Comments on: Why the Mac Mini sucks for MythTV/PVR

By: Rothgar

Rothgar — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:30:12 +0000

I am currently using a HDHomeRun tuner which is very well supported in Linux and actually doesn’t plug directly into the computer at all (it resides on the network). I also have a HD-PVR which is supported in Linux but it is still in beta. The HDHR is the best tuner I have ever used and highly recommend it to anyone building a HTPC.
I have also used Hauppauge pvr-500 (pci), pvr-150 (pci), pvr-950 (usb) and Dvico FusionHDTV5 RT (pci). The Dvico and pvr-950 were not very well supported under Linux. The pvr-500 I used before they were supported in Linux (but now it is very well supported) and same with the pvr-150.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:08:55 +0000

What tuner are you using for the PVR? What helped in your selection – other than I assume USB, which are supported well by Ubuntu?

By: Rothgar

Rothgar — Sat, 02 May 2009 23:56:32 +0000

Actually the AOpen does have a DVD/CD drive (the newest model even has the option for Blu-ray). You can easily load the OS using that drive. In my case I still used a USB drive. I downloaded the ISO and then used unetbootin http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ to create my bootable USB drive.

By: jayc

jayc — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:42:43 +0000

Thanks… 1 other question: I see no CD/DVD device so how do you boot to a linux installer?

By: Rothgar

Rothgar — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:32:38 +0000

I used Mythbuntu to get the frontend and backend installed. The only problem I had was I had to compile LIRC to get the remote to work. Other than that everything worked on it fine. Currently I have a problem with the video skipping if I am flagging commercials while trying to watch TV but I think I can just delay my commercial flagging so I have a more pleasant watching experience.

By: jayc

jayc — Fri, 01 May 2009 02:45:09 +0000

So what did you do to get mythtv front end to work on an AOpen?

By: Rothgar

Rothgar — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:16:12 +0000

The cable I bought was incorrect and I can’t remember where I got the male-male coupler. I also bought the real cable I needed here http://cooldrives.com/esexcaitolex.html just to try it and make sure there wasn’t something wrong with my other adapters.
To be honest though…I never got it to work. The Mac Mini would never detect the external hard drive. This might be different with the new remodeled Mac Mini’s but I never got it to work.
I would highly suggest you instead go with the AOpen computer like I did (same price but better specs) or just get a bigger/faster internal hard drive. You can easily get a 320 GB 7200 rpm drive for ~$100 and it would probably be less of a headache.
I still push people toward the AOpen mainly because it is upgradeable. Unlike the new revision of the Mac Mini where the processor is soldered straight to the system board.

By: greg

greg — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:22:03 +0000

hi
I’d like to do the same mod. To recap:
the cable you ordered was the right one (male-male) but the description of microbarn was wrong.
the other cable you recommend (male-female) is not working, since you need male-male.
I googled for such a cable without success. So you need that male-male sata adapter.
I live in Sitzerland and couldn’t find such an adapter. Where did you get it from?
Thanks

By: 0wn th3 1n73r.net » Blog Archive » Compile Lirc on an AOpen mp945-dr with Ubuntu

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:03:39 +0000

[...] subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.Powered by WP Greet BoxI recently traded in my Mac Mini for a AOpen mp945-dr to see if it would work any better with MythTV and Boxee. I started off with Ubuntu 8.10 installed [...]