Setting up MythTV

This page was written by Pluto and imported with their permission when LinuxMCE branched off in February, 2007. In general any information should apply to LinuxMCE. However, this page should be edited to reflect changes to LinuxMCE and remove old references to Pluto.

MythTV is a separate PVR/DVR program to handle watching, recording and pausing TV. Information about MythTV, including User's manuals, is available at http://www.mythtv.org. MythTV is included standard with the Linux version of Pluto. If you purchased a Media Director with Pluto pre-installed, you can skip steps 2, 3 and 6 below--they will have been preconfigured. To get MythTV going you should:

1. First plugin and bootup all your media directors.
2. If you have a PVR capture card, such as the PVR250/350 supported by IVTV, or the newer Blackbird cards (cx88), you will need to install the firmware before proceeding. You can get this from the card manufacturer. Or, you can do an internet search on 'plutohome' 'firmware' to find users that may have posted the firmware for your card. Install the firmware before proceeding with Myth setup.
3. Be sure you specified the type of capture card on the Pluto Admin site on the "Wizard/Devices/Media Directors" page.
4. For each Media Director, select the 'Computing' button on either the Orbiter that appears on the media director's screen (the on-screen orbiter), or using any other Orbiter which is controlling the same room as the Media Director. Choose "MythTV Setup". Myth's setup utility will appear on the Media Director. If you launched this from an Orbiter other than the media director's own on-screen Orbiter, that Orbiter will display a keyboard & mouse you can use in addition to the media director's own. Basically you can use web pad and pda orbiters as wireless keyboards/mice.
5. If you do not use NTSC, choose the "General" option, and then "Next" until you get to the "Global Backend Setup" page. Choose your video standard (NTSC, PAL, etc.). All other general settings should be fine with their default values. Press ESC to return to the Main Myth Setup Menu.
6. Choose "Capture Cards", "New Capture Card". If you have an ivtv or blackbird/cx88 card, choose "MPEG-2 Encoder card (PVR-250/350)". If you're using the cx88/blackbird driver, change the 'video0' to 'video1'. If your card was properly identified, the video device field should be filled in for you. If not, you may want to try rebooting the media director and repeating. Press ESC to return to the Main Myth Setup Menu.
7. Choose "Video Sources" and select your video source. Refer to the Myth user's Manual for details. Press ESC to return to the Main Myth Setup Menu.
8. Choose "Input connections" to indicate which video source is connected to which input on the capture card.
9. Press ESC to exit Myth Setup and return to the Pluto Orbiter screen.
10. You will need to do a full reboot of the whole Pluto system, core and all media directors, before you can watch TV with Myth TV. Therefore, you may want to setup all media directors at once and then do a complete reboot.

NOTE: Do not reboot until the media director(s) has had a chance to retrieve the channel data. You can confirm this by choosing the 'TV' button on the Orbiter main menu. This launches MythTV. Then choose "Manage Recordings", "Schedule Recordings", "Program Guide". You should see some program guide data. If you do not, wait a bit so Myth has a chance to pull the guide data.

If you have difficulty with Myth, you can refer to the official Myth site, or use Pluto's support site. If the problem relates to Myth's integration with Pluto, be sure to contact Pluto for support.