I used to have (still do on the Hard drives etc) a FC3 machine with MythTV setup and working. I had Dish and took almost a year to cancel Dish. Now, as of this Thursday, I have Cable. So, now, I can use my $500 TV Guide as a DVR.

First, the specs of the Hardware I have:

• PowerEdge 400SC
• 2.8 Ghz 800FSB HT CPU
• 1GB (2X512 MB) Dual Channel PC3200 RAM
• PNY nVidia FX5200 (not Ultra) Video Card
• Had the regular Audigy card working in the FC install.
• Onboard Sound and LAN
• Belkin F5D7000 wireless PCI card
• Promise FastTrack 100 RAID Card (not using RAID but Span)
• 40GB Seagate OS drive
• 400 GB (2x200 WD 200JB) HDD Logical Volume
• Hauppauge PVR250 with the Old Style Grey Remote
• New Hauppauge PVR150 with IR Blaster and the new Grey Remote

Last year, when I actually built the system, I built it on FC2 and then later rebuilt it on FC3(or 4 I forget). But since it did not have an IR Blaster and I never built or purchase an IR Blaster, the system was only serving me a TV guide and was Not hooked on to any video sources. I had tested using my VCR.

Earlier this year, all of a sudden, one day, I got an error in mythfilldatabase. (Channels for Dish must have changed or something). I could not correct that error. So, I blew away the database and recreated it. Since then, I broke my install. I can now nolonger watch TV (via the VCR ofcourse).

In the meanwhile, I jumpled on the CC PVR150 Deal and so, now, I have two tuners. Due to that, I cancelled Dish and went with TimeWarner cable. That's when I found out my MythTV Box is nolonger working with Live TV.

So, to test the new card, I removed all three HDDs and installed MCE on a spare 40GB I had. Installed both tuners and all is well in MCE. Last night, as a test, I taped 24 and What about Brian in MCE. Although live tv and recorded tv while watching looks decent, BOTH my timer programs are bad as hell.

So, I want to go back to Myth. Then I saw KnoppMyth.

So, questions to you gurus are:

1. Should I try KnoppMyth?
2. Should I keep MCE and tweak it to fix my recording problem
3. Reinstall the drives as it and troubleshoot my FC based Myth?

I understand I am asking in a KnoppMyth forum and hence most folks will just say wipe out the FC based install and start with KnoppMyth. But I would like to know your troubles installing and getting KnoppMyth up and running.

I nolonger need to run the IR Blaster and I now have cable. But I do need to switch from the wired LAN to wireless. The FC install does not have the wireless part working.

So, what is it going to be? MCE or FC or Knopp and why?

Thanks and sorry for the looooonnnnggggg post.

If all the posts in the Tier 1 forum are any indication, most users have very few issues with KnoppMyth. From the looks of it, you have normal hardware and thus shouldn't have issues getting knoppmyth going. It's generally pretty darned easy!

My vote: dump the FC install, take the 30 minutes it will take to install/configure knoppmyth and be watching Lost by 8.

Hmm. All it takes is 30 minutes to get KnoppMyth configured and running? That is darn good. I do know that all (or almost all) my hardware is Tier 1.

While looking for more information, I found that there is such a thing called MythDora which is MythTV on Fedora (Core 4 currently).

So, now, I want to add that to my prior post. Scratch out fixing my bad older setup. Now, I need to contemplate between KnoppMyth/MCE/MythDora.

Decisions Decisions.

Yes, given hardware that is support with Linux, a installation and configuration of KnoppMyth can be done in 30 minutes or less. I have not installed MythDora so I cannot speak about it. I've no interest in MCE. In my humbly opinion, there is no quicker, easier way for one to setup a PVR/DVR/HTPC than KnoppMyth.

Wow. I did not expect you to respond. I figured you'd be busy doing better things like fixing issues with KnoppMyth rather than posting in some nubie's (registered TODAY) dilemma about what to install.

First off. Thanks for creating this product and responding to my post. I admit I haven't used it yet. But it seems (based on the few posts I have read), that you have a very good product and a very good follower base. Obviously, you had to have done this before MythDora. So, with stability in mind and your and abrendel's confident can be done in about 30 minutes statements, I will go with KnoppMyth. I am NOT going to time the install but you guys sound very confident and hence, I will take the plunge. Might not be today itself but by this weekend, I should have my system up and running with KnoppMyth.

Questions:

1. Do I have to worry about setting up tuners etc. or does the install automatically set that up (mind you I do plan on using TWO tuners).
2. Do I have to partition the drives or does knoppmyth take care of that too? The 2X200GB drives were partitioned as ext3 as a Logical Volume as indicated in the Wilsonet.com FC3 and Myth instructions. So, if I slap all the hardware back and then try the install, do I have to redo the partitioning of the Logical Volume?
3. I am assuming that I will still have to configure ndiswrapper and configure my wireless card manually. Correct?

Thanks thus far.

I read all the posts on the forum. Questions that I can answer, I answer. Yes, KnoppMyth has been around longer than MythDora (swiper, swiper )

1. Define setup? If you mean install, configure ivtv, then no. These card should be detected automatically and just work. Granted, if you have a card with a new tuner, you may face issues. It things work out just right, after rebooting, all you have to do is follow the script that starts after X loads. Configuring MythTV is the same as configuring with Fedora.

2. If the drives are PATA, then you can do a auto install and KnoppMyth will automatically partition the drives. After rebooting, you'll have to setup LVM. However that process is very easy. I wrote a script that does this and TJC beefed it up. Check the LVM how-to on the wiki.

3. Yes.

You're welcome and thanks for trying KnoppMyth.

Thanks again. I will try it out. Once I go home, I will first poke around the Wiki and iron out some details for my knowledge and so that I don't do something stupid while installing.

For clarification:

1. What I meant was do I have to go through configuring MythTV or does the install configure it so that it just runs out of the box. You answer says I do have to run MythTV setup. That's fine.
2. The drives are PATA and are for the most part empty. I will follow the WiKi and take it from there.

Will be back with either questions or confirmation that my install went fine.

You don't have to run mythtv-setup. The script will run it for you and start the frontend automatically afterwards. Some of the configuration steps are done such as setting paths. For the most part, all you have to do is steps 2, 3 and 4.

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!