Overview

I bought a new computer to replace my old Pentium III (circa 2000, shown above). I knew that it was still usable for something, so I decided to give it a few upgrades and turn it into a dedicated PVR using Linux and MythTV. Below are details about my setup, including how to get everything up and running in Debian 4.0 (Etch).

System Components

Gateway Performance 733 MHz. Pentium III (Coppermine)

• 384 MB RAM
• Operating System: Debian Linux 4.0 (Etch) - Kernel 2.6.18*
• Sound Blaster Live!
• Realtek Ethernet (10/100)
• 120 GB ATA Hard Disk (Maximum supported by the motherboard is ~136 GB)
• DVD-ROM and CD-RW Drive
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 AGP Video Card (with S-video output) - $75 USD at newegg.com*
• Hauppauge PVR-250 (with hardware MPEG encoder and remote control) - $125 USD at buy.com*

* Indicates upgrade for the MythTV project - total cost of $200 USD

Software Listing

• Debian Linux 4.0 - Operating System
• MythTV 0.20 and (optional) plugins - PVR Program
• ivtv 0.10.1 - PVR-250 Driver
• lirc 0.8.1 - Remote Control support
• libdvdcss 1.2.8 - DVD decoding, needed for most DVDs
• LAME 3.96 - Audio Compression (MP3)

Performance

Encoding

Virtually zero CPU usage due to the hardware MPEG-2 encoder on the PVR-250. I haven't tried any software encoding (MPEG-4) because I'm pretty sure that it couldn't keep up.

Decoding

480x480 MPEG-2 (1.5 GB/hour) - 30% CPU playback
480x480 MPEG-4 (1.0 GB/hour) - 25% CPU playback

Commercial Flagging

30 minutes for each hour of MPEG-2 @ 480x480.

Transcoding

1 hour for each hour of MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 @ 480x480.

Installation

These are instructions for installing MythTV 0.20 on Debian 4.0 (Etch)

Run Apt-get

You should add contrib and non-free to your /etc/apt/sources.list file.

You should apt-get the following packages to get a basic system up running to compile MythTV:

apt-get install gdm make gcc x-window-system g++ unzip ntp-server wget 
libqt3-mt-dev libXxf86vm-dev libqt3-mt-mysql libxv-dev

You will need these packages to ensure that all of the MythPlugins install:

apt-get install linux-headers-<yourkernelversion> apache2 
libapache2-mod-php5 php5-mysql libdvdnav-dev kde-devel mysql-server 
libdvdread-dev libcdaudio-dev libid3tag0-dev 
libmad0-dev flac libflac-dev libcdparanoia0-dev libtiff4-dev fftw-dev 
libsdl1.2-dev festival-dev festival libexif-dev 
libwww-perl xmltv

Drivers

If you are using an Nvidia card, you need to install their driver for TV-out:

apt-get install module-assistant
m-a prepare
m-a auto-install nvidia
apt-get install nvidia-glx
Change the Driver in /etc/X11/xorg.conf from nv to nvidia
/etc/init.d/gdm restart

If you are using a Haupaugge card (PVR-150, PVR-250), install the ivtv driver:

apt-get install ivtv-modules-<yourkernelversion> ivtv-utils

wget http://dl.ivtvdriver.org/ivtv/firmware/firmware.tar.gz
tar zxvf firmware.tar.gz
cp *.fw /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/.

Install packages from source

Some MythPlugins require lame (for MP3 encoding/decoding with MythMusic) and libdvdcss (for viewing encrypted DVDs, most all are):

tar zxvf lame-3.96.1.tar.gz
cd lame-3.96.1
./configure
make install

wget 
http://freshmeat.net/redir/libdvdcss/16066/url_tgz/libdvdcss-1.2.9.tar.gz
tar zxvf libdvdcss-1.2.8.tar.gz
cd libdvdcss-1.2.8
./configure --prefix=/usr
make install

Sound

apt-get install alsa alsa-utils alsamixergui kmix

Remote Control Setup (optional)

If you have a remote, you should install lirc:

tar zxvf lirc-0.8.1.tar.gz
cd lirc-0.8.1
./setup.sh
make install

Edit /etc/init.d/lircd and replace all references of /dev/lirc with /dev/lirc0

Edit configuration files

add to /etc/modules:

lirc_i2c

Add the following to /etc/ld.so.conf:

/usr/local/lib

REMOVE line from /etc/mysql/my.cnf.

bind-address = 127.0.0.1

To disable screen blanking in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, REMOVE:

Option         "DPMS"

Link mythfrontend to kde autostart directory

cd ~/.kde/Autostart
ln -s /usr/local/bin/mythfrontend mythfrontend

Automatically login the mythtv user with GDM, add to /etc/gdm/gdm/conf:

[daemon]
AutomaticLoginEnable=true
AutomaticLogin=mythtv

You should reboot here to make all of the changes take effect.

Install MythTV and Plugins

cd mythtv-0.20
./configure
qmake mythtv.pro
make install

cd mythplugins-0.20a
./configure --enable-opengl --enable-vcd --enable-aac
qmake mythplugins
make install

cd myththemes-0.20
./configure
qmake myththemes
make install

MythTV Configuration

To populate the channel icons:

perl mkiconmap.pl
mythfilldatabase --import-icon-map iconmap.xml --update-icon-map

or (without xmltv):

mythfilldatabase --import-icon-map master_iconmap.xml --update-icon-map

For Mythflix, run twice:

/usr/local/share/mythtv/mythflix/scripts/netflix.pl -L 
<netflixusername> <netflixpassword>

You can also install Mythstream:

apt-get install libxml-simple-perl libxml-dom-perl libxml-xql-perl
./configure PREFIX=/usr/local/
make install

For MythWeb, consult the README file in the mythplugins-0.20a/mythweb directory.

Other Suggested Services

apt-get install openssh-server samba mt-daapd snmpd