Tin
Club Member
When I bought my house a couple of months ago, I fully intended on cheaping out on cable TV. Originally, I planned on just getting internet service and running Usenet to fetch all of the shows I normally watch. After much thought, I said fuck it, and decided to get HD basic cable. My biggest gripe was rental fees associated with the equipment provided. $5 per month for a cable modem, and $13/ea for a HD DVR, gets pretty pricey when you need a few of them. Not only that, but you’re pretty limited with what you can do on those DVR’s. I figured I could roll my own, save money, and get something that offers superior functionality to the off-the-shelf stuff peddled by the service providers. What I did shaved a considerable amount off of my monthly bill. The up front cost was a couple hundred, but after a few months, it’ll pay for itself.
What I wanted most was a way to pause/record/watch live TV, then take those recordings and encode them in formats that could be used on a variety of devices. Another thing I wanted was automatic commercial detection. Having used DVR’s elsewhere, nothing irritates me more than having to fast-forward through commercials. I figured by building my own, I could make them a thing of the past…sort of. Another bonus of this system is not being bound by wires. I don’t have to watch TV on a TV, I can watch it on my computer, my tablet, or my phone as well. I have a few set-top boxes running XBMC, which now has the capability to function as a front-end for a network-based DVR, perfect for my needs. XBMC has come a very long way since it’s introduction on the O.G. Xbox 10 years ago.
A few weeks ago, I purchased a HD Homerun Prime from Newegg. They had them on sale for $129.99, great price considering most retailers want $150 to $200 for them. The HD Homerun Prime is a network-based TV tuner that can tune unencrypted QAM, or encrypted HD by means of a CableCARD. It’s a rather simple piece of hardware, and can be used as-is without additional software to watch TV. The biggest selling point for me was Linux compatibility. I use some sort of Linux distro for everything, many tuners out there aren’t supported, but this one has a great track record. What I was after was an appliance-like experience, and not something that functions as your typical PC. I just wanted it to do one thing, be a set-it-and-forget-it type of device, and be easy enough to use so that friends and family can partake as well.
After the HD Homerun, I was in need of DVR software. Enter MythTV, a very popular Linux (and now Windows and OSX) package made specifically to function as a DVR appliance. It supports a near endless amount of tuners, detects and deletes commercials in recordings, lets you schedule recordings over the internet, and streams to any device that contains a MythTV front end. I installed Debian Linux in a virtual machine on my VM host to function as my MythTV master back-end. While MythTV doesn’t require cutting edge hardware, I allocated 4 cores and 4GB of RAM, better too much than not enough. Besides, the extra cores will come in handy when its time to encode those recordings. I could’ve installed it on a desktop PC as well, but I run the whole entertainment backbone of my house from some old server hardware I bought a couple years ago. MythTV will give me the functionality I want, even if I have to fight with it. It’s a learning experience, but once I get it, I’ll be able to do it blindfolded. Besides, victory is much sweeter when it’s hard fought instead of handed over on a silver platter.
The hurdles I have yet to overcome are the EPG (electronic program guide, or TV guide) and encoding process. I’m learning, and will have it all figured out soon enough. For what it is at this stage, it works great, and functionality will only get better as I learn. For those of you looking for something more plug-n-play friendly, a Windows Media Center back-end can be installed on Windows-based PCs/servers and stream live TV to Xbox 360. While it’s easier to set up, it still doesn’t provide the functionality of MythTV. Microsoft’s pesky DRM tends to get in the way of things, but can very easily be lived with. It’ll just function more as your typical provider-supplied DVR. This sort of setup can save quite a bit of money on your monthly bill. It’s much cheaper to rent a CableCARD for $3.50 per month vs the initial $10+ monthly fee of a HD DVR. I got my first cable bill from WOW the other day, and with 30Mb internet plus HD Basic, I’m at $73 per month. It’s been a learning experience, but very well worth it. There is a whole host of plug-ins available for MythTV to add much more functionality, but I won’t explore those until I get the core running how I want it. It’s largely still a work in progress, so I’ll revisit this periodically in the future.
What I wanted most was a way to pause/record/watch live TV, then take those recordings and encode them in formats that could be used on a variety of devices. Another thing I wanted was automatic commercial detection. Having used DVR’s elsewhere, nothing irritates me more than having to fast-forward through commercials. I figured by building my own, I could make them a thing of the past…sort of. Another bonus of this system is not being bound by wires. I don’t have to watch TV on a TV, I can watch it on my computer, my tablet, or my phone as well. I have a few set-top boxes running XBMC, which now has the capability to function as a front-end for a network-based DVR, perfect for my needs. XBMC has come a very long way since it’s introduction on the O.G. Xbox 10 years ago.
A few weeks ago, I purchased a HD Homerun Prime from Newegg. They had them on sale for $129.99, great price considering most retailers want $150 to $200 for them. The HD Homerun Prime is a network-based TV tuner that can tune unencrypted QAM, or encrypted HD by means of a CableCARD. It’s a rather simple piece of hardware, and can be used as-is without additional software to watch TV. The biggest selling point for me was Linux compatibility. I use some sort of Linux distro for everything, many tuners out there aren’t supported, but this one has a great track record. What I was after was an appliance-like experience, and not something that functions as your typical PC. I just wanted it to do one thing, be a set-it-and-forget-it type of device, and be easy enough to use so that friends and family can partake as well.
After the HD Homerun, I was in need of DVR software. Enter MythTV, a very popular Linux (and now Windows and OSX) package made specifically to function as a DVR appliance. It supports a near endless amount of tuners, detects and deletes commercials in recordings, lets you schedule recordings over the internet, and streams to any device that contains a MythTV front end. I installed Debian Linux in a virtual machine on my VM host to function as my MythTV master back-end. While MythTV doesn’t require cutting edge hardware, I allocated 4 cores and 4GB of RAM, better too much than not enough. Besides, the extra cores will come in handy when its time to encode those recordings. I could’ve installed it on a desktop PC as well, but I run the whole entertainment backbone of my house from some old server hardware I bought a couple years ago. MythTV will give me the functionality I want, even if I have to fight with it. It’s a learning experience, but once I get it, I’ll be able to do it blindfolded. Besides, victory is much sweeter when it’s hard fought instead of handed over on a silver platter.
The hurdles I have yet to overcome are the EPG (electronic program guide, or TV guide) and encoding process. I’m learning, and will have it all figured out soon enough. For what it is at this stage, it works great, and functionality will only get better as I learn. For those of you looking for something more plug-n-play friendly, a Windows Media Center back-end can be installed on Windows-based PCs/servers and stream live TV to Xbox 360. While it’s easier to set up, it still doesn’t provide the functionality of MythTV. Microsoft’s pesky DRM tends to get in the way of things, but can very easily be lived with. It’ll just function more as your typical provider-supplied DVR. This sort of setup can save quite a bit of money on your monthly bill. It’s much cheaper to rent a CableCARD for $3.50 per month vs the initial $10+ monthly fee of a HD DVR. I got my first cable bill from WOW the other day, and with 30Mb internet plus HD Basic, I’m at $73 per month. It’s been a learning experience, but very well worth it. There is a whole host of plug-ins available for MythTV to add much more functionality, but I won’t explore those until I get the core running how I want it. It’s largely still a work in progress, so I’ll revisit this periodically in the future.
