I have a PC that I want to use as a PVR so I can record and archive TV shows to DVD. It appears that Knoppmyth would be a good way to go. But I also don't want to have to dual boot for my regular activities, web surfing, email, office applications etc. Can Knoppmyth be set up to be your only OS with all the functionality of other Linux distros. I have tried to set up MythTV in Ubuntu but could never get it to work. I have use Suse 9.3, Xandros and Mepis but have never used Knoppix or KnoppMyth. I would like to try Knoppmyth but have not taken the plunge because it seems to be a PVR only distro.

Thanks for all your help

Q

KnoppMyth is geared to set to a set-top box is the quickiest, easiest and best manner possible. As it is Debian based, you should be able to apt-get install xyz.

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Hi quntumleap,

I use my KnoppMyth box for just about all my needs except printing and that is only because I haven't made it work, yet.

Shopping list of a few of the toys I use, It is ok to look up the programs with Synaptic however I have found that if installed with that tool, some don't work or show up in the menu.. use apt-get
gramps
freemind
id3v2
talk
ftp
proftpd
myspell-en-us
mozilla-thunderbird
mozilla
openoffice.org
dia
gcompris
flashplugin-nonfree
perl -MCPAN -e 'install "XML::RSS"'
perl -MCPAN -e 'install "XML::Simple"'

plus a couple of other things. It is all in how you choose to use it. My family can be watching a recording on tv while I do what I need to do using a monitor. I am using a pvr-350 for the tv out.

What I don't have working is cups for printing? So I currently I email the file to my wife and she prints it for me

Hope this helps a little.
Mike

Hey,
Now that you have the TV output on a PVR 350 working, could you enlighten us. I have read so many posts and it seems that if you dont do it right, you are toasted.
It happened to me before and I had to re-installed the whole thing.
Better yet, if you have the link to where it is explained, shoot it over.

Thanks in advance javascript:emoticon(':D')
Very Happy

Thanks mjl for the info. I have not tried to do anything for awhile but plan to. On you Knoppmyth box, do you KDE or Gnome, or some other Desktop. I heard that if you try to install either one it messes up Mythtv.

Thanks

John

Hi quntumleap,

I don't really use the desktop other than to right click on it to get an app started. I simply do an alt x to open a shell, enter mozilla to bring up the browser or mozilla-thunderbird for e-mail and etc. then you may alt tab between myth, browser or what ever you have running. I have also added an extra menu level that has buttons to bring the up these different apps. And when I get really busy, I do Utilities/Setup > Setup > Appearence > page2 and enter 800 w 576 h which leaves me the task bar along the bottom to switch around.

If I wanted to have a "desktop", I would boot up a different machine that is running Ubuntu 5.10 as KnoppMyth is mainly a pvr by design, and a darn good one at that! I just use the Debian under it to extend it's function to use those cpu cycles for extra things I like and can use.

By doing the switching via alt tab or have a little strip of desktop peeking along the bottom, allows me to fire off a program or recording for the kids while I take care of other business. I feed tv out the PVR-350 and keep the rest on the monitor.

If you want to install some tool / toy, do the right click on the desktop and select Apps > System > Synaptic and look for what you want, make a list, then close it out, open an xterm, and as root do# apt-get update then do# apt-get install <synaptic package name>

Be warned, the only problem is that once you have all your "features" is you won't want to upgrade the Myth .... however if I recall correctly everything worked well up through A30.2.

Hope this is of value for you.
Mike

Hi Mike,

You state that you have both the PVR350-TvOut and monitor active at the same time, what/where is the setting to allow this? I used the default PVR350 configuration and it switches from the monitor to the PVR out during the bootup.

Thanks.

Hi syracuse,

I am going to assume that you mean check the little box "Use PVR-350 Out" in the menus. Have you ever tried to do an alt x while the tv was playing? The monitor should be blank however just because the lights are out doesn't mean no one is home.

Mike