Lothar’s Build Log R0.2.1
Well, it’s official. I now have a Mythtv frontend running under Windows. It’s not all peaches and cream though. Right now it’s just the frontend software running. I don’t have any plugins going, and the backend is running on my linux server. The frontend is now working well enough that I have it connected to the tv and the AV receiver. My wife isn’t thrilled with the bars across the top and bottom of the screen (it’s a 4:3 CRT running via DVI) but this motherboard doesn’t have svideo or composite. My wife doesn’t really see the difference in video quality so she’d rather do svideo like on the last board. I’m actually happy that it doesn’t because it forces the higher resolution. But I digress…
Mythtv is now running under Windows. Once I’ve had time to play with the settings and get things working more reliably, I plan to write up a guide so that the rest of you can try it out too. Look for that sometime in the coming months.
Right now I actually get better performance running Mythtv Player than I do running Mythtv but I’m sure that will be worked out. Right now, playing an HD stream in Mythtv Player, CPU usage is around 25% on this system. Running the same show via Mythtv runs the CPU 85+% and stutters. SDTV is nice and smooth but CPU usage is again much higher in Mythtv than in Mythtv Player.
The only thing left related to Mythtv is transplanting the system from my Antec NSK2400 case to the Antec Fusion 430 Black so that I can use the IR receiver. I’m hoping that I can integrate that into Mythtv. I attempted to use WinLIRC to do it but it’s based on a really old version of LIRC (0.6.something) and it only recognized serial receivers (and it didn’t like my remote setup much at all).
Once that’s done that leaves ripping my DVD collection. I’m not sure if I’ll put that in Mythtv or have it available via VMC (or maybe both). The options right now are quite numerous and I’m very excited.
I’ve also decided to throw my HVR-950 USB tuner in this box and run that via VMC when I feel like. I haven’t gotten to that yet but hopefully I will in the near future.
One major issue that I’m having right now is overscan. I’m not familiar with ATI drivers so if anyone can tell me how to shrink down the screen and add custom resolutions I am all for it. Mythtv runs quite well (there’s an option for setting the corners of the screen) but the desktop is problematic. I know many of you out there are familiar with what I’m talking about.
That about wraps things up for today. I’m quite happy right now.
Again, please feel free to drop a line in the forums. Even if it has nothing to do with this blog.