MythTV and XBMC
I said a couple of weeks back that I have been playing around with MythTV. At first I installed Mythbuntu, messed around a little then restored the computer back to XP using Windows Home Server but then I decided i wanted to have a play with Mythtv on Gentoo I tried but my CD drive couldn’t burn the Gentoo disc so I got annoyed and reinstalled mythbuntu.
I’ve now been recording various TV shows with easy and no real issues for the last couple of weeks. Although I have to say I have not really hit the limts and don’t really watch that much TV. I got a second TV card so that I could watch and and record a different channel but I have to get the proper cables to split the ariel feed.
It was nice to wake up at a normal time and watch the Chinese Grand Prix before the replay on BBC One in the afternoon. The web interface it pretty simple to use and I’ve set it all up so that if at work I remember I want to watch something I can login and set it to record. Bet Sky+ doesn’t let you do that now does it! I have a suspicion that it doesn’t properly flag up commercials but I’ve only watched recorded shows from the BBC channels so not sure yet.
The whole system though is pretty much complete now I got a MCE remote control off ebay which gives its the proper feeling of a TV rather than controlling it from a keyboard. I’ve had to wait a while though I think it got held up at the airport what with the UK airspace being shutdown, it was a seller in Hong Kong.
I was surprised at how easy the remote was to set-up, I just had to select the MCE remote from the Myth Control panel and reboot. I expected an evening of a mixture of googling and pulling my hair out…
I’ve been pretty much mainly using XBMC as a frontend as XBMC can access Myth’s recorded files which is pretty neat! Next step though is to hook it up to my 5.1 speakers, the Logitech 5500′s and get a HD tuner, oh and a bigger TV and a new laptop!
Out and About
As the summer is pretty much here my flatmates and I have taken to our bikes and adventured out in to the surrounding areas to take advantage of the pleasant weather. I’ve been surprised by what we have come across. As it is quite near, we headed to Summerfield Park a stones throw from my house, I’d not been there before in the past for walks I tended to go around Edgbaston Reservoir instead. I was amazed at how big it was and instantly thought I would bring my Nitro Buggy here next time it was in working order. We had a nose about and quickly found a small path leading off which we ventured down it. It must have been an old railway line as a lot of them have been converted into paths I believe.
It was pretty cool, we actually ended up somewhere near Harboure not sure where but we ended up coming back via the reservoir.
We’ve been out and about a few times and the second we stumbled across another park near Asda, its amazing how much you don’t notice when your driving around in the car. This park had a play areas for kids, the standard things, swings, slides etc but it had something else, something different, it had an outdoor gym. It was pretty cool, we had a quick workout that trained various muscles. The machines where quite clever as they mostly required your body weight as a weight for you to pull. I was impressed, I’d say this sort of thing makes taxes worth paying but I suspect this was funded from something else as it was cover in Olympics graphics and logos.
Happy Birthday Blog
Been though numerous face lifts and names but today Tom-Lawrence.co.uk is 3 years old…
Spring Clean
I was going to wait till the 20th April the 3rd anniversary of the site but I didn’t. I figure this place needs a bit of a spring clean, the old theme had became unsupported and wasn’t supporting the latest browsers.
Anyway, I think it looks pretty fresh and clean.
Thoughts?
