Archive for September, 2008

MythTV - back from the grave; backend now running on MacOS

Monday, September 8th, 2008

About a month ago mysterious puff of smoke rose out of my server as the IEEE1394 stack (aka Firewire, aka i.Link 1394) burst into flames and forever removed itself from existance. CentOS is an excellent platform for server stuff, but the weird multimedia/server crossover proved an uphill battle (i.e. you need the CentOS plus kernel if you want IEEE1394 support!). With my head hung(sp?) low, I performed the following command:

#service mythbackend stop; chkconfig mythbackend off;

You could actually hear one of those cool sounds that power plants make when you flip the big switch that turns everything off. Okay, you couldn’t… but you could imagine it!

I looked for alternatives to this crazy problem:

 

  • The Hauppauge HD-PVR box that converts analog component inputs into H.264 video on the fly. Sounds super promising, but the MythTV support is too immature at this point.
  • Install some lame analog TV tuner card. 
  • TELUS TV boxes apparently output an RTP stream of the current channel being watched — rig some crazy contraption to capture that stream and save it? 

None of the options really seemed to be all that appealing. Then it came to me … what about the IEEE1394 stack in MacOS? MythBackend for Mac actually uses the Apple IEEE1394 stack rather than the crazy Linux implementation… perhaps by changing enough variables, I would find that I had a working solution again.


So I set everything up with the cable box attached to my beloved 24″ iMac. Seems to be working great so far. The MythBackend process only takes about 5% of the CPU, and the machine isn’t the worst possible thing to leave on all the time. Most importantly, the video stream seems to be very stable.


I am going to apply some polish over the next little while. Perhaps launchd has some cool tricks up it’s sleave for babysitting daemons like restarting them on crash, or just poking them once and awhile to see if they are alive. 


 

So far anyone that is finding this page randomly off Google - I can confirm indeed that the IEEE1394 stack in MacOS can be successfully run as a MythBackend.

FYI: I used this build of the backend: http://www.thesniderpad.com//component/option,com_remository/Itemid,36/func,select/id,8/

Cable box is a Motorola DCT 6200, connected to Shaw Cable.

 

Net result: resurrection of MythTV - Happy ending!

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