RECENT ENTRIES
There has been sporadic talk about using a SheevaPlug as a master backend for MythTV. I was under the impression that nobody had attempted to do this. I was wrong.
The verdict: if you want the SheevaPlug to do serious backend work you will probably be disappointed. However, if you want to have a device that is low power and can wake up a slave backend then this is ideal.
It seems the real challenge is that currently the MythTV (0.22) codebase does not support a master backend configuration that has no tuner. This can be worked around by using a round-robin scheme or by using a fake (or development) tuner on the master backend (see also here).
If you live in the Los Angeles area and you receive your television service Over-the-Air you may have lost some channels after the digital transition. Up until the transition all broadcasters were broadcasting their digital streams via UHF. After the transition a number of area broadcasters decided to move their digital streams to VHF. When that happened I became unable to receive KTTV / KCOP.
Well, just this past week KTTV has doubled their broadcasting power and I can finally get FOX again using my Radio Shack UFO antenna. I still can't get KCOP but that's much less of a loss since I have rarely watched anything on KCOP.
Complete details of someone who did a structured wiring project. It details network, telephone, and video in a home run configuration.
At Hometech Tutorials there are numerous free (and a few for-pay) documents detailing structured wiring, a/v distribution, home automation, ac wiring, and other stuff.
Talks about different phone wiring blocks and tips about phone wiring at Home Phone Wiring.
A discussion on the mythtv.org user's list about structured wiring (see also this).
There is a lot of very good audio stuff at Audioholics A/V Education. This includes a discussion about different Cat-5 braiding techniques, installing banana plugs, and video cable shielding.
Do-it-yourself cat-5 audio cable.
AVS Forum is an invaluable source of information. Especially their A/V Distribution and Networking forum, the home automation forum, the DIY forum, and a look at a massive home storage server.
For remotes there is Remote Central.
RETAILERS OF STRUCTURED WIRING GEAR: the very inexpensive MonoPrice.com for all sorts of a/v related wires, cables, and converters, Deep Surplus for structured wiring specific gear, Home Tech which has control, cables, and audio related stuff.
COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS: Pluto Home home automation and a/v distribution system, Slim Devices wireless audio distribution devices, Cable Organizer for everything cable related, Xantech control devices, Home Theater Direct for whole house audio equipment.
I built a mythtv box way back at the beginning of 2007. I am still using it. I tune all of my television Over-The-Air (OTA) which simply means I use an antenna to receive my television service. Below is what the box is composed of today.
MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4. This motherboard has built-in sound (the Realtek ALC850) which is supposedly supported out-of-the-box by ALSA. I could not get it to work so I eventually bought a Turtle Beach Riviera card. This card worked perfectly from the moment I installed it.
CASE: I bought the silver SilverStone LC16M. This case has a number of buttons and knobs on the front, as well as a small LED. All the features worked out-of-the-box.
VIDEO CARD: An nVidia 8400 GS with no fan. These can be had for cheap from just about any on-line store. It also supports VDPAU. If you are going to be recording and playing back HD then you really should have a card that supports VDPAU.
MEMORY: Corsair 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 800
HARD DRIVE: 2 hard drives actually. One is a 200GB SATA drive and the other is a 500G SATA drive. I purchased both drives from my local Fry's. I use the larger drive to record to and the smaller one I use for music files, mythtv, and the OS.
POWER SUPPLY: Since this was an all-in-one Myth box and since it was to be placed in the entertainment center it needed to be quiet. I consulted Silent PC Review for advice on silent power supplies. I ended up with a SeaSonic S12-330 ATX power supply.
TUNERS: I purchased the HD Homerun. This is an off-board device that has two ATSC tuners and sends the data over the network. It is small, quiet, and I have never had any trouble with it. I use it to capture Over The Air (OTA), i.e. I use an antenna. It can also tune QAM.
REMOTE CONTROL: I bought a One For All 10 remote from Fry's. It has worked very well. It is uncomplicated and exremely easy to program.
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