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Practical MythTV: Building a PVR & Media Center PC: Building a PVR and Media Center PC [Paperback]

Michael Still (Author), Stewart Smith (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 1 May 2007 | ISBN-10: 1590597796 | ISBN-13: 978-1590597798

MythTV is a powerful open source personal video recorder (PVR) application that runs on Linux. Developed for several years by volunteers, it offers a stable and extensible platform for automating all of the things you would expect from a PVR, and much more.

Practical MythTV: Building a PVR and Media Center PC takes a project-based approach to implementing your own MythTV setup. You get to pick and choose the functionality you want to install for your PVR, and will learn the details of everything from selecting hardware to advanced customization.

You will learn how to record your favorite television shows, store your DVDs for later playback, create a music library out of your CD collection, and even use your PVR for voiceover IP. Your PVR wouldn't be complete without a remote control or the ability to play back content to other TVs in your home. You'll learn how to do both of these things in this book. You'll even learn to how to utilize your Xbox as a remote front-end to play back content.

Beyond these basics, you will learn advanced techniques like commercial detection and skipping, auto-expiring content, creating your own themes for MythTV, and utilizing plug-ins to do things like display weather conditions, RSS feeds, and photo slide shows.

Product details

  • Paperback: 358 pages
  • Publisher: APRESS (1 May 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1590597796
  • ISBN-13: 978-1590597798
  • Product Dimensions: 18 x 2.5 x 23 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 870,510 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Practical MythTV 31 Oct 2009
By Mr. James Slinger
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
MythTv is a huge collection of computer programs which enable one to build something like a Sky+ device for Freeview, Freesat, cable TV or analog TV. The idea is that it can record TV programs (or radio programs) and stream them at will to TV sets or to other computers. The latter is very useful to families who have the odd computer littered about the house. Also, the user can easily transfer recordings to DVD. The computer programs are notoriously complicated and this book is a useful guide through the complexities. It is a bit out of date inevitably because progress in this field is very rapid. None the less I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the idea. I should add that the computer programs are "open source" and are available for a free download which includes a computer operating system. (That means that the user can use the box as if it were a normal computer when it is not doing its recording job.) Of course, being open source, there are lots of other applications that can be downloaded for free. MythTV, Mythbuntu, Linux, Freeview, Sky+ and Freesat are trade marks.
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Amazon.com: 3.4 out of 5 stars  14 reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Almost Completely Worthless 21 July 2008
By Blake Watson - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Look, I'm not going to say that these guys didn't try, or that this is a cynically written attempt to cash in on something, but this book is as close to worthless as I can imagine.

Now, again, this is not entirely the authors' fault. MythTV is highly dynamic. What's true today isn't true tomorrow. I'm a journeyman MythTV builder, and a lot of what I've learned in the painful progress I've made simply does not apply any more.

That said, a lot of stuff =hasn't= changed, and it's here where the book falls apart. They should have started with the basics of content flow, i.e., where is the media coming from? Because that's the first thing you need to know before you even decide if MythTV is right for you. (Over the air content, for example, is easily handled by Myth, while controlling a set-top box from a cable, satellite or fiber optic company is a whole 'nother kettle of fish.)

While support has been added since this book was written, the stuff they actually did mention that has been part of MythTV since its incpetion is not well covered. For example, to set up your MythTV backend, you have to select from various capture card types. There are V4L, MPEG2, DVB, etc.--how about explaining what these are? No explanations is the norm, and when there is an explanation it's often simply restating the on-screen text without actually clarifying.

Six months of having this book and I've never once found an answer to a question I had. Now, I don't go looking for product specific stuff, because (as I said) there's no way they could cover that, but just basic joints and cogs and so on.

See, the thing about MythTV is that if you have just the right hardware and a simple enough setup, it might take you fifteen minutes to set up. If you don't, it could take you weeks to set up, or you might never be able to do it.

To be useful, this book really should have explored =how= to troubleshoot. They couldn't do the actual troubleshooting for you--there are too many things that can go wrong--but they could tell you about the utlities and hardware settings that allow you see where your problems lie.

Maybe they just didn't have the space. But, as I say above, it makes the book almost completely worthless.
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book - Buy It ! 18 Aug 2007
By S. Johnson - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This book should be renamed "the MythTV / PVR Bible". It has everything you need to know about creating your own PVR using MythTV.

Ideally you should have a working knowledge of Unix to get the most out of the book. While the authors have included step-by-step instructions for installing Ubuntu, if you haven't used Linux before, most of it will be "over your head". However, the good news is that there are tonnes of gold nuggets to be found - even in the first two chapters. As such, the Microsoft "point and click" people should buy the book purely on the basis of a good sanity check - eg: have you considered all the available options relating to hardware?

Something that most authors leave out of books is the setup they use at home. Stewart and Michael (the authors) include their own hardware and cover in detail why they use it. If you combine this information with the lists of recommended hardware, you will avoid the most common mistakes that people make when creating a PVR.

While I've done a lot of research into building PVR's and have a Unix background, I managed to get a lot out of it. Expert users will find the information relating to plug-ins, advanced TV recording and expanding MythTV worth the read.

If you are thinking about building a PVR, do yourself a favor - stop everything you are doing and buy this book first.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Great overview 25 July 2007
By Kevin Blanchard - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I had been playing with Knoppmyth already to get a feel for MythTV and see if I wanted to use it to replace my TIVO. There are so many options and features that I was looking for a good book to cover an overview of MythTV and talk about install options/pitfalls etc. in more detail from a practical standpoint.

This book addressed many of my concerns and questions I had going into reading the book and helped me follow through and a make a fully educated decision in moving forward with building and installing my new MythTV box.

For anyone considering MythTV or looking for a good guide to get it up and running, I highly recommend this book.
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