Tweaking Ubuntu – MythTV HDTV Recording

MythTV records HD tv from cable boxes via firewire. I have the Explorer 4250HD from Scientific Atlantic. The service is provided by Optimum, which is subsequently a service of Cablevision. I have connected a firewire cable from the output port on the cable box to the 1394 input port on my motherboard. With Ubuntu 1394 drivers are automatically installed, and MythTV is in the default Ubuntu repositories. To install MythTV use: sudo apt-get install mythtv This will completely install MythTV in working order. I like a theme called Me-Po. You can download it here: http://home.comcast.net/~zdzisekg/download.html Unzip the folder and copy it to: /usr/share/mythtv/themes Select it in the appearance settings menu. Select it in the OSD settings menu as well, which is located in the playback menu. Now open the MythTV backend.

I am recording right now so I don’t want to kill the backend to get screenshots. Simply add the input device as your firewire. It should be P2P. Set for the 4250HD Scientific Atlantic select the 4200HD and the speed to 400. You will neeeeeeeed a schedules direct account!. Grab one for 20$ a year. There is no reason not to have it. Go through the rest of the menus, and where it asks you for your schedules direct username and password pop it in. Update your lineup, then associated your input device (firewire) with the schedules direct listings source. Grab listings to set the start channel. Then your gonna want a second hard drive for your HD recordings being that they are over 10 gigs a pop for a good one. Pirates of the Caribbean at Worlds End was like 12 Gigs. You configure where to save your recording in the directories menu. Obviously you will have to connect your HD, format it and mount it. Use gparted for this, nice and easy: sudo apt-get install gparted Mount the drive somewhere in /media. Once done press escape to exit the backend config. You be prompted to update your listings using mythfilldatabase. Ohh, and to launch MythTV automatically on boot create a script. Create a new empty file, call it myth.sh. Put in it: #!/bin/bash mythfrontend Then add it to the startup applications. Mark the applications as executable. Add another startup script, after installing wmctrl: sudo apt-get install wmctrl In the script have: wmctrl -r "mythfrontend.real" -e 0,1921,0,1920,1080 -r is the window name. -e says where to put the window. In compiz there are viewport rather than workspaces. If you have a 1920×1080 desktop, with two viewports, then the second viewport starts at 1921. The code above will place MythTV on the second viewport autoamtically. Add the script to the startup applications list. Heres another post covering the same material. I don’t know what else to say here, but feel welcome to post questions in the comments and I’ll help the best I can.

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MythTV HDTV Firewire from Scientific Atlantic 4250HD Box

The MythTV package in the default Ubuntu repositories, as of Jaunty, works with built in firewire support. Just connect a firewire cable from the cable box, to your computers firewire (1394) port and configure the backend accordingly. When selecting the device configure it to 400 as the speed and select the 4250hdc model. You do not need an external channel change script as built in channel changing is supported. At first I configured my PVR150 with an external channel change script to control the ir blaster. After spending days upon days figuring out how to get it working just right, I notice the firewire support of MythTV changed the channels just fine. What an experience the PVR150 is; it does indeed work. All aspects of the PVR150 work fine, except the quality stinks compared to HDTV via firewire.

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