MythTV: How to build your own PVR
Introduction
About 12 months ago I stumbled across this fantastic open source project known as MythTV, whilst searching google for PVR/Media Centre based software that wasn’t Windows MCE. MythTV is a wonderful piece of DIY PVR software, if you have the patients and the know how to install it.
My first MythTV build was really a test bed. I had some old PC parts lying around, that people had kindly donated to me over the years, and I had kindly hoarded around the house. So immediately I started to build my first Linux based PVR using MythTV. I used an AMD Semprom 2500, 1GB of RAM, a Maxtor 200GB, an old Nvidia Geforce2 graphics card (I swapped this with someone at work for my ATI all in wonder as I couldn’t get the TV out working on the blighter!!), a bog standard dvd-rom and a normal PC case. I didn’t have a TV tuner card, but I wanted MythTV more to play my media collection than to watch TV! I started with a fresh vanilla install of Ubuntu Fiesty which was the most up to date and stable version of the time. Then I went through apt-get’ing all the MythTV packages I required and hey presto that was it. From what I can remember it wasn’t that difficult, but it was fiddly and for someone coming from Windows MCE it would terrify them. After building my machine, realised how ugly it looked, it was just a PC, so it never made it into the living room or a bedroom. I set it up using a wireless AV sender, from the computer room to my bedroom. Anyway to cut a long story short, it got used everyday. My family love it. We use it for viewing movies, playing DVD’s, viewing photos etc. I have imported most of my son’s dvd collection into it. Its ace.
Well the whole point of this article is to show you how easy it is to build a PVR using MythTV, especially with the new streamlined installations that have gained popularity over the years. Yes I finally made the plunge after 12 months and bought some new dedicated gear for it, including a case that wouldn’t look out of place next to an AV setup!!
Part 1: The Build
So for my new MythTV build the hardware specification is a follows:
- CPU: AMD AM2 Athlon 64 4600 + Windsor Core, Dual Core, Energy Efficent Retail
- RAM: 2GB (2×1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2 Pro, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800)
- HDD: 1000GB (1Tb) Samsung Spinpoint F1, SATA II
- DVD: Samsung 8x Multiformat DVD recorder
- Motherboard: Abit AN-M2HD
- Case: Extra Value Sonata MATX MediaCenter Case
The hardware was chosen based on my requirements. MythTV will run on lower spec machines very easily. Basically I want to be able to play HD content and therefore need a decent machine. My MythTV box will be both frontend and backend in one, so I require a case that is easy on the eye but also has plenty of space. The 1TB hard drive seems excessive but my son has a lot of kids dvds which I would like to import into MythTV for easy access. Plus when I eventually get round to sticking a TV tuner card in, I will need plenty of room for recordings too.
First off I unpacked the motherboard, the ram and the CPU, and I insert the ram and cpu on to the motherboard.
This board is awesome. I think its perfect for a media centre, and because it has an onboard Nvidia card its perfect for Linux and MythTV. It has standard vga out, but it also has a HDMI output with HDCP support. It as a 7.1 onboard soundcard with one digital out.
Next I opened up the case. Before inserting the motherboard I unscrewed and removed the drive bay.
With the drive bay out I installed the hard drive into the hidden 3.5″ bay.
I then went on to install the dvd writer and another spare IDE hard drive, next to the dvd writer. This is achieved by using an adapter to convert the drive space form 5.25 to 3.5.
The finished drive bay with all three devices fitted looks like so;
My intention for the extra IDE drive was to install the operating system on this drive, and use the 1TB Samsung drive soley for media within MythTV. Unfortunately this plan was short lived as the supplied IDE cable wasn’t big enough to stretch from the DVD writer to the IDE drive. I’ve left it installed, to give me the motivation to go and get a longer, and better IDE cable, but I wont use it on my initial installation.
The next part of the build was to install the motherboard into the case. With the drive bay removed there was enough room to do this without any problems, although it is a snug fit. I used the supplied fixings that come with the case, and the holes on the motherboard matched up perfect with the case, and I was able to secure a screw in every position on the board.
There is a fan fitted inside the case, in a good position to blow external air across the CPU, and although a tight fit, there is room for another. I have purchased a couple of Sharkroon Silent Eagle 2000’s which are very quiet but also efficient, and I shall be replacing the existing fan and installing a second fan to pull hot air out, but at this stage I would like to see how the system performs with just the included fan.
To the left of the above image you can see the PSU. Its only 220w, so fingers crossed it will perform ok with the CPU I have installed.
The next step was to replace the drive bays. This is where space becomes restricted. To save yourself from fitting the drive bay 3 or 4 times like I did, make sure you fit the case wiring loom to the motherboard headers first; power switch, hdd led, USB etc. Once the drive bay is installed there will be very little access to these. To keep it all nice and neat, I taped these wires to the chasis, so that they don’t touch the sata drive, and the drive bay doesn’t sit on them and restrict their length. Also connect the IDE and SATA cable, and also the power cables. Once this is done, place the drive back in its original space. It should click back to the quick release catches.
As you can see space around the drives, PSU connection, and the memory slots, is very restricted. In fact to insert more memory the whole lot has got to come out again. Also worryingly, the DVD writer sits right over the top of the PSU connectors on the motherboard, so the wires run right underneath it and touch it too. There is no way from what I can see so far to overcome this. Hopefully that part of the DVD writer will not become too hot or else this could cause real problems.
Ok thats it. The build is complete. Thus far I am not installing a TV card for use with MythTV, so no I won’t be using the full advantages of it. My intention is just to use it to play my media library, although some time in the future I will pursue this avenue. For those of you interested in installing a TV card in this case, you will require a low profile card. The motherboard has PCI, and PCI Express slots so you have options. The Hauppage WinTV PVR 150 seems to be the preferred choice for MythTV installations and it does come in a low profile variant. See here http://hauppage.com/pages/products/data_pvr150mcelp.html
Although only a certain chipset the WinTV Nova 500 is also a good choice http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/products/data_novat500.html
There are many others see the MythTV Wiki Hardware page for more information
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Video_capture_cards
My next instalment of this guide, to follow very soon, will give you the run down on my installation of the latest Mythbuntu, which is based on the Hardy Heron release of Ubuntu.
Please feel free to leave comments asking me any questions about my build that I may not have covered. I’ve tried not to be too specific, and bore you with too many details. I will answer promptly when possible.
All the parts used in this build were purchased from Scan except the case which is available from ebuyer
The total build price was around £300.
Edit:- I’ve since bought a Nova T-500 DVB card, which endedup being the TD-500 (similar to the divesity model) Follow the link below to find out how I got it working!
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:31 am
Oops! I’ve just realised there’s no final image of the case all sealed up and looking like a real media centre. Please check back I will get it sorted in the next 24Hrs
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:08 am
hey there,
I’m actually thinking of getting one of these cases (I’d like an Antec fusion, but it’s just too big for my TV stand). Can you tell me how noisy it is? I reckon I’d replace the stock fans anyway, but I was wondering if the powersupply might need replacing too.
thanks,
Denver
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Hi Denver
This is an excellent case. I too fancied the Antec Fusion, but was put off by its size, the hiper slimline cases was one of my other choices but I thought I’d struggle because it was too small. For me this is a brilliant compromise. The stock fan is a little noisy so I will be replacing it with a Sharkroon Silent Eagle. I was also concerned about the PSU, but it handles my system fine, even when I’m playing HD content. It remains solid and stable. If you do want to replace it, bare in mind that it is not a standard sized PSU. It is quite slim.
I will discuss these points and more in my next article, when I write about the installation, but overall I can definitely recommend this case, and if you do get one and need help feel free to drop me a line here.
Cheers
Dave
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Hi,
Was wondering what the dimensions are for your CPU cooler - looks tight.
Was thinking of a Thermaltake golden Orb in this case - would there be room?
Great build explaination
P.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:15 pm
One last question . . . . who is the manufacturer of the case? Would love to get a hold of a manual before buying . . .
Thanks
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:05 pm
The CPU is a standard AMD cooler, that comes with their CPU retail packs, its perhaps not as tight as it looks, the case is actually only a little bit slimmer than a regular desktop case. I think. I checked the Thermaltake golden Orb, and it appears to be 63mm in height which should fit comfortably in this case.
The case is an Extra Value Sonata MATX MediaCenter Case which I bought from ebuyer.com. I’ve just checked their site and they don’t have any at the moment, so I can’t even link to it. They seem to now hide out of stock products.
If there’s anything specific that you would like to know just drop me a another comment.
Cheer
Dave
July 24th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Thanks Dave, is there an electronic manual with the system you could share? and any pictures of the finished system . . .
July 24th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a manual. I have been a bit lapse in putting the final finished system up, so I will do this over the weekend. Also I will be putting up another article shortly on installing Mythbuntu, which will also have plenty of images of my system.
August 11th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
WOO! You rock Dave! This is an awesome post! Can’t wait for the next installment.
August 30th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Wow - I’ve just taken delivery of this exact same case and this came up on a random google. I’m fitting an AMD 4550e Athlon X2 2.5Ghz dual-core (45W) and am a bit concerned about heat. I see you’re using the stock AMD sink - has that been OK? Also, you mention giving it a go with just the one case fan - how has that been?
August 30th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
The machine has been solid with both the stock AMD heatsink and with the one fan. In fact I’ve been quite lazy and haven’t even put my sharkroon fans in there, cos the stock fan is quite noisy. It gets hot when I’m watching HD content, and you can here the fan speed up, but it remains stable.
August 30th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
OK thanks Dave - that’s good to know.
September 18th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Just putting all my kit together now - the case is pretty snug! In particular, the DVD hits the side of the second case fan (which I note you’ve not installed). Might have to do something about that.
Also - embarrassing question - how can I find out where to plug the various cables emerging from the front panel (USB, sound, etc.)? The mobo manual helps me with the power and drive LEDs, but is silent on anything else.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Brilliant! Yeah it is a snug fit, imagine how snug one of those hyper cases would be. Good thought about the second fan, I didn’t notice that - although I did mention that the dvd drive does cover all the power sockets and ram etc. I should have realised it would hit the 2nd fan.
I’m pretty sure the cables on the case are labelled. Check your motherboard manual for a drawing of your board which should highlight where all the headers are for sound, usb etc. They are all usually in the same place. What motherboard have you got?
September 18th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
I’ve got an Asus M2N-CM. The cables are labelled, but apart from the ones running though the ferrite core (which are for the power switch, drive light etc.) there are two cables each with about five plugs on that don’t seem to be able to go anywhere.
September 19th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Those will be the front usb leads. Check your motherboard manual to find out where the usb headers are. I’m at work at the moment, but I will check my machine when I get home, although I am pretty sure they are the usb leads.
September 19th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Bingo! You’re as genius - thanks! Now I just need to connect it all up and turn it on and hope I don’t spill my beer on it when I’m doing the Victory Dance.
September 20th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Brilliant! Please let me know how you get on. I’m slowly putting together some more howto’s on MythTV so please keep checking back. Installation for one, using Mythbuntu as this article promises and then some howto’s on setting up and using the plugins. I’ve been having a play with MythGame and have successfully got an Amiga and an N64 emulator working perfectly!!
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:19 am
It’s day 2 since I did the victory dance and so far all seems well. One slight glitch - I’d put the case fan in the wrong way so it was blowing air in! It’s a Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000, and I’d assumed the logo was the “out” side, but in fact there’s a little arrow on the casing pointing in the direction of flow. Otherwise, CPU temperature is fine: I’m using a Scythe Shuriken heat sink and it’s working very well keeping things cool. The whole thing runs very quiet too.
I’m not actually using it as a PVR though: I’m running XBMC (on Ubuntu Hardy). It’s dead easy to set up and plays absolutely anything I can chuck at it. The only really fiddly part has been setting up the remote: a Speedlink SL-6399. Had to map all the keys using xmodmap - took me ages.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:50 pm
After reading this, I built a MythTV box using the same motherboard (The Abit AN-M2HD.) How did you get the HDMI output working under Linux? It seems to work fine when the system POSTs but only the VGA output is working once Linux boots up. I am using Mythbuntu 8.04.1. I did install the Nvidia (restricted) drivers… Was there any particular trick to get HDMI working? Other than that, my DVR is working beautifully… Thanks in advance…
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Hi Aurthur - I’m glad I enticed you into building a Myth box, I’m sure you will love it and start reaping the benefits once its all set up and running smoothly. The whole idea of this article was for me to show how easy it has become to build and install MythTV now there are stream lined OS’s especially for Myth. Unfortunately I’ve been quite busy and haven’t got round to the 2nd part which involved the actual software installation.
From what I can remember I didn’t do anything special to get video out working on the HDMI, mythbuntu took care of that for me. However all Mythbuntu does is write to your xorg.conf file. The file can be found at /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Below is a snippet from my file which shows the video card setup.
Section "Device" Identifier "Generic Video Card" Driver "nvidia" Option "DPI" "100x100" Option "UseEvents" "1" Option "AddARGBVisuals" "1" Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "1" Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV" Option "TVOutFormat" "COMPONENT" Option "TVStandard" "HD1080p" Option "NoLogo" "True" #Option "UseDisplayDevice" "TV" EndSectionPlease bare in mind that if you are using 169.xxx version nvidia drivers you will not get any sound over HDMI you will need to uprade to the 173.xxx drivers. I have yet to do this and am still using analog sound by sending an output from the sound card to the analog in on my tv.
If you are still having problems please post your xorg file here.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Hey Jonathan - thanks for the tip on the Sharkroon’s, I have that model too, but haven’t installed them yet.
I’ve just had a look at XBMC it looks really good. I’m not using Myth as a PVR yet so this would have been another option for me, but I just love Myth!! I might take a closer look and install it on another machine.
As far as mapping the remote goes, MythTV supports LIRC which isn’t as fiddly to setup as xmodmap, and even less fiddly if you have a remote which Mythbuntu supports as it create the lircrc file for you.
Are you still dancing?
September 27th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
@ Dave: Yes, still dancing
LIRC is also fine with XBMC, but the remote I have is one of these puppies:
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Generic_HID_%22MCE%22_Remotes
So basically LIRC is irrelevant but you need to re-map the key IDs the remote sends to something that Myth or XBMC will understand. The up side is that I bought it on eBay for less than the price of a pint of ale.
October 29th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Hi this case looks like just what im looking for!
I am wanting to put a Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T 500 Dual digital DVB-T PCI TV Tuner card in the machine. This is a slimline card but the backplate isn’t. Will it fit in the case?
Thanks
Chris
October 29th, 2008 at 1:08 am
Hi Chris,
You will need to change the backplate on the card, otherwise it won’t fit. I believe you can buy them from ebuyer.
I’m also interested in this card, are you gonna use it in a MythTV box? If so please post how you get on installing it.
November 29th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Dave I feel I am missing something but i cant see how to fix the DVD writer in the Sonata case once in the drive bay. I would appreciate some advice.
Thanks
December 1st, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Hi Brian,
The DVD writer will fit in the right hand bay, and is accessed via a drop down flap on the front of the case, see this image http://www.djcnet.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/img_1125.jpg.
If you need more info send me the details of exactly what you don’t understand, and I will do my best to help.
February 27th, 2009 at 8:20 am
In the off chance this thread is still being monitored, i am looking into this case but i dont have the stock AMD cooler, so i was wondering what is the max size the cpu cooler could fit into this case?
Thanks
February 27th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Hi AJ, the case is only a little slimmer than a normal desktop case, unfortunately I haven’t had mine open for a while, so I can’t remember how much headroom there is. I’m pretty confident that most heatsink/fan combination will fit, but I would avoid some of the specialised coolers which tend too be on the tall side.
I did have an old coolmaster heatpipe in there, and that was pretty tall, and there was plenty of room.
Sorry for the vague response. If you do still require some assitance, and would rather me confirm the exact room, I will open up my case over the weekend and post the sizes on here.
October 24th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
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