Whats Possible?

Myth TV Hulu / NetFlix Integration

Current Media PC Links

Picking A Distribution

http://www.mythdora.com/

http://www.mythbuntu.org/

Other Media PC How To Guides
http://computershopper.com/feature/building-the-250-linux-media-pc

http://parker1.co.uk

Issues With Hardware and Software Support

• Make sure to purchase a MythTV LIRC Supported Remote
• Will an add-on PCI or PCI Express Firewire card work with MythTV; or, does the Firewire have to be embedded on a capture card or on the motherboard?
• Updating to Fedora 11 seems to be impossible until Mythdora comes out with the Fedora 11 version. This is due to the change in file system in Fedora 11 from ETX3 to ETX4 and the necessity to create a separate boot partition in ETX3 because Grub (the Fedora boot loader) does not support ETX4.

• Will the channels be coming through the Firewire or a separate online service?
• Will there be a Firewire port for various camera downloading and picture viewing on the front of the unit for easy access? How much will be spent on such a unit?
• Figure out why the wireless card is not working so that the system can access online content without needing ethernet.

Necessary Hardware for Media Functionality

• DVD / HD DVD / BlueRay Drive
• Firewire Card or Tuner Card
• Smart Media Bay
• Remote control

Linux Firewire Cable box supported Via Firewire cards

Wireless Configuration in Fedora/Mythdora 10

Fedora 10 Wireless Issues

DVD Playback Support for Fedora 10

http://fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=100206

Firewire Cable Box Compatability

Can’t watch live TV over firewire

Firewire Link

Configuring firewire for MythTV Wiki

Firewire Priming

SA3250HD Primer

Primer Script for SA3250HD cable boxes written by jwestfall. Written for two boxes but works equally well on one box. Still can’t reliably record from two of these boxes but this will get them going. I put this in my /usr/bin directory and call it from the startup programs in the sessions application in Ubuntu and it works every time for me. Post something to the mailing list if you have problems getting it going.

#!/bin/bash
# sa3520_fixer.sh [-v]
#
# This should only be used prior to starting the back end.  Using it as
# part of an external channel changer would be a bad idea since its doing
# a bus reset.
#
# jwestfall@surrealistic.net 

# List of nodes to fix
NODES="0 1"

# The number of times to try and fix a node
ATTEMPTS=5

# The number of consecutive tests that must be successful
# for a node to be considered working
TESTS=5

# verify firewire_tester and plugctl are installed
if [ "`which firewire_tester`" = "" ]; then
  echo "firewire_tester is required, but not found"
  exit
fi

if [ "`which plugctl`" = "" ]; then
  echo "plugctl is required, but not found"
  exit
fi

# deal with -v commandline
VERBOSE="/dev/null"
if [ "$1" = "-v" ]; then
  echo "verbose output enabled"
  VERBOSE="/dev/stdout"
fi

# global failed variable for when the script exits
FAILED=0

# reset the firewire bus
# this should normalize all the plugs and reset n_p2p to 0
echo Resetting the Firewire bus
firewire_tester -R > $VERBOSE 2>&1

for NODE in $NODES;
do
  TRY=0
  SUCCESS=0  

  echo -n "Setting up node $NODE, ";
  while [ "$TRY" -lt "$ATTEMPTS" -a "$SUCCESS" -ne "1" ];do

    # tell stb to send data
    plugctl -n $NODE oPCR[0].n_p2p_connections=1

    # see if the stb is sending data
    firewire_tester -p -n $NODE -r $TESTS > $VERBOSE 2>&1
    if [ "$?" -eq "0" ];then
      SUCCESS=1
    else
      # stop sending data
      plugctl -n $NODE oPCR[0].n_p2p_connections=0
    fi
    let TRY+=1
  done

  if [ "$SUCCESS" -eq "1" ];then
     echo "SUCCESS (after $TRY attempts)"
  else
     echo "FAILED"
     FAILED=1
  fi

done

exit $FAILED

List of Firewire Cards

echo "Jumpstarting FireWire"
/usr/local/bin/firewire_tester -v -b -n 1 # 'plugreport' says one box is on node 1
/usr/local/bin/firewire_tester -v -B -n 1
/usr/local/bin/firewire_tester -v -b -n 3 # The other is on node 3
/usr/local/bin/firewire_tester -v -B -n 3