MythTV 0.25 nearing release

Hi,
MythTV 0.25 is in beta for a release hoped for 2nd April 2012. There
are lots of changes and quite a few that should provide better
stability, particularly with regards to live TV.

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Release_Notes_-_0.25

Kid regards,

Rob.

On Mar 20, 4:35*pm, "news.plus.net" wrote:

MythTV 0.25 is in beta [snip]

How savvy do you have to be with computers to get a MythTV system up &
running?

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:46:14 -0700 (PDT), David Paste wrote:

How savvy do you have to be with computers to get a MythTV system up &
running?

I would describe it as challenging. I suppose it all depends on your setup,
which tuner cards etc. Plug & play it aint.
I would describe myself as fairly savvy, tried it & just gave up. I suppose
I'm just too old to unlearn Windows.
I'm currently running Mediaportal on Windows, very good IMO.

news.plus.net wrote:

MythTV 0.25 is in beta for a release hoped for 2nd April 2012. There are
lots of changes and quite a few that should provide better stability,
particularly with regards to live TV.

Yes, looking forward to it, I probably should sort out my diseqc problem
before adding another variable into the mix though ...

David Paste wrote:

How savvy do you have to be with computers to get a MythTV system up&
running?

I wish I could say it was plain sailing, but it isn't hardware choice is
important, there have been times I've had to know Linux quite intimately
(down to compiling my own kernels) to get, or keep, it working.

There may be easier distros than a rapidly moving one like Fedora, but
then if your hardware isn't supported you can wait for years on a slow
moving distro like centos until it becomes supported.

Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of help available, it depends if you
want to learn how your system works, or just turn it on and use it ...

Andy Burns wrote:
David Paste wrote:

How savvy do you have to be with computers to get a MythTV system up&
running?

I wish I could say it was plain sailing, but it isn't hardware choice is
important, there have been times I've had to know Linux quite intimately
(down to compiling my own kernels) to get, or keep, it working.

MythTV sounds interesting but I wonder what the advantages might be?

I know nothing about the current generation of PC graphics cards but
would be dubious about the quality of upscaled video as compared to what
I see on my FHD TV.

For example, Arte on 19.2E are currently broadcasting up to three
episodes of the cult classic Avengers series every morning in both
French and German. The bit rate for the French version is typically
around 2 MB/s and it looks pretty dire on my PC monitor. I would have
expected the same recording to look even worse when played back through
the USB on my 40" TV, but in fact it is greatly improved. There's
clearly a lot of image processing and enhancement going on and the
result is quite acceptable. The question is whether I could expect the
same picture quality using PC hardware connected up by HDMI to the TV.

The bit rate for the German SD Avengers is around 6 MB/s and approaches
the quality of the Arte HD broadcasts of the same programme - at 1280 x
720 on 19.2E and 1920 x 1080 on 13E.

John Legon wrote:

MythTV sounds interesting but I wonder what the advantages might be?

Many and various ... several of which can now be had from off the shelf
PVRs but no one box you buy will have all the features.

For me ...

2x DVB-T1 tuners, each allowing four concurrent recordings per mux

2x DVB-S2 tuners, I got this mainly for HD froom 28.2E before DSO here
and before T2 tuner cards available, but now have added 19.2E for live
RTL F1

glorified version of series record, set your own rules to record based
on keywords etc.

Web interface to EPG and existing recordings, including streaming.

I know nothing about the current generation of PC graphics cards but
would be dubious about the quality of upscaled video as compared to what
I see on my FHD TV.

Plenty of options for scaling, doubling framerate, different
de-interlacing algorithms to remove judder etc, sometimes there a fewer
options if using hardware decoding/display, but a dual core2 CPU keeps
up with fullHD anyway.

around 6 MB/s and approaches the quality of the Arte HD broadcasts of
the same programme - at 1280 x 720 on 19.2E

Trawling around at 720 HD material on 19.2E last night it didn't look
bad compared to the 1080 material on 28.2E

On 21/03/2012 08:13, John Legon wrote:
Andy Burns wrote:
David Paste wrote:

How savvy do you have to be with computers to get a MythTV system up&
running?

I wish I could say it was plain sailing, but it isn't hardware choice
is important, there have been times I've had to know Linux quite
intimately (down to compiling my own kernels) to get, or keep, it
working.

MythTV sounds interesting but I wonder what the advantages might be?

I know nothing about the current generation of PC graphics cards but
would be dubious about the quality of upscaled video as compared to what
I see on my FHD TV.

For example, Arte on 19.2E are currently broadcasting up to three
episodes of the cult classic Avengers series every morning in both
French and German. The bit rate for the French version is typically
around 2 MB/s and it looks pretty dire on my PC monitor. I would have
expected the same recording to look even worse when played back through
the USB on my 40" TV, but in fact it is greatly improved. There's
clearly a lot of image processing and enhancement going on and the
result is quite acceptable. The question is whether I could expect the
same picture quality using PC hardware connected up by HDMI to the TV.

The bit rate for the German SD Avengers is around 6 MB/s and approaches
the quality of the Arte HD broadcasts of the same programme - at 1280 x
720 on 19.2E and 1920 x 1080 on 13E.

Arte HD looks stunning on my Sony 37"HD fed from MythTV via HDMI so no
or minimal processing being done to the data stream by the PC.

When I first put the system together I only had the choice of Freeview
SD and it looked to me that the MythTV output was upscaled better than
that done by only the TV. That may be subjective but it was certainly close.

Sound is also digital from the input stream to the TV via HDMI and
thence to the surround system via SPDIF.

The motherboard is an Asus M3N78-EM with NVIDIA GeForce 8300.

Pete

On Mar 20, 7:46*pm, David Paste wrote:
On Mar 20, 4:35*pm, "news.plus.net" wrote:

MythTV 0.25 is in beta [snip]

How savvy do you have to be with computers to get a MythTV system up &
running?

I'll just unlurk for a minute: Hello everyone.

You don't have to be a real geek to use Linux nowadays.Ubuntu/
Mythbuntu works, in most cases, out of the box. Do a side-by-side
install with your w*nders and you haven't lost anything anyway.
All my computers have been free of m$oft for many years and hardware
is no problem but always check before buying some cheap TV cards!
Three months virus-free computing with Linux and you'll never look
back! Good Luck.

On Mar 20, 9:36*pm, Andy Burns wrote:

Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of help available, it depends if you
want to learn how your system works, or just turn it on and use it ...

Definitely the latter!