MythTV

MythTV is Article description::a powerful media center and video recording software system. The distributed architecture allows analog and digital media to be captured, organized, and streamed over the network to other MythTV instances or network attached devices.

Installation
MythTV is a complex and capable system and during the first install can be a little daunting to configure if there is no familiarity with the software. Once the backend has been set up properly and configured with recording devices/sources (DVB or analog capture etc.), there is usually little maintenance in the future.

Kernel
Depending on how MythTV is going to be configured, there may be options in the kernel that need to be enabled. If support is required for recording media from DVB devices or controlling with a remote control, the relevant devices need to be enabled in the kernel before MythTV or any other applications will be able to access them.

USE flags
MythTV has quite a few USE flags to customize configuration according to hardware specification and software requirements.

Configuration
MythTV includes a mythbackend server which handles recordings and manages databases of media, this has to be configured and running before the a client, mythfrontend, or other media player can interact with the MythTV system. MythTV also requires a running MySQL compatible database server such as MySQL or MariaDB to function, this is handled through the database modules of Qt.

User
A daemon user named for   is created and maintained by.

Some existing installations also use user with   which works, but can cause problems. An actual non-root user should be used with.

Old installations that use a modified user may either need updating or a local  overlay to prevent undesired changes to the  user. After is successfully emerged restore the  user. It will remain at its restored state until is forced/updated. Installing the MythTV package depends on  and does not install it again on subsequent updates.

Database
A database will need to be set up before the MythTV backend can be started. The emerge command should have already pulled in MySQL or MariaDB but the database server may not have been configured yet, if this is the case please refer to MySQL or MariaDB for information. The following command will set up the MythTV database using the emerge config phase, this will require a root user and password for the database.

MythTV backend configuration
MythTV backend is configured by a GUI that can stop  when configuring. Run  GUI to setup MythTV before starting   on a new installation. It is not normally used in daily operation once the system is configured for your setup/hardware. This GUI can setup:

* Connection to the database * Setup TV tuners and scan channels * Setup media storage locations * Setup Program Guide Provider * Multiple MythTV backend configuration

Execute the setup program to configure MythTV. The documentation for MythTV is a good reference at this point.

Mythbackend daemon
At least one backend must be running to use MythTV, this can be on the same host as the frontend or a different host on the network.

Start the MythTV backend on the chosen host(s) and add it to the default runlevel.

Usage
Once the database is set up and mythtv-setup has been completed, and the mythbackend started. General use is through the included mythfrontend.

MythTV frontend
The application is the frontend process of MythTV with a graphical user interface for the MythTV system. It can select TV shows to record/watch, play media, select GUI theme, show the status of MythTV, and configure playback display/audio.

Unmerge
Removal can be as simple as running:

No media, recordings, database, or configuration setup is deleted.

External resources

 * https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/ - Official MythTV Wiki
 * https://www.linuxtv.org/ - Television with Linux
 * https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page - The Television with Linux wiki providing lots of information on configuring specific devices