Customer Reviews

Practical MythTV: Building a PVR and Media Center PC

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Look, I'm not going to say that these guys didn't try, or that this is a cynically written attempt to cash in on something, but this book is as close to worthless as I can imagine.

Now, again, this is not entirely the authors' fault. MythTV is highly dynamic. What's true today isn't true tomorrow. I'm a journeyman MythTV builder, and a lot of what I've learned in the painful progress I've made simply does not apply any more.

That said, a lot of stuff =hasn't= changed, and it's here where the book falls apart. They should have started with the basics of content flow, i.e., where is the media coming from? Because that's the first thing you need to know before you even decide if MythTV is right for you. (Over the air content, for example, is easily handled by Myth, while controlling a set-top box from a cable, satellite or fiber optic company is a whole 'nother kettle of fish.)

While support has been added since this book was written, the stuff they actually did mention that has been part of MythTV since its incpetion is not well covered. For example, to set up your MythTV backend, you have to select from various capture card types. There are V4L, MPEG2, DVB, etc.--how about explaining what these are? No explanations is the norm, and when there is an explanation it's often simply restating the on-screen text without actually clarifying.

Six months of having this book and I've never once found an answer to a question I had. Now, I don't go looking for product specific stuff, because (as I said) there's no way they could cover that, but just basic joints and cogs and so on.

See, the thing about MythTV is that if you have just the right hardware and a simple enough setup, it might take you fifteen minutes to set up. If you don't, it could take you weeks to set up, or you might never be able to do it.

To be useful, this book really should have explored =how= to troubleshoot. They couldn't do the actual troubleshooting for you--there are too many things that can go wrong--but they could tell you about the utlities and hardware settings that allow you see where your problems lie.

Maybe they just didn't have the space. But, as I say above, it makes the book almost completely worthless.

This book should be renamed "the MythTV / PVR Bible". It has everything you need to know about creating your own PVR using MythTV.

Ideally you should have a working knowledge of Unix to get the most out of the book. While the authors have included step-by-step instructions for installing Ubuntu, if you haven't used Linux before, most of it will be "over your head". However, the good news is that there are tonnes of gold nuggets to be found - even in the first two chapters. As such, the Microsoft "point and click" people should buy the book purely on the basis of a good sanity check - eg: have you considered all the available options relating to hardware?

Something that most authors leave out of books is the setup they use at home. Stewart and Michael (the authors) include their own hardware and cover in detail why they use it. If you combine this information with the lists of recommended hardware, you will avoid the most common mistakes that people make when creating a PVR.

While I've done a lot of research into building PVR's and have a Unix background, I managed to get a lot out of it. Expert users will find the information relating to plug-ins, advanced TV recording and expanding MythTV worth the read.

If you are thinking about building a PVR, do yourself a favor - stop everything you are doing and buy this book first.

I had been playing with Knoppmyth already to get a feel for MythTV and see if I wanted to use it to replace my TIVO. There are so many options and features that I was looking for a good book to cover an overview of MythTV and talk about install options/pitfalls etc. in more detail from a practical standpoint.

This book addressed many of my concerns and questions I had going into reading the book and helped me follow through and a make a fully educated decision in moving forward with building and installing my new MythTV box.

For anyone considering MythTV or looking for a good guide to get it up and running, I highly recommend this book.

I wonder if the previous reviewers have actually tried following the installation directions given in chapters 2 and 3. I've had a couple of attempts, and still can't get things working. Part of this is due to my lack of Linux knowledge - as an earlier reviewer noted, some Linux knowledge is essential. You really need to read up on Linux and play around with it a lot, before or concurrently with your attempts to install MythTV. For example, on p. 41 the authors tell you to enter the command 'make oldconfig', but if you've followed the directions correctly, you will be in the wrong directory for this command to work. You need to change directory before running it. There are also a couple of commands which seem to require superuser privileges, and novices to Ubuntu (ike me) will be confused when trying to run them. I've submitted a couple of errata through the publisher's website, but have had no response.
The publisher's website has a link for downloading source code; the readme.txt has some text in it, but the other files in the zip file are all empty - great help! There are no errata listed on the site - it would be helpful if known problems were listed there. I'm trying to make things work on the latest version of Ubuntu (7.10), but I'm sure the above errors would apply to the version used in the book. Version 7.10 has some advantages (built-in lirc support), but as a result, some of the steps in the book don't apply the same way.
Looking ahead to the day I get the system working, the rest of the book looks very useful. The chapters on plug-ins, system expansion, networking all look relevant and informative. One topic I would like to see covered in more detail is setting up an ir blaster. Given the prevalence of Hauppauge cards and cable boxes, some guidance on setting up this side of lirc (to control an external cable tv box) and how to implement this in MythTV would be useful - e.g. add a couple more sentences and an example for the 'external channel change command' which is mentioned so briefly on p. 78.
Finally, given the importance of an electronic program guide, it would be helpful to include mention of tvxb and a link to the relevant website. I guess this section of the book will need to be rewritten in future editions, given the creation of Schedules Direct. Adding info on tvxb, how to run it under a windows emulator, and schedule it with cron would make a very valuable addition for international users of the book.
While I'd like to give four stars (partly because the book has introduced me to linux, and widened my computing horizons), the problems with setup and the lack of support via the publisher's page compel me to give only 3.

I fall within the vast range of Linux users who know just enough to be dangerous, but at least realize that this is where they happen to be.

I purchased this book brimming with enthusiasm and confident that with its assistance, I'd have no problem getting MythTV up and running.

In fact, my experience with this book was very ungratifying and downright frustrating.

To start with, I found that many of the command lines cited in the book just plain didn't work. In some cases, it was easy to discern where the commands strayed from reality, in other cases not so much. These discrepancies might arise from my using a later version of Ubuntu or MythTV than those to which this book was written. Frankly, I don't know.

I was also frustrated to find that while the publisher provided a web page for users to report errata, it was a purely one-way - You're free to leave your comments, but don't expect a compilation of earlier postings (or corrections)to be made available in exchange, and certainly don't look for any sort of response.

In the end, I set this book aside and installed Mythbuntu - Ubuntu and MythTV all rolled into one ISO package, and searched the web to resolve the myriad of issues and tweaks that had to be addressed. This was not the outcome I would have preferred, and what I was hoping to avoid when purchasing this book, but at least I've managed to get my crate up and running from scratch.

If you are already very strong in Linux, this book will easily give you the guidance you need, but otherwise, caveat emptor.

For what it's worth.

I have been using Windows for as long as it has been around. I have done web development. I have even been exposed to Unix a number of years ago, so I thought I would be able to follow directions in this book and be successful. Ubuntu was easy to install and looked like a good product. However, the directions in MythTV did not work. I finally gave up after installing Ubuntu five times and starting all over again. I even purchased a Ubuntu manual thinking that would resolve the problems I had. Unfortunately, it did not and I finally gave up and re-installed Windows XP on my computer and BeyondTV. That did work. I was reminded that Windows does make some things simple that the Unix platform still makes somewhat difficult. I would not recommend the book. I plan to give it away... The Open Source "Open Office" worked great on Ubuntu as it also does on Windows, so I judge MythTV or this books directions to be the problem.
Cecil Denney, Maple Grove, Minneapolis

This book is a good way to get to know MythTV if you have no previous knowledge about its details. The book discusses one major concept per chapter and is full of screenshots, which makes it easy to follow. Nearly everything you would want to know is discussed, making the book quite complete.

One thing that I hoped the book would discuss in more detail is the choosing of the hardware. It has some general guidelines and tells the reader which hardware the authors of the book have, but it does not really offer guidance when you need to select your hardware.

One thing in particular that the book does not discuss at all is hardware for receiving DVB-C, which requires hardware with a CI (Common Interface) slot and one or more CAM modules (at least, this is required in Europe). This is really a pity, because this is one of the most complex choices that have to be made when selecting your hardware.

Very informative book. I am building a Linux media box and the book helped a lot.

The books was out of date in some areas. Mythtv has come really come along in the configuration and setup.

The amount of tips I did pick up were few and far between. I had to refer to the Wiki when this book had only three lines of text to cover what was a huge job. But on the other side it spent pages and pages dealing with loading the software that with the current release is so simple and takes Min's.