Considering MythTV (1 Viewer)

Myth or XBMC for Linux?

  • MythTV

    Votes: 10 47.6%
  • XBMC

    Votes: 9 42.9%
  • Something else?

    Votes: 2 9.5%

  • Total voters
    21

lloydsmart

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  • January 10, 2009
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    Hello.

    With my license for Win7 beta about to expire, and my reluctance to pay good money for a retail version, I have been giving a great deal of thought to jumping ship and running MythTV on Linux.

    Obviously, my first choice would be to run Mediaportal on Linux, but that's not possible atm, hence my consideration of MythTV.

    I've used Linux a few times before, and like it a lot. However, I've never used MythTV and I'm basically just after some advice and opinions on it.

    First of all, does anyone know what is going on with regards to hardware acceleration on the Linux side? I know nVidia release closed-source drivers for linux, but that they don't have all the features the Windows ones do. I've heard of something called XvMC, which is supposed to be some sort of substitute for DxVA, but I'm not sure weather this will work on my nVidia 8300 mGPU, or weather it provides bitstream decoding for all the new "bluray" formats.

    Secondly, one thing that greatly concerns me is that I have yet to see any decent plugins on MythTV to rival Moving Pictures or MP TV-Series. These are essential to me, and there's no way I could go back to just navigating through folders of filenames now.

    Finally, does anyone know if there's a Bluray solution on Linux yet? I have an LG GGW-H20L blu/hddvd combo drive in my PC and I'd like to be able to play blurays. I know you can't even do that in Mediaportal yet, so I'm not holding out much hope of doing it through MythTV (although that would be awesome!) but I need to know if there's a way to to it at all on linux? Otherwise I've got quite a wasted bit of hardware sitting there.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated, especially with my second point. Thanks!
     

    gig

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  • December 24, 2006
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    First of all, does anyone know what is going on with regards to hardware acceleration on the Linux side? I know nVidia release closed-source drivers for linux, but that they don't have all the features the Windows ones do. I've heard of something called XvMC, which is supposed to be some sort of substitute for DxVA, but I'm not sure weather this will work on my nVidia 8300 mGPU, or weather it provides bitstream decoding for all the new "bluray" formats.

    as of January this year ffmpeg for linux got VDPAU support. Both XBMC and MythTV using it , which allows me to play HD content with subtitles on ION platform with Atom 230(cpu usage 10%). On the same platform under Vista+MP only movies without subtitles plays smoothly but not all. (have some High bitrate DviX HD movies which MP wont play smoothly on that platform)

    VDPAU - MythTV


    Secondly, one thing that greatly concerns me is that I have yet to see any decent plugins on MythTV to rival Moving Pictures or MP TV-Series. These are essential to me, and there's no way I could go back to just navigating through folders of filenames now.

    You could run MythTV server and XBMC client, which provides Moving Pictures and TV-Series functionality.
     

    lloydsmart

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    I've got both MythTV books.... you can hav'em for half price +shipping.

    Eh? What MythTV books? I didn't know there were any. I might take you up on your offer but I need some more information on just what they contain. Is there a website for them that gives an outline of the content?

    as of January this year ffmpeg for linux got VDPAU support. Both XBMC and MythTV using it , which allows me to play HD content with subtitles on ION platform with Atom 230(cpu usage 10%). On the same platform under Vista+MP only movies without subtitles plays smoothly but not all. (have some High bitrate DviX HD movies which MP wont play smoothly on that platform)

    VDPAU - MythTV

    Nice! This is exactly what I wanted to hear, thanks! :D:D


    You could run MythTV server and XBMC client, which provides Moving Pictures and TV-Series functionality.

    This sounds interesting, I'll have to look into it. I gather from what you've said that XBMC will connect to a MythTV backend. What nice integration. I don't know much about XBMC though, so I'll do some research.

    One more question - what's the current status wrt DRM on Linux? Can copy-protected Blurays be played? Thanks!
     

    2BitSculptor

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  • January 23, 2008
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    I've got both MythTV books.... you can hav'em for half price +shipping.

    Eh? What MythTV books? I didn't know there were any. I might take you up on your offer but I need some more information on just what they contain. Is there a website for them that gives an outline of the content?

    Practical MythTV: Building a PVR and Media Center PC
    Practical MythTV - Book Review | MythTV

    Hacking MythTV
    Wiley::Hacking MythTV

    Both are ~3 years old, there are a lot of advances in Linux as well as Myth since. But these can help you wrap your head around the basics. Both are barely used, since, after just a few months of frustration with broken code and lengthy anticipation of a Win compatable version, I found MediaPortal... they haven't been cracked open since.

    Price is around $20 on Amazon for each (price reduced).

    Chuck
     

    gig

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    One more question - what's the current status wrt DRM on Linux? Can copy-protected Blurays be played? Thanks!
    There is no nice solution yet for playing BlueRays. There are tools to decrypt and rip the disk to hard drive, which allows you to play the *.EVO files in mplayer, vlc or xine, although I have read in the past 3-4 weeks somewhere that the mplayer guys implemented on-the-fly decrypting solution for bluerays, unfortunately I cant find the info anymore

    [Spragleknas is evaluating the link]
     

    lloydsmart

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    Both are ~3 years old, there are a lot of advances in Linux as well as Myth since. But these can help you wrap your head around the basics. Both are barely used, since, after just a few months of frustration with broken code and lengthy anticipation of a Win compatable version, I found MediaPortal... they haven't been cracked open since.

    Price is around $20 on Amazon for each (price reduced).

    Thanks for the offer, but if they're 3 years old I think I'll pass. Who knows how much has changed since they were published? Think how much MP has evolved in the last 3 years!

    There is no nice solution yet for playing BlueRays. There are tools to decrypt and rip the disk to hard drive, which allows you to play the *.EVO files in mplayer, vlc or xine, although I have read in the past 3-4 weeks somewhere that the mplayer guys implemented on-the-fly decrypting solution for bluerays, unfortunately I cant find the info anymore.

    Interesting... would like to hear more about this on-the-fly-decrypting, guess I've got some googling to do!

    [Spragleknas is evaluating the link]

    What?

    Thanks for all the help, guys!
     

    2BitSculptor

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  • January 23, 2008
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    Both are ~3 years old, there are a lot of advances in Linux as well as Myth since. But these can help you wrap your head around the basics. Both are barely used, since, after just a few months of frustration with broken code and lengthy anticipation of a Win compatable version, I found MediaPortal... they haven't been cracked open since.

    Price is around $20 on Amazon for each (price reduced).

    Thanks for the offer, but if they're 3 years old I think I'll pass. Who knows how much has changed since they were published? Think how much MP has evolved in the last 3 years!

    np,

    Chuck
     

    Spragleknas

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  • December 21, 2005
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    [Spragleknas is evaluating the link]
    What?
    Sorry, but we try to make sure to not violate German laws on this site. Forum rules explicitly say no guides or links to guide that contains removal of DRM etc.

    But you can write: for further info, go to help.ubuntu.com and read up there on blueray
    :D
     

    gig

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    Sorry, but we try to make sure to not violate German laws on this site. Forum rules explicitly say no guides or links to guide that contains removal of DRM etc.

    :oops:

    Sorry for posting the link! I didnt mean to put you into any trouble. I though it would be fine since it was from Ubuntu documentation, my mistake.

    Best regards
    gig
     

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