MythTV

After a few months thinking about it, the quiet time at the end of last week provided a good opportunity for me to build my first MythTV system. The whole process was pretty uneventful - apt-get all of the relevant bits from the Ubuntu multiverse, install xmltv from the source (as the Ubuntu package doesn’t install and it’s necessary to have a newer version in order to use the Radio Times website as a source), patch the Linux kernel to support the Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T that I bought, fiddle around with mythtv-setup and it’s running.

Using a KnoppMyth CD it is easy to boot another frontend machine to watch recorded shows or live TV (as long as the main machine isn’t use the tuner). Configuring the DVB channels was a little daunting, but Martin Smith’s site was a great help.

Next to do are the purchase and installation of another tuner and the construction of some more frontend machines. Maybe even connect one of them to a real television :-). It would also be good to get some kind of remote control working - using the keyboard to change channels, etc. gets boring pretty quickly.