I’ve had a Windows based DVR (digital video recorder) for about 2 years now. It was working fine when I used it as just a DVR but for the past 9 months, it’s served double duty as a DVR and a Media Center. the problem seems to be that the software - SageTV - doesn’t like being interrupted. If I happen to change the channel at the top/bottom of the hour when it is trying to close one recording and start another; or I tell it to stop playback just as the recording is ending, it hangs. I’ve had enough.

I’ve decided to “go Linux” for my media center. I don’t use the machine for anything else these days so I’m safe to do a clean wipe and fresh install. The best option appears to be MythTV. However, being a neophyte when it comes to Linux, I want a pre-packaged distribution rather than a incremental installation of Linux, plus components, plus MythTV.

There are a few contenders so I’ve narrowed it down to iMedia Linux and KnoppMyth. I’ll start with KnoppMyth - not because I think I will prefer it, but because it appears “well used”. Also, KnoppMyth is primarily focused on TV whereas iMedia is more of a Media Center. Do misunderstand, MythTV does a lot more than just TV, but TV is my primary goal. Since this is my *only* TV, I would be happy if it did one thing really well rather than a bunch of things “just so so”.

Fortunately, my media machine has some spare drives ever since I deployed my NAS and no longer need 4 HDDs in my media center <grin>. So, rather than nuke my existing machine, I’ll pull the Windows drive and move one of the storage drives to the head of the line. Worse case, I can reinstall the Windows drive and get back to my current state.

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Posted in DVR, Linux, Media Center, PVR |

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