[Sussex] MythTV

[Stephen Williams]

After last month's SlugMoot I was tempted into acquiring a MythTV box,
so I duly bought a Biostar iDeq case complete with motherboard, Sempron
2600+, 512Mb Ram, PVR350 and 200Gb hard disk.

Got home, built the box, installed Gentoo (what else), emerged all the
necessary kit.

Not yet working but I don't anticipate too many problems.

However, snags so far:

1. The IR sensor built into the box isn't an IrDA Comm 2 port. There is
a header on the motherboard, but that is for a standard IrDA Comm port.
The built in sensor is connected to a 3 wire sensor on another header. I
spent a long time fiddling with the Bios settings for the IrDA Comm 2
thinking it was connected to the built in sensor. AAaargh!  It looks
very much like the IR Sensor included with the PVR 350, so I plan to get
the iDeq remote control and use that as you can power up the box using
it. So far the PVR 350 remote is working fine.

2. Setting up Lirc is definitely NOT a trivial exercise. However, as a
bonus i've now got my Creative RM-900 remote controlling my notebook PC
through the built in IrDA sir port. You can't do that in Windows. Should
come in handy for the next moot's presentations.

3. Some of the USE flags cause problems for the compile of Myth*. In
particular the ieee1394 USE flag really causes problems as the necessary
apps are not stable enough to be included in portage.

Will keep you posted.

Steve W.



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