MythTV in HD now working :)

Well, I finally got MythTV all setup and running how I would like. Thanks in part to the work of Jarod Wilson’s Fedora Myth(tv)ology and the MythTV.org Wiki I’ve installed all the software and configured everything to work with my hardware. I’ve also converted over to the new TV listings supply from Schedules Direct since Zap2It labs is closing the end of this month.

Here are the specs of my MythTV Box:

  • Fedora Core 6 (may migrate to CentOS 5)
  • AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800 CPU
  • 2 GB DDR Ram (512MB x 4)
  • 2x Seagate 400GB SATA 300 HD in Raid 1 (will migrate to Raid 0 soon)
  • nVidia 6150 Chipset motherboard with built in HD scaling component video out
  • MCE USB IR sensor
  • Hauppauge PVR-500 Dual Analog Tuner (NTSC)
  • Silicondust HDHomeRun Dual High Definition Tuner (ATSC/QAM)
  • NMediaPC HTPC 200 Case
  • Logitech Harmony 880 Remote (makes it all easy to run).

LiveTV and programmed listing recording works perfectly. I have about 360GB of space dedicated to Media storage. I’ve found that even Analog TV takes a lot of storage space (about 1GB per 30 minutes) to get good quality video that scales well to the 1920x1080i resolution I’m running on my HD TV. I’ll probably play with the analog recording settings more to try and find the optimal quality to still create nice images, but right now the picture of analog TV looks better through MythTV than it does with the TV’s built in Analog tuners. My only complaint is fast action shots show a little tearing/pixeling, but that’s more an artifact of 1080i than the MythTV. Wish the TV accepted 1080p or even 720p, but it’s an older Toshiba CRT HDTV that only does 1080i, 480p, and 480i. Still, the picture is beautiful!

About D-Caf

I'm a computer geek, what more is there to say?
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3 Responses to MythTV in HD now working :)

  1. wheezewiz says:

    Hi,

    I envy you for your Mythtv setup. I have Mythtv running on Ubuntu using an RF remote with good results. However, I need to get my new Harmony 880 remote to work with Lirc. How did you do it? What IR receiver did you use? The Lirc website says using a USB IR receiver is not possible. Did you get it to work or did you use another receiver for the 880 in your system? Thanks!

    Frank Morris
    Satellite Beach, FL

  2. D-Caf says:

    I did get the Harmony 880 to work with at USB IR receiver. I purchased the “cough” Microsoft MediaPC Remote and USB Receiver which works very well with Linux go figure.

    From the LIRC section here:
    http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php#lirc

    The Microsoft USB XP MCE like this:
    http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Center-Control-Receivier/dp/B000FNDPS6/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1217095340&sr=8-1

    Not sure if that’s the exact one, you’ll have to check on the model numbers and all. But I don’t use the MS remote, I use the harmony remote with the USB IR reciever that comes with it. Works great.

    I’ll try and post of the LIRC config file I’m using later.

  3. wheezewiz says:

    Thanks for the tip. In the meantime I found serial IR receivers with remotes for $1 each on the bay (link below; I just received the two I ordered). I will give that a try first and reserve the MediaPC as a backup. Thanks, again!

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220261961021&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=012

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