Re: [OT] Freeview PVRs

["Andy Laurence" <andy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, LeeUKHA <mailinglists@v...> wrote:
> Andy Laurence wrote:
> > Phil Harris <mailto:phil@a...>
wrote:
> > > What's the current flavour of the month in the line of
freeview
> > > PVRs?
> >
> > The only software I found that was as good as Tivo was MythTV.
> > Sadly, I never managed to get it working.
>
> If I can get it working it can't be that difficult! :)
>
> I used the KnoppMyth installation disk  (it uses the the Debian
> based Knoppix distro with MythTV already integrated into it), so
> 99% of the hard work is done for you!

I tried that, but the XMLTV part was broken, and I couldn't work out
how to upgrade it to a working version.  It was too hacked to use the
usual Debian methods.  I tried installing Debian from scratch, and
doing it that way, but it took so long, and I got stuck so many
times, I eventually gave up.

> So I've got a triple tuner Freeview recorder, 14 day EPG courtesy
> of the BBC/Radio Times, that also plays all those downloaded .avi
> files, plays DVD's, plays music, shows photos, RSS reads, plays
> Mame, even let's me watch TV upstairs on the main PC over the lan,
> all accessible from the 'net like Tivoweb... it's kinda like MS
> MCE, but doesn't need rebooting everyday...  ;)

No need to rub it in ;-)

> Other neat tricks include - automatically cutting out commercials
> (still a little iffy but works very nicely on some channels), time
> compression - play recordings 10%-40% faster but with corrected
> audio (so no chipmunks)  it blasts though the recordings, auto
> transcode to DIVX/XVID for space saving/archiving, I'm just adding
> NVRAM wake up, so the PC switches itself off between recordings -
> should save on the elecy bill !

Some cool features.  I may have another stab at some point, as I
still have all the hardware.  We'll see.  I'm a little reluctant to
try the KnoppMyth one in case I need to update a package later on and
can't, so will probably resurrect the Debian from scratch theory....

Cheers,
Andy