MythTV History

The project was started in April 2002 by Isaac Richards. Richards explains his motivation to begin the project on its website:

"I got tired of the rather low quality cable box that AT&T Broadband provides with their digital cable service. It's slow to change channels, ridden with ads, and the program guide is a joke. So, I figured it'd be fun to try and build a replacement. Yes, I could have just bought a TiVo, but I wanted to have more than just a PVR - I want a web browser built in, a mail client, maybe some games. Basically, I want the mythical convergence box that's been talked about for a few years now."

MythTV has become a very mature project. As of Feb 2006, the project was in a very usable state at version 0.19. Development is coordinated on a publicly accessible SVN server

MythTV Features

MythTV Some of the most interesting features that MythTV boasts are:
  • The separate "Frontend/Backend" architecture which allows multiple machines to remotely serve content from a single server.
  • The ability to watch recordings at an accelerated/decelerated rate, adjusting the audio pitch as necessary (so that people do not sound like chipmunks).
  • The ability to analyze recorded shows for commercials and give users the option of skipping commercials during playback
  • The ability to intelligently schedule recordings and avoid conflicts as needed.
  • The availability of free guide data for TV listings (in the United States and Canada, thanks to a gracious third-party vendor Zap2it Labs), as well as support for XMLTV listings in most other countries.
  • The ability to pause, skip, and rewind live TV.
  • The ability to schedule, administer, or list many functions of the system via web-based interface.
  • Support for both ATSC and DVB high-definition television.
The software supports any TV tuner card which is completely supported by the Video4linux or Video4Linux2 kernel drivers, as well as the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250/350 PCI card tuners (and some similar cards) which have the iTVC15/16 hardware MPEG-2 compression processors, using drivers from the IvyTV project, which is currently under heavy development by Missouri PBS TV engineer Chris Kennedy. All DVB cards as well as the pcHDTV cards with V4L drivers are supported as well.

Users who wish to devote a computer to MythTV may wish to use KnoppMyth, a derivative of the Knoppix Linux distribution that comes with MythTV pre-installed. The MythTV frontend can be run entirely from CD if desired, or an entire installation to the hard disk can take place in minutes. Because of this streamlined installation process, some MythTV users have considered the feasibility of selling small form factor computers preinstalled with MythTV.

MythTV Plugins

Over time MythTV's architecture has allowed it to evolve into multi-functional home entertainment center. MythTV is extensible with add-on modules (plugins), which include:
  • MythVideo: A Player for watching video not recorded with MythTV.
  • MythMusic: A jukebox-like music player and music collection manager (includes CD ripping).
  • MythDVD: DVD management (includes ripping to disk)
  • MythGallery: Online photograph gallery viewing and management.
  • MythNews: RSS feed news reader.
  • MythWeather: Displays weather forecast obtained from the network.
  • MythBrowser: A small web browser for TV viewing.
  • MythGame: Frontend to game console emulators.
  • MythWeb: Allows remote control of MythTV from web browers on other computers
  • MythPhone: Supports Internet phone calls from your TV via SIP
  • MythFlix: A plugin to view your Netflix queue
The base system and its modules integrate well together. The entire system can be controlled with an infrared remote control using LIRC, or radio remote control using kernel modules.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythTV

MythTV News

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