MythTV is a free Linux application with a 10-foot user interface design for the living-room TV, and turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital multimedia home entertainment system, or Home Theater Personal Computer. It can be considered as a free and open source alternative to Tivo or Windows Media Center.

History

cquote: DVR]] — I want a web browser built in, a mail client, maybe some games. Basically, I want the mythical convergence box that's been talked about for a few years now.

MythTV development is coordinated on a publicly accessible SVN server. Several official and unofficial active IRC channels and mailing lists permit communication between developers, and support for users. In early 2007, Apress published Practical MythTV on MythTV and its installation.

HDTV support

MythTV is capable of capturing unencrypted HDTV streams, such as those broadcast over the air. However, most U.S. cable and satellite set-top boxes provide only encrypted HD streams for "non-basic" content, which can be decoded only by OpenCable-approved hardware or software. Since no approved decoder is currently compatible with Linux, MythTV cannot capture the majority of HDTV content provided with U.S. cable and satellite subscriptions, except via digital-analog-digital conversion.

Operating system bundles

There are several projects which include a Linux distribution that is bundled with MythTV (and associated libraries) to make the installation, configuration and maintenance easier and faster:

• KnoppMyth is a bootCD derivative of Knoppix. Its MythTV frontend can be run from the CD. An entire installation to the hard disk can take place in minutes.
• Mythbuntu combines Ubuntu distributions with MythTV. The Ubuntu community has built extensive resources for installing, configuring and troubleshooting MythTV.
• Mythdora is a Red Hat Fedora distribution with MythTV.
• iMedia MythTV Linux distribution is a showcase of the larger iMedia embedded Linux distribution featuring an easy way to install MythTV and turning your system into a personal video recorder.
• MiniMyth is a small Linux distribution that turns a diskless computer into a MythTV frontend.
• LinuxMCE bundles MythTV with Kubuntu as the Linux distro.
• Xebian is a distribution of Debian Linux for the Microsoft Xbox game console and includes MythTV.

Features

• Pause, skip, and rewind live TV shows.
• Completely automatic commercial detection and optional skipping.
• Intelligently schedules recordings to avoid conflicts.
• Interfaces with free TV listing sources such as XMLTV or PSIP.
• Interfaces with nonprofit subscription listings service Schedules Direct in the United States and Canada. Schedules Direct delivers the same Tribune Media Services listings data that TiVo and other video recorders use.
• Supports ATSC, QAM, and DVB high-definition television.
• Supports Xv, OpenGL, and VDPAU video output.
• A backend server and frontend client architecture, allowing multiple frontend client machines to be remotely served content from one or more backend servers. A single computer can perform as both the frontend client and the backend server.
• Plays recordings at an accelerated or decelerated rate, adjusting the audio pitch as necessary.
• Schedule and administer various system functions using a web browser-based interface.
• Controls a settop box using an infrared remote (Irblaster).