I've taken a look at some of the PVR software this week. Freevo and Mythtv.
Freevo was fun. They have some "rpm packages" (I'm quoting that with a reason, read on) that you can grab from sf.net. The rpm packages contain everything you'll need to run freevo, except the linux-kernel perhaps. This may sound cool, but I'd rather provide a rpm package with just the application and solve the dependancy stuff with rpm --> dependancies on libraries, etc. The src.rpm's also contain i386 binaries, which is nice when you try to build it on an alpha :-)
First you start off with freevo-runtime (http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/freevo/freevo_runtime-3-3.src.rpm?download), which contains those pretty libraries:
ChangeLog lib/ libcdda_interface.so.0* libfreetype.so.6* libSDL-1.2.so.0* libSDL_ttf-2.0.so.0* libXext.so.6* VERSION
COPYING libartsc.so.0* libcdda_paranoia.so.0* libjpeg.so.62* libSDL_image-1.2.so.0* libsmpeg-0.4.so.0* preloads
freevo_python* libasound.so.2* libexpat.so.1* libpng.so.2* libSDL_mixer-1.2.so.0* libX11.so.6* README
Then try to rebuild freevo (http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/freevo/freevo-1.3.0-1.src.rpm?download) and the configure checks for freevo_runtime3. Very ugly. Freevo_runtime3 installs in /usr/local/freevo_runtime3 --> very ugly.
Conclusion: nice project, but I'd wish they'd make the software in the standard way: let rpm handle the dependancies, use the system libraries. The nice thing about freevo is that it may play movies accelerated on my Matrox Marvel (no HW-acceleration in X on the 2nd port, but HW-acceleration on the fb for the 2nd port).
Mythtv looks more promissing. I've grabbed a mythtv src.rpm from the net and started adapting it for mdk. The configure script you'll first encounter is not for mythtv, it's for some other library it needs. There quite a number of funny paths it uses and other quirks. It also needs MySQL, which I can't get working on my box at the moment. MySQL-3.23.53-5mdk, can somebody verify this? Mythtv has more features (web interface) than freevo and the mailinglist is quite busy.
As I've said, I've got a Matrox Marvel G450 eTV (http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/marv_g450_etv/home.cfm). The drivers at http://sourceforge.net/projects/marvel work, I've made a rpm for them but I'm holding back from uploading because:
- these are kernel drivers, they should be in the kernel (rpmlint freaks out on the package);
- the project website warns about the drivers being pre-alpha quality, it may not be wise to put them into the mdk kernel;
- I'm not confident about how to load the modules. The package comes with a script that does it, but the script doesn't work when the modules are installed in /usr/lib/modules/ Some people just put the whole list of modules in /etc/modules, but that isn't right either. I'd rather get the order right and make something nice in /etc/modules.conf;
- It would be swell if this peice of hardware could be configured by drakxtv, but this could be done later too.
Stefan van der Eijk
Brian J. Murrell wrote:
On Sat, Dec 14, 2002 at 06:12:27PM +0100, Lea Gris wrote:
Running Mandrake Linux on 4 computers at home :This is good! I am in a similar position here with 5 Mandrake boxes
1 for my 3 sons
1 for my husband
1 for me
1 as home fileserver, gateway, CD burner server, Proxy server.
1 more mandrake box at my working days flat
Running Mandrake as my dual screen workstation at work as well.
at home too. No job, so no Mandrake box at my job. :-(
Next plan is for a Digital TV engine and recorder based on a Hauppauge Nexus DVB Sat recieverMust be nice to be able to get DVB Satellite. Make sure you hold on
to that that right. Here in the US/Canada, it's all proprietary.
and linux pvr (maybe with Mandrake of its good for it).Mandrake is not really that well suited for a PVR. I dunno if any of
the other distros are any better, but Mandrake isn't. The shortcoming
of Mandrake with regard to PVR/set-top box type stuff are:
- no DirectFB, and/or GTK+DirectFB packages
- kernel lacks pre-emptable kernel patch for low latency
- kernel lacks patch for VSYNC interrupt notification from Matrox
framebuffer driver
- kernel lacks DirectFB multi-application core kernel module
- kernel bttv module is still based on 0.7 series and not 0.8 series
(although if you are using DVB, this will not so much be an issue
in your specific case)
I have been patching the Mandrake kernel for all of the above on my
PVR except the pre-emptable kernel patch (because I found that that
does not apply at all cleanly to the Mandrake kernel). I am in fact
about to abandon the Mandrake kernel for my PVR and start patching the
Linus vanilla kernel with the above features.
Good luck with your PVR project.
b.
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