I was always very impressed with MythTV. It was the first project that I saw that made really good use of versioning their mysql database with SQL queries to change the schema linked to the software version.
I used it extensively. I obsessively recorded everything off over the air digital TV and wrote it to DVDs. I had a little script to look up ratings of movies in IMDB, apply weighting factors due to personal tastes and record all the ones which made the grade. I'd then edit the commercials out and burn to DVDs all losslessly.
However, this all came to an end when my 2 year old son took the running hosepipe from the garden one summer, through the open patio doors into the house and proceeded to fill up the MythTV computer with water (along with the TV, VCR, DVD player and sofa!).
I never quite had the heart to resurrect the system after that and it was an end to my MythTV obsession. It was fun while it lasted.
Back in 2096 I had myth running on a cube shaped PC by my TV. It had one fan, with a fancy pipe work to shift heat from the processor.
I got an email while I was at work on a night shift with a cou temperature increase. Sshed in and could see the temperature rising and rising. 70, 80, 90, 100 (c)
Then my ssh command died.
Finished work at 10am and started the 90 minute drive home, wondering if there’s be a home to sleep it. Fortunately on inspection it was the fan that failed. Everything had died, couldn’t get it to boot, and so ended my mythtv adventure.
It was great, had a little usb box which plugged into my sky box and send remote control command to switch sky chal lens. A hardware mpeg2 pci capture card to record, etc.
But for me it was a product of its time. I haven’t watched linear tv since 2016 except for a few special live programs.
This is very relatable. I guess I should count myself lucky that my then-3yo "only" hurled a remote and smashed the TV in retaliation for TV time being over. And that I only buy the "cheap" $4-500 TVs instead of the high-end ones.
I love my children with all of my heart but they can be so destructive in learning through mistakes.
Mine deleted my game save slots in Metroid Prime 2 when I was about 99% through. I didn't have the heart to start over, so it will remain forever unfinished.
That doesn't even come close to watering the electronics, though, I can't even imagine the patience required in that situation.
I tried to get this to work multiple times around 2004. This might be where I first dove into linux. I gave up every time. I ended up using windows media center which worked flawlessly for years. I moved on to plex and a hdtvhomerun when they released it (it handles deleting old series, etc). About a year ago I realized I don't really watch live TV anymore and unplugged it.
Similar for me, except I got it working after tens of hours invested. After wasting time with nonstandard hardware, I got a Hauppauge PVR series capture card with hardware MPEG2 encoding. That made all the difference.
I was in college at the time and had free HBO on the dorm cable network, plus completely unfiltered 100mbps ethernet throughout the campus. It was fun to have a "DIY Tivo" server that could automatically remove commercials and make my library available to my suitemates.
Similar for me but I never made a serious attempt at MythTV because I never had dedicated hardware in those days. So I ended up installing XP MCE on my main machine (you could minimize/exit Media Center and it was just plain Windows underneath).
Used that for a while then went down the XBMC path (for windows..pre-Kodi for a while). Ended up with a Boxee Box (first real dedicated hardware). Then moved to Plex hosted on a Windows Home Server with various clients over the years (Sony NSZ-GS7 Google TV, OG Chromecast, Nexus Player, one of the older FireTVs, Chromecast Ultra).
The Home Server died so I moved to UnRaid with containerized Plex. Had a HDHomeRun Prime integrated with Plex for a bit. But dropped cable in favor of streaming TV services. That's the closest I ever got to a MythTV setup.
Same here. Tried multiple times, but it was just too rough.
I ended up creating a barebones DVR from scratch in FreeBSD, which I was more familiar with than Linux. I kept adding incremental features over the next few years, until it was a very usable system, and exactly suitable for my needs.
Then the internet became fast enough to stream and download content, and the old workhorse ended up in a closet somewhere.
I used MythTV extensively in the late 2000s to capture over the air (OTA) tv. My kids were young and it was a terrific way to capture tv shows for them (and for me when doing 2AM feedings).
It's ability to identify and skip commercials was awesome and I'm sure it's gotten better. The biggest issues I had were hardware related to the capture devices and getting remotes to work.
Honestly, given the state of streaming (40 different services all carrying different content), it might be worth looking at again.
Sort of waiting for some new iteration of what "popcorn time" was. With all the fragmentation of content across different providers, and more aggressive actions on account sharing, crossing region restrictions, etc...it feels like average people are now starting to complain a lot.
There is an opening for a very beginner friendly pirate platform to rise again. Not because nobody wants to pay exactly, but because doing it legally is complex now.
Forget the pirate part, I wish there were just a very beginner friendly FOSS "smart" TV platform that seamlessly integrated antenna, cable, auxiliary inputs, and streaming services (DRMed or otherwise) with PVR functionality that could be thrown on a minimal system and bolted to the back of a monitor. Basically a MythTV or Kodi minus minus.
> Sort of waiting for some new iteration of what "popcorn time" was
No. Popcorn time was a massive free rider/tragedy of the commons problem and a new version of it will continue to erode the good parts of piracy culture that exist.
If you're too lazy to contribute effectively to these cultures, you should just keep paying for Netflix or IPTorrents.
Private services like this exist. For $40 a year one lets me stream any show/movie on apps across all platforms including android tv. Seamless netflix-like sync across devices, family profiles, selectable video/audio quality up to 4k, etc
I'm fairly certain we're close to the point of a la carte streaming reaching parity with at least some major cable package offerings.
This became more clear to me a couple weeks ago when my Boomer parents started exploring 'cutting the cord'. To get them access to everything they are now being offered by their cable company (including multiple on-demand streaming options) won't actually save them that much money and would introduce a nontrivial amount of hassle.
They still may be doing it, but it's going to involve a lot of help from me. I almost would rather have just paid them the difference to not deal with it. I suppose teaching our elders the new ways has some value in itself... I just need to keep telling myself that...
Big fan of MythTV here and daily user forever now.
Paired with an HDHomerun and Jellyfin, MythTV really gives one a pretty good poor man's Youtube TV with no recurring fees. One of mine runs in a virtual machine in the garage at my family's farm, with a custom script beaming me my childhood local news to enjoy over coffee in the morning.
MythTV was the reason I bought and assembled my first x86 PC. I even bought a copy of Red Hat Linux 8 Personal (before Fedora) to run on it. That system became my main desktop PC and is still running more than 20 years later -- like a Ship of Theseus, with every hardware and software component upgraded multiple times. I'm not a progammer but I wanted to help fix bugs and add features, so it was also the reason I learned C++ and MySQL.
I still use MythTV (with additional PCs as backends and frontends) to record Comcast digital cable with HDHomerun Cable Card tuners. It also serves my small library of music files and can play DVDs and BluRay discs. I've ripped 4k UHD BluRay discs using MakeMKV and MythTV can play the files but the colors are wrong since a lot of the plumbing needs HDR support.
Mine is lying to me (should be from 2007/2008). My specs are very similar, no SSD. Even though I haven't updated software in a while and still on 29.1, it is painfully slow now. Loading a recording takes almost a minute on the same hardware. Used to be seconds.
Number of shows: 256
Number of episodes: 6817
First recording: Thursday May 14th, 1998
Last recording: Sunday February 5th, 2023
Total Running Time: 24 years 8 months 23 days 8 hrs 45 mins
It'd be nice if there were consumer-ready hardware for something like this. I know a few people with VCRs (yes, in 2023) that still record to tape from their digital receiver and play back over composite.
I'm amazed that you can't just buy a device that acts like a VCR, with composite and line in and out, but records and plays back via digital files instead of tape.
I want to try this, perhaps using an older Intel Mac mini, but I'm wondering how to "sell" it to someone who just wants a VCR.
Check out channels dvr (getchannels.com/dvr) as a modern, actively developed DVR. I love it. I'm running Channels on an ESXi host and just use the AppleTV app as the interface.
Channels DVR is a fantastic piece of software that I have been running for a few years now. It's reliable and does not need much in terms of hosting hardware. Currently running it on a 2012 Mac Mini with USB attached SSD with an Apple TV as the client.
The Tablo devices are what I use now for those few things on broadcast TV I want to DVR. Fairly cheap, no recurring cost, and reliable. The UI is a little wonky, but you get used to it. And there's apps for things like FireTV, Roku, etc, so you don't have to physically wire it to one TV.
I've used MythTV since something like 2004. Still great to use for Digital OTA broadcasts (and free-to-air satellite / DVB if that's available in your area). Cable DRM has unfortunately made it much less useful for recording cable broadcasts, thanks to them being allowed to encrypt all QAM signals, and now aren't required to support/provide CableCards either: https://www.nexttv.com/news/charter-cuts-off-cablecard-suppo...
That's interesting. I setup a new MythTV box two years ago on a Mac mini running Ubuntu, using a Hauppauge HD PVR 1212 capture device connected over USB. I've been able to record HD cable without dealing with any DRM by using the RCA jacks of my Comcast box, which has worked great.
Wow, had no idea this thing was still around. Takes me back to neo Kodi/XBMC/Windows ME days. So much hardware and software to accomplish what a small stick does today.
This takes me back! The first home server I ran had a TV capture card, ran Gentoo with MythTV, was hooked up to the living room TV, and was a pretty good source of entertainment for the gradstudent apartment I shared. Saving broadcasts, trimming out commercials, ... and of course fun with running a Linux server.
Good to see the project still going 10-15 years after I first heard of it (though I haven't used it in a long time)!
Same. I attribute a good portion of my linux knowledge today to setting up and running a MythTV machine. I ditched cable and moved to a place that has little OTA broadcasts so haven't run it in years but that box is still sitting in my basement.
Wanna do it with a retired pc? I recommend ps3 usb tv tuners. aka "Play TV" plentiful on second hand sights. Each has 2 tuners in it. Do you even need 2 of these devices to get 4? Ever had a 3rd thing to record or watch simultaneously? Might as well, they are very cheap.
xbmc with the myth plugin on the frontend is great if you own the thing that drives your tv screen. If you use appletv it seems you don't own it and can't run xbmc or mythtv frontend on it. But you can pay apple a sub and then also pay again for anything you might want to watch out of their stunningly limited selection. That's always apple's solution: Pay apple more to get something that isn't what you wanted...
I'm still rocking my 13 year old SageTV installation. Even the hardware clients are still working well. So grateful they were allowed to open source the software after Google acquired it.
I moved from MythTV to SageTV ~15 years ago or so, for the hardware client.
A few months ago, I moved to Channels. What I like about it is it works really well on Firesticks and AppleTVs that I already have attached to my TVs, so that means I can finally get rid of the hardware sagetv clients (one of which I've had to replace the caps in) and simplify my setup.
When looking to move last fall, I first looked at MythTV. It was still horrifically hard to setup. Given I'd never use a pc client, I then moved on to tvheadend, which had its own issues (mainly on the side of the kodi client). I finally settled on Channels because they have FreeBSD support for the server, and more importantly, It. Just. Works.
It's ashame that MythWeb isn't under active development anymore[0]. The MythWeb change log in the 0.33 release doesn't have any commits newer than June 4, 2022.
Maybe I'm weird but I use MythWeb exclusively even though I run MythTV on my office workstation. mythfrontend is nice but I find it easier (read: more window manager-friendly) to use mpv to play recordings.
There's now a built-in web frontend, which I guess let the sails out of mythweb. :/
I've never been interested in scheduling through the frontend, I just use it to playback recordings with a remote control. I find it much easier to search and browse the guide through a web browser.
First I thought I had clicked something that showed really old postings. I had no idea MythTV would still be around.
I never used MythTV though; I used Freevo in the 2000s. Worked quite well once I had it configured. Every once in a while I looked over the fence to see if the DVRs were greener on the other side, but never got around trying MythTV.
I still have many shows and episodes I saved with Freevo, on old hard drives somewhere.
[+] [-] nickcw|3 years ago|reply
I used it extensively. I obsessively recorded everything off over the air digital TV and wrote it to DVDs. I had a little script to look up ratings of movies in IMDB, apply weighting factors due to personal tastes and record all the ones which made the grade. I'd then edit the commercials out and burn to DVDs all losslessly.
However, this all came to an end when my 2 year old son took the running hosepipe from the garden one summer, through the open patio doors into the house and proceeded to fill up the MythTV computer with water (along with the TV, VCR, DVD player and sofa!).
I never quite had the heart to resurrect the system after that and it was an end to my MythTV obsession. It was fun while it lasted.
[+] [-] j1elo|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] midasuni|3 years ago|reply
I got an email while I was at work on a night shift with a cou temperature increase. Sshed in and could see the temperature rising and rising. 70, 80, 90, 100 (c)
Then my ssh command died.
Finished work at 10am and started the 90 minute drive home, wondering if there’s be a home to sleep it. Fortunately on inspection it was the fan that failed. Everything had died, couldn’t get it to boot, and so ended my mythtv adventure.
It was great, had a little usb box which plugged into my sky box and send remote control command to switch sky chal lens. A hardware mpeg2 pci capture card to record, etc.
But for me it was a product of its time. I haven’t watched linear tv since 2016 except for a few special live programs.
I thought it morphed into xbmc to be honest.
[+] [-] xp84|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] olddustytrail|3 years ago|reply
"Poor genetic material?"
...
"Bad guess."
(Calvin and Hobbes)
[+] [-] scarby2|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fullstop|3 years ago|reply
Mine deleted my game save slots in Metroid Prime 2 when I was about 99% through. I didn't have the heart to start over, so it will remain forever unfinished.
That doesn't even come close to watering the electronics, though, I can't even imagine the patience required in that situation.
[+] [-] unknown|3 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Eduard|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] allenbina|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] matthewmcg|3 years ago|reply
I was in college at the time and had free HBO on the dorm cable network, plus completely unfiltered 100mbps ethernet throughout the campus. It was fun to have a "DIY Tivo" server that could automatically remove commercials and make my library available to my suitemates.
[+] [-] nerdix|3 years ago|reply
Used that for a while then went down the XBMC path (for windows..pre-Kodi for a while). Ended up with a Boxee Box (first real dedicated hardware). Then moved to Plex hosted on a Windows Home Server with various clients over the years (Sony NSZ-GS7 Google TV, OG Chromecast, Nexus Player, one of the older FireTVs, Chromecast Ultra).
The Home Server died so I moved to UnRaid with containerized Plex. Had a HDHomeRun Prime integrated with Plex for a bit. But dropped cable in favor of streaming TV services. That's the closest I ever got to a MythTV setup.
[+] [-] ericflo|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] deepspace|3 years ago|reply
I ended up creating a barebones DVR from scratch in FreeBSD, which I was more familiar with than Linux. I kept adding incremental features over the next few years, until it was a very usable system, and exactly suitable for my needs.
Then the internet became fast enough to stream and download content, and the old workhorse ended up in a closet somewhere.
[+] [-] slindsey|3 years ago|reply
It's ability to identify and skip commercials was awesome and I'm sure it's gotten better. The biggest issues I had were hardware related to the capture devices and getting remotes to work.
Honestly, given the state of streaming (40 different services all carrying different content), it might be worth looking at again.
[+] [-] kris_wayton|3 years ago|reply
There is an opening for a very beginner friendly pirate platform to rise again. Not because nobody wants to pay exactly, but because doing it legally is complex now.
[+] [-] pessimizer|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bobleeswagger|3 years ago|reply
No. Popcorn time was a massive free rider/tragedy of the commons problem and a new version of it will continue to erode the good parts of piracy culture that exist.
If you're too lazy to contribute effectively to these cultures, you should just keep paying for Netflix or IPTorrents.
[+] [-] jasondoty|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] slfnflctd|3 years ago|reply
This became more clear to me a couple weeks ago when my Boomer parents started exploring 'cutting the cord'. To get them access to everything they are now being offered by their cable company (including multiple on-demand streaming options) won't actually save them that much money and would introduce a nontrivial amount of hassle.
They still may be doing it, but it's going to involve a lot of help from me. I almost would rather have just paid them the difference to not deal with it. I suppose teaching our elders the new ways has some value in itself... I just need to keep telling myself that...
[+] [-] jedberg|3 years ago|reply
Tons of ad spam, but seems to work eventually.
[+] [-] daveevad|3 years ago|reply
Paired with an HDHomerun and Jellyfin, MythTV really gives one a pretty good poor man's Youtube TV with no recurring fees. One of mine runs in a virtual machine in the garage at my family's farm, with a custom script beaming me my childhood local news to enjoy over coffee in the morning.
[+] [-] ed25519FUUU|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spear|3 years ago|reply
I still use MythTV (with additional PCs as backends and frontends) to record Comcast digital cable with HDHomerun Cable Card tuners. It also serves my small library of music files and can play DVDs and BluRay discs. I've ripped 4k UHD BluRay discs using MakeMKV and MythTV can play the files but the colors are wrong since a lot of the plumbing needs HDR support.
[+] [-] dsr_|3 years ago|reply
Number of shows: 442
Number of episodes: 25061
First recording: Monday February 19th, 2007
Last recording: Sunday February 5th, 2023
Total Running Time: 15 years 11 months 16 days 5 hrs 30 mins
Total Recorded: 2 years 1 month 13 days 18 mins
Percent of time spent recording: 13%
Specs: 2-core Intel CPU, 8GB RAM, 250 GB SATA SSD root, 6TB of mirrored storage, which is perpetually nearly full.
[+] [-] woobar|3 years ago|reply
Number of shows: 256
Number of episodes: 6817
First recording: Thursday May 14th, 1998
Last recording: Sunday February 5th, 2023
Total Running Time: 24 years 8 months 23 days 8 hrs 45 mins
Total Recorded: 11 months 8 days 8 hrs 59 mins
Percent of time spent recording: 3%
[+] [-] johnklos|3 years ago|reply
It'd be nice if there were consumer-ready hardware for something like this. I know a few people with VCRs (yes, in 2023) that still record to tape from their digital receiver and play back over composite.
I'm amazed that you can't just buy a device that acts like a VCR, with composite and line in and out, but records and plays back via digital files instead of tape.
I want to try this, perhaps using an older Intel Mac mini, but I'm wondering how to "sell" it to someone who just wants a VCR.
[+] [-] klinquist|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LouisvilleGeek|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mpnordland|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] deelowe|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tyingq|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m3galinux|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vaporary|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] VWWHFSfQ|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kvandy|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] podiki|3 years ago|reply
Good to see the project still going 10-15 years after I first heard of it (though I haven't used it in a long time)!
[+] [-] lp0_on_fire|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] harry8|3 years ago|reply
xbmc with the myth plugin on the frontend is great if you own the thing that drives your tv screen. If you use appletv it seems you don't own it and can't run xbmc or mythtv frontend on it. But you can pay apple a sub and then also pay again for anything you might want to watch out of their stunningly limited selection. That's always apple's solution: Pay apple more to get something that isn't what you wanted...
[+] [-] crtasm|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|3 years ago|reply
MythTV: An Open Source Digital Video Recorder - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29634491 - Dec 2021 (3 comments)
[+] [-] patja|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drewg123|3 years ago|reply
A few months ago, I moved to Channels. What I like about it is it works really well on Firesticks and AppleTVs that I already have attached to my TVs, so that means I can finally get rid of the hardware sagetv clients (one of which I've had to replace the caps in) and simplify my setup.
When looking to move last fall, I first looked at MythTV. It was still horrifically hard to setup. Given I'd never use a pc client, I then moved on to tvheadend, which had its own issues (mainly on the side of the kodi client). I finally settled on Channels because they have FreeBSD support for the server, and more importantly, It. Just. Works.
[+] [-] Prolixium|3 years ago|reply
Maybe I'm weird but I use MythWeb exclusively even though I run MythTV on my office workstation. mythfrontend is nice but I find it easier (read: more window manager-friendly) to use mpv to play recordings.
[0] https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythWeb
[+] [-] toast0|3 years ago|reply
I've never been interested in scheduling through the frontend, I just use it to playback recordings with a remote control. I find it much easier to search and browse the guide through a web browser.
[+] [-] teel|3 years ago|reply