Mailing List Archive

Joseph Caputo wrote:

>I'd be interested to see the hardware specs... wonder if it might make a
>decent Myth box? Of course, based on the current generation of Tivo
>hardware, I'd say probably not.
>
>
The idea of putting Linux on a Tivo is pretty new to me.. Is this
actually possible?? I mean, it would make much more sense to me buying
hardware that's made for TV recording rather than spending almost twice
as much building a full-on computer... Would this really be possible? I
would think there would be some serious hardware driver issues...

Ben Davis wrote:

> Joseph Caputo wrote:
>
>> I'd be interested to see the hardware specs... wonder if it might make a
>> decent Myth box? Of course, based on the current generation of Tivo
>> hardware, I'd say probably not.
>>
>>
> The idea of putting Linux on a Tivo is pretty new to me.. Is this
> actually possible?? I mean, it would make much more sense to me
> buying hardware that's made for TV recording rather than spending
> almost twice as much building a full-on computer... Would this really
> be possible? I would think there would be some serious hardware driver
> issues...

(foot - in - mouth )
Heh.. I just did a quick search for "Tivo Linux" and I guess tivo uses
linux on their machines .. Ha! Shows what I know :-p. .. The cool thing
is that they make the source code freely available. Would it be safe to
say you could take a Tivo and turn it into a MythBox ?? What would be
the advantages/disadvantages of this as compared to builiding your own box?

On Thursday, May 8, 2003, at 09:41 PM, Ben Davis wrote:

> Joseph Caputo wrote:
>
>> I'd be interested to see the hardware specs... wonder if it might
>> make a
>> decent Myth box? Of course, based on the current generation of Tivo
>> hardware, I'd say probably not.
>>
> The idea of putting Linux on a Tivo is pretty new to me.. Is this
> actually possible?? I mean, it would make much more sense to me
> buying hardware that's made for TV recording rather than spending
> almost twice as much building a full-on computer... Would this really
> be possible? I would think there would be some serious hardware driver
> issues...
>
>


This is almost certainly impossible. The reason people (foolishly) get
their hopes up about TIVO is that it runs linux right now. The stock
software from TIVO is in fact linux based. However, the chance of
getting a stock linux distro to install and work with all that
proprietary hardware is near null. Furthermore, the TIVO architecture
(slow ass CPU and hardware encode/decode) would complicate things even
more. The short answer is .... forget it.

Cedar

Wasn't that the short answer to getting the XBox to run linux sans mod?

The key here is to properly balance the various priorities.. Ultimately,
though, for the cost of that tivo (549 USD?), you could probably assemble
your own system..

And as the Myth advances, it's bound to get easier : )

tarek : )

>This is almost certainly impossible. The reason people (foolishly) get
>their hopes up about TIVO is that it runs linux right now. The stock
>software from TIVO is in fact linux based. However, the chance of getting
>a stock linux distro to install and work with all that proprietary
>hardware is near null. Furthermore, the TIVO architecture (slow ass CPU
>and hardware encode/decode) would complicate things even more. The short
>answer is .... forget it.
>
>Cedar
>
>_______________________________________________
>mythtv-users mailing list
>mythtv-users@snowman.net
>http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

>
> On Thursday, May 8, 2003, at 09:41 PM, Ben Davis wrote:
>
>> Joseph Caputo wrote:
>>
>>> I'd be interested to see the hardware specs... wonder if it might
>>> make a
>>> decent Myth box? Of course, based on the current generation of Tivo
>>> hardware, I'd say probably not.
>>>
>> The idea of putting Linux on a Tivo is pretty new to me.. Is this
>> actually possible?? I mean, it would make much more sense to me
>> buying hardware that's made for TV recording rather than spending
>> almost twice as much building a full-on computer... Would this really
>> be possible? I would think there would be some serious hardware driver
>> issues...
>>
>>
>
>
> This is almost certainly impossible. The reason people (foolishly) get
> their hopes up about TIVO is that it runs linux right now. The stock
> software from TIVO is in fact linux based. However, the chance of
> getting a stock linux distro to install and work with all that
> proprietary hardware is near null. Furthermore, the TIVO architecture
> (slow ass CPU and hardware encode/decode) would complicate things even
> more. The short answer is .... forget it.
>

Would it be possible to tear out that proprietary hardware and put in a new
motherboard/processor. In other words, reuse the case, power supply, IR
transceiver and hard drive. I currently have a Tivo that will become
superfluous once I get a Myth box built, I'd love it if I could turn the
Tivo into an inexpensive frontend. Does anyone know if this would be
feasible?

On a related note, the Tivo has a red LED that lights up when the box is
recording. I have found it quite handy at times and I wonder if it would be
possible to create similar functionality with Myth?

Jon

Quote:
===========
On a related note, the Tivo has a red LED that lights up when the box
is recording. I have found it quite handy at times and I wonder if it
would be possible to create similar functionality with Myth?
===========

IMO, it's already there. When Myth is recording, you will see your
HDD LED flashing rapidly.

Alex Petkov

On Fri, 2003-05-09 at 11:39, Alexander P. Petkov wrote:
> Quote:
> ===========
> On a related note, the Tivo has a red LED that lights up when the box
> is recording. I have found it quite handy at times and I wonder if it
> would be possible to create similar functionality with Myth?
> ===========
>
> IMO, it's already there. When Myth is recording, you will see your
> HDD LED flashing rapidly.
>
> Alex Petkov
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@snowman.net
> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

It's what I use...

Depends, if you are using a hardware encoder card the hard drive light blinks once every second and a half to two seconds. The on time is very short as well so it is dim. Using that to determine if recording is happening is somewhere between convenient and waiting for water to boil :)

-----Original Message-----
From: Calvin Harrigan [mailto:calvinharrigan@earthlink.net]
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2003 9:53 AM
To: Discussion about mythtv
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Re:Tivo debuts slimmed-down TV service


On Fri, 2003-05-09 at 11:39, Alexander P. Petkov wrote:
> Quote:
> ===========
> On a related note, the Tivo has a red LED that lights up when the box
> is recording. I have found it quite handy at times and I wonder if it
> would be possible to create similar functionality with Myth?
> ===========
>
> IMO, it's already there. When Myth is recording, you will see your
> HDD LED flashing rapidly.
>
> Alex Petkov
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@snowman.net
> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

It's what I use...

_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users@snowman.net
http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Ben Davis wrote:
| Ben Davis wrote:
|
|> Joseph Caputo wrote:
|>
|>> I'd be interested to see the hardware specs... wonder if it might make a
|>> decent Myth box? Of course, based on the current generation of Tivo
|>> hardware, I'd say probably not.
|>>
|>>
|> The idea of putting Linux on a Tivo is pretty new to me.. Is this
|> actually possible?? I mean, it would make much more sense to me
|> buying hardware that's made for TV recording rather than spending
|> almost twice as much building a full-on computer... Would this really
|> be possible? I would think there would be some serious hardware driver
|> issues...
|
|
| (foot - in - mouth )
| Heh.. I just did a quick search for "Tivo Linux" and I guess tivo uses
| linux on their machines .. Ha! Shows what I know :-p. .. The cool thing
| is that they make the source code freely available. Would it be safe to
| say you could take a Tivo and turn it into a MythBox ?? What would be
| the advantages/disadvantages of this as compared to builiding your own
box?
|
| _______________________________________________
| mythtv-users mailing list
| mythtv-users@snowman.net
| http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

If all the source is freely available, doesn't that mean you have the
code needed to support the programming feed for users with lifetime
subsciptions that switch from Tivo? (note: I am not one of them) Or, do
you just mean all the kernel code is freely available?
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> If all the source is freely available, doesn't that mean you have
> the code needed to support the programming feed for users with
> lifetime subsciptions that switch from Tivo? (note: I am not one of
> them) Or, do you just mean all the kernel code is freely
> available?

The kernel modifications can be downloaded. Applications like
MyWorld and all the custom code used to drive the MPEG encoder and
decoder can't. Since the Tivo guide format is known (see the
Canadian Tivo lists over at Yahoo) and downloaded using HTTP, I
suppose that if you're clever enough and have a lifetime Tivo
subscription you could pull the Tivo guide data, and either convert
it into XMLTV format or just stuff it directly into the MythTV
database.

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>
> If all the source is freely available, doesn't that mean you have the
> code needed to support the programming feed for users with lifetime
> subsciptions that switch from Tivo? (note: I am not one of them) Or, do
> you just mean all the kernel code is freely available?


If you read the linux info on their website you'll see that not all
their source is open. The only source they make available is their
modifications to the linux kernel and any other open source software
they might have used.

Robert Kulagowski wrote:
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
>
>>If all the source is freely available, doesn't that mean you have
>>the code needed to support the programming feed for users with
>>lifetime subsciptions that switch from Tivo? (note: I am not one of
>>them) Or, do you just mean all the kernel code is freely
>>available?
>
>
> The kernel modifications can be downloaded. Applications like
> MyWorld and all the custom code used to drive the MPEG encoder and
> decoder can't. Since the Tivo guide format is known (see the
> Canadian Tivo lists over at Yahoo) and downloaded using HTTP, I
> suppose that if you're clever enough and have a lifetime Tivo
> subscription you could pull the Tivo guide data, and either convert
> it into XMLTV format or just stuff it directly into the MythTV
> database.

Oh, oh, oh! Hey, Chris! To me, this looks like a fabulous
way for you to hone your programming skill to prepare for
game programming! What a confidence builder it would be to
apply your unique TiVo hacking, program listing, XML and
MySQL skills to write something used by humdereds or
thousands of people 8-).

Let me know if you need any help,

-- bjm

Bruce Markey wrote:

> Oh, oh, oh! Hey, Chris!...

Obviously, I mis-addressed this message. My apologies.

-- bjm