13 ms·

MythTV 33 Released – open-source all-in-one DVR

170 points by cf100clunk 4y ago

patja 4y ago
I'm still rocking my 13 year old SageTV installation. Even the hardware clients are still working well. So grateful they were allowed to open source the software after Google acquired it.
- drewg123 4y ago
  I moved from MythTV to SageTV ~15 years ago or so, for the hardware client. A few months ago, I moved to Channels. What I like about it is it works really well on Firesticks and AppleTVs that I already have attached to my TVs, so that means I can finally get rid of the hardware sagetv clients (one of which I've had to replace the caps in) and simplify my setup. When looking to move last fall, I first looked at MythTV. It was still horrifically hard to setup. Given I'd never use a pc client, I then moved on to tvheadend, which had its own issues (mainly on the side of the kodi client). I finally settled on Channels because they have FreeBSD support for the server, and more importantly, It. Just. Works.
  - patja 4y ago
    for me, Comskip is the killer feature I would be very sad to give up. With Channels do you have to manually FF through ads?
    - drewg123 4y ago
      No, it also uses comskip. I should have mentioned that..
  - gregmac 4y ago
    I did the same! I ran MythTV on a PC connected to my TV for a while, but when I wanted to add a second TV I had a really hard time getting a decent fanless client at a reasonable cost (this was mid/late 2000's). I ended up switching to SageTV purely for the hardware client. A year or so after SageTV was acquired, I moved to Plex. The biggest miss was the hardware client. I went through several sub-par iterations of PC-based hardware -- including mini-ITX PCs and Raspberry Pi -- but never got a setup that could run Plex, Youtube and Netflix and work 100% without a keyboard/mouse involved. I also tried some hardware -- Roku, original Chromecast -- but nothing was even remotely good as the SageTV HD300's, even years later. Until I found the Nvidia Shield -- though it's more Google TV doing the real magic, I think. I still have the original 2015 model in my living room, still working perfectly. My newer "media room" TV uses built-in Google TV stuff -- I originally intended to use the Shield but it requires upgrading my just-before-4K-came-out AVR to be able to do 4k, so this setup was simpler. I also have a cheap "Chromcast with Google TV" on an old smaller set in front of my treadmill. Over the past few years, I have all but stopped using Plex, though, as we went to pretty much 100% streaming services, but it is still running. It's really thanks to MythTV, though, that I started down this path 15+ years ago. I've never had a cable/satellite TV subscription in my name, ever. It's interesting now to look back, because all my media sources have entirely changed since I started. I do still have everything needed for OTA in a box somewhere, but I never hooked it up in this house -- maybe it's time to give it a shot again.
  - ubertaco 4y ago
    Can I run Channels for free if I selfhost everything, or do I still have to pay them a monthly fee?
    - EricE 4y ago
      They have an annual fee - well worth it though as it clearly funds development; the developers are VERY active and constantly updating/improving it.
TheRealDunkirk 4y ago
I used MythTV for several years, until Comcast went digital in my neck of the woods, and my tuner card was useless. What do people tune to content with now? Is it all IR control of a cable box?
- klinquist 4y ago
  I still use a cablecard with Comcast (in an HDHomeRun Prime), currently using ChannelsDVR as my DVR.
  - TheRealDunkirk 4y ago
    Oh, wow. I never expected Comcast to actually support such an idea. Nice!
    - hwatson 4y ago
      It used to be a legal requirement for American cable providers to offer them, but the FCC dropped CableCARD in 2020 considering streaming apps to be a reasonable equivalent (https://www.techhive.com/article/578820/cable-box-competition-rules-dismantled.html https://www.techhive.com/article/578820/cable-box-competitio...) Comcast still offers CableCARDs to new customers at least (https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/about-cablecards https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/about-cablecards)
- simbas 4y ago
  Good old OTA tv! ATSC
podiki 4y ago
This takes me back! The first home server I ran had a TV capture card, ran Gentoo with MythTV, was hooked up to the living room TV, and was a pretty good source of entertainment for the gradstudent apartment I shared. Saving broadcasts, trimming out commercials, ... and of course fun with running a Linux server. Good to see the project still going 10-15 years after I first heard of it (though I haven't used it in a long time)!
- lp0_on_fire 4y ago
  Same. I attribute a good portion of my linux knowledge today to setting up and running a MythTV machine. I ditched cable and moved to a place that has little OTA broadcasts so haven't run it in years but that box is still sitting in my basement.
VWWHFSfQ 4y ago
Wow MythTV! This is a blast from the past. I was using this back in ~2006 or so. It sorta worked haha.
slindsey 4y ago
I used MythTV extensively in the late 2000s to capture over the air (OTA) tv. My kids were young and it was a terrific way to capture tv shows for them (and for me when doing 2AM feedings). It's ability to identify and skip commercials was awesome and I'm sure it's gotten better. The biggest issues I had were hardware related to the capture devices and getting remotes to work. Honestly, given the state of streaming (40 different services all carrying different content), it might be worth looking at again.
- bshep 4y ago
  I had a similar experience! We had 3 TVs hooked up, each with its own instance and a central recording instance with 3 capture cards. It worked great, you could record or playback from any of the TVs. Main issue we had was getting the remotes to work correctly. I remember editing configs constantly to get correct behavior from the remotes.
- iwanttocomment 4y ago
  I was a big MythTV fan in the aughts, and this was a blast from the past. These days I use an HDHomeRun Flex 4K. Four tuners, 4K ATSC support, clients for virtually all platforms (including Smart TVs) so you don't have to connect a proper "computer" to the TV or fumble with remotes, has cheap "bring your own storage" network DVR support, it's a real neat device for $200. It picks up 82 OTA channels where I live. Just crazy how much content is on OTA TV these days.
  - lizknope 4y ago
    I just connected to the built in web server in my HD HomeRun and it shows 105 channels. I always see people complaining about having to pay for cable to watch sports when 90% of them are available for free over the air.
    - nerdix 4y ago
      Do you get ESPN OTA? Or your local sports regional network (likely owned by Bally Sports) OTA? Because that's usually what people really mean when they say that they need cable for sports. They want to watch some big game that ESPN paid big money for the broadcast rights like the college football national championship. Or they want to watch their local professional NBA or MLB team and the regional network paid big money for exclusive broadcast rights in the area so it's blacked out on League Pass (NBA) or MLB.tv
deelowe 4y ago
Oh man, I still have my hauppauge wintv card. Useless these days with analog broadcasts no longer being a thing.
- tyingq 4y ago
  The Tablo devices are what I use now for those few things on broadcast TV I want to DVR. Fairly cheap, no recurring cost, and reliable. The UI is a little wonky, but you get used to it. And there's apps for things like FireTV, Roku, etc, so you don't have to physically wire it to one TV.
teel 4y ago
First I thought I had clicked something that showed really old postings. I had no idea MythTV would still be around. I never used MythTV though; I used Freevo in the 2000s. Worked quite well once I had it configured. Every once in a while I looked over the fence to see if the DVRs were greener on the other side, but never got around trying MythTV. I still have many shows and episodes I saved with Freevo, on old hard drives somewhere.
kris_wayton 4y ago
Sort of waiting for some new iteration of what "popcorn time" was. With all the fragmentation of content across different providers, and more aggressive actions on account sharing, crossing region restrictions, etc...it feels like average people are now starting to complain a lot. There is an opening for a very beginner friendly pirate platform to rise again. Not because nobody wants to pay exactly, but because doing it legally is complex now.
- jasondoty 4y ago
  Private services like this exist. For $40 a year one lets me stream any show/movie on apps across all platforms including android tv. Seamless netflix-like sync across devices, family profiles, selectable video/audio quality up to 4k, etc
  - niteshade 4y ago
    Are they on the dark web? Perhaps I've just been (un)lucky, I've never seen any.
    - kris_wayton 4y ago
      Feels like they are referencing something that includes the google-able tagline "lower price than the majority of file hosters while still offering"
      - jasondoty 4y ago
        I use this service as well for other things, but not what I was referring to, it barely fits the description.
    - jasondoty 4y ago
      No, tor can’t handle bandwidth of movie streaming.
- jedberg 4y ago
  https://movies123.video/ https://movies123.video/ Tons of ad spam, but seems to work eventually.
kvandy 4y ago
Wow, had no idea this thing was still around. Takes me back to neo Kodi/XBMC/Windows ME days. So much hardware and software to accomplish what a small stick does today.
waynesonfire 4y ago
the auto commercial skipping was the killer app feature of MythTV. Really enjoyed MythTV. Havn't looked at it; but, wish it would work with streaming services / on-demand.
- cube00 4y ago
  Streaming services are never going to open themselves up for this.
  - prmoustache 4y ago
    I record streaming services with obs. I guess one could script something with some browser automation and ffmpeg.
- EricE 4y ago
  Channels DVR works with quite a few streaming services (via TV Anywhere) and does commercial skip too. I use it with YouTube.TV as well as Philo. My parents also pick up OTA with an HD HomeRun on their channels DVR. The downside to Channels (and to be fair, exact same with MythTV) is the homebrew nature. I had to set up and maintain it for them. But if you have the means to run one and you like traditional cable channel content still, nothing beats Channels. They also have AppleTV and Firestick clients further sweetening the deal. It's $80 a year - but if you have dealt with Tivo or any of the other commercial products out there, that's not a lot - and it directly funds development. And development on Channels is very active, as is the dev participation in their forums (always a HUGE plus).
daveevad 4y ago
Big fan of MythTV here and daily user forever now. Paired with an HDHomerun and Jellyfin, MythTV really gives one a pretty good poor man's Youtube TV with no recurring fees. One of mine runs in a virtual machine in the garage at my family's farm, with a custom script beaming me my childhood local news to enjoy over coffee in the morning.
- ed25519FUUU 4y ago
  Childhood local news? Like news episodes from 20 years ago or the current stations you watched when you were young?
  - daveevad 4y ago
    The local stations I watched when I was a child. There are a handful of newscasters still around from when I last lived there 25 years ago. It's a pretty fun way of keeping a pulse of back home.
nickcw 4y ago
I was always very impressed with MythTV. It was the first project that I saw that made really good use of versioning their mysql database with SQL queries to change the schema linked to the software version. I used it extensively. I obsessively recorded everything off over the air digital TV and wrote it to DVDs. I had a little script to look up ratings of movies in IMDB, apply weighting factors due to personal tastes and record all the ones which made the grade. I'd then edit the commercials out and burn to DVDs all losslessly. However, this all came to an end when my 2 year old son took the running hosepipe from the garden one summer, through the open patio doors into the house and proceeded to fill up the MythTV computer with water (along with the TV, VCR, DVD player and sofa!). I never quite had the heart to resurrect the system after that and it was an end to my MythTV obsession. It was fun while it lasted.
- xp84 4y ago
  This is very relatable. I guess I should count myself lucky that my then-3yo "only" hurled a remote and smashed the TV in retaliation for TV time being over. And that I only buy the "cheap" $4-500 TVs instead of the high-end ones.
- Eduard 4y ago
  Oof. Good to know for any upcoming parenthood :). Though I guess any data loss was small considering you burned (water-resistant) DVDs?
- scarby2 4y ago
  Does home insurance cover act of children while they are in they are in their probably possessed by demon stage?
  - intelVISA 4y ago
    Would guess that daemonic possession falls under force majeure.
    - tomcam 4y ago
      Interestingly most policies exclude acts of God. Not quite sure where that fits in tho
aidenn0 4y ago
I loved MythTV, but I moved to a valley so I can't pull in any OTA broadcasts anymore :(
- ghaff 4y ago
  I'm right at the base of a hill and I've never been able to get broadcast TV. A couple years back, I realized that I was watching cable TV less and less and the odd show/sports event/news broadcast just wasn't worth paying $1K/year any longer.
allenbina 4y ago
I tried to get this to work multiple times around 2004. This might be where I first dove into linux. I gave up every time. I ended up using windows media center which worked flawlessly for years. I moved on to plex and a hdtvhomerun when they released it (it handles deleting old series, etc). About a year ago I realized I don't really watch live TV anymore and unplugged it.
- ericflo 4y ago
  I learned most of what I know about Linux trying over years to set up and maintain a MythBuntu box
- matthewmcg 4y ago
  Similar for me, except I got it working after tens of hours invested. After wasting time with nonstandard hardware, I got a Hauppauge PVR series capture card with hardware MPEG2 encoding. That made all the difference. I was in college at the time and had free HBO on the dorm cable network, plus completely unfiltered 100mbps ethernet throughout the campus. It was fun to have a "DIY Tivo" server that could automatically remove commercials and make my library available to my suitemates.
  - matthewmcg 4y ago
    In case this resonates with anyone else's nostalgia, the highlight of my time with MythTV was setting up a system to automatically transcode episodes of selected shows to 320x250 for my iPod video which I could then sync and watch on a plane. Heady stuff for 2005-2006.
- nerdix 4y ago
  Similar for me but I never made a serious attempt at MythTV because I never had dedicated hardware in those days. So I ended up installing XP MCE on my main machine (you could minimize/exit Media Center and it was just plain Windows underneath). Used that for a while then went down the XBMC path (for windows..pre-Kodi for a while). Ended up with a Boxee Box (first real dedicated hardware). Then moved to Plex hosted on a Windows Home Server with various clients over the years (Sony NSZ-GS7 Google TV, OG Chromecast, Nexus Player, one of the older FireTVs, Chromecast Ultra). The Home Server died so I moved to UnRaid with containerized Plex. Had a HDHomeRun Prime integrated with Plex for a bit. But dropped cable in favor of streaming TV services. That's the closest I ever got to a MythTV setup.
fanatic2pope 4y ago
Love mythtv. I've been using it since about 2003 or so. It was definitely a janky experience in the beginning, but once I was able to ditch needing an IR blaster it became an absolute pleasure to setup and use.
johnklos 4y ago
Neat! It'd be nice if there were consumer-ready hardware for something like this. I know a few people with VCRs (yes, in 2023) that still record to tape from their digital receiver and play back over composite. I'm amazed that you can't just buy a device that acts like a VCR, with composite and line in and out, but records and plays back via digital files instead of tape. I want to try this, perhaps using an older Intel Mac mini, but I'm wondering how to "sell" it to someone who just wants a VCR.
- jaywalk 4y ago
  The reason you can't just buy a "VCR-like" device is because everything is digital now, and it's much simpler/cheaper to capture and record the digital signal than do analog/digital conversion.
- ThinkingGuy 4y ago
  It's not a fully Free (as in speech) Software solution, but Tivo does make a device that works with digital OTA broadcasts. https://www.tivo.com/products/edge-antenna https://www.tivo.com/products/edge-antenna
- rascul 4y ago
  > I'm amazed that you can't just buy a device that acts like a VCR, with composite and line in and out, but records and plays back via digital files instead of tape. You can. They're called digital video recorders (DVR). I had one around 15 years ago (I don't remember brand or model). A quick search on Amazon had this one as the first result: https://www.amazon.com/ClonerAlliance-Recorder-Playback-Converter-Required/dp/B012T1D0IG https://www.amazon.com/ClonerAlliance-Recorder-Playback-Conv...
  - johnklos 4y ago
    Wow! Thank you :D I've been looking, but every time I've searched for anything like "DVR", I get boxes to record surveillance camera feeds. This is expensive, but may very well be worth the money. Thanks!
Prolixium 4y ago
It's ashame that MythWeb isn't under active development anymore[0]. The MythWeb change log in the 0.33 release doesn't have any commits newer than June 4, 2022. Maybe I'm weird but I use MythWeb exclusively even though I run MythTV on my office workstation. mythfrontend is nice but I find it easier (read: more window manager-friendly) to use mpv to play recordings. [0] https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythWeb https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythWeb
- toast0 4y ago
  There's now a built-in web frontend, which I guess let the sails out of mythweb. :/ I've never been interested in scheduling through the frontend, I just use it to playback recordings with a remote control. I find it much easier to search and browse the guide through a web browser.
klinquist 4y ago
Check out channels dvr (getchannels.com/dvr) as a modern, actively developed DVR. I love it. I'm running Channels on an ESXi host and just use the AppleTV app as the interface.
- LouisvilleGeek 4y ago
  Channels DVR is a fantastic piece of software that I have been running for a few years now. It's reliable and does not need much in terms of hosting hardware. Currently running it on a 2012 Mac Mini with USB attached SSD with an Apple TV as the client.
dang 4y ago
Looks like only one small past thread: MythTV: An Open Source Digital Video Recorder - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29634491 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29634491 - Dec 2021 (3 comments)
m3galinux 4y ago
I've used MythTV since something like 2004. Still great to use for Digital OTA broadcasts (and free-to-air satellite / DVB if that's available in your area). Cable DRM has unfortunately made it much less useful for recording cable broadcasts, thanks to them being allowed to encrypt all QAM signals, and now aren't required to support/provide CableCards either: https://www.nexttv.com/news/charter-cuts-off-cablecard-support https://www.nexttv.com/news/charter-cuts-off-cablecard-suppo...
- vaporary 4y ago
  That's interesting. I setup a new MythTV box two years ago on a Mac mini running Ubuntu, using a Hauppauge HD PVR 1212 capture device connected over USB. I've been able to record HD cable without dealing with any DRM by using the RCA jacks of my Comcast box, which has worked great.
  - RockRobotRock 4y ago
    How do you change channels?
    - vaporary 4y ago
      A common solution is to use an IR Blaster: https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Using_an_IR_Blaster_with_MythTV https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Using_an_IR_Blaster_with_MythTV I did something a little different. My cable box has a 3.5mm TRS jack to connect an external IR receiver to it. I connected the jack to an Arduino, and send serial commands to the Arduino from the MythTV box to change channels.
      - RockRobotRock 4y ago
        Very cool, thanks for the info.
mpnordland 4y ago
If you're curious about the version number, it was changed from 0.xx to xx.0 for release 29. https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions#When_will_Myth_reach_1.0.3F https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions#When_...
cptskippy 4y ago
I tired for along time to get MythTV working with limited success. The Silicon Dust tuners were new at the time and support was spotty. I eventually gave up and used Windows MCE but it was limited to a single TV. I ended up replacing all of it with a 1st Gen TabloTV, Plex and a Roku. I'm still rocking that TabloTV today. There's something to be said for having an appliance that just works.
spear 4y ago
MythTV was the reason I bought and assembled my first x86 PC. I even bought a copy of Red Hat Linux 8 Personal (before Fedora) to run on it. That system became my main desktop PC and is still running more than 20 years later -- like a Ship of Theseus, with every hardware and software component upgraded multiple times. I'm not a progammer but I wanted to help fix bugs and add features, so it was also the reason I learned C++ and MySQL. I still use MythTV (with additional PCs as backends and frontends) to record Comcast digital cable with HDHomerun Cable Card tuners. It also serves my small library of music files and can play DVDs and BluRay discs. I've ripped 4k UHD BluRay discs using MakeMKV and MythTV can play the files but the colors are wrong since a lot of the plumbing needs HDR support.
anthk 4y ago
Damn, nostalgia. MythTV, DVR's, ahem, pirate keys for deco's... good times. Now I don't want a TV near me in kilometers.
dsr_ 4y ago
MythTV stats from my house media server: Number of shows: 442 Number of episodes: 25061 First recording: Monday February 19th, 2007 Last recording: Sunday February 5th, 2023 Total Running Time: 15 years 11 months 16 days 5 hrs 30 mins Total Recorded: 2 years 1 month 13 days 18 mins Percent of time spent recording: 13% Specs: 2-core Intel CPU, 8GB RAM, 250 GB SATA SSD root, 6TB of mirrored storage, which is perpetually nearly full.
- woobar 4y ago
  Mine is lying to me (should be from 2007/2008). My specs are very similar, no SSD. Even though I haven't updated software in a while and still on 29.1, it is painfully slow now. Loading a recording takes almost a minute on the same hardware. Used to be seconds. Number of shows: 256 Number of episodes: 6817 First recording: Thursday May 14th, 1998 Last recording: Sunday February 5th, 2023 Total Running Time: 24 years 8 months 23 days 8 hrs 45 mins Total Recorded: 11 months 8 days 8 hrs 59 mins Percent of time spent recording: 3%
  - dsr_ 4y ago
    SSD for the disk with the database was the best improvement I ever made. Also, have you run the database table repair job recently? You probably have many deleted rows that haven't actually been removed.
harry8 4y ago
Wanna do it with a retired pc? I recommend ps3 usb tv tuners. aka "Play TV" plentiful on second hand sights. Each has 2 tuners in it. Do you even need 2 of these devices to get 4? Ever had a 3rd thing to record or watch simultaneously? Might as well, they are very cheap. xbmc with the myth plugin on the frontend is great if you own the thing that drives your tv screen. If you use appletv it seems you don't own it and can't run xbmc or mythtv frontend on it. But you can pay apple a sub and then also pay again for anything you might want to watch out of their stunningly limited selection. That's always apple's solution: Pay apple more to get something that isn't what you wanted...
- crtasm 4y ago
  This made me want to pick one up to but I see it doesn't support DVB-T2, so no use for UK Freeview HD channels.
  - harry8 4y ago
    Sucks to be in the uk where you have to deal with such "progress" to see a service run by a branch of the government that literally collects its own tax and knows what is good for you and you do not. Wikipedia suggests playtv works fine for standard def but not high def if you care. Maybe it's not the tuner for you? Make sure you choose one with mainline kernel driver support if you look for another. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_terrestrial_television_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_terrestrial_television...
    - youngNed 4y ago
      Weird rant. Dvb standard are handled by itc/ofcom in the UK, but isn't handling of the radio spectrum handled by government everywhere? FCC handle dvb in the US, no?
      - harry8 4y ago
        a) First I heard of it but apparently in the UK Dvb standard has "improved" making a bunch of hardware less useful. I comment that this is sub-optimal. b) The majority of the content on free-to-air tv is the BBC. Who levy their own taxation. This is unique and provides the BBC with a massive amount of power to influence anything they want. One would hope they attempt to do it in the interests of the British public and the world in general. [1] See (a) for how that worked out? [1] Between examples like Saville, WMD, and the current lunatic state of both labour and conservative parties perhaps the BBC isn't really going as well as the public might like for what they pay in additional tax known as the "license fee?" But of course most of the public didn't attend oxbridge so their opinions scarcely matter to the BBC? Now here's Stephen Fry. (And I quite like him, and even many of his performing "friends" but he's hardly representative of anyone much and that seems to be a relatively persistent problem).

170 points by cf100clunk 4y ago

I'm still rocking my 13 year old SageTV installation. Even the hardware clients are still working well. So grateful they were allowed to open source the software after Google acquired it.

drewg123 4y ago
I moved from MythTV to SageTV ~15 years ago or so, for the hardware client. A few months ago, I moved to Channels. What I like about it is it works really well on Firesticks and AppleTVs that I already have attached to my TVs, so that means I can finally get rid of the hardware sagetv clients (one of which I've had to replace the caps in) and simplify my setup. When looking to move last fall, I first looked at MythTV. It was still horrifically hard to setup. Given I'd never use a pc client, I then moved on to tvheadend, which had its own issues (mainly on the side of the kodi client). I finally settled on Channels because they have FreeBSD support for the server, and more importantly, It. Just. Works.
- patja 4y ago
  for me, Comskip is the killer feature I would be very sad to give up. With Channels do you have to manually FF through ads?
  - drewg123 4y ago
    No, it also uses comskip. I should have mentioned that..
- gregmac 4y ago
  I did the same! I ran MythTV on a PC connected to my TV for a while, but when I wanted to add a second TV I had a really hard time getting a decent fanless client at a reasonable cost (this was mid/late 2000's). I ended up switching to SageTV purely for the hardware client. A year or so after SageTV was acquired, I moved to Plex. The biggest miss was the hardware client. I went through several sub-par iterations of PC-based hardware -- including mini-ITX PCs and Raspberry Pi -- but never got a setup that could run Plex, Youtube and Netflix and work 100% without a keyboard/mouse involved. I also tried some hardware -- Roku, original Chromecast -- but nothing was even remotely good as the SageTV HD300's, even years later. Until I found the Nvidia Shield -- though it's more Google TV doing the real magic, I think. I still have the original 2015 model in my living room, still working perfectly. My newer "media room" TV uses built-in Google TV stuff -- I originally intended to use the Shield but it requires upgrading my just-before-4K-came-out AVR to be able to do 4k, so this setup was simpler. I also have a cheap "Chromcast with Google TV" on an old smaller set in front of my treadmill. Over the past few years, I have all but stopped using Plex, though, as we went to pretty much 100% streaming services, but it is still running. It's really thanks to MythTV, though, that I started down this path 15+ years ago. I've never had a cable/satellite TV subscription in my name, ever. It's interesting now to look back, because all my media sources have entirely changed since I started. I do still have everything needed for OTA in a box somewhere, but I never hooked it up in this house -- maybe it's time to give it a shot again.
- ubertaco 4y ago
  Can I run Channels for free if I selfhost everything, or do I still have to pay them a monthly fee?
  - EricE 4y ago
    They have an annual fee - well worth it though as it clearly funds development; the developers are VERY active and constantly updating/improving it.

TheRealDunkirk 4y ago

I used MythTV for several years, until Comcast went digital in my neck of the woods, and my tuner card was useless. What do people tune to content with now? Is it all IR control of a cable box?

klinquist 4y ago
I still use a cablecard with Comcast (in an HDHomeRun Prime), currently using ChannelsDVR as my DVR.
- TheRealDunkirk 4y ago
  Oh, wow. I never expected Comcast to actually support such an idea. Nice!
  - hwatson 4y ago
    It used to be a legal requirement for American cable providers to offer them, but the FCC dropped CableCARD in 2020 considering streaming apps to be a reasonable equivalent (https://www.techhive.com/article/578820/cable-box-competition-rules-dismantled.html https://www.techhive.com/article/578820/cable-box-competitio...) Comcast still offers CableCARDs to new customers at least (https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/about-cablecards https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/about-cablecards)
simbas 4y ago
Good old OTA tv! ATSC

podiki 4y ago

This takes me back! The first home server I ran had a TV capture card, ran Gentoo with MythTV, was hooked up to the living room TV, and was a pretty good source of entertainment for the gradstudent apartment I shared. Saving broadcasts, trimming out commercials, ... and of course fun with running a Linux server. Good to see the project still going 10-15 years after I first heard of it (though I haven't used it in a long time)!

lp0_on_fire 4y ago
Same. I attribute a good portion of my linux knowledge today to setting up and running a MythTV machine. I ditched cable and moved to a place that has little OTA broadcasts so haven't run it in years but that box is still sitting in my basement.

VWWHFSfQ 4y ago

Wow MythTV! This is a blast from the past. I was using this back in ~2006 or so. It sorta worked haha.

slindsey 4y ago

I used MythTV extensively in the late 2000s to capture over the air (OTA) tv. My kids were young and it was a terrific way to capture tv shows for them (and for me when doing 2AM feedings). It's ability to identify and skip commercials was awesome and I'm sure it's gotten better. The biggest issues I had were hardware related to the capture devices and getting remotes to work. Honestly, given the state of streaming (40 different services all carrying different content), it might be worth looking at again.

bshep 4y ago
I had a similar experience! We had 3 TVs hooked up, each with its own instance and a central recording instance with 3 capture cards. It worked great, you could record or playback from any of the TVs. Main issue we had was getting the remotes to work correctly. I remember editing configs constantly to get correct behavior from the remotes.
iwanttocomment 4y ago
I was a big MythTV fan in the aughts, and this was a blast from the past. These days I use an HDHomeRun Flex 4K. Four tuners, 4K ATSC support, clients for virtually all platforms (including Smart TVs) so you don't have to connect a proper "computer" to the TV or fumble with remotes, has cheap "bring your own storage" network DVR support, it's a real neat device for $200. It picks up 82 OTA channels where I live. Just crazy how much content is on OTA TV these days.
- lizknope 4y ago
  I just connected to the built in web server in my HD HomeRun and it shows 105 channels. I always see people complaining about having to pay for cable to watch sports when 90% of them are available for free over the air.
  - nerdix 4y ago
    Do you get ESPN OTA? Or your local sports regional network (likely owned by Bally Sports) OTA? Because that's usually what people really mean when they say that they need cable for sports. They want to watch some big game that ESPN paid big money for the broadcast rights like the college football national championship. Or they want to watch their local professional NBA or MLB team and the regional network paid big money for exclusive broadcast rights in the area so it's blacked out on League Pass (NBA) or MLB.tv

deelowe 4y ago

Oh man, I still have my hauppauge wintv card. Useless these days with analog broadcasts no longer being a thing.

tyingq 4y ago
The Tablo devices are what I use now for those few things on broadcast TV I want to DVR. Fairly cheap, no recurring cost, and reliable. The UI is a little wonky, but you get used to it. And there's apps for things like FireTV, Roku, etc, so you don't have to physically wire it to one TV.

teel 4y ago

First I thought I had clicked something that showed really old postings. I had no idea MythTV would still be around. I never used MythTV though; I used Freevo in the 2000s. Worked quite well once I had it configured. Every once in a while I looked over the fence to see if the DVRs were greener on the other side, but never got around trying MythTV. I still have many shows and episodes I saved with Freevo, on old hard drives somewhere.

kris_wayton 4y ago

Sort of waiting for some new iteration of what "popcorn time" was. With all the fragmentation of content across different providers, and more aggressive actions on account sharing, crossing region restrictions, etc...it feels like average people are now starting to complain a lot. There is an opening for a very beginner friendly pirate platform to rise again. Not because nobody wants to pay exactly, but because doing it legally is complex now.

jasondoty 4y ago
Private services like this exist. For $40 a year one lets me stream any show/movie on apps across all platforms including android tv. Seamless netflix-like sync across devices, family profiles, selectable video/audio quality up to 4k, etc
- niteshade 4y ago
  Are they on the dark web? Perhaps I've just been (un)lucky, I've never seen any.
  - kris_wayton 4y ago
    Feels like they are referencing something that includes the google-able tagline "lower price than the majority of file hosters while still offering"
    - jasondoty 4y ago
      I use this service as well for other things, but not what I was referring to, it barely fits the description.
  - jasondoty 4y ago
    No, tor can’t handle bandwidth of movie streaming.
jedberg 4y ago
https://movies123.video/ https://movies123.video/ Tons of ad spam, but seems to work eventually.

kvandy 4y ago

Wow, had no idea this thing was still around. Takes me back to neo Kodi/XBMC/Windows ME days. So much hardware and software to accomplish what a small stick does today.

waynesonfire 4y ago

the auto commercial skipping was the killer app feature of MythTV. Really enjoyed MythTV. Havn't looked at it; but, wish it would work with streaming services / on-demand.

cube00 4y ago
Streaming services are never going to open themselves up for this.
- prmoustache 4y ago
  I record streaming services with obs. I guess one could script something with some browser automation and ffmpeg.
EricE 4y ago
Channels DVR works with quite a few streaming services (via TV Anywhere) and does commercial skip too. I use it with YouTube.TV as well as Philo. My parents also pick up OTA with an HD HomeRun on their channels DVR. The downside to Channels (and to be fair, exact same with MythTV) is the homebrew nature. I had to set up and maintain it for them. But if you have the means to run one and you like traditional cable channel content still, nothing beats Channels. They also have AppleTV and Firestick clients further sweetening the deal. It's $80 a year - but if you have dealt with Tivo or any of the other commercial products out there, that's not a lot - and it directly funds development. And development on Channels is very active, as is the dev participation in their forums (always a HUGE plus).

daveevad 4y ago

Big fan of MythTV here and daily user forever now. Paired with an HDHomerun and Jellyfin, MythTV really gives one a pretty good poor man's Youtube TV with no recurring fees. One of mine runs in a virtual machine in the garage at my family's farm, with a custom script beaming me my childhood local news to enjoy over coffee in the morning.

ed25519FUUU 4y ago
Childhood local news? Like news episodes from 20 years ago or the current stations you watched when you were young?
- daveevad 4y ago
  The local stations I watched when I was a child. There are a handful of newscasters still around from when I last lived there 25 years ago. It's a pretty fun way of keeping a pulse of back home.

nickcw 4y ago

I was always very impressed with MythTV. It was the first project that I saw that made really good use of versioning their mysql database with SQL queries to change the schema linked to the software version. I used it extensively. I obsessively recorded everything off over the air digital TV and wrote it to DVDs. I had a little script to look up ratings of movies in IMDB, apply weighting factors due to personal tastes and record all the ones which made the grade. I'd then edit the commercials out and burn to DVDs all losslessly. However, this all came to an end when my 2 year old son took the running hosepipe from the garden one summer, through the open patio doors into the house and proceeded to fill up the MythTV computer with water (along with the TV, VCR, DVD player and sofa!). I never quite had the heart to resurrect the system after that and it was an end to my MythTV obsession. It was fun while it lasted.

xp84 4y ago
This is very relatable. I guess I should count myself lucky that my then-3yo "only" hurled a remote and smashed the TV in retaliation for TV time being over. And that I only buy the "cheap" $4-500 TVs instead of the high-end ones.
Eduard 4y ago
Oof. Good to know for any upcoming parenthood :). Though I guess any data loss was small considering you burned (water-resistant) DVDs?
scarby2 4y ago
Does home insurance cover act of children while they are in they are in their probably possessed by demon stage?
- intelVISA 4y ago
  Would guess that daemonic possession falls under force majeure.
  - tomcam 4y ago
    Interestingly most policies exclude acts of God. Not quite sure where that fits in tho

aidenn0 4y ago

I loved MythTV, but I moved to a valley so I can't pull in any OTA broadcasts anymore :(

ghaff 4y ago
I'm right at the base of a hill and I've never been able to get broadcast TV. A couple years back, I realized that I was watching cable TV less and less and the odd show/sports event/news broadcast just wasn't worth paying $1K/year any longer.

allenbina 4y ago

I tried to get this to work multiple times around 2004. This might be where I first dove into linux. I gave up every time. I ended up using windows media center which worked flawlessly for years. I moved on to plex and a hdtvhomerun when they released it (it handles deleting old series, etc). About a year ago I realized I don't really watch live TV anymore and unplugged it.

ericflo 4y ago
I learned most of what I know about Linux trying over years to set up and maintain a MythBuntu box
matthewmcg 4y ago
Similar for me, except I got it working after tens of hours invested. After wasting time with nonstandard hardware, I got a Hauppauge PVR series capture card with hardware MPEG2 encoding. That made all the difference. I was in college at the time and had free HBO on the dorm cable network, plus completely unfiltered 100mbps ethernet throughout the campus. It was fun to have a "DIY Tivo" server that could automatically remove commercials and make my library available to my suitemates.
- matthewmcg 4y ago
  In case this resonates with anyone else's nostalgia, the highlight of my time with MythTV was setting up a system to automatically transcode episodes of selected shows to 320x250 for my iPod video which I could then sync and watch on a plane. Heady stuff for 2005-2006.
nerdix 4y ago
Similar for me but I never made a serious attempt at MythTV because I never had dedicated hardware in those days. So I ended up installing XP MCE on my main machine (you could minimize/exit Media Center and it was just plain Windows underneath). Used that for a while then went down the XBMC path (for windows..pre-Kodi for a while). Ended up with a Boxee Box (first real dedicated hardware). Then moved to Plex hosted on a Windows Home Server with various clients over the years (Sony NSZ-GS7 Google TV, OG Chromecast, Nexus Player, one of the older FireTVs, Chromecast Ultra). The Home Server died so I moved to UnRaid with containerized Plex. Had a HDHomeRun Prime integrated with Plex for a bit. But dropped cable in favor of streaming TV services. That's the closest I ever got to a MythTV setup.

fanatic2pope 4y ago

Love mythtv. I've been using it since about 2003 or so. It was definitely a janky experience in the beginning, but once I was able to ditch needing an IR blaster it became an absolute pleasure to setup and use.

johnklos 4y ago

Neat! It'd be nice if there were consumer-ready hardware for something like this. I know a few people with VCRs (yes, in 2023) that still record to tape from their digital receiver and play back over composite. I'm amazed that you can't just buy a device that acts like a VCR, with composite and line in and out, but records and plays back via digital files instead of tape. I want to try this, perhaps using an older Intel Mac mini, but I'm wondering how to "sell" it to someone who just wants a VCR.

jaywalk 4y ago
The reason you can't just buy a "VCR-like" device is because everything is digital now, and it's much simpler/cheaper to capture and record the digital signal than do analog/digital conversion.
ThinkingGuy 4y ago
It's not a fully Free (as in speech) Software solution, but Tivo does make a device that works with digital OTA broadcasts. https://www.tivo.com/products/edge-antenna https://www.tivo.com/products/edge-antenna
rascul 4y ago
> I'm amazed that you can't just buy a device that acts like a VCR, with composite and line in and out, but records and plays back via digital files instead of tape. You can. They're called digital video recorders (DVR). I had one around 15 years ago (I don't remember brand or model). A quick search on Amazon had this one as the first result: https://www.amazon.com/ClonerAlliance-Recorder-Playback-Converter-Required/dp/B012T1D0IG https://www.amazon.com/ClonerAlliance-Recorder-Playback-Conv...
- johnklos 4y ago
  Wow! Thank you :D I've been looking, but every time I've searched for anything like "DVR", I get boxes to record surveillance camera feeds. This is expensive, but may very well be worth the money. Thanks!

Prolixium 4y ago

It's ashame that MythWeb isn't under active development anymore[0]. The MythWeb change log in the 0.33 release doesn't have any commits newer than June 4, 2022. Maybe I'm weird but I use MythWeb exclusively even though I run MythTV on my office workstation. mythfrontend is nice but I find it easier (read: more window manager-friendly) to use mpv to play recordings. [0] https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythWeb https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythWeb

toast0 4y ago
There's now a built-in web frontend, which I guess let the sails out of mythweb. :/ I've never been interested in scheduling through the frontend, I just use it to playback recordings with a remote control. I find it much easier to search and browse the guide through a web browser.

klinquist 4y ago

Check out channels dvr (getchannels.com/dvr) as a modern, actively developed DVR. I love it. I'm running Channels on an ESXi host and just use the AppleTV app as the interface.

LouisvilleGeek 4y ago
Channels DVR is a fantastic piece of software that I have been running for a few years now. It's reliable and does not need much in terms of hosting hardware. Currently running it on a 2012 Mac Mini with USB attached SSD with an Apple TV as the client.

dang 4y ago

Looks like only one small past thread: MythTV: An Open Source Digital Video Recorder - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29634491 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29634491 - Dec 2021 (3 comments)

m3galinux 4y ago

I've used MythTV since something like 2004. Still great to use for Digital OTA broadcasts (and free-to-air satellite / DVB if that's available in your area). Cable DRM has unfortunately made it much less useful for recording cable broadcasts, thanks to them being allowed to encrypt all QAM signals, and now aren't required to support/provide CableCards either: https://www.nexttv.com/news/charter-cuts-off-cablecard-support https://www.nexttv.com/news/charter-cuts-off-cablecard-suppo...

vaporary 4y ago
That's interesting. I setup a new MythTV box two years ago on a Mac mini running Ubuntu, using a Hauppauge HD PVR 1212 capture device connected over USB. I've been able to record HD cable without dealing with any DRM by using the RCA jacks of my Comcast box, which has worked great.
- RockRobotRock 4y ago
  How do you change channels?
  - vaporary 4y ago
    A common solution is to use an IR Blaster: https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Using_an_IR_Blaster_with_MythTV https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Using_an_IR_Blaster_with_MythTV I did something a little different. My cable box has a 3.5mm TRS jack to connect an external IR receiver to it. I connected the jack to an Arduino, and send serial commands to the Arduino from the MythTV box to change channels.
    - RockRobotRock 4y ago
      Very cool, thanks for the info.

mpnordland 4y ago

If you're curious about the version number, it was changed from 0.xx to xx.0 for release 29. https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions#When_will_Myth_reach_1.0.3F https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions#When_...

cptskippy 4y ago

I tired for along time to get MythTV working with limited success. The Silicon Dust tuners were new at the time and support was spotty. I eventually gave up and used Windows MCE but it was limited to a single TV. I ended up replacing all of it with a 1st Gen TabloTV, Plex and a Roku. I'm still rocking that TabloTV today. There's something to be said for having an appliance that just works.

spear 4y ago

MythTV was the reason I bought and assembled my first x86 PC. I even bought a copy of Red Hat Linux 8 Personal (before Fedora) to run on it. That system became my main desktop PC and is still running more than 20 years later -- like a Ship of Theseus, with every hardware and software component upgraded multiple times. I'm not a progammer but I wanted to help fix bugs and add features, so it was also the reason I learned C++ and MySQL. I still use MythTV (with additional PCs as backends and frontends) to record Comcast digital cable with HDHomerun Cable Card tuners. It also serves my small library of music files and can play DVDs and BluRay discs. I've ripped 4k UHD BluRay discs using MakeMKV and MythTV can play the files but the colors are wrong since a lot of the plumbing needs HDR support.

anthk 4y ago

Damn, nostalgia. MythTV, DVR's, ahem, pirate keys for deco's... good times. Now I don't want a TV near me in kilometers.

dsr_ 4y ago

MythTV stats from my house media server: Number of shows: 442 Number of episodes: 25061 First recording: Monday February 19th, 2007 Last recording: Sunday February 5th, 2023 Total Running Time: 15 years 11 months 16 days 5 hrs 30 mins Total Recorded: 2 years 1 month 13 days 18 mins Percent of time spent recording: 13% Specs: 2-core Intel CPU, 8GB RAM, 250 GB SATA SSD root, 6TB of mirrored storage, which is perpetually nearly full.

woobar 4y ago
Mine is lying to me (should be from 2007/2008). My specs are very similar, no SSD. Even though I haven't updated software in a while and still on 29.1, it is painfully slow now. Loading a recording takes almost a minute on the same hardware. Used to be seconds. Number of shows: 256 Number of episodes: 6817 First recording: Thursday May 14th, 1998 Last recording: Sunday February 5th, 2023 Total Running Time: 24 years 8 months 23 days 8 hrs 45 mins Total Recorded: 11 months 8 days 8 hrs 59 mins Percent of time spent recording: 3%
- dsr_ 4y ago
  SSD for the disk with the database was the best improvement I ever made. Also, have you run the database table repair job recently? You probably have many deleted rows that haven't actually been removed.

harry8 4y ago

Wanna do it with a retired pc? I recommend ps3 usb tv tuners. aka "Play TV" plentiful on second hand sights. Each has 2 tuners in it. Do you even need 2 of these devices to get 4? Ever had a 3rd thing to record or watch simultaneously? Might as well, they are very cheap. xbmc with the myth plugin on the frontend is great if you own the thing that drives your tv screen. If you use appletv it seems you don't own it and can't run xbmc or mythtv frontend on it. But you can pay apple a sub and then also pay again for anything you might want to watch out of their stunningly limited selection. That's always apple's solution: Pay apple more to get something that isn't what you wanted...

crtasm 4y ago
This made me want to pick one up to but I see it doesn't support DVB-T2, so no use for UK Freeview HD channels.
- harry8 4y ago
  Sucks to be in the uk where you have to deal with such "progress" to see a service run by a branch of the government that literally collects its own tax and knows what is good for you and you do not. Wikipedia suggests playtv works fine for standard def but not high def if you care. Maybe it's not the tuner for you? Make sure you choose one with mainline kernel driver support if you look for another. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_terrestrial_television_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_terrestrial_television...
  - youngNed 4y ago
    Weird rant. Dvb standard are handled by itc/ofcom in the UK, but isn't handling of the radio spectrum handled by government everywhere? FCC handle dvb in the US, no?
    - harry8 4y ago
      a) First I heard of it but apparently in the UK Dvb standard has "improved" making a bunch of hardware less useful. I comment that this is sub-optimal. b) The majority of the content on free-to-air tv is the BBC. Who levy their own taxation. This is unique and provides the BBC with a massive amount of power to influence anything they want. One would hope they attempt to do it in the interests of the British public and the world in general. [1] See (a) for how that worked out? [1] Between examples like Saville, WMD, and the current lunatic state of both labour and conservative parties perhaps the BBC isn't really going as well as the public might like for what they pay in additional tax known as the "license fee?" But of course most of the public didn't attend oxbridge so their opinions scarcely matter to the BBC? Now here's Stephen Fry. (And I quite like him, and even many of his performing "friends" but he's hardly representative of anyone much and that seems to be a relatively persistent problem).