Linux Multimedia Hacks

Create a DVR with MythTV

Turn any reasonably modern computer it into an open-source digital video recorder that rivals and even surpasses a TiVo in features.

People are busy and can’t always be at home when their favorite show comes on. You could rearrange your life so you’ll always be at home during the primetime broadcasting hours, but why bother? You’ve heard of a TiVo right? That magical appliance known as a DVR that digitally records all of your television shows and is much easier to figure out than a VCR. Well, now you can create your own TiVo using a computer and the free software program called MythTV. Although the instructions in this hack apply specifically to Fedora Core 4, a Linux user with just a modest amount of experience should be able to adapt these instructions to install and configure MythTV on most any distribution.

The Hardware

One of the most frequent questions asked by people wanting to build their own DVR is what hardware they’ll need. Most people assume there is a magic bullet combination of hardware that is vastly superior to all others, but that simply isn’t true. The hardware you need for your MythTV system really depends on your budget, your needs, and your own personal sense of taste. To find out about hardware other people have used to build their systems, visit the PVR hardware list found at http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-pvrhwdb.php.

The following list gives you a few more specific guidelines:

Processor

Your processor needs to be fast enough to decode ...