Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

Apple TV as frontend - but I don't have any widescreen yet

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mythtv at shelfspace

Sep 15, 2008, 5:55 PM

Post #1 of 7 (1122 views)
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Apple TV as frontend - but I don't have any widescreen yet

I am highly intrigued by getting an Apple TV to use as a MythTV
frontend, but it only dawned on me today that it's output is an HDMI
cable.

So, some questions.

1) Pretend for a second that I bought an HD TV...could I connect the
Apple TV to it...and watch my OLD Standard Def recordings from MythTV

2) Purchase a converter: http://www.svideo.com/appletv2tv.html for
$139 (sale price). Does anyone else have this? Does anyone have a
different converter that's cheaper?

3) I figure going this route will 'future proof' my front-end
purchase, so that when I eventually do upgrade to HD, I'll already
have 1 piece. (obviously, I'd need to upgrade my backend as well to
record in HD to take advantage of HD).

So, basically I'm looking for advice on if buying the Apple TV makes
sense for me given that I'm currently an SD only household.

thanks!
mark
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davilla at 4pi

Sep 15, 2008, 6:48 PM

Post #2 of 7 (1051 views)
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Re: Apple TV as frontend - but I don't have any widescreen yet [In reply to]

>I am highly intrigued by getting an Apple TV to use as a MythTV
>frontend, but it only dawned on me today that it's output is an HDMI
>cable.
>
>So, some questions.
>
>1) Pretend for a second that I bought an HD TV...could I connect the
>Apple TV to it...and watch my OLD Standard Def recordings from MythTV

The resolution of your video content and the resolution of your
display are two different things. Short answer yes you can watch SD
content on a HD display.

>2) Purchase a converter: http://www.svideo.com/appletv2tv.html for
>$139 (sale price). Does anyone else have this? Does anyone have a
>different converter that's cheaper?

This is a component to s-video converter, you don't need this as you
can do the same thing under Linux using a $20 cable from lcom. Or
just use a composite cable connected to one of the component outputs.
See atv-bootloader (google it) for info on how to output composite
and s-video from the appletv under Linux.

>3) I figure going this route will 'future proof' my front-end
>purchase, so that when I eventually do upgrade to HD, I'll already
>have 1 piece. (obviously, I'd need to upgrade my backend as well to
>record in HD to take advantage of HD).

yes this will work.
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bradallenfuller at gmail

Sep 15, 2008, 11:23 PM

Post #3 of 7 (1048 views)
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Re: Apple TV as frontend - but I don't have any widescreen yet [In reply to]

On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 6:48 PM, Scott D. Davilla <davilla [at] 4pi> wrote:
>>1) Pretend for a second that I bought an HD TV...could I connect the
>>Apple TV to it...and watch my OLD Standard Def recordings from MythTV
>
> The resolution of your video content and the resolution of your
> display are two different things. Short answer yes you can watch SD
> content on a HD display.

Just to let you know that it works well on appletv for me. I have an
appletv connected to a regular ol NTSC TV using composite. I have
several ATSC tuners on the BE to record ATSC programs. AppleTV
displays these just great

--
Brad Fuller
www.bradfuller.com
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travis at tabbal

Sep 16, 2008, 7:13 AM

Post #4 of 7 (1034 views)
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Re: Apple TV as frontend - but I don't have any widescreen yet [In reply to]

Does anyone have an ATV decoding and outputting HD ATSC MPEG2 recordings?
H264? I would need 720p output (TV native res). How is it compared to
software decoding? I'm using an Athlon 64X2 machine right now, but an ATV
would look a lot better in the entertainment center and the existing machine
could be reused elsewhere.

On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 12:23 AM, Brad Fuller <bradallenfuller [at] gmail>wrote:

> On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 6:48 PM, Scott D. Davilla <davilla [at] 4pi> wrote:
> >>1) Pretend for a second that I bought an HD TV...could I connect the
> >>Apple TV to it...and watch my OLD Standard Def recordings from MythTV
> >
> > The resolution of your video content and the resolution of your
> > display are two different things. Short answer yes you can watch SD
> > content on a HD display.
>
> Just to let you know that it works well on appletv for me. I have an
> appletv connected to a regular ol NTSC TV using composite. I have
> several ATSC tuners on the BE to record ATSC programs. AppleTV
> displays these just great
>
> --
> Brad Fuller
> www.bradfuller.com
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

mitchell.gore at gmail

Sep 16, 2008, 8:28 AM

Post #5 of 7 (1032 views)
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Re: Apple TV as frontend - but I don't have any widescreen yet [In reply to]

On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 9:13 AM, Travis Tabbal <travis [at] tabbal> wrote:
> Does anyone have an ATV decoding and outputting HD ATSC MPEG2 recordings?
> H264? I would need 720p output (TV native res). How is it compared to
> software decoding? I'm using an Athlon 64X2 machine right now, but an ATV
> would look a lot better in the entertainment center and the existing machine
> could be reused elsewhere.
>
>

first please dont top post.

second this has been discussed to death

appleTV can play 720p/1080i HD mpeg2 recordings with XvMC.

It can play h.264 but only low bitrate video.

Mitchell
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pturpin+mythtv at gmail

Sep 17, 2008, 11:55 AM

Post #6 of 7 (1003 views)
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Re: Apple TV as frontend - but I don't have any widescreen yet [In reply to]

On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 1:39 PM, Brad DerManouelian
<myth [at] dermanouelian> wrote:
>
> I can't seem to figure out how to get QT4 stuff installed and playing
> nicely under mythbuntu whereas getting it done in ubuntu was extremely
> easy. I installed ubuntu from scratch and had myth compiled in about 3
> hours on a dev machine last Saturday. I've already spent more time
> than that trying to get it to happen in mythbuntu. I'm probably just
> doing something wrong since I've only started with *buntu about 2
> months ago, but since I know reformatting and starting over will work,
> that's the route I'm going. I'm not willing to invest any more time
> into getting svn built under mythbuntu.

What problems are you having? I am running trunk on the latest mythbuntu.

Here is more or less what i did. Some things may be unnecessary, but
it works for me.

1. apt-get build-dep mythtv
2. uninstall all mythtv related packages.
3. install qt4 items (once again not sure everything here is needed):
apt-get install libqt4-core libqt4-opengl-dev libqt4-opengl
libqt4-sql-mysql libqt4-dev libqt4-gui libqt4-qt3support libqt4-sql
lsb-qt4 qt4-designer qt4-dev-tools qt4-doc qt4-qtconfig uim-qt gcc
libapt-pkg-perl resolvconf
4. update alternatives to point to qt4 version as needed:
sudo update-alternatives --config qmake
sudo update-alternatives --config uic
sudo update-alternatives --config designer
sudo update-alternatives --config assistant
sudo update-alternatives --config qtconfig
sudo update-alternatives --config moc
sudo update-alternatives --config lupdate
sudo update-alternatives --config lrelease
sudo update-alternatives --config linguist

5. check out and build mythtv svn (i used the following config
options: --prefix=/usr --enable-lirc --enable-audio-alsa
--enable-audio-oss --enable-audio-jack --enable-audio-arts
--enable-dvb --enable-ivtv --enable-opengl-vsync --with-bindings=perl
--enable-opengl-video --enable-ffmpeg-pthreads --compile-type=profile
--cpu=i686 --enable-mmx --enable-xvmc --enable-xvmc-vld
--enable-xvmc-pro --enable-glx-procaddrarb --enable-libfaad
--enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid
--enable-libfftw3 --enable-hdpvr)

Ugly, and i probably end up with packages i don't need, but it works
(at least it did for me).
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myth at dermanouelian

Sep 17, 2008, 1:00 PM

Post #7 of 7 (994 views)
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Re: Apple TV as frontend - but I don't have any widescreen yet [In reply to]

On Sep 17, 2008, at 11:55 AM, Paul wrote:

> On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 1:39 PM, Brad DerManouelian
> <myth [at] dermanouelian> wrote:
>>
>> I can't seem to figure out how to get QT4 stuff installed and playing
>> nicely under mythbuntu whereas getting it done in ubuntu was
>> extremely
>> easy. I installed ubuntu from scratch and had myth compiled in
>> about 3
>> hours on a dev machine last Saturday. I've already spent more time
>> than that trying to get it to happen in mythbuntu. I'm probably just
>> doing something wrong since I've only started with *buntu about 2
>> months ago, but since I know reformatting and starting over will
>> work,
>> that's the route I'm going. I'm not willing to invest any more time
>> into getting svn built under mythbuntu.
>
> What problems are you having? I am running trunk on the latest
> mythbuntu.

I guess the problems I was having was not spending the time to look
for proper instructions. :) I'll give this a shot over the weekend.
Thanks!
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