MythTV or VDR (multi-seat setup)

[megacrypto]

Im trying to figure this thing out, i come from a cpl of years of mediaportal and its tv-server, but i had my fair share of microsoft and decided that i will no longer use it, so im right now trying to build my setup in linux (mainly using ubuntu).

I have successfully built my main server, which basically right now is only a storage server for all my media (movies, music, photos, etc..). I have one other machine that is running XBMC (using the ubuntu mini guide). My next goal is, and i wonder if this is possible, is to add my nexus card on my server and have it handle all my tv recordings there. i have a dreambox which i had setup to use my storage server as its recording location, which basically does the job, but being the freak that i am and wanting to build a meaningful server (which i plan to add a asterisk and home automation to it later), i want the main server to do handle all the recordings internally on its own.

My question is, which is the better way to go:
1. should i install mythtv or vdr on my main server? mythtv had a back-end which is supposed to be able to do exactly what i want to do, but for some reason i would like to get more feedback on the matter.
2. which of them can be accessed via xbmc? i need to be able to view the epg and schedule recordings from it.
3. which will provide live tv capabilities from xbmc if i dont have any dvb or capture cards in it? mythtv's front-end again should do the trick, but agian i would like to get more feedback.
4. are there any other options other than mythtv or vdr? i know linuxmce would do it all for me, but then again linuxmce has to take over the entire network acting as a router in order to make use of its functionalities (as far as i understood)

really appreciate your feedback and help

[wstewart]

1. Personally I prefer mythtv for the backend, that's what I run and I think its more advanced than most of the backends. The myth frontend is evolving , but I am currently looking at xbox for that but have not yet integrated the two.

2. Mythtv. These are a work in progress
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=43115
http://blog.xbmc.org/wiki/?title=GSoC_-_Unified_PVR_Frontend
There are also ways to have mythtv as a source in xbmc, search for that.

3. See above.

4. Not really, for linux anyway. mythtv and vdr are the main two.

[LittleBear1981]

we will have full support sometime... soon i think... another option would be to look into http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun hdhomerun... a networked hd/sd tuner... xbmc has support for it already. and its only like 150 and has dual tuners!

[megacrypto]

im almost there in getting mythtv to run on my xbmc dedicated htpc. I setup a main server which is my data store and also is the myth-backend, and now im trying to figure out the best way to play the frontend on my htpc (from xbmc).

MythBox is not running (and im waiting for feedback on that). i installed the frontend and will try this plugin that enables you to launch any app from within xbmc.. and see how this works.

but all in all, im not really very pleased with the interface and playback of myth (compared to mediaportal which i uesed to use on windows)

[uomiarz]

so far mythfrontend is the best you can get (especially if you are looking for epg and scheduling recording)
xbmc interface to mythbackend (both build in and script) is work in progress to play around with but not reliable yet

[megacrypto]

i cant get either of them to work .. so as i said i will look into this plugin and see how it goes.

it would be very nice to have some sort of tv-server on its own that is open to controlled by any application, just to a server that is capable of:
- scanning channels
- streaming
- EPG grabbing (i mainly concerned with EIT)
- scheduling & recording
- of course handling multiple inputs (capture cards)
- and with no gui or anything, just commands that are passed from & to it (something like web-service based .. sorry i come from .net background :) )

[uomiarz]

:) what you described is exactly what mythbackend was design to do
and as far as web controls check this out
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Image:MythWebList.png

you should give mythtv a second look (multiple frontends, no gui for backend, scheduling & recording, handling multiple inputs ...) it is not just live tv...

you can run just backend with no gui, control it with mythweb from anywhere in the world and watch recordings on xbmc

[dteirney]

http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=MythTV describes what is currently supported in XBMC with regards to MythTV integration and some of the options.

Depending on what you want to be able to do at the TV, the current myth:// source support is working fine for me. Been using it for over a year now.

I mainly care about watching the recordings. I'm more than happy looking at the EPG and scheduling the recordings from a desktop machine on the network using mythfrontend.

I'm not too worried about commercial skipping either as I've setup the BigSkipForward on the remote control to be 7*30s commercials to quickly jump over the usual block of time for commericials.

Will be great once full PVR frontend support is plugged into XBMC though.

[shiftybugger]

I use Mythtv. It does everything I need plus much that I'll never use as far as TV recording goes. When it comes to all other media (movies, music, pics etc) though, I much prefer xbmc.

I can't wait for the day that xbmc has a working myth frontend in it. Until that day, I run a frontend that has both myth and xbmc installed and have a button on my remote set up to run a script that switches between them. If I'm in xbmc and want to watch live or recorded TV, one press of a button and <5 seconds later and I'm in MythTV. Same to go back the other way.

[corpetit]

I use Mythtv. It does everything I need plus much that I'll never use as far as TV recording goes. When it comes to all other media (movies, music, pics etc) though, I much prefer xbmc.

I can't wait for the day that xbmc has a working myth frontend in it. Until that day, I run a frontend that has both myth and xbmc installed and have a button on my remote set up to run a script that switches between them. If I'm in xbmc and want to watch live or recorded TV, one press of a button and <5 seconds later and I'm in MythTV. Same to go back the other way.

Please, could you write this script.
I expensed more weeks and i can´t see tv programs on xbmc (also i have hauppauge hvr 4000).

Thanks for your help

[ads_german]

shiftybugger - any chance you could post up or pm/email the script you came up with? I'm guessing you set up keymap.xml to link the code for a particular keypress to run the script?

megacrypto, I'm in exactly the same boat as you - just finishing off a htpc right now. From the look of things, VDR currently is more integrated with xbmc via the PVR frontend, but I haven't played with it yet (VDR or the PVR frontend in xbmc).

From what I understand though, Mythweb provides a more advanced web interface to schedule recordings etc and is easier to install than VDR if you go for a distro such as Mythbuntu - less configuring to do from terminal...

For me, the killer is that via the myth:// protocol in xbmc, you can't pause/rewind/fast forward live tv, and via the mythbox script, my live tv output had wavy lines running through it - works perfect via myth frontend though.

For this reason, my intention for the time being is also to use xbmc for everything apart from live tv - and launch the mythtv frontend just for that. Once i get this set up ok, my plan is to also install VDR and test the PVR integration in xbmc...

[rodercot]

Please, could you write this script.
I expensed more weeks and i can´t see tv programs on xbmc (also i have hauppauge hvr 4000).

Thanks for your help

Actually it even easier then a script, I actually added an XBMC button to my Mythtv Main page with a nice little icon for the WAF so she can identify which button she should press. now you just scroll down the main menu to XBMC and right arrow and it's running and then I just exit xbmc to go back to mythtv.

There is page on the myth wiki for adding buttons. I am currently adding one to call sudo pm-suspend so the system can be suspended directly from the menu it just easier than writing scripts and all the themes available in myth are in the /usr/share/mythtv directory if I recall and each menu is a .xml file so the mainmenu is you guessed it mainmenu.xml, just open it scroll down to the main menu section copy one that is already there then paste is where you want the button to be on the menu, I put mine right under live tv set it up to EXEC xbmc. Save the file and exit and restart the front end voila you have an XBMC button, I will see if I can find the link and paste it here, but it is in the mythtv wiki.

Here is a link to a how-to just google adding button to mythtv main page and voila.

http://mythtvbox.blogspot.com/2005/01/adding-menu-commands.html

Dave

[arkay]

I'd be interested to hear how that works. Last time I tried Myth and XBMC at the same time I found that lirc sends commands to both when they are both running so any navigation you do in XBMC also causes myth to do things in the background. Seemed rather dangerous to me :)

For anyone interested in using a single button on a remote to switch between the two there's a script + install info etc that I wrote a while back. Available here. (http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/mythtv-front-backend/33370-myth-tweak-switch-between-myth-xbmc-via-remote.html)

The irexec setup is for an MCE remote but can easily be changed to suit whatever lirc setup you have.

Cheers,

Arkay.

[ads_german]

Hi Arkay,

I came across your script a couple of days ago looking for a solution to switch between xbmc and mythtv. I'm not actually using it - insead I'm using a couple of shell scripts triggered via lirc / irexec to do the same thing - if in xbmc, kill it then launch myth and vice versa.

The problem I have is that when either xbmc or mythtv is running, it seems irexec "loses focus" and doesn't respond to the button presses that are mapped to switch programs (I'm using a ms mce remote too). If I then manually close xbmc or mythtv via the menu, irexec seems to have queued up the button presses and then launches the other program (multiple times if the button was pressed more than once).

Did you ever come across this behaviour using lirc/irexec to switch between xbmc & mythtv? If not, I think I might give your perl script/irexec solution a try. Right now I have settled on using the built in myth:// protocol in xbmc (once i discovered it does handle pausing live tv, just not skipping back/forward), but for things like live sport, i would still like to use the myth frontend so i have the full pausing/seeking functionality in mythtv.

Sorry megacrypto if this is a bit much of a thread hijack - i figured it's still relevant to anyone contemplating a xbmc and vdr-or-myth setup...

Cheers,
Adam.

[rupert]

I've got a lazy, if not inelegant, option for you that works flawlessly on a dedicated machine. I think I stole the idea from another forum member, can't remember who.

When my dedicated Myth/xbmc box boots, it automaticly runs a shell script to start XBMC. This script is simply an infanent loop that loads XBMC then Mythfrontend then loops.

All I have to do to switch to Myth is 'shutdown' XMBC & vice versa.

-Rupert