Mailing List Archive

On 6 March 2017 at 15:14, Peter Charlesworth <peter@charlesworth.nz> wrote:

> Robert,
>
> Just to let you know that your advice, generously given on Geekzone, has
> been followed by one budding MythTV follower.
>
> Regarding the hardware............
>

Try a Google search for "mythtv backend minimum requirements"

You will see that it does not need to be a high spec box.

When I built my latest server I got a "barebones PC" and added heaps of
storage. You could use a NUC or a second hand PC too, even a Raspberry Pi
will work I think.

I recommend the HD Homerun tuners which are connected to your network
rather than installed in the computer. (One of our list members sells them)

Peter Charlesworth wrote:
> Regarding the hardware, we have an old but effective "home
> theatre" set-up, currently running through the TiVo for TV
> input. The TV has HDMI, the system has access to our fibre
> broadband, and the aerial is UHF. The PC side is where I
> will probably have to build from scratch, and although we
> have a couple of defunct desktop towers, I doubt that any of
> the contents will make the grade. Perhaps I can use an old
> box and restock it. The home theatre trappings are currently
> in a large space under the stairs behind the TV, so that
> would seem an ideal place for a "back end"?

Yep - thats a great start. If you can find and post the specs of the
computers?

I'd be looking for a core2duo with at least 1GB ram, and 400 GB of HDD
minimum. Ideally a couple of TB of disk for storing older recordings.

You'll also want a HDMI-capable video card (check if you have this)
and somethign to record programs from - the HD Homerun is considered
pretty good.

Finally you need a bunch of cables, some way to have a keyboard work in
your seating area, and a plan for if the understairs area starts getting
hot.

A wireless beyboard like this works superlatively, and is relatively
drop-resistant while being not-expensive.
http://www.dx.com/p/genuine-rii-mini-i8-wireless-92-key-qwerty-keyboard-mouse-touchpad-with-usb-receiver-black-134317#.WLzKKTuGMuU

> Do there happen to be any members in the Epsom area in Auckland whom I
> might contact for a meeting and advice?

Not me sorry.

--
Criggie

http://criggie.org.nz/




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On Mon, Mar 6, 2017 at 3:14 PM, Peter Charlesworth <peter@charlesworth.nz>
wrote:

> Robert,
>
> Just to let you know that your advice, generously given on Geekzone, has
> been followed by one budding MythTV follower. I’m currently trying to get
> my head around all the terms and descriptions I am encountering, which I am
> not familiar with, but I think I can get up to speed with some assistance.
>
>
> Regarding the hardware, we have an old but effective “home theatre”
> set-up, currently running through the TiVo for TV input. The TV has HDMI,
> the system has access to our fibre broadband, and the aerial is UHF. The
> PC side is where I will probably have to build from scratch, and although
> we have a couple of defunct desktop towers, I doubt that any of the
> contents will make the grade. Perhaps I can use an old box and restock
> it. The home theatre trappings are currently in a large space under the
> stairs behind the TV, so that would seem an ideal place for a “back end”?
>
> Do there happen to be any members in the Epsom area in Auckland whom I
> might contact for a meeting and advice?
>
> Regards,
>
> Peter
>

Welcome aboard Peter. Please tell us the specs of the best of your older
machines, and we'll do our best to assess if it will work. It should do.

Hi Peter,

I'd second the advice for HDHomeRun if you have good terrestrial reception
at your place.

MythTV works in a server/client format. This means that it has a backend
server, and a frontend. Both of these can run on a single machine. You
can also have other frontends attached on the network. This has two great
advantages -
1. You can watch TV in a different room without having to run a coax aerial
cable.
2. You can watch live TV and recordings from anywhere in the house.

Your backend does not have to be high end. For instance, I am running a
Backend/Frontend Mythbuntu machine with an AMD Athlon 64X2 processor and
4GB of DDR2 ram that is approximately 10 years old.

For the frontend, you want something with a graphics card that will drive
your 1080p HDMI screen. On Linux, that means something with supported
Hardware acceleration. When I was putting my machine together a few years
ago, that meant NVIDIA 600 series or above. That may or may not still be
true.

You can use MythTV's native frontend, but I have moved over to using Kodi
as a frontend. This runs acceptably even on a Raspberry Pi Model 1 B.

If you are using an HDHomeRun you don't even need coax to your backend,
just network.

In summary, there is a lot of setting up required to get a owrking MythTV
install compared to a consumer box like the TiVo, but once it's up and
running it is very versatile.

HTH,

Rory

On 6 March 2017 at 15:14, Peter Charlesworth <peter@charlesworth.nz> wrote:

> Robert,
>
> Just to let you know that your advice, generously given on Geekzone, has
> been followed by one budding MythTV follower. I’m currently trying to get
> my head around all the terms and descriptions I am encountering, which I am
> not familiar with, but I think I can get up to speed with some assistance.
>
>
> Regarding the hardware, we have an old but effective “home theatre”
> set-up, currently running through the TiVo for TV input. The TV has HDMI,
> the system has access to our fibre broadband, and the aerial is UHF. The
> PC side is where I will probably have to build from scratch, and although
> we have a couple of defunct desktop towers, I doubt that any of the
> contents will make the grade. Perhaps I can use an old box and restock
> it. The home theatre trappings are currently in a large space under the
> stairs behind the TV, so that would seem an ideal place for a “back end”?
>
> Do there happen to be any members in the Epsom area in Auckland whom I
> might contact for a meeting and advice?
>
> Regards,
>
> Peter
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtvnz mailing list
> mythtvnz@lists.linuxnut.co.nz
> http://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/mythtvnz
> Archives http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/mythtvnz/
>
>

On Mon, Mar 6, 2017 at 4:36 PM, Nick Rout <nick.rout@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, Mar 6, 2017 at 3:14 PM, Peter Charlesworth <peter@charlesworth.nz>
> wrote:
>
>> Robert,
>>
>> Just to let you know that your advice, generously given on Geekzone, has
>> been followed by one budding MythTV follower. I’m currently trying to get
>> my head around all the terms and descriptions I am encountering, which I am
>> not familiar with, but I think I can get up to speed with some
>> assistance.
>>
>> Regarding the hardware, we have an old but effective “home theatre”
>> set-up, currently running through the TiVo for TV input. The TV has HDMI,
>> the system has access to our fibre broadband, and the aerial is UHF. The
>> PC side is where I will probably have to build from scratch, and although
>> we have a couple of defunct desktop towers, I doubt that any of the
>> contents will make the grade. Perhaps I can use an old box and restock
>> it. The home theatre trappings are currently in a large space under the
>> stairs behind the TV, so that would seem an ideal place for a “back end”?
>>
>> Do there happen to be any members in the Epsom area in Auckland whom I
>> might contact for a meeting and advice?
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Peter
>>
>
> Welcome aboard Peter. Please tell us the specs of the best of your older
> machines, and we'll do our best to assess if it will work. It should do.
>
>

Just checked, my mythtv backend has the following cpu:

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4500 @ 2.20GHz

It has 4G Ram. It is an HP workstation I got from trademe. It has served me
well. It has a lot of other duties like serving (non mythtv) media to 3 or
four machines in the house, running a bittorrent client, various other
server duties. It's real beauty is it has lots of SATA ports and space for
hard drives, so when I run out of space, I add a new drive.

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



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Yep thats pretty much what I had planned too, except running under
xenserver. I'm fortunate enough to have two xenservers in a pool so
there's redundancy. Plus noone uses the servers as desktops like you
would a windows box, so even more reliable. (No spontaneous windows
updates! )

Downside is that disk space is not cheap because it has to be in the ISCSI
san, or in a non-redundant NAS. On the other side, its TV and its not the
end of the world to dump your recordings.

I use an acer revo as a main front end, and it works well enough.
The linux desktops can run mythtv-frontend if they want, but they're
general purpose devices.

I still wish there was a decent workable windows frontend or even an
android one :-\



Craig Blaikie wrote:
> 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.


--
Criggie

http://criggie.org.nz/




_______________________________________________
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On 7 March 2017 at 15:06, Criggie <criggie@criggie.org.nz> wrote:

> I still wish there was a decent workable windows frontend or even an
> android one :-\
>

You don't like Kodi?

Darn it - just found something I really like.....now to convince the CFO
we need it :)

"...VBox 4 channel tuner (2 HD/2 Satellite)..."

Hi Craig,
Would you know if this channel multiplexing is possible with the HDHomebase?
Rodney

Date sent: Mon, 06 Mar 2017 21:51:56 +0000
From: Craig Blaikie <craig@swarmiq.co.nz>
Subject: Re: [mythtvnz] TiVo replacement
To: "mythtvnz@lists.linuxnut.co.nz" <mythtvnz@lists.linuxnut.co.nz>
Send reply to: MythTV in NZ <mythtvnz@lists.linuxnut.co.nz>

> 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
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtvnz mailing list
> mythtvnz@lists.linuxnut.co.nz
> http://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/mythtvnz
> Archives http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/mythtvnz/
>
>
> -----
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 2016.0.7998 / Virus Database: 4756/14072 - Release Date: 03/06/17
>


-------------------------------------
Rodney Halvorsen

On Tue, Mar 7, 2017 at 4:41 PM, Rodney Halvorsen <rodneyh@clear.net.nz>
wrote:

> Hi Craig,
> Would you know if this channel multiplexing is possible with the
> HDHomebase?
> Rodney
>

Assuming you mean HD Homerun, the answer is "yes"


>
> Date sent: Mon, 06 Mar 2017 21:51:56 +0000
> From: Craig Blaikie <craig@swarmiq.co.nz>
> Subject: Re: [mythtvnz] TiVo replacement
> To: "mythtvnz@lists.linuxnut.co.nz" <
> mythtvnz@lists.linuxnut.co.nz>
> Send reply to: MythTV in NZ <mythtvnz@lists.linuxnut.co.nz>
>
> > 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
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > mythtvnz mailing list
> > mythtvnz@lists.linuxnut.co.nz
> > http://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/mythtvnz
> > Archives http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/mythtvnz/
> >
> >
> > -----
> > No virus found in this message.
> > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> > Version: 2016.0.7998 / Virus Database: 4756/14072 - Release Date:
> 03/06/17
> >
>
>
> -------------------------------------
> Rodney Halvorsen
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtvnz mailing list
> mythtvnz@lists.linuxnut.co.nz
> http://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/mythtvnz
> Archives http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/mythtvnz/
>
>

On Tue, Mar 7, 2017 at 6:31 PM, Nick Rout <nick.rout@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Tue, Mar 7, 2017 at 4:41 PM, Rodney Halvorsen <rodneyh@clear.net.nz>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Craig,
>> Would you know if this channel multiplexing is possible with the
>> HDHomebase?
>> Rodney
>>
>
> Assuming you mean HD Homerun, the answer is "yes"
>


And to be clear, you can record everything on a single mux with one tuner,
assuming your network and your Disk IO stands up.

DVB-T in NZ currently runs across 4 muxes, meaning with four tuners you
could record all of TV all the time.

The mux groupings are:

Mux 1: HGTV, RNZ National, Al Jazeera

Mux 2: TV1, TV2, TV1+1, TV2+1, Duke

Mux 3: TV3, TV3+1, Bravo, Bravo+1, The Edge

Mux 4: Prime, Te Reo, Maori TV, RNZ Concert, Parliament TV, Choice TV,
Canterbury TV

That's the way they appear in Christchurch. There are also shopping,
christian, local and ethnic channels (eg Chinese TV), none of which
interest me so they are not loaded on my system.

I currently have 2 tuners (one HD Homerun) and I rarely have a conflict.
Then again I don't record as much as I used to.

On Tue, 7 Mar 2017 18:46:10 +1300, you wrote:

>And to be clear, you can record everything on a single mux with one tuner,
>assuming your network and your Disk IO stands up.
>
>DVB-T in NZ currently runs across 4 muxes, meaning with four tuners you
>could record all of TV all the time.
>
>The mux groupings are:
>
>Mux 1: HGTV, RNZ National, Al Jazeera
>
>Mux 2: TV1, TV2, TV1+1, TV2+1, Duke
>
>Mux 3: TV3, TV3+1, Bravo, Bravo+1, The Edge
>
>Mux 4: Prime, Te Reo, Maori TV, RNZ Concert, Parliament TV, Choice TV,
>Canterbury TV
>
>That's the way they appear in Christchurch. There are also shopping,
>christian, local and ethnic channels (eg Chinese TV), none of which
>interest me so they are not loaded on my system.
>
>I currently have 2 tuners (one HD Homerun) and I rarely have a conflict.
>Then again I don't record as much as I used to.

I record a lot, and have three DVB-T tuners, but even then I get
clashes at times where I can not record everything I want to that is
on at that moment. It is only because Choice and HGTV (which I record
a fair bit from) have at least two more repeats at later times for all
programmes that I do not get unresolvable conflicts. Prime also has
repeats for some of its programmes.

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