[mythtvnz] TiVo replacement

[Craig Blaikie]

Just thought I would add my 10c worth about the setup and use of MythTV.

I have run a combined MythTV on frontend/backend for many years, but about one year ago, started playing around with the RaspberryPI 3 Model B.  I have been running the XBain version of the Kodi media player, with the MythTV plugin.  This RaspberryPI/Kodi box is now the fulltime frontend for my system, contacts the backend, works beautifully.

About one month ago, the big upgrade started.  I virtualised the MythTV frontend/backend so that it is now running as a virtual machine, on my windows 10 PC, Skylake i7 - 16GB Ram.
The virtual machine image is running on Hyper-V service on windows, this service anyone with 64bit Windows 8, 8.1 or 10 (Pro version) should be able to install through add/remove programs, it would also be possible to run this virtual machine under VMWare Workstation or Player.  The MythTV frontend/backend runs in the virtual machine, and I can record and watch programs there (testing the system), but there is no sound card drivers setup in Hyper-V by default, so there is no sound.  The recorded file does have the sound and works great on the Kodi frontend.

The install is Mythbuntu 16.04.1, and the virtual machine is set to use 4GB ram and I have given it 2 virtual CPUs, it runs at about 2-5%, load
The tuner is a HD Homerun, which has 2 hardware tuners, MythTV is configured for 5 virtual tuners per physical tuner, so these virtual tuners allow MythTV to record up to 5 programs from each of the 2 hardware tuners.
Storage is 8TB HDD, mounted in windows, but shared to the Virtual machine over a NFS share.
Scheduling/recording setup is done mainly through MythWeb, although programs can be scheduled in Kodi also.
Live TV is available via Kodi, but hardly ever use it.

Program guide is via EIT download, nothing to install and configure, just enabled in setup/MythWeb, previously I had used the tv_grab_nz-py on the old MythTV server

This design allows for multiple low power frontends (Kodi), and only one PC running full time in the office.

Future enhancement will be possible more storage and an additional tuner, either another HD Homerun or a VBox 4 channel tuner (2 HD/2 Satellite)

The new server/image was a fresh install and have retired the backend (it turned off during the last power cut...) and I will need to move the recordings from it sometime in the next few weeks, planning to use myth archive to move the recordings over.


Cheers,
  Craig