That's a lot of packages! But no errors, 
> thankfully. We'll see how the PVR-350 works now.

Good luck, the mythtv project has got to be one of the most useful
projects that have come out for a linux type system.