Specifications

94 | august 2008 www.linuxjournal.com
indicate where you want to store recordings. The latest version
of MythTV allows you to specify multiple directories, which
can be useful if you have multiple hard drives (and do not use
a logical volume manager).
Figure 3. The Tuner Card Setup Screen
Now you should be ready to start watching and recording
TV. There are two options for interfacing with your new
MythTV box: using a keyboard and/or mouse (presumably
Bluetooth) or using a remote control to navigate the MythTV
interface and log in remotely with SSH to perform system
administration tasks, such as installing and updating software.
I recommend the latter. If you don’t have an HDTV, you will
find it difficult to read any text or menus on the screen.
Setting up the remote is easy to do if you follow one of the
many how-tos available on-line. In order to allow remote login
to your system via SSH, you need to install the SSH server. In
Ubuntu, this is the package called openssh-server. Start it with
the following:
/usr/sbin/sshd
Before doing this, make sure you are using a secure
password (especially for the mythtv user that is created
automatically).
If you have digital cable, as I do, you’ll run into some addi-
tional complications. In order to change the channel, you need
to change the channel on the cable box. You can do this with
an IR blaster, which should come with your Hauppauge
remote. There is an excellent on-line guide on how to set this
up (see Resources). Keep in mind that you need to use the
lirc_pvr150 module and not the lirc_i2c module; the reverse is
true if you have no blaster. You need to set up the blaster
right in front of the IR receiver on the cable box; I just taped
mine on. When I upgraded Ubuntu on my MythTV box, the
remote and blaster support broke, so you may want to set
aside some time for upgrades in case this happens to you too.
MythTV isn’t only a DVR. Through the plugins, it has the
capability to be an all-in-one entertainment system. The
plugins I use on a daily basis are MythMusic, MythVideo,
MythArchive and MythWeb. The first two allow you to
play music and videos in various formats (including DVD).
MythArchive lets you burn recordings and videos to DVD, and
MythWeb allows you to control your system remotely with an
easy-to-use Web interface.
I dumped my music collection onto my MythTV box, and as
I have a good set of speakers, I use it as my main stereo system.
Watching and backing up DVDs are also a snap using
MythVideo. If you have an HDTV, try downloading the HD
video of the moon from the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft and
watching it in your living room. MythArchive and MythWeb
are helpful when you’re not at home, because you can burn
your favorite programs or movies and take them with you or
download them remotely. MythWeb requires a little setup, but
it’s fairly easy. Make sure you enable authentication before
opening it up to the outside world.
Performance
You may run into a few problems on your low-end system.
The two main ones involve high CPU usage and insufficient
RAM. You can operate MythTV with 256MB of RAM; however,
I experienced frequent freeze-ups, so I upgraded to 512MB.
You should keep an eye on how well it’s performing and
INDEPTH
Figure 4. My IR Blaster Setup
Figure 5. Enabling XvMC under TV Settings