Re: [BLUG] MythTV

Mark Krenz wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 01, 2007 at 04:35:27PM GMT, Joe Auty [joe@netmusician.org] said the following:
>> I have one.
>>
>
> Ok, how do you use it and what kind of setup is it? For instance,
> can it control other components in a system like a seperate DVD player
> or can you change Satelite TV channels with it? Or do you still need to
> control those things seperately?
>
>

AFAIK,

There are two types of channel changing mechanisms: RF (like some
satellite and cable systems use), and infra-red (like mine uses, Dish
Network uses, etc).

If your satellite is infra-red based (i.e. AFAIK, you have a remote
control that speaks to a separate box that controls the channel
selection, independent of the channel selection provided by your TV
remote), you will need to also purchase a little IR blaster, which can
be had very cheaply. Then, you would use the LIRC daemon in conjunction
with a channel changing script to speak to your sat box to allow MythTV
to automate changing channels.

Without the IR blaster, your MythTV setup will not be able to change the
channels of your satellite. So, if you wanted to record on channel 3 and
your satellite was set on channel 4, you'd have to remember to change
channels yourself prior to your recording - sort of like the old VCR
days, I guess.

You can separate your client and server machines if you wish, and
Hauppauge even makes a little box called the MediaMVP which you can run
a hacked version of MythTV client on if you don't want to dedicate a
computer for your client stuff or bring the computer out to the TV area
where the IR blaster is within range of your sat box (this didn't work
very well for me though).

MythTV has a number of plug-ins available, one of which is DVD player
controls, I believe.

Setting up MythTV itself is actually pretty easy, it's just a question
of figuring out some of these sorts of logistics of your setup. I may be
upgrading my Hauppauge 250 capture card pretty soon. If you want to play
around with it before I sell it on eBay, perhaps we can work something out?

I hope this info is useful, I didn't want to write an essay about stuff
you may already know or not care about :)

--
Joe Auty
NetMusician: web publishing software for musicians
http://www.netmusician.org
joe@netmusician.org
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