Can I get a one box solution with a new Pi 3 B?

[johngammel]

I have a new Raspberry Pi 3 B, Hauppauge 955Q tuner, MPEG license key and a yagi antenna that does a good job with the Ft. Myers stations from here in Englewood. I kinda got it working with OSMC/Kodi combo but I didn't like it and couldn't get things like automatic scheduling working. Of course it's my first Pi which I'm learning on to both help grand kids later and watch/record OTA programs since we cut the satellite cord. The Pi's silence and trivial power consumption are very appealing to me.

I've installed Raspbian and followed the MythTV Light overview as far as the mythplugins but that's it.

First - will this ever work with MythTV light as effectively as a single (headend, backend, PVR, tuner, etc.) "cable" box?

Second - how about MythTV with a full blown compile/install? If not I'll move on.

Third - does anyone have a detailed build process that they can share with me if I should proceed?

FYI - I am a retired windows IT sysadmin but Unix was never my thing other then some AIX years ago.

[pgbennett]

First - will this ever work with MythTV light as effectively as a single (headend, backend, PVR, tuner, etc.) "cable" box?

I had originally seen Raspberry Pi as a frontend only. However a number of people are using it for backend as well. I think you will need at least two raspberry Pi's, one for frontend and one for backend, due to the raspberry pi being limited to 1 GB of main memory. You will need a hard drive for storage of your recordings. I don't know how big an SD card works with raspberry pi, but it seems futile to try to use an SD card for recordings.

Second - how about MythTV with a full blown compile/install? If not I'll move on.

I don't know what you are asking. You are welcome to compile and install MythTV on the raspberry pi. Also the mythtv-light is a full blown build with everything in it.

Third - does anyone have a detailed build process that they can share with me if I should proceed?

Look here for raspberry pi setup
https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi
Look here for build instructions, which do include a section for building on raspberry pi
https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Build_from_Source
Let me know if there is anything missing or unclear in the documentation.

[johngammel]

I followed the instructions (except that I configured the Pi to a static IP so that I could use putty on one of my Windows PCs) under MythTV Light down to: For a backend installation, continue with installing mythweb, the database, mythtv user, etc. Instructions start at Install MythWeb. This was such a different style that I thought something was wrong since it wasn't just simple things like apt-get install commands. I'll give it a try by starting at Install MythWeb under the build-from-source.

[johngammel]

At the Install MythWeb under Build from Source it states to check the dependencies listed above so I did that and all looked good. The set up web application has: cd ~/build/mythweb - that doesn't exist. The next line has the destination for a cp (usr/local/share/.....) and that doesn't exist either. I know that I carefully followed the MythTV Light process for 0.28 as I was using copy/paste into a putty SSH window.

Thoughts?

[pgbennett]

i think the problem is that you are starting with mythweb installation without having gone through the source code build that preceded it on that page of instructions. That would have created the directories you see as missing.

The set up web application has: cd ~/build/mythweb - that doesn't exist

You will have to create the ~/build directory and perform the clone operation described.

The next line has the destination for a cp (usr/local/share/.....) and that doesn't exist either.

I think if you create the missing directory (/usr/local/share/mythtv) it should work.

Note that MythWeb is an optional part, you can run the front end and backend without it. MythWeb will allow access from a browser, but that is not an essential part of MythTV.

[johngammel]

OK. I'll give it a try and build it from source so that nothing is missing.

[rcarballo]

My advice to you is to create a virtual machine with VirtualBox, load Ubuntu + MythTV backend on it, and attach an external drive for the recordings. I'll explain why the use of a virtual machine is important later on.
Use the RPIs for front-end only. I have 3 in my house. One is used for testing upgrades and as backup in case one of the RPIs dies.

The reason I use a virtual machine for the MythTV backend is to test updates/upgrades to Ubuntu or MythTV backend.
I can assure you that you WILL have problems with updates from time to time with Ubuntu or MythTV backend. When it happens, you are gonna wish that you had made a backup of the drive. VirtualBox has the ability to roll back changes or incorporate changes to a hard drive quite easily. Another plus of using a virtual machine is the ability to backup the drive (even when the VM is running).

I use a MACMINI with Virtual Box for my back-end. My MythTV's virtual machine has been assigned 2GB of memory and a 20GB drive. I also have PLEX server on the MACMINI that gets its media from MythTV.

Sincerely,
Antonio

[johngammel]

I tried a build from source but that didn't go as advertised so I'm abandoning Myth - it's just not worth the grief at this point. While I have lots of systems I don't like leaving them running - out electric bill is already too high. I'm going to get another Pi and move my private FTP server from Windows 2008 R2 to Rasbpian since I can put enough USB storage in place to handle it's new lower traffic volume and turn of the piggy system it's running on.

With TVhead I can at get it to record from an ATSC source so when she has viewing conflicts I can help out. Not going to worry right now about niceties such as live viewing or scheduling.

Thanks for the help. Later.

[luc5588]

May I suggest using an old laptop, install ubuntu then mythtv-backend-master package. You can partition the internal drive with something like gparted live cd, you only need a small space (8G, or 32G is more than enough).

Use an external usb drive to store the recordings.

Search wiki for acpi power saving and the github turnoff program which allows the machine to be off when it's not recording. It will then turn on automatically before the next recording is due.

Power consumption of a laptop without display on is very low since the laptop's cpu quickly goes to its most idle state.

You could install ubuntu on to the usb disk but it may be slow with the database on a usb2 disk due to the constant commits during recording.