MythTV

Install Instructions

Requirement

• SSH access to your AppleTV
• App Launcher Plugin or iScripts if running ATV take 2
• MythFrontend Intel Binary (See below)

Installation

• Copy MythFontend.app to your AppleTV's Application folder. We will use ~/Applications here.

 # assumes that the MythFrontend*.dmg file has been downloaded to current directory
 mkdir -p ~/Applications
 hdiutil attach MythFrontend_OSX_Intel_*.dmg
 cp -p -R /Volumes/MythFrontend/MythFrontend.app ~/Applications/

• Enable read/write access to the root drive

 sudo mount -o remount,rw /dev/disk0s3 /

• Copy over the following fonts to their respective places on the Apple TV.
  • /System/Library/Fonts/Geneva.dfont
  • ~/Library/Fonts/Arial
  • ~/Library/Fonts/Trebuchet MS

Note: You will have to save the fonts to your home directory on the Apple TV and then move them to the proper places in SSH. Note: There may be more fonts required, if worst comes to worst just copy them all but that is about 500MB worth of files when only a few are used.

The Applications Menu Appliance must be told about MythFrontend.

• Edit the ~/AppList.txt File
  • Add the following line to the list. (You can remove the sample lines)

  MythTV,/Users/frontrow/Applications/MythFrontend.app/Contents/MacOS/mythfrontend

• or if you have the newer Applications Menu Appliance, add this to ~/Documents/Applist.plist
  • Add the following lines to the XML:

       <key>Applications</key>
       <dict>
               <key>0</key>
               <dict>
                       <key>args</key>
                       <string></string>
                       <key>menu</key>
                       <string>MythTV</string>
                       <key>path</key>
                       <string>/Users/frontrow/Applications/MythFrontend.app/Contents/MacOS/mythfrontend</string>
               </dict>
       </dict>

Note: You can do this remotely and upload it or copy something like /usr/bin/pico over to the Apple TV. If you copy pico over it will be easier to update things in the future.

• Reboot the Apple TV. This is critical as a full reboot is required for the OS to see the new fonts.

Notes

Video Of MythTV Running on AppleTV

• Confirmed, This is working for me exactly as described. Content streams jsut fine, and the remote work's perfectly. Dr Omega 05:57, 25 May 2007 (CEST)

A question: What hardware tuner do you use? Is it plugged to Apple-TV USB?

• Only Mythfrontend works in OSX you need a Mythbackend and tv tuner in a linux box. It does stream the content over the wireless just fine though, and looks good too. I just have a Leadteck card (bout $50) in my file server. Dr Omega 21:49, 25 May 2007 (CEST)

Another question: Another question:Can you please provide the version of MythTV front end you are using, a linked to a precompiled binary would be better?

One more question: I do not have a Mac available, which fonts are opened by MythTV, so I can make fake fonts with the same name and install in the aTV?

Yet another question: Has anybody tried playing recorded (or live) HD content? How well does ATV handle it while running Myth?

• Not well, as expected. I experimented with HD this evening and had limited success. SD MPEG2 from my Hauppauge PVR-250 is fine, but HD QAM content recorded from my HDHomeRun did not stream well. It never dropped a frame, and so it would play two seconds, and then pause for two seconds. I was using 1080i and have not played with any settings yet. When I tried to exit the video mythtv hung. --Elwood 05:43, 19 June 2007 (CEST)
• I am replacing Roku units which are failing left and right, so I need to get HD from my mythbackendgoing. I may experiment by transcoding the content to HD MPEG4, making an RSS feed, and then playing it back as a podcast with hardware acceleration. --Elwood 05:43, 19 June 2007 (CEST)

Status

Things that work

• Most everything, Playback, remote, setup screens, etc.
• Remote works, Hold play for pause, Hold menu for menus.

Things that don't (Some might not be configured properly)

• Take 2 support: since this page has not been updated since Take 2 was released, MythTV will probably not work under Take 2. Anybody know? Hugh 09:24, 3 March 2008 (CET)

Applications Menu Appliance hasn't been updated for Take 2 yet. Hugh 08:13, 6 March 2008 (CET)

MythTV should work fine once you have a interface to launch it, as it does not rely on any frontrow APIs. --Dr Omega 19:44, 7 March 2008 (CET)

Take 2 > 2.0.2 has issues due to changes in the AppleTV IR subsystem which deviate from "normal" 10.4.x Thus far, nobody is reporting success in getting the remote to function correctly. Bohemian 17:25, 12 July, 2009 (PST)

• Requires osx fonts, As I am not sure of the font's it needs, this has added ~500MB to the drive. (I just copied them all untill I can figure out what ones are needed.)
  • I have identified the following font's as needed at runtime. I will do further testing but these are three that I know are needed. Dr Omega 03:37, 31 May 2007 (CEST)
    • /System/Library/Fonts/Geneva.dfont
    • ~/Library/Fonts/Arial
    • ~/Library/Fonts/Trebuchet MS
• 30-45 second hang when pre-scaling the theme's. (Every launch)
• Fails rendering the preview clips of recordings.
• HD Playback (only tested with pre-recorded content). Significant stuttering makes the playback unwatchable. Perhaps some settings can improve. --Elwood 05:45, 19 June 2007 (CEST)
• Updated to 0-21 fixes (SVN 19161 / Protocol 40) using binary linked below -- Bohemian 12:34, 18 Jan 2009

MythTV Binaries

• Intel
  • 0-21 Fixes
• Universal