On 2/2/06, Eric Hattemer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Matt Darnell wrote: > >> I just have to remember to play with the udev settings > >> after any major rpm upgrade. > >> > > Not sure what that means....but I am sure some of the boys will! > > > > > Oh, I should explain. It's suggested that for simplicity sake, you > start by running mythbackend as root. I did that for a while, then > decided it might be better/safer to run it as it's own unprivileged > user. This meant that all of the devices the program needs need to be > accessible by the user that runs mythbackend. By default, Fedora makes > the video capture cards only accessible by root, and the sound card > either by root, or the user logged into X11 on console. I needed to > change that, so I played with their udev script, which sets the > permissions on a reboot. Everytime I upgrade my rpms seriously, that > script gets overwritten. I finally learned that I could make an addon > script with a higher number that wouldn't get overwritten, but I haven't > rebooted or upgraded since that.
I will make sure people think about that. > Wow that install guide is awesome! The hardware guide is worth the price > > alone. > > > > Have you ever used the knoppix mythtv distro? When you said FC4, I > assume > > you built it from source. > > > > > I haven't used the knopmyth, but I hear it almost surely works out of > the box with most hardware, quite well. It might take some setup on > every reboot, but maybe you can store the settings on the hard drive. I > don't know. > > I have an iMac for my machine at home...I wonder if you can stream to > it. I > > use 802.11g > > > > > It probably won't be a big problem. They worked out a mythfrontend for > OSX. You can probably compile it with the Apple Developer Tools. You > probably need to compile a whole bunch of libraries, install fink, or > hope they have a binary version. I haven't looked at the Apple stuff, > though. If you can find a mythtv/nuppelvideo decoder for your favorite > media player, then you don't need the mythfrontend to watch pre-recorded > stuff (you need a very special codec to watch live TV). I believe the > standard codec pack for MPlayer comes with nuppelvideo. I will check that out. > Thanks for the feedback! Do you mind giving you hardware specs - > > motherboard part #, CPU, which bttv cap card. > > > My old motherboard blew a set of capacitors. I kept swearing that there > was a redhat kernel problem, because I'd get random panics once a week > or so. I kept bugging Warren. The redhat kernel specialist told me to > look at the motherboard. Sure enough, there was brown goo oozing out of > most of my capacitors. > > My new motherboard that I've had for a few months is the MSI K7N2GM-V. > The motherboard isn't really that important for this, unless you are > going for a shuttle setup. A lot of people are using shuttles and via > processors for their mythtv machines because they are small and > passively cooled (quiet). I don't care about either of those factors. > > I'm using an Athlon XP. I forget which PR number it is, but it's > 1141MHz with 2252 bogomips. I think it was an 1800+. I put in 1GB of > RAM just for fun (I was ordering RAM for my Windows gaming machine, and > just wanted to grab some for the Linux machine too). > > The TV card is an ATi TV Wonder PCI. It was like $70 in the year 2000. > It has an onboard MPEG-1 encoder only (useless). MPEG-1 takes up > massive amounts of space, so mythtv doesn't use MPEG1. This means I > have to encode to some other video format, which uses the processor. I > can get max quality mp3 with 640x480 180-quality RTJPEG using probably > around 60-70% CPU. I only use DivX (MPEG4) anymore on low quality > stuff, and use 900kbit/sec rating. I used to do mpeg4 encoding on the > fly on high quality stuff, but this ramped up the processor into the > danger zone. If I run low on space, I can use the nice-19 transcoder > function to re-encode my rtjpeg stuff to divx over maybe the time it > would take for the show to run twice. But I have a 250GB hard drive, so > that's not too much of a problem. You should note, that you will want > outrageous amounts of disk space for your mythtv box. I was thinking > about setting up a TB array. But in the end, you start to realize that > the hard drive is just a buffer between the time you tape the show and > the time you watch it. If your schedule is anywhat consistent, you will > need to eventually delete things without watching them if you tape too > much. My divx 900kb/s shows are about 10MB/min (keep in mind the sound > gets added in). The RTJPEG [EMAIL PROTECTED] stuff is about 40MB/min. The > RTJPEG [EMAIL PROTECTED] stuff is just over 50MB/min. That means an hour show > takes up about 3GB. I could optimize these a bit, turn transcoding back > on, etc., but I haven't palyed with these in a while. Since I got my > $3000 1080p TV (a week ago), I probably should ramp up all resolutions > to 640x480 (the max the card handles and the max SDTV comes in at). The > divx [EMAIL PROTECTED]/s looks pretty goofy when it's not on my 20" > monitor. Maybe I'll up the res, but keep the bitrate the same. Mostly > I just tape talk shows at this quality level, anyway. It's just that at > the same bitrate, large frame sizes give good stills, and small frame > sizes give good motion. If I did [EMAIL PROTECTED]/s, I'd get insane > macroblocking. But that's not relevant for talk shows. > > With any of the cards with the MPEG2 encoders builtin, you can tape to > MPEG2 directly. This uses negligible cpu (I think someone said about > 4%). Even at max quality, the shows don't take up an unreasonable > amount of space. You can then run the transcoder in the background at > minimum priority (in mythtv, you setup a recording profile that > automatically transcodes certain shows you pick). I think the Haupauge > 150/250/350 cards are the most common ones with builtin MPEG2 encoders. > There are cards with 720p capabilities, but since I have SD cable, I've > never looked into that. > > -Eric Hattemer Great stuff Eric! You confirmed my belief that I should get one of the Haupauge cards. I think the 150 will do me fine..just want to take on last look at the differences. Speaking of 1080p......when should I show up for the Superbowl? -Matt
