I’ve been an avid MythTV user for the last 2 -3 years. It all started when I got fed up w/ Tivo’s service. My wife and I loved our old Tivo, but it drove me nuts that the hardware & feature set was locked down depending on the subscription plan. I won’t go into too much detail on how my setup evolved the way it has, this is more of a venue to document my current setup. Basically this setup allows me to record, or watch, three five HD shows simultaneously. The commercials are flagged and automatically skipped over while watching the shows. Not only are both our TVs tied into this setup, but both our office PCs and laptops run MythTV as well. Myth also has preliminary support for streaming TV shows over the web interface like a slingbox. Anyway, there are many, many more features but most importantly my recurring costs for this are $20 a year for the listing data (…and electricity). You’ll notice that none of this hardware is expensive or high-end. It’s pretty basic stuff really.
Master Backend Server Hardware:
(The silver case on the bottom right)
- Case: Antec P180 – This case is AWESOME. I highly recommend it. ….it’s expensive though.
- Motherboard: Abit AB9 Pro – I choose this one for the 10x SATA ports!
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Dou E4500 @ 2.20 GHz
- RAM: 4 GB
- Hard drive(s): 2x WD 750 GB RAID 1 for OS, music, pictures, & home movies. 4x 500 GB for TV & Movies. 1x 1 TB drive for backups and misc storage.
- Tuners: Tichnisat AirStar HD-5000, 2x Silicondust HDHomeRun
- Misc: 2x NICs
- OS: Fedora x86_64
Living Room Frontend:
- TV: Samsung 56′” DLP
- Case: Silverstone LC17 – This case is really nice, but it’s large and too expensive.
- Motherboard: Abit NF-M2S
- CPU: AMD Athon 64 X2 5600+ 2.8 GHz
- RAM: 2 GB
- Video: Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT w/ VDPAU (fanless, DVI –> HDMI)
- Hard drive(s): 1x Hitachi 160 GB
- Remote: Humax Tivo D800 Remote (the Peanut)
- OS: Fedora x86_64
Bedroom Frontend Hardware:
- TV: Old Samsung 27″ CRT P.O.S.
- Case: Antec Minuet 350
- Motherboard: ECS GeForce6100PM-M2
- CPU: AMD Athon 64 3200+ 2.0 GHz
- RAM: 2 GB
- Video: Nvidia 7200 (fanless, Composite)
- Hard drive(s): 1x 4 GB USB Thumb Drive. Cheap & silent.
- Remote: StreamZap
- OS: Fedora x86_64
Here are some helpful links for anyone interested in learning more about MythTV:
Thank you for the post. I am setting up the HTPC using MythTV. I am selecting which Linux to use between Ubuntu10.04 64 bit and Fedora13 64bit. Did you have any problem with FakeRaid for the Fedora13 64bit?
Thank you
In my experience fake raid works quite well with Linux. Your millage will vary depending on the type of card you are using. Also, certain cards will only support certain types of RAID, so 5 may not work but 1 could. You’ll have to figure out what your hardware supports. I need to update this post again as I’m now on Fedora 14. I’ve had a lot of luck with Fedora & mythtv; it’s my free distro of choice. Fedora & Ubuntu have a very short life cycle, but luckily upgrading between versions is really easy now. I would definitely start with the current version. Good luck & enjoy!