Considering MythTV, some questions

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Tavis75
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Considering MythTV, some questions

Post by Tavis75 »

Hi,

I'm in the UK and currently looking into DVRs, currently with Virgin Media and have their TiVo\V6 box, which is great. However, they are phasing out that system and replacing it with the 360\Horizon box which is missing loads of features. So that, combined with price rises and the realisation that I barely watch anything that isn't on Freeview means I'm considering switching to a Freeview DVR.

I've had a look at what is available, which really just seems to be the Manhattan T3-R (soon to be replaced by the T4-R I believe) or the Humax Aura, and both of them seem a little lacking in features, so wondering if something like MythTV might offer more of what I'm looking for (TBH, what I'm looking for is something that is even vaguely comparable to a TiVo from 20 years ago!)

Basically all my (non-streamed) TV is watched via series link recordings, so decent series link functionality is the most important thing to me. Not really fussed about streaming (have AppleTV for that) or playback of videos via Plex or similar (I have a decent Zappiti player for that).

My must have features are:

Recording of all standard UK Freeview channels
Remembering series so that if a new series of something I record starts it is recorded automatically
Automatic rescheduling of clashes\recording fails
Reliability

Nice to have:

"Wishlists" (recording shows that match certain criteria such as keywords in the title or description, specific actors etc.)
Remote recording management via app or webpage
Undelete
Easy management of series links
3+ tuners
Archiving of recordings to my NAS

Ease of use day-to-day is also important to a degree, I'm quite tech savvy, so don't mind a bit of effort getting things set up initially but don't want to be having to boot up a PC and fiddle around with settings or errors every couple of days.

So how much of that does MythTV offer? Are there any other big plusses or minuses that I should know about?
white_haired_uncle
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Re: Considering MythTV, some questions

Post by white_haired_uncle »

I don't know what a "series link" is. In myth, there are recordings (obvious), and videos (stuff you ripped from DVD, downloaded, etc). In videos, you can set a "watch this next" option for a video, though I never use that since the interface already makes it really easy. In recordings, I have the frontend sort by original airdate, so even though I might record episodes out of their original order they are displayed in the "proper" order for playback.

I'm in the US, so I don't know what a "UK Freeview" channel is, but I'd be very surprised if the answer wasn't something like "if a tuner with linux support can record it, myth can".

Remembering series, yes. Also, it will not re-record episodes you have already watched and deleted, unless you tell it to forget them. In the GUI, I've only found the option to forget individual episodes. While they are categorized by series, forgetting a whole series can be a little monotonous (no big deal, it's something I do very rarely, and it's really easy if I just go directly to mysql).

Clashes/Rescheduling: I pay for a service which gives me guide info two weeks in advance instead of just using what is broadcast over the air for just this purpose. Myth intelligently schedules to avoid conflicts, even to the point of keeping a tuner free in case I want to watch live tv. And, of course, there's lots of other scheduling options, like prefer a certain series, prefer a channel, prefer episodes in HD, etc. Missed/failed recordings will be rescheduled. In many cases it can even identify damaged recordings, which are kept, but will be re-recorded.

Reliability: I've been using myth for right about 19 years now. I've never started over, or even considered that as an option. I just recently signed up here for find help for something I couldn't figure out by myself. Some upgrades have not been seemless, but nothing was ever lost.

Wishlists: You can set custom recording rules, though I've never done it. Titles/keywors/actors/etc are all in the database, so I'd say probably. What I don't think you can do is "I liked this series, show/recommend/record other things like it".

Web/undelete/tuners: sure. Archiving, yes, but may involve minor scripting (possibly using a built in utility I've never played with). You can set up your scripts so that they show up in the gui as "user jobs", and I think can even be ran automatically in the post-recording process.

Day to day, myth is about as reliable as, say, xterm.

As far as minuses, my only concern is longevity. It's not really a myth issue, it's more of industry changes as more and more people move to streaming, and some major recent moves in the US towards DRM/no-record, which may make recording obsolete even OTA (unless you sign up for cable, and rent a propreitary box(es) from the cable company, neither of which are an option for me). But then, I've got a huge video collection as it is, and recently moved my myth master backend to a VM, so even if myth goes away before I do I can't see it ever not having exclusive control over my TV
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heyted
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Re: Considering MythTV, some questions

Post by heyted »

TBH, what I'm looking for is something that is even vaguely comparable to a TiVo from 20 years ago!
If you are already familiar with and prefer a TiVo remote, you can use one with MythTV. I am currently using a TiVo IR remote that came with a TiVo Roamio. Since a TiVo remote is designed to work with a DVR, it is quite applicable for MythTV. An IR TiVo remote is compatible with the ir-keytable tool available with Ubuntu and other Linux distros.
Ted | My blog
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