MythTV

[Tom Metro]

Jarod Wilson wrote:
> Tom Metro wrote:
>> Debian runs on some Sigma Designs boxes, and Hauppauge may help
>> move things along, but even with the standard definition MVP, Hauppauge
>> kept some drivers closed source and some of the hardware interfaces
>> proprietary (possibly due to licensing restrictions imposed by IBM).
> 
> IBM?

The IBM reference was with respect to the standard definition MVP, which 
used an IBM PowerPC CPU and apparently other IBM support chips.


> As I understand it, the Sigma chip...firmware is upgradeable to
> handle variations in the future.

Sounds promising. Though you'd be dependent on Sigma to choose to 
support whatever your preferred format is.


Another option in the realm of low-powered HD capable hardware, but 
still proprietary, are these hard drive enclosures with media playback 
hardware. Many have HDMI outputs, IR remote controls, and handle HD 
MPEG4 playback, while costing $60 ~ $150. Do a search for "media player" 
on NewEgg and you'll find a bunch. I saw at least one that even supports 
an Ethernet interface, so you don't need to sneakernet the video to the 
box on a USB flash drive.

The UI is probably lousy, software buggy, and eventually you'll want it 
to play stuff it can't handle (or be upgraded to handle), but it could 
be an adequate UPnP MythTV client for a year or two until something 
better comes along. (If you read the reviews on NewEgg, you'll see a 
bunch from people complaining about video formats not being supported, 
or working inconsistently, much like my Divx DVD player works only when 
the video is encoded precisely to its liking.)


> I should actually have one of the Zotac ION mini-itx motherboards
> showing up at my house on Monday...

I look forward to hearing how that works out for you.


>> MythWeb...falls short when it comes to reviewing stuff that's
>> already been recorded... It provides no means to navigate and drill
>> down to a particular recording...
> 
> Um... You might want to look again. :) You *can* drill down a ways. ...
> You can pick to view only one group or the other within mythweb. 

As I recall, what you're referring to is more of a filtering mechanism, 
rather than a navigation hierarchy. It starts out by trying to render a 
page with info and thumbnails for your entire database. On my 
installation, that leads to:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to 
allocate 524288 bytes) in .../mythweb/includes/mythbackend.php on line 185


> Then there's a second level, where you can choose to view a specific
> series...

I don't recall that in MythWeb, but could be.


> Perhaps an additional level or two of being able to split up the shows 
> would be good -- genre, channel, whatever...

Organizational scheme is an example of one of those preferences that 
should be stored on the back-end (with a client-specific override 
option) and used by all the clients (front-end, web, mvpmc), rather than 
having to specify that stuff on every client.

  -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/