Benefits of Open Source Software, Or How to Build your Own TiVo

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Benefits of Open Source Software, Or How to Build
your Own TiVo

• AJ Penninga and
• Chris Wieringa

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Outline

• Benefits of Open Source Software
• About the MythTV Project
• Demonstrations
• Questions.

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1. Open Source Projects

• Major project sites
• Sourceforge.net
• Freshmeat.net

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Development

• Developer has an idea and starts coding.
• People decide to code for the project and get
  tasks from the main project developers.
• Code the task, commit it to CVS.
• People continue to test CVS versions, and
  eventually releases are packaged up for release.

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Who can join a project?

• Anyone!
• Just because you can't program (yet), doesn't
  mean you can't help out.
• Kopete Chris Ten Harmsel.
• CSX Developed to get students involved.

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Project Examples

• PHPMyAdmin
• BzFlag
• Gallery
• MythTV
• Apache
• PHP-Nuke
• TheOSProject

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Open Source Stats

• Sourceforge.net
• 79,159 projects.
• 829,696 registered users.
• Freshmeat.net 32,580 released projects.
• Apache 66 of the webserver market.

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2. MythTV Project

• Project website
• http//www.mythtv.org
• Main developer
• Isaac Richards ( ijr_at_po.cwru.edu )

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MythTV A History

• Isaac Richards April 2002.
• Worked for Emusic.com.
• Wanted more than just a Tivo
• Bought a TV Card and started coding.
• Originally designed around PVR functionality, but
  later was resdesigned to be modular.
• 14 Major releases thus far.

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Myth Modules

• MythTV
• DVR Digital Video Recording
• Time-Shifting TV, Picture-In-Picutre
• MythDVD, MythVideo, MythMusic
• Playback and ripping, transcoding.
• MythGame
• MythWeather
• MythCallerID
• MythGallery

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What gets coded

• People code what they need or want.
• DVR is very popular in Europe capturing
  satellite digital signals.
• XvMC was something Chris helped debug and patch
  hardware decoding for my old underpowered PVR
  computer.
• Chris might take a crack at coding a patch to add
  mp4 play support to the music module.

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How does coding work in MythTV?

• Developers mailing list where features can be
  requested.
• Web page with requested features.
• After someone develops a patch, send it to the
  dev listserv.
• A few developers have CVS access and will review
  the code and commit it.

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Requirements for running MythTV

• A PC greater than 500 MHZ 256 MB RAM.
• A TV tuner card that runs under Linux (IVTV or
  BTTV based cards work best).
• Faster computers are typically better can
  support multiple tuners, emulators, etc.
• Hauppauge PVR cards have on-board MPEG2 encoding
  which relieves CPU.
• Lots of hard drive space for recordings.

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PVR Computer Stats - Chris

• Athlon 2600, 512 MB RAM, 160 GB HD
• Hauppauge PVR-250 and ATI TV-Wonder
• ATI Remote Wonder remote
• 2x Gravis Gamepad Pro USB controllers
• Sony DVD-ROM for DVD playback

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PVR Setup - AJ

• Linux Desktop/Server
• Athlon 2100, 512MB RAM, 480 GB Total.
• 2x Hauppage PVR250s with remote.
• Microsoft Xbox
• Uses Xbox Remote, controllers, DVD drive.
• Frontend Only, connects to backend on server.
• Standalone MythBox
• Original pvr investment, but decided distributed
  route was better. For Sale!

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Hacking the Xbox

• Buy an Xbox (newest may not be supported)
• Make/Buy/Borrow a cable.
• MechAssault Hack.
• Configure setup on seperate machine.
• Copy it over.
• Start Linux.

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Demos

• Integrated front-end and back-end Chris
• Separate back-end and Xbox front-end - AJ

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Questions?