MythTV is one of those open source applications that up until now was only someone else’s experience. Last summer I tried to build a KnoppMyth box. That experience led me to follow someone else’s experience in better detail. Add to that I’m much more familiar with Ubuntu, having used it for nearly a year than I am with Knoppix, although both are based on Debian Linux. I ordered the unit from Great Lakes Electronics Distributing in Buffalo, New York. They are one of our vendors and they are great when you need a custom configured unit. I specified a CoreDuo CPU with 2 gigabytes of RAM and 2-250 gigabyte Western Digital SATA hard disks, a DVD/RW, an Nvidia PCI Express video card with 128 mb RAM and a Happauge PVR-250 tuner. I read the MythTV Ubuntu Installation Guide and followed it to nearly the letter. I installed Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn. I chose manual disk setup and formatted the second drive with ReiserFS. I had wanted to create an LVM array, but didn’t. That may come later. It worked almost on the first try. A little tinkering and some more reading produced “pay dirt.” I also consulted another useful “howto” guide on Ubuntu’s Forums,
I’ve already recorded a couple of cable news segments and I’m looking forward to getting some use out of our own digital video recorder. I’m really impressed with the utility and design of the MythTV Software.
That’s really cool; it sounds like a great project. I see that your machine has a DVD-RW — does that mean you can burn DVDs of whatever you record?
I’ve been avoiding the Tivo because as a teacher, I like to record and take to school.
Megan, It does have that capability and eventually I’ll learn to do that. Right now I’m tickled that I can record off-air. Part of my current position is an audio-visual coordinator. We will be able to record Instructional television specials that we have school year record rights to. I also would like to connect a digital video camera to it with firewire. I think I can do that but I’ll have to do more reading. In any event it is quitepowerful and will give us another tool helping students to learn.