Tag: Mythbuntu

The Penguin And I Are At It Again!

This is hardcore geek work. I’m performing tasks that resemble scenes from “War Games.” I inserted a disk and within seconds the screen was full of scrolling text.

The penguin and I are at it again. This is like Ali-Frazier!

If you missed it earlier the Linux operating system is referred to as the penguin here. My homebuilt DVR runs atop Linux. Unfortunately part of the DVR isn’t working. I am too crazed to allow that.

Mythbuntu is the distribution that’s causing the trouble. I read somewhere (though I haven’t been able to find it since) MythDora supports my capture card and fixes my problem. We’ll see.

This is hardcore geek work. I’m performing tasks that resemble scenes from “War Games.” I inserted a disk and within seconds the screen was full of scrolling text.

Why is it there when it goes by so fast it can’t be read? Got me. It just does.

This is a net install. I burned a smaller file–just enough to get the computer running. My job is done. It will now go online and find whatever else is needed. The autonomous computer is currently installing 194 Mb of “fluid-soundfont-lite-patches-3.1.-4.fc12.noarch.” That’s file 65 of 1457. Isn’t that the one they download to take over the Earth?

This will take a while. I might go to sleep and let it work quietly then pick it up in the morning (by which I mean afternoon).

It partially worked before I attempted this. It’s only fair I get at least that far tomorrow.

Do-It-Yourself DVR

Working on computers is a lot simpler than it sounds. Cards only plug in where they’re supposed to plug in. I’ve yet to fry one!

You know the guys who used to have cars up on blocks customizing and tweaking them until they performed exactly as the tinkerer wished? I’m that tinkerer, except with computers. That probably explains why last night when Helaine went to bed I went to work on an old PC–my DVR.

A few months ago I started recording my shows on the Comcast DVR we rent. The homebrew DVR was powered down. What I discovered was viewing video on the laptop while I’m doing other things is much more satisfying. That’s what brought this rebuild.

First an admission. Working on computers is a lot simpler than it sounds. Cards only plug in where they’re supposed to plug in. I’ve yet to fry one!

This computer was state-of-the-art years ago. It’s a P4 with 512mb RAM and a 150 gb hard drive. Even if you don’t recognize the stats, just think slow.

Luckily as a DVR it’s just fine. The secret here is the video capture cards which themselves contain a small computer specifically made to manipulate video. They do most of the heavy lifting. My two PVR-150s are the only pieces bought especially for a DVR. Together they cost around $100.

The standard program for this type of thing is MythTV. It’s an free open source program which runs on Linux. I chose to install Mythbuntu which combines MythTV and Ubuntu Linux in one distribution. I downloaded an iso file and burned it to a CD.

Surprisingly the installation went very slowly–over two hours. Then came the real tough part, configuring.

MythTV is meant to run on many different types of hardware so it needs to be custom configured. Unfortunately, as a free project put together by volunteers the documentation is a little lacking and the program’s interface non-intuitive. It took a while to understand exactly what was needed.

By 4:00 AM the box was built and everything was working. I downloaded the next fourteen days of TV listings into a MySQL database and selected a few shows to record.

This version of MythTV has some rudimentary streaming, but mostly I watch the video on my other computers using MythTV Player, another freeware program. Perfect!

What is tantalizing now is the thought of streaming my DVR to my iPhone. There are a few ways written but they all seem too complex. I’ll keep looking.

I’m also thinking of buying one more TV tuner card. This would be an ATSC, QAM card for recording HDTV digital cable (only the few unscrambled channels, unfortunately).

Like the guys with the cars on blocks this job will never be done.