[mythtv-gta]: A MythTV building workshop?

Colin McGregor colin.mc151-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
Mon Aug 9 03:03:35 UTC 2010


On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 9:56 PM, Ushnish Sengupta
<ushnish.sengupta-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Hi
> No PCI-Express capable machines at Free Geek Toronto that I am aware of.

Unfortunate, but not a big issue, just means that showing off the
tricks a VDPAU card can pull will not be an option using a machine
from FreeGeek. What is the fastest machine I could count on being able
to borrow at FreeGeek?

> Perhaps we could have more of a discussion if we dont have all the available
> equipment, or would you rather have the equipment in place and have more of
> a demonstration?

Thinking out loud here ... ideally I guess I would like to do an
install demonstration with Mythbuntu 10.04 (a version of Ubuntu 10.04
tailored for installing MythTV). This would be installed on a box
during the evening and during the dead time bits, (while waiting for
files to be copied from CD-ROM to hard drive) showing some slides off
my laptop (slides with sources / resources for MythTV). I would also
like to walk people through getting an account set-up with Schedules
Direct (required for North American TV listings).

My plan would I think run as follows:

Bring the following bits:

- Laptop with MythTV related slides
- Copies of Mythbuntu 10.04 on CD
- MythTV friendly TV tuner card(s)
- Rabbit ear style indoor TV antenna
- Simple coax splitter and some coax cable

What I would hope to borrow for the duration of the evening from FreeGeek:

- Video projector
- High speed internet connection
- PC as fast as possible with 1GB+ of RAM, 40 GB+ of HD space, nVidia
graphics card (GeForce 5200 or better), 1+ available PCI card slot(s),
Linux supported sound card, Linux supported Ethernet card, keyboard,
mouse, monitor, and speakers.

People attending would be invited to bring in their own PCs if they
would like to follow along doing an install... Cost to those attending
the talk would be as follows:

- My time / effort - $Free

Anyone wanting to follow along and do their own install would face the
following additional costs:

- Blank CD-ROM(s) for making a copy of Mythbuntu 10.04
- Schedules Direct TV listings account - free for a 1 week trial
account, otherwise, up to $20 (US) per year (depending on the package
selected).
- MythTV friendly hardware - $ how much do you want to spend and/or
what sort of hardware can you scrounge via sources like FreeGeek :-) ?

Does the above work for everyone?


Colin.

> Are we a go for a Myth TV discussion/demonstration for 6:00 pm on Thursday
> Aug 26th?

August 26th sounds good to me.

> Ushnish

> On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 5:45 PM, Colin McGregor <colin.mc151-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>
> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 5:13 PM, R. G. Newbury <newbury-Q6Ug6qEURudg9hUCZPvPmw at public.gmane.org>
>> wrote:
>> > On 08/06/2010 03:11 PM, Colin McGregor wrote:
>> >>
>> >> On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 1:10 PM, aaron<memoryguy-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>  wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 12:55, R. G. Newbury<newbury-Q6Ug6qEURudg9hUCZPvPmw at public.gmane.org>
>> >>>  wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>> 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?)
>> >>>
>> >>> I build from source on Slackware... is there a workshop for me? ;-)
>> >>
>> >> Not yet anyway :-) .
>> >>
>> >>> This sounds interesting. I'd like to go but it's far from me so I
>> >>> might have trouble getting there. Keep us posted when it is and I'll
>> >>> try to see if I can make it.
>> >>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> 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 feel fairly comfortable with Myth... at least with my own
>> >>> configuration... but I know I want to upgrade eventually. I'm
>> >>> capturing from two PVR-250s, outputting via VGA from a GeForce4 440MX
>> >>> (anyone else remember when that was the "recommended" card for Myth?
>> >>> :) ). I know things have moved along quite a bit in the six years
>> >>> since I built my system...
>> >>
>> >> Oh, that is dated. When I wrote about MythTV in the fall of 2005
>> >> (http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8658) the PVR-150 was out and the
>> >> recommended video card was the GeForce 5200... Yes, you should be
>> >> looking at some upgrades :-) .
>> >>
>> >> Colin.
>> >
>> > I wonder if some of the FreeGeek boxes would be powerful enough if you
>> > were
>> > using vdpau (or even xvmc with an intel chipset and recent driver). That
>> > can
>> > make an astounding difference.
>>
>> I gather that VDPAU capable video cards were not produced for AGP
>> video card slots. I don't know if FreeGeek gets in any PCI-Express
>> capable machines (I doubt it, but I will ask).
>>
>> Colin.
>>
>> > -
>> >             R. Geoffrey Newbury
>> > --
>> > The Myth TV mailing list
>> > How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists
>> >
>
>
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists





More information about the Legacy mailing list