[TriLUG] AppleTV as MythTV Frontend

[Greg Brown]

Kudos to you!  That's a neat project, thanks for sharing.

(as I eye my AppleTV from afar..)

Greg

On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 11:35 AM, Ken Mink <ken.mink at gmail.com> wrote:

> Since I know there are a number of MythTV users here, I thought I'd
> post about the status of a project I've been working on for a while.
>
> Not long ago, I saw a note somewhere on the net about using an AppleTV
> as a Mythzt frontend. I've been using MythTV for a number of years and
> wanted a small, quiet frontend box the my bedroom. The AppleTV seemed
> perfect for this.
>
> Well, it's basically complete. Here's what I've got;
> Stock AppleTV hardware
> Fedora 8 running native with a custom kernel
> NVidia proprietary video drivers(using HDMI for video out)
> Stock MythTV rpms from atrpms.net
> Custom compile of lirc for IR remote
>
> So, how well does it work? It works very well. My MythTV backend uses
> a PVR-500 for analog content and a HDHomerun for HD content. The
> AppleTV has no problem playing either SD or HD. When playing HD
> content, cpu usage is about 70%. It does use XvMC for HD, so there is
> some stuttering when there is any OSD info displayed. This is a
> problem with MythTV and XvMC and not unique to the AppleTV. I am not
> using the Apple remote, but the same Harmony I use on my main FE/BE in
> the living room. I need to pick up another remote. The MythTV frontend
> is full featured and allows for playback, scheduling, etc.
>
> The AppleTV has digital audio capabilities. I didn't have any use for
> this feature, so I don't know if it's working. It should be, but I
> haven't looked into it. The AppleTV also had built-in wireless. I also
> haven't put any effort into it.
>
> The one thing I'm missing is DVD playback. The AppleTV doesn't have an
> optical drive. Since it's now running a standard linux distro, it
> should be fairly easy to use an external DVD drive for DVD playback.
> This is the next thing on the list.
>
> If you're interested in going this route, you need to be comfortable with:
> Patching and compiling kernels
> Editing xorg.conf files
> Patching, compiling and installing non-package software
> Voiding warranties :)
>
> Interesting Links for Linux on AppleTV:
> http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Linux_on_Apple_TV
> http://www.mythic-beasts.com/resources/appletv/
> http://www.mactel-linux.org/wiki/AppleTV
>
> I hope some one found this interesting. It was a real fun project that
> has provided me with a real world benefit.
>
> Cheers,
> Ken
>
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