MythTV 29.1 Release

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MoisiePants
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MythTV 29.1 Release

Post by MoisiePants »

Hello:

I see that MythTV 29.1 has been released - but I'm curious about a couple of things here:
  • The release page states that "For various reasons, we have chosen not to distribute pre-compiled binary versions of MythTV" - what is that all about? Surely it's going to raise the barrier to entry for a great many users?
  • I can't see any evidence on the forums of people using the new release yet. Is this anything to be worried about?
Thanks,

Pants.
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diyhouse
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Re: MythTV 29.1 Release

Post by diyhouse »

Creating an 'out of the box' solution takes a lot of time and testing,.. beyond the basic 'adding new features, and making the code work.
By concentrating on 'the code', the limited resources available to develop mythTV as a media solution can actually do more useful code development to the products look and feel, and reliability.
Also,. I believe the alliance with ubuntu has ceased as they are looking to develop there own solution.
As for the number people using mythtv 0.29 check out http://smolt.mythtv.org/static/stats/stats.html web site as this shows many 100's of users,. of which I am one who use mythtv 0.29+,.. the basic look and feel is the same,.. ( as you would expect, as this is controlled be the themes ), but much of the back end is improved, and as far as I have experienced works just fine. If you follow the install procedures, step by step,.. it all magically comes together in the end.
MikeB2013
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Re: MythTV 29.1 Release

Post by MikeB2013 »

For Ubuntu based distributions there is a ppa (see https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Installing_MythTV_on_Ubuntu).

I am running a Beta of Xubuntu 18.04 (due for release in April) , which does have a fairly up to date version of mythtv 29 in multiverse repository (2:29.1+fixes.20180220.9b7b962-0ubuntu3 ). As is usual for Ubuntu, this is just a snapshot, to keep mythtv up to date you need to use the ppa.

Other people have created packages for various other Linux distributions (of which there are many), there are some examples at https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Packages

I usually build mythtv from source, but to save me some effort I install from the ppa (as it sets up database, passwords etc) and then change the mythtv-backend.service file to pick up my built from source backend.
MoisiePants
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Re: MythTV 29.1 Release

Post by MoisiePants »

Hello:

Thanks for your replies - it's reassuring to read your responses. Seeing the 29.1 release come out, and seemingly no-one take note of it made me worry for the future of the project. However, I'm glad to see that's nothing to worry about!
diyhouse wrote:
Sat Mar 17, 2018 8:46 am
As for the number people using mythtv 0.29 check out http://smolt.mythtv.org/static/stats/stats.html web site
Ah - that's very interesting, thanks. It's good to see some figures on the number of users on each platform, particularly.
MikeB2013 wrote:
Sat Mar 17, 2018 10:11 am
For Ubuntu based distributions there is a ppa (see https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Installing_MythTV_on_Ubuntu).
Cool. I took the announcement to mean there wasn't a ppa for this version - but I hadn't got as far as checking myself. (I'm a bit of a Linux noob - my Myth/Kodi setup is my biggest venture into Linux by far!)

Thanks,

Pants.
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pvr4me
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Re: MythTV 29.1 Release

Post by pvr4me »

Myth is available for various distributions. You can see some of them here:

https://repology.org/metapackage/mythtv/versions

Craig
Formerly the MacPorts guy.
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paulh
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Re: MythTV 29.1 Release

Post by paulh »

I don't know the legal details but the project has never produced binaries to protect the developers from being sued for copyright or patent infringements and having to get licences for the use of the MPEG stuff amoung other things. So we only make it available through source code and it's up to it's uses to decide the legality of it use ;) As others have said there are many distros and packagers that produce packaged binaries.

Most of our users still use Ubuntu based disros and so we made extra effort to get 29.1 ready for the upcoming Ubuntu LTS release which will be around for 2 years and supported for a few more years after that.
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diyhouse
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Re: MythTV 29.1 Release

Post by diyhouse »

One other distro I must mention is the Raspberry distro,.. this makes for a very cheap and effective front end. ( yes it can be used as a backend,,.. but not recommended, as not really enough horse power )
------
Frontend shopping list:-
1 x Raspberry Pi 3
1 x 32Gig SD card
1 x suitable power supply
1 x keyboard/ and or Infrared remote
------
If you check out this wiki page https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi it steps you though the install and setup process,. and works a treat, and makes for a very respectable frontend.
gustden
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Re: MythTV 29.1 Release

Post by gustden »

Long time user of mythtv here. I just upgraded to 18.04 / 29.1 and here is my review.

This was a first fresh installation in over 4 years and it actually went pretty well. Most issues were SQL related:

- A random password was set for for the user mythtv in the mysql, where the front end defaults to something different. I ended up changing it to match my frontends, then the back-end wouldn't start until I figured out the /etc/mythtv/config.xml had the old password.

- I never got a chance to set the root password, and still have not figured it out what it is. ( any help here? )

- I have tried resetting the password, but I still cannot login to sql as root without elevated privileges.

- Mythweb took a bit of playing to get running, as one modules didn't get installed (php7.2) by default

- The sql export and import of the database worked perfectly :)

- Scanning my movie directory, the frontend locks up and eventually dies. It looks related to metadata lookup, but I haven't dug into it yet. It seemed to keep popping up windows on top of windows. I know this area has never worked right for me.

Just a couple of irritating things with the setup:

In the back-end setup, how do you delete a directory in a storage group? I tried highlighting it, delete key, etc, and nothing seemed to work. Finally, I just deleted it from the DB in SQL...

Also, in the appearance/screen settings, is there an easier way to set the 'GUI size for TV playback'? It took me 10 minutes and 1000 mouse clicks to set the screen size with the counter buttons. Why not just let people type it in directly?

I spent at least 8 hours before I had a system I could watch TV on. It actually went better than expect!
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bill6502
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Re: MythTV 29.1 Release

Post by bill6502 »

Here's one answer: type d to delete Storage Directories.

And for passwords, everything you could possible need to know is here ;)
https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Config.xml#Troubleshooting
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