Are freevo and mythtv hopeles both to configure and to have it working like we want ?

frenchn00b · 11-13-2007, 11:53 AM

Hi, I am just finding that mythtv and freevo are certainly not the most advanced program as could be other programs. The configuration is frequently kind of some challenge if you have to uptodate hardware or too old.

How is your experience, just to know and exchange ?

Regards

farslayer · 11-13-2007, 01:51 PM

I understand OpenSuse 10.3 has some changes in it that make MythTV a LOT easier to setup and get working on that particular distro...

mlitty · 11-13-2007, 09:39 PM

I have set up several Myth boxes over the years. It used to be a nightmare to install, taking weeks of tweaking. The last two installs took only a few hours and mostly involved clicking in the repos and following the on screen instructions. I use Xubuntu, though Ubuntu would work just as well. The package maintainer has set up some fabulous scripts that do most of the configuration work for you.

The most trouble I had was in configuring the remote control. However, I have an old odd Pinnacle remote. I also discovered that the setup is a lot easier than I made it out to be. Again there were packages that would have simplified a process I assumed that I had to do manually.

Hope this helps.

frenchn00b · 11-14-2007, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlitty

I have set up several Myth boxes over the years. It used to be a nightmare to install, taking weeks of tweaking. The last two installs took only a few hours and mostly involved clicking in the repos and following the on screen instructions. I use Xubuntu, though Ubuntu would work just as well. The package maintainer has set up some fabulous scripts that do most of the configuration work for you.

The most trouble I had was in configuring the remote control. However, I have an old odd Pinnacle remote. I also discovered that the setup is a lot easier than I made it out to be. Again there were packages that would have simplified a process I assumed that I had to do manually.

Hope this helps.

it is one year I am trying.
No one gives his config. files, since it looks like very secret stuffs, no sharing.
Mystery of installing Mythtv and freevo, a long mystery.

tredegar · 11-14-2007, 12:48 PM

Quote:

since it looks like very secret stuffs, no sharing.

No, it's not "secret", it's just difficult!
I have been trying (not very hard, I admit) since about 2003 to get mythtv working.
So far, without success

One of the problems is that the users are all in different countries, with different TV standards, and different setups: Different tuner cards (USB, PCI) with different manufacturers and chipsets, with and without hardware MPG-x encoding. Different TV standards: PAL, NTSC, SECAM, then there are terrestrial services, satellite, cable, internationally different ways of retrieving the TV listings and channel information ... .. .the list of incompatabilities goes on and on and on.

So "nobody" has exactly the same setup, or requirements. This makes getting help and advice very difficlt

Also, I expect that those who have got it to work are too busy watching TV to come to LQ

I don't watch more than 60min TV / Week, so I do not really care, but every now and again I have another try, just for the challenge: It is getting easier (I am getting further with the configuration every year: Last year I had (fuzzy) video, but no sound), but I think the only answer is to keep trying.

They named it well. IIRC: "It's a myth that anyone ever got it to work properly". That said, it is a remarkable Open Source project, and it is making progress.

frenchn00b · 11-14-2007, 02:51 PM

Well it looks like linuxers 'd better show up their configurations, desktops, or mythtv stuffs or videos, like just to show off. Looks like personal challenges. The one who manage to make it work, then, just say that's easy, then.

That's all that, kind of. That's opensource, but not the best way for helping, saying that folks will manage in 5-10 years by dint of trying.

I hope you can manage.

My .freevo/local_conf.py

is up to now cleaned to :

Code:

CONFIG_VERSION = 5.2


START_FULLSCREEN_X = 1               # Start in fullscreen mode if using x11 or xv.


VIDEO_ITEMS = [ ( 'Info. News', '/home/frenchn00b/movies/'),
 		('Films', '/home/frenchn00b/m2)
 ] # A adapter a vos valeurs bien entendu


VIDEO_PREFERED_PLAYER = 'mplayer'


 MPLAYER_ARGS = { 'dvd'    : '-cache 8192',
                   'vcd'    : '-cache 4096',
                   'cd'     : '-cache 1024 -cdda speed=2',
                  'ivtv'   : '-cache 8192',
                   'avi'    : '-cache 5000 -idx',
                   'rm'     : '-cache 5000 -forceidx',
                  'rmvb'   : '-cache 5000 -forceidx',
                   'webcam' : 'tv:// -tv driver=v4l:width=352:height=288:outfmt=yuy2:device=/dev/video2',
                   'default': '-cache 5000  -vo xv -zoom -fs '
                   }

and still not working on several machines, and TV working will be for 2050-2100, or 2150, when we have no petrol and gas ! Maybe ...

frenchn00b · 11-14-2007, 03:13 PM

try that :
even on the wiki it is crap
http://doc.freevo.org/MovieConfig#he...9e70af376a4880

even if you change and try a bit
same config in .freevo gives you different results.

Who programed that ?

frenchn00b · 11-14-2007, 03:41 PM

Cool !!

This freevo is hardware independant and with alsa :
just change the like with .lircrc !!
with alsa; I have now sound adn tv almost !!!

http://yellowprotoss.ye.funpic.org/w.../local_conf.py

frenchn00b · 11-14-2007, 04:02 PM

http://freevo.sr-club.de/config.php

frenchn00b · 11-14-2007, 05:34 PM

I got the idea to run mplayer with grey sky, then run this script with lirc

no working, can shtby help :

Code:

#!/bin/sh
echo $TVCH
TVCH=$(echo $TVCH+1|bc)
echo $TVCH
ivtv-tune -c"$TVCH"
echo " $TVCH  " | osd_cat -d 1 -p bottom -s 1  -A center -c green   -f "-adobe-new century schoolbook-medium-i-normal--34-240-100-100-p-182-iso8859-1"         
echo " "
echo $TVCH
export -f TVCH
export -f $TVCH
echo $TVCH
set

monsm · 11-15-2007, 10:46 AM

Some interesting things in this thread.

I tried to install MythTV twice. First time I couldn't get it to work at all. I tried again a couple of months ago and got it working only to find out it insist on recording everything you view on the TV (for those pause etc functions). I disliked that enough to remove the thing again. I wish they could limit themselves to Timeshift, so that it only starts recording if you pause the live TV.

I have now installed Freevo and got it to work with remote and mplayer. I have a nebula electronics DVB-T USB box. I only have to add XMLTV now. Problem with the mplayer/freevo combination is that it seems to use too much of the recourses. Mplayer frequently gets out of sync (video-sound that is). I have managed to get Xine to work on a previous installation and I think that works slightly better, but this time I'm struggling a bit there.

I saw a post somewhere else that with freevo it is actually Python that is too heavy. So I am currently looking for ways to speed up Python on my machine. Any ideas? I am also thinking I could try a different video driver for mplayer, its currently running with XV (I have a Nvidia 6800 GT card).

I have also been thinking a simpler application would be better. So I have tried Oxine, but I can't get that to work on my current gentoo installation. I have also noticed something called TVTime, but I suspect that is a dead project (looking at its sourceforge page).

So currently I watch TV using the Xine-UI. At least until I can get Freevo to behave better...