I'm looking for a replacement for when my Series1 Tivo gets killed off in June & MythTV seems to be a good option (unless the rumoured hack to the EPG process for Tivo gets off the ground).
I'm probably looking at a fairly simple installation with a single PC running front & back end & recording Freesat, so wondered what other people's experiences were of getting it running, reliability, user friendliness, hardware specs etc.
I had it running about 6-7 years ago using a couple of freeview receivers in my PC. Getting it working then was a b*llache but I did it. I would imagine that it's a lot easier now 
Last time I gave MythTV a try (2-3yrs back), you needed a PhD in SQL sysadmin. And that was just to get the front/backend working, and before needing a Masters in making it work with the DVB stuff.
Now I use (occasionally) XBMC front end but that's just playback only.
And was using me-tv just to record stuff from my DVB-S card,but that's a bit flaky.
Was tempted to say sod it, and just hack a bit of python together. Won't be pretty but would do what I want... ie record & playback without sysadmin, and without paying for another OS/software.
90% of the time I just use DVB HDD recorder, set synchro record, and program whatever on the Sat receiver.
Yep, been using it for almost a year now. Hadn't heard of it before but I wanted to replace an old topfield pvr that kept rebooting and try HD at the same time. It also appealed to the geek in me!
We now have a backend tucked away in the loft and 2 front ends connecting into it. The backend is a server I put together from bits and has 1TB storage (on mirrored drives :-), 4 freesat feeds and 2 freeview feed. Frontends are Acer Revos - brilliant when running linux - cheap, small, quiet and capable. Ours are mounted on the back of the TV's and will handle HD (bbc hd, itv hd and also some bluray rips - 16gb files!) no problem. Connection via hdmi and s/pdif to surround sound. It works ok over wireless for most things but does need the cat6 for the bigger files / higher quality stuff. I believe you can run the frontend on xbox 360 amongst others.
I'd definitely recommend a separate backend if you have the space to hide it away somewhere. Be aware that some TV cards dont like to be shutdown / hibernated - my hauppauge nova-t 500 needs a hard power off or it doesnt work. A reboot / hibernate kills it, so putting it in a front end (which i tried originally) just didnt work unless we wanted that front end turned on all the time.
The Mrs uses it quite happily so once its up and running, its definitely 'family proof'. We control ours with a standard ir remote, the interface works well with it.
Advert flagging doesnt work with uk broadcasts. You may be able to make it work but I havent bothered.
Mythweb / mythmusic / mythgallery / mythgallery are all very useful plugins. I've had no problems with it playing all manner of video / codecs.
I did it with ubuntu 10.04 then installed stuff on top if it but you can get distros with it built in. There are also some plugins for the later versions which will connect it to iplayer, itv player, etc.
Theres a very good guide to installing at http://parker1.co.uk/mythtv_ubuntu.php
Get all the components (especially the tv card) working before installing myth!!
Enjoy!
Frontends are Acer Revos - brilliant when running linux - cheap, small, quiet and capable
Get all the components (especially the tv card) working before installing myth!
So you don't like Windows Media Centre?
I understand that win MCE isn't permanently buffering live TV & if you decide to record something after it's started it won't store the buffer as part of the recording, whereas MythTV does. My 10 yr old Tivo does both so don't see why I should give them up!
do you have to have the backend on all the time? Do you have the front ends on all the time?
Tried it about a year ago when I re-built my media PC (which was running XP Media Centre). As has been said, I found it hard to set up (or rather, it was easy apart from getting sound from the TV, which took a few days to sort out.) It looks good, and the front/back end stuff could be useful if you need it.
But, I went back to XP Media Centre, which does what I need.
PlayTV?
(Just random uninformed suggestions here )
Been using it for 5 years or so now, tis ace. Mythbuntu for easiest setup etc.
Using an acer revo for front + backend at the mo, leave it running 24/7. Also runs a webserver which is handy, plus I can connect to mythweb and set something to record that I forgot, or stream one of my recordings when I'm out and about.
Some info on setup on my blog:
http://doitdifferent.wordpress.com/tag/mythtv/
Some of that info will be out of date with current software though, particularly the revo/ion VDPAU stuff was written when it was bleeding edge hardware/software.
do you have to have the backend on all the time? Do you have the front ends on all the time?
No and no. The only reason I do is because my freeview card will stop working if I try to get my backend to turn off when its not doing anything and on again when it needs to. If you have a tv card that is happy to be hibernated (under linux) then you should be ok.
You guys not find the power consumption of such systems to be horrific? I've a system I use for a kitchen PC/media centre and even when powered off it's draining 40W, powered on it's burning 100W continuously. Then to require front end machines on top - madness. A decent recorder will run off 15-20W and sit at about 8 on standby.
My card (Hauppage something) worked, even supported by stock Ubuntu kernel (Intrepid iirc), but gave up trying to get Myth to work with it.
Its worth trying again with a recent version, it sounds like its changed plenty since you last tried (all the SQL gubbins is done for you too). It now only asks for a user/pass and ip address if youre going for separate frontend/backend. If its all on the one box I dont think it asks anything re. sql!
You guys not find the power consumption of such systems to be horrific?
Its worth trying again with a recent version, it sounds like its changed plenty since you last triedThat's what people said back then too
Tried Mythbuntu and Mythdora iirc. One was a PITA, the other hammered the HDD once per second. edit: at least with an HDD I could hear it being accessed - would have been a sod if the SSD was killed due to stealthy over access.A decent recorder will run off 15-20W and sit at about 8 on standby
As above, a decent Ion based system is of that order of power consumption also.
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