[mythtvnz] Introduction

[Nick Rout]

On Thu, 1 Dec 2005 11:32:33 +1300 (NZDT)
criggie wrote:

> My turn :)
> 
> I've got a crappy P3 866 with 1 Gb ram running mythtv backend.  The card
> is now a PVR-150MCE and works astonishingly well.  The former card was a
> philips SAA7134 based Lifeview Prime 34.  The machine simply lacked the
> balls to run this card because its a dumb framegrabber.
> 
> My frontend is my P3 700 laptop.  I've had liveTV working quite acceptably
> over wireless ethernet, which suprises me.
> 
> My next plans are to put up a decent aerial (the rabbit ears in a tin shed
> doesn't work very well) and organise some more hard drive space.  Is it
> reasonable to use a NFS mount to store the recorded programmes?
> 
> I also have to find some way to put a front-end on the wife's XP box, both
> for playback and programming.  She has a PVR-150 (not MCE) of her own.

There is a myth frontend for windows here
http://winmyth.sourceforge.net/ , but it "has issues" and I have never
got it to work. However the site does have a link to the dsmyth site
which has the directshow codecs required on windows to play back soem
mythtv content (see below).

Mythtv stores your tv in one of two formats:

1. both formats use the nuv container and filename extension, ie
file.nuv.

2. mpeg2 material as produced by the hauppauge card like yours is
actually stored as it comes, and is playable on windows, provided
windows has the right codecs (eg if it can play a commercial dvd it will
obviously have the right codec)

3. material from a framegrabber is stored in a different codec, RTjpeg
or somesuch, you need to install a windows codec for playing that in,
e.g, windows media player.

4. On windows I think I am right in saying vlc will play either format
anyway, without additional codecs, because vlc doesn't, in general.
require external codecs, they brew their own.

5. if you install mythweb, and configure the right symlinks, you can
click on a recorded program in the web interface and have it play via
your media player in windows. As i say, vlc is probably the easiest to
use as it has the codecs built in (and it is open source - need I say
more - oh yeah and it won't make you set your dvd drive to any zone,
unlike windvd etc)

> 

-- 
Nick Rout <nick@rout.co.nz>