MythTV six months later

Well, just as I predicted it's been six months and I decided I should give an update. I placed an order for this hardware on 08/12/2006. I've been tinkering with it off & on and learning tons about Linux, which I now realize I knew nothing about to start with. After this discovery, I decided to go with the KnoppMyth distro. It is not EASY, but I do think it is the best for a learning noob.

So why did it take so long?

Well, I didn't know enough to realize that I had a half dead tuner card that what causing lockups and all sorts of other problems. The Hauppauge PVR-500 that I ordered has 2 analog tuners and a PCI bridge on a single PCI card. One of the tuners was dead. (Apparently they are like light bulbs in that they don't handle kinetic shock very well. So with shipping...) And, thanks to my virtuous humility, I assume that if there is a problem it's my error not the hardware.

Once I got my new tuner RMA'd from Hauppauge (Great company to deal with, by the way!) I realized that my hardware choices where very good and that I have a Tier 1 KnoppMyth setup which means, you put the hardware together and clean install from the CD and it just works. Of course there are other issues, like getting the signal sent to your TV to look the way you want, over coming overscan, and telling it not to use 5.1 audio output since I am only using my TV speakers. But I'm very excited about the possibilities I've uncovered.

MythTV To Do List (Hollow bullets are incomplete.)

• Assemble hardware


• Register at http://labs.zap2it.com


• Install KnoppMyth


• Install Vim, ncftp, Firefox, and Thunderbird


• Configure modelines


• Adjust MythTV UI setting to overcome overscan


• Install libdvdcss for DVD playback


• Fix DVD import bug


• Get remote to work




• Learn how USB devices mount


• Override USB IR reciever HID interface.


• Custom map USB event to key presses.


• Configure lirc




• Configure framebuffer to overcome console overscan




• Learn fbset


• Learn lilo


• Modify lilo.conf to use proper framebuffer configuration




• Tweak modelines to get 1:1 pixel mapping

A brief thought on “Political Correctness”

Political correctness is a distraction. The purpose of language is to communicate, not to follow the latest trend. The correct term is that which gets the point across. If you want subjective correctness independent of functional viability, criticize a person's outfit, not their terms.