MythTV Distro Roundup - Part 2: MythBuntu (Page 1 of 1)
Written by
Steve Lake
Posted on: Sep 05, 2008 at 01:38pm
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Reviews
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Welcome back to our MythTV Distro Roundup. In this second of three parts we will be looking at a ready-to-use MythTV Linux Distro that comes from a different slice of the Linux family tree. MythBuntu is built upon Ubuntu, a powerful, and rather popular Linux distribution aimed at new users. With that thought in mind, it should be interesting to see just how well it performs. So let's get started...
Installation
MythBuntu comes as a livecd with the ability to both boot to a live environment and also act as a front-end for an existing MythTV install. It can also be installed directly to the disk. The LiveCD boots up to a basic Ubuntu desktop allowing you some limited desktop functionality. The initial boot screen offers you, interestingly enough, a list of well over thirty different languages with English as the default choice. You also have the option to check the CD for defects, test your system memory, or just bypass the disk and boot from the hard drive.
Bootup times from boot screen to initial setup screen are reasonable, but nothing to write home about. KnoppMyth had faster load times than MythBuntu before getting to the initial setup screen. Upon fully loading you're greeted with a typical Ubuntu type installer that asks you a bunch of questions about date, time, language and other related items. A small portion of the way through the install it asks you what type of install you want: Standard or Advanced. The Advanced option is for those who want to tweak a lot of things during the install. The standard is for everyone else.
Choosing standard for the install, you're greeted with two options: One for choosing your remote, and one for choosing an IR Transmitter. The list of recognized, available devices is surprisingly long for both options. It's as though every conceivable remote control and IR transmitter is supported in here - a far cry better than KnoppMyth's choices.
There are a few additional tweaks you can make during the next several steps if you wish. If not, you can simply click through to the end and let MythBuntu do the rest. So far it's been a lot easier to install than KnoppMyth was. While KnoppMyth took care of most things after install using the MythTV frontend and some rather clunky scripts, MythBuntu does it through a very nice, well organized setup program. Now not everything is covered in that setup program, but in general a lot of it is.
For what it does, installation is reasonably quick. Certainly not as fast as KnoppMyth, but it's doing a whole lot more than its previous counterpart. Once the initial setup is complete, you're asked to run the system setup for the MythTV back-end. Setup is pretty straightforward (as under KnoppMyth) but more of the setup options actually work than did in KnoppMyth. Pressing finish now allows you to reboot the computer and begin enjoying your install.
Exploring the System
Initial time to bootup is pretty good overall, but nothing to write home about. Once the system finishes loading, interestingly enough, there's no post-install setup. You just boot into the distro and you're ready to rock and roll. The MythTV interface functions almost flawlessly, with recording, TV, videos, music, streaming media and more working out of the gate. But I state "nearly," as there are still a few bugs that need to be ironed out. But most of those are just native to MythTV itself, and nothing I can see that's directly related to the MythBuntu distro.
One nice thing to see that was working decently well, compared with the general dysfunction that was found in KnoppMyth, was the streaming media section. While it worked a little in KnoppMyth, it really works well in MythBuntu. Sure, there are still a few channels and things that need to be fixed, but those are more URL and API issues rather than any actual issue with the distro or MythTV.
Overall: I'm happier with this MythTV distro than I was with KnoppMyth. The former (mythbuntu) seems far more polished than the latter (knoppmyth). But this is only an initial impression as KnoppMyth is still in development, and MythBuntu is a ready to use, novice-friendly distribution. But despite being considerably better, much easier to install, and much more complete feature wise then KnoppMyth, it may still lose out to the next and final distribution on our list: MythDora.
So come back next time and we'll take a peek at how easy that is to setup, and how MythDora stacks up against these two previous competitors. Will it outperform them, or sink into that stinky little digital mudpit of shame?
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