Advice for a Linux novice, hoping to switch from Argus TV

[elsmandino]

Hi there,

I have been using Argus TV backend on my headless server for many years now without any problems.

However, things have ground to a big halt recently and I am looking to change to something new that is still in development.

MythTV seems to be the only real rival to Argus TV with its very intelligent scheduling.

My server is based on Windows 10 - I know that MythTV does exist for windows but I am going to have to jump ship to Linux for the full experience (hopefully it is not going to be as scary/complicated as I am imagining).

I would be really grateful for any advice before I start tinkering with a brand new backend - particularly from anyone who has had any past experience with Argus TV.

One thing in particular - my server had 12GB of RAM, 8GB of which is used as a RAMDisk. I use the RAMDisk for time-shifting live TV. Is this feature available in MythTV?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[mythbuntubox]

I have no experience with Argus TV (which seems to look a lot like Kodi), but MythTV does certainly cater for time-shifting live TV. 12GB of RAM is plenty for MythTV. MythTV records everything you watch, even live TV, so you can rewind, fast forward and pause, and by just pressing the record button, you can even hang on to something you started watching live, from the point you started watching, as a recording. You may find that switching channels is slower than you may be used to because everything is recorded, but I don't find it too much of a hassle. I would suggest Mythbuntu as the easiest way to switch over to Linux for MythTV. MythTV is crammed full of features, so I hope you enjoy your switchover and learning to use it. It's probably a lot less scary than you think, and if you get stuck, you can always ask for help. Just be careful to check that your tuner card/s in particular has/have good Linux support, or you may have to replace. Check here as a starting point:

https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Digital_Tuner_Cards

Of course, also make sure you have a hard disk with enough space for recording.

For more info on Mythbuntu, check here:

http://www.mythbuntu.org/

BTW, you can use MythTV with a Kodi frontend if you like too, but it is not as full-featured as the MythTV frontend.

[elsmandino]

Many thanks for that - I shall have a go with Mythbuntu, as recommended, this weekend.

I think I shall install and run everything from a spare Hard Drive first as I am bound to make some mistakes getting everything up and running.

I am so glad that you mentioned checking my Tuner Cards.

I have two:

Hauppauge Nova HD-S2 https://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Haup ... NOVA-HD-S2

Hauppauge HVR-2200 https://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Haup ... V-HVR-2200

Unfortunately, as a Windows user, there is a lot of unfamiliar information on these pages.

To get Mytbuntu up and running with these cards, what do I have to do. Am I correct in thinking that the Nova card should just work "out of the box"?

[MikeB2013]

The chances are good that at least one if not both of the tuner cards will work "out of the box" under Mythbuntu. The wiki pages have a lot of old stuff in them which may not apply to Mythbuntu 16.04 - make sure you use the 64bit version.

Just install Mythbuntu and then try to configure the cards in the myth backend.

Note that you may well have to reboot the machine a couple of times.

If you run into problems just come back here for help.

Mike

[elsmandino]

Thank you - I shall give it a go and only worry if I do run into any problems.

Just one more thing, if I may - at the moment, I have 3 HDDs in my server (in addition to the SDD) that deal with all my recordings and storage.

I use these as one giant 10TB drivepool, via a great piece of software called Stablebit Drivepool.

Stablebit's main advantage is that it balances which hard drives are being used, plus it is not striping files but rather uses a hard drive for each complete file (so if you lose a hard drive, you do not lose everything).

My question was going to be for suggestions of Linux alternatives for this software.

I have however, just read the Wiki, and it seems to be suggesting that MythTV includes software that can already do all I am asking for. Is this correct or have I misunderstood things?

[MikeB2013]

mythtv uses a concept of storagegroups, and you can assign as many drives/mounts as you like to each storagegroup. So for recordings, which are usually in the Default storagegroup you can have 1 or more drives/mounts. mythtv will automatically balance usage across the drives, see https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Setup_Storage_Directories

Mike

[daraden]

if you haven't found it already check out the mythbuntu quick start guidehttps://docs.google.com/document/d/19kn ... R60o4/edit
from your description of Stablebit Drivepool it seems to preform the same job as storage groups. though storage groups only do this for mythtv recordings and not the whole system.
setting up a ramdisk is fairly easy, using it with mythtv may be problematic due to the way mythtv handles recording

[elsmandino]

Hi there,

Been messing around with MythTV a bit more and I finally got one of the TV cards working - took a bit of fiddling with the firmware but this is definitely helping me understand how Linux works.

Just a few other quick questions:

1. Is it possible to disable Live TV altogether?

2.

...from your description of Stablebit Drivepool it seems to preform the same job as storage groups. though storage groups only do this for mythtv recordings and not the whole system.

That is really clever, having it built into MythTV. Does Linux have any available programs to allow me to apply this to the whole system? It would be really useful if I could combine all my drives into one virtual drive.

[mythbuntubox]

Glad you have already made some progress with your installation.

As for your first point, if you mean simply removing the Watch TV option from the main menu, it is not too difficult. Simply edit the menu file in question. See here for a bit of an explanation:

http://tips.myhdbox.com/2006/04/tip-2-h ... -menus.php

If you want to go further than this, you may have to dig a bit deeper to disable menu items elsewhere, e.g. the Watch This Channel under the "M" menu, in the Programme Guide, but it can probably be done too.

Not using drive pools myself, I cannot profess to offer you any personal advice, but here is a list of drive pool software similar to what you have been using under Windows. You will have to see how well any of the items meets your needs and how well it works with MythTV in the picture though:

http://alternativeto.net/software/stabl ... form=linux