[mythtv-gta]: A MythTV building workshop?

[Colin McGregor]

On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 12:55 PM, R. G. Newbury <newbury-Q6Ug6qEURudg9hUCZPvPmw at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On 08/06/2010 09:36 AM, Colin McGregor wrote:
>>
>> FreeGeek is a group that collects up old corporate computers
>> refurbishes them and redeploys them. Last evening I was out at the
>> FreeGeek warehouse space near Keele St. and Dundas St. W. doing an
>> introductory talk on Ubuntu (basically a re-hash of some of my other
>> talks). At the end of the talk I wondered aloud what to do in future
>> and I asked if there was any interest in doing a MythTV building
>> workshop... A few of the folks at FreeGeek expressed an interest, and
>> I gather that getting the classroom space at FreeGeek is not an issue
>> on Thursday evenings...
>>
>> So, would there be an interest in doing a MythTV building workshop
>> some Thursday evening at some point in the next few weeks among GTALug
>> folks and/or the GTA MythTV list folks? If so, what Thursday? Things I
>> could easily bring to the event:
>>
>> - MythTV compatible analog TV card(s)
>> - Rabbit ear TV antenna (ie: a TV signal source good enough for demo
>> purposes)
>> - Mythbuntu 10.4 install disk(s)
>>
>> Things that are available at FreeGeek that we could almost certainly borrow:
>>
>> - Internet connection
>> - Video projector
>> - old PC(s) (P4 2.4 MHz)
>>
>> Thoughts?
>
> Sounds like a good idea. Would also be useful to do the same (maybe in
> parallel) with Mythdora. There arr differences between Ubuntu based and
> Fedora based distros that can be highlighted plus some discussion of apt-get
> v yum setups. And dependency resolution for when things go wrong. (What?
> Something go wrong? What could go wrong?)

Part of my thinking in this is driven by what is/isn't at the FreeGeek
site. FreeGeek has settled on Ubuntu as their default Linux platform,
so at least in theory everyone at FreeGeek is exposed to Ubuntu (in
practice it doesn't seem to be that simple ...). Still making the
transition from Ubuntu to Mythbuntu seems an easier road than to
Mythdora... Still very worth mentioning Mythdora and LinHES as
options...

> And I would add, at a minimum, if you can get one, an ATSC based tuner
> preferably USB style (Hauppauge HVR-950 would be good) and maybe the loan of
> an HDHomeRun. You might need an RF amp and some splitters, plus some coax
> cables. And amp and speakers....Some really good HD on a separate drive
> (/video!) and a pre-configured mythconverg db for 'show and tell'.

I do have a spare PC (just) fast enough to support ATSC HDTV (an
Athlon 64 3200+) but to be blunt I am not keen on hauling it across
the city. So, I would be looking at what sort of PC(s) could be
borrowed on site, and I gather that Athlon 64 3200+ are not seen. I am
bcc:'ing this e-mail to one of the senior folks at FreeGeek so, if I
am mistaken on the sort of hardware that might be borrowed at FreeGeek
I trust I will hear and I will post a correction.

I don't at the moment have a spare ATSC tuner and I have never had a
USB tuner of any sort, so that is NOT stuff I could bring to an
event... A hard drive with some HDTV video I could bring easily enough
to FreeGeek. Other parts, a simple splitter I could come up with, but
an RF amp would be an issue. Not sure off hand what I have in the way
of coax, I would have to check on that...

> I'm presuming that these geeks are reasonably knowledgeable about linux, so
> the point is to explain how myth builds on the linux base and why there are
> so many choices in the tv side hardware (viz. the recent mythtv list thread
> called something like 'I can't get it to work' (or maybe that was Graham
> Morrison in Linux Format!)
>
> August 26th?

August 26th has possibilities...

Colin.

> Geoff
>
> --
>             R. Geoffrey Newbury
>
> The Holmes Corollary to Murphy's Laws:
> Any rule of physics or chemistry to the contrary notwithstanding, if it
> happened it *must* be possible.
>
>
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