August 2005 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

playing (movie) DVD's?

by Bill Mills-Curran

What application do you use for playing movie DVD's on linux. I'm running fc3. Thanks, Bill

Aug. 16, 2005

Re: [Wlug] MythTV vs. Tivo

by John Stoffel

Marc> I agree. The pvr card I'm looking at comes with a remote that Marc> looks pretty decent. One thing I wish my tivo had was a 30 Marc> second jump ahead. That's something I plan on binding to one of Marc> the remote buttons. The TiVo does have this feature, it's just not enabled by default. You need to do the following, from memory: Start playing a recorded program. Hit the following key sequence: Select Play Select 3 0 Select That should now make the skip to end/beginning button jump forward 30 seconds at a time. >> I've been on the fence about MythTV for a long time now, just not sure >> which card to get. It's between the Hauppauge 250, 350, and new 500 >> cards. I just haven't done enough research to find out if the HW >> decoding in the 350 or the two tuners in the 500 are supported in >> Linux. The 250 is normally the sure bet except I have a really old Marc> The hardware decoding in the hauppauge 350 is supported. It Marc> also has audio and video out, so you don't need to have a Marc> seperate video or sound card. That's the one I'm looking at Marc> picking up. Marc> I also want this for a dvd player, so that's one other bonus Marc> over the tivo. Now if you could combine both features into a single quiet box that was the same size as TiVo, I'd be interested. I also like how the Myth stuff will let you have a server in one location, and player(s) elsewhere. That gives alot of flexibility... It would also be great have to have dual Haupagge 350s in a box, so you can record two programs at the same time, while watching either a stored program, or one of the recording ones. John

Aug. 15, 2005

Re: [Wlug] MythTV questions...

by Andy Stewart

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Bill Smith wrote: > I know that I could get some answers from the MythTV website, but I'm > looking for some opinions, since others have been talking about the > Tivo/MythTV stuff... > > I've got a Matrox Mystique and Rainbow Runner card (it's a little "old, > I think) that I have been thinking about using to make a MythTV-ish > system. (The Rainbow Runner is an add-on TV tuner card for the > Mystique.) > > Given that I'm not expecting spectacular results with something like > that (I mostly want to play with it), what sort of base system should I > use it in? (CPU speed, Drive capacity, RAM?) > > Any suggestions are welcome. HI Bill, I found with my card that a 1 hr program takes 2.4 GB of disk space. I suspect I could reduce the resolution so that an hour takes up half as much disk space. Do the math to figure out how much disk space you'd want. I had 18GB for a while but I found that it filled up too fast, especially when you tell MythTV to record every episode of "The Three STooges" and then you hit the marathon. :-) I think MythTV recommends a 1.5-2.0Ghz machine, but I don't think you need that much for just recording and watching programs. Then again, if you plan to use it for transcoding and such, get as fast a machine as you can afford. My MythTV box has 256 MB of memory and it seems pretty happy. Later, Andy - -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA, USA http://www.wlug.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFC/g7LHl0iXDssISsRAnpXAJ9ptgw+VjjwLUfsF8wWcEn4YLlEHQCeJ8wS nm9l/SozGKv80PZsg+2HUjY= =bBf7 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Aug. 13, 2005

Re: [Wlug] MythTV vs. Tivo

by Andy Stewart

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Jared Greenwald wrote: > I've heard nothing but complaints about the quality of the output on > the 350. I ended up getting the 250 since its the same as the 350, > but without the video and sound out. For one thing, most decent > motherboards come with AC97 or better sound chips so that shouldn't be > an issue. Secondly, you should be able to find a relatively cheap > video card (think GeForce FX5x00) for like $50 which would have both > way better video quality, plus it would not be restricted to the PCI > bus which is much slower than AGP (esp 8x). > > Just a thought. I went with the 250 and a GeForce FX5200. I think my > entire setup ended up costing me $600 including everything. > > -Jared HI Jared et al, I have a Hauppauge 350 and I'm very pleased with it. It has the hardware MPEG encoder & decoder on board, which I thought was a nice feature. I'm using KnoppMyth and have no problems with it. I very much encourage the use of KnoppMyth because I found that getting all of the pieces of MythTV working together was a royal PITA - probably more so than any other FOSS project that I've tried. I'm using an Xbox as the frontend and a PIII/450MHz as the backend. I'd recommend more horse power on the backend, but I get away with it since the 350 does most of the work for me. I purchased the Xbox remote control/receiver also. Although I found MythTV a bit difficult to get working (there are a zillion things to configure), the result is *well* worth it, and once configured, there isn't much else to do except enjoy it. I can't speak about Tivo since I don't own one and have never used one. Currently, I don't have digital cable, so my 350 can tune into the desired station on its own. What can one do with digital cable besides connect the TV tuner card to the "cable box" output? I don't know of any TV tuner cards which can tune directly off of a digital cable box. Later, Andy - -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA, USA http://www.wlug.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFC/g1ZHl0iXDssISsRAmTnAJ9X9tWB0I7mZbvloE9Xlfa4qrdJDQCeLv4O DxLiOzY10vHVorRMaj82Czs= =9Whj -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Aug. 13, 2005

Re: [Wlug] MythTV vs. Tivo

by Jared Greenwald

I've heard nothing but complaints about the quality of the output on the 350. I ended up getting the 250 since its the same as the 350, but without the video and sound out. For one thing, most decent motherboards come with AC97 or better sound chips so that shouldn't be an issue. Secondly, you should be able to find a relatively cheap video card (think GeForce FX5x00) for like $50 which would have both way better video quality, plus it would not be restricted to the PCI bus which is much slower than AGP (esp 8x). Just a thought. I went with the 250 and a GeForce FX5200. I think my entire setup ended up costing me $600 including everything. -Jared On 8/12/05, Marc Hughes <marc.hughes(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Personally, the key feature of the TiVo is the remote. It's the key > > feature of any tool and by that I mean the interface. If it's too > > complex, or annoying, then it's not going to make people happy. > > I agree. The pvr card I'm looking at comes with a remote that looks > pretty decent. One thing I wish my tivo had was a 30 second jump > ahead. That's something I plan on binding to one of the remote > buttons. > > > > I've been on the fence about MythTV for a long time now, just not sure > > which card to get. It's between the Hauppauge 250, 350, and new 500 > > cards. I just haven't done enough research to find out if the HW > > decoding in the 350 or the two tuners in the 500 are supported in > > Linux. The 250 is normally the sure bet except I have a really old > > > The hardware decoding in the hauppauge 350 is supported. It also has > audio and video out, so you don't need to have a seperate video or > sound card. That's the one I'm looking at picking up. > > I also want this for a dvd player, so that's one other bonus over the tivo. > > -Marc > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

Aug. 13, 2005

MythTV questions...

by Bill Smith

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I know that I could get some answers from the MythTV website, but I'm looking for some opinions, since others have been talking about the Tivo/MythTV stuff... I've got a Matrox Mystique and Rainbow Runner card (it's a little "old, I think) that I have been thinking about using to make a MythTV-ish system. (The Rainbow Runner is an add-on TV tuner card for the Mystique.) Given that I'm not expecting spectacular results with something like that (I mostly want to play with it), what sort of base system should I use it in? (CPU speed, Drive capacity, RAM?) Any suggestions are welcome. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- William Smith wsmith-at-chezsmith-dot-com Fall River, MA http://www.chezsmith.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFC/V+Iz+l4y7Xx77MRAnkWAKCQt+gLgbbY+NaLGxs2GotJoXdMdACdFhYb gmf8SBL6Cp1Dcv4c5Q4rklk= =jahA -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Aug. 13, 2005

Re: [Wlug] MythTV vs. Tivo

by Marc Hughes

> Personally, the key feature of the TiVo is the remote. It's the key > feature of any tool and by that I mean the interface. If it's too > complex, or annoying, then it's not going to make people happy. I agree. The pvr card I'm looking at comes with a remote that looks pretty decent. One thing I wish my tivo had was a 30 second jump ahead. That's something I plan on binding to one of the remote buttons. > I've been on the fence about MythTV for a long time now, just not sure > which card to get. It's between the Hauppauge 250, 350, and new 500 > cards. I just haven't done enough research to find out if the HW > decoding in the 350 or the two tuners in the 500 are supported in > Linux. The 250 is normally the sure bet except I have a really old The hardware decoding in the hauppauge 350 is supported. It also has audio and video out, so you don't need to have a seperate video or sound card. That's the one I'm looking at picking up. I also want this for a dvd player, so that's one other bonus over the tivo. -Marc

Aug. 12, 2005

Re: [Wlug] MythTV vs. Tivo

by Brett Russ

On 8/12/05, Marc Hughes <marc.hughes(a)gmail.com> wrote: > So I've been thinking about picking up a PVR card and turning an old machine > I have lying around into a MythTV box to replace my tivo to get rid of that I've been on the fence about MythTV for a long time now, just not sure which card to get. It's between the Hauppauge 250, 350, and new 500 cards. I just haven't done enough research to find out if the HW decoding in the 350 or the two tuners in the 500 are supported in Linux. The 250 is normally the sure bet except I have a really old CPU (700) so the HW decode sounds quite appealing. If anyone has any experience with the more advanced cards, please pass the knowledge along. thanks BR

Aug. 12, 2005

Re: [Wlug] MythTV vs. Tivo

by Jared Greenwald

One good thing about MythTV is that there is a plugin to allow it to function as a DVD player too (with a DVD/R/RW drive)... I've been working on one for a while, but the mobo I bought might need to be RMA... -Jared On 8/12/05, John Stoffel <john(a)stoffel.org> wrote: > > Marc> So I've been thinking about picking up a PVR card and turning an > Marc> old machine I have lying around into a MythTV box to replace my > Marc> tivo to get rid of that nasty monthly fee. > > I've got a TiVo and I love it, but I paid up front for the lifetime > fee. Some elementary math at the time showed me that it paid for > itself in under 24 months, and it's lasted longer than that already. > I do love my TiVo, I just wish it had two tuners so I could watch one > and record another no matter what. > > Marc> Does anyone have any comments on the comparisons between the > Marc> two? Will I miss my tivo? Does mythtv have equivelant options > Marc> for season passes or recommentations? > > I've love to hear your experiences if you do got the Myth route, I've > got a box that could be used for this, though I'd need to get a tuner > card at some point. > > Maybe you can pickup an old TiVo unit and re-use that hardware with > the Myth software? Hmmm... a little bit of googling say it's not > really possible. But they do mention that you might be able to get > the EPG (program listing) data into your TiVo with just a bit of a > hack. Not a bad idea... > > Personally, the key feature of the TiVo is the remote. It's the key > feature of any tool and by that I mean the interface. If it's too > complex, or annoying, then it's not going to make people happy. For > example, we've got a TV remote where they put the Mute button all the > way at the other end of the remote from the volume controls. What a > pain! > > Good luck, and let us know how it comes out! If it works well, I > might jump in as well, just to have a second TiVo like box at home for > stuff I want to watch, instead of the wife and kid... > > John > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

Aug. 12, 2005

Re: [Wlug] MythTV vs. Tivo

by John Stoffel

Marc> So I've been thinking about picking up a PVR card and turning an Marc> old machine I have lying around into a MythTV box to replace my Marc> tivo to get rid of that nasty monthly fee. I've got a TiVo and I love it, but I paid up front for the lifetime fee. Some elementary math at the time showed me that it paid for itself in under 24 months, and it's lasted longer than that already. I do love my TiVo, I just wish it had two tuners so I could watch one and record another no matter what. Marc> Does anyone have any comments on the comparisons between the Marc> two? Will I miss my tivo? Does mythtv have equivelant options Marc> for season passes or recommentations? I've love to hear your experiences if you do got the Myth route, I've got a box that could be used for this, though I'd need to get a tuner card at some point. Maybe you can pickup an old TiVo unit and re-use that hardware with the Myth software? Hmmm... a little bit of googling say it's not really possible. But they do mention that you might be able to get the EPG (program listing) data into your TiVo with just a bit of a hack. Not a bad idea... Personally, the key feature of the TiVo is the remote. It's the key feature of any tool and by that I mean the interface. If it's too complex, or annoying, then it's not going to make people happy. For example, we've got a TV remote where they put the Mute button all the way at the other end of the remote from the volume controls. What a pain! Good luck, and let us know how it comes out! If it works well, I might jump in as well, just to have a second TiVo like box at home for stuff I want to watch, instead of the wife and kid... John

Aug. 12, 2005