danandsherree.com http://danandsherree.com/ A chronicle of the construction and notes of our day-to-day use of our MythTV system. en danwolfgang@danandsherree.com Copyright 2009 Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:50:00 -0500 Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:31:31 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=4.3-en danwolfgang@danandsherree.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss A Full Disk from Log Files I previously wrote that our MythTV system had filled the hard drive with log files (Fun with a Full Disk).... http://danandsherree.com/2008/10/27/a_full_disk_from_log_files.php 2276@http://danandsherree.com/ I previously wrote that our MythTV system had filled the hard drive with log files (Fun with a Full Disk). I’ve dealt with this problem a few times, and the cause is typically that we’ve left live TV playing for many hours and the front-end has locked-up. This happened again recently, and I had a thought: use cron to periodically delete the log files. I threw this line into the crontab to delete the logs every day:

3 3 * * * rm -f /var/log/mythtv/*

]]> MythTV Construction Diary Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:50:00 -0500 1 http://danandsherree.com/2008/10/27/a_full_disk_from_log_files.php#comments Fun with a Full Disk If you happen to leave live TV playing all day, which fills up the disk and causes nothing to work--I... http://danandsherree.com/2007/09/20/fun_with_a_full_disk.php 2081@http://danandsherree.com/ If you happen to leave live TV playing all day, which fills up the disk and causes nothing to work--I feel your pain. Our KnoppMyth system was in an endless loop of telling us "xsession: warning: unable to write to /tmp; X session may exit with an error." Restarting X would bring up the exact same message over and over. What fun. At this point you'll figure out that you need to get to single-user mode to be able to do anything.

But how do you do that? It took me about a half-hour to figure out, but hit capslock to bring up LILO. At the boot prompt you can enter "Linux single" to get started in single-user mode, where you can go through and delete the giant files. Interestingly, there were no giant cache files on our system, it was a 3+ GB mythfrontend.log file causing the trouble (in /var/log/mythtv/).

]]> MythTV Construction Diary Thu, 20 Sep 2007 18:30:00 -0500 1 http://danandsherree.com/2007/09/20/fun_with_a_full_disk.php#comments General (Dis)satisfaction I think our MythTV/KnoppMyth experience started out well, and I thought it would get better as MythTV improved and as... http://danandsherree.com/2007/02/17/general_dissatisfaction.php 2013@http://danandsherree.com/ I think our MythTV/KnoppMyth experience started out well, and I thought it would get better as MythTV improved and as I customized the details to better suit us. But that doesn't seem to be the case, at all. Daily, using MythTV has become an exercise in frustration. Last night we tried to watch Survivor: Fiji and had trouble. Sherree spoke both of our minds when she said "I just don't want to deal with this tonight."

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]]> MythTV Construction Diary Sat, 17 Feb 2007 11:40:08 -0500 3 http://danandsherree.com/2007/02/17/general_dissatisfaction.php#comments A Larger Hard Drive For a while now I've been wanting to stick the extra 250 GB hard drive I had into our MythTV... http://danandsherree.com/2006/11/26/a_larger_hard_drive.php 1901@http://danandsherree.com/ For a while now I've been wanting to stick the extra 250 GB hard drive I had into our MythTV box. It's a little larger and notably faster than the old 200 GB drive we're using now. It wasn't as easy as I think it should have been, though.

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]]> MythTV Construction Diary Sun, 26 Nov 2006 08:53:20 -0500 http://danandsherree.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1401 0 http://danandsherree.com/2006/11/26/a_larger_hard_drive.php#comments Upgrades and Picture Quality I decided to spend some time on our MythTV computer today. The less-than-perfect picture quality drives me nuts, and there've... http://danandsherree.com/2006/11/12/upgrades_and_picture_quality.php 1897@http://danandsherree.com/ I decided to spend some time on our MythTV computer today. The less-than-perfect picture quality drives me nuts, and there've been some upgrades that I haven't installed yet.

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]]> MythTV Construction Diary Sun, 12 Nov 2006 14:53:23 -0500 http://danandsherree.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1397 0 http://danandsherree.com/2006/11/12/upgrades_and_picture_quality.php#comments Starting Anew I recently caused some significant trouble with our MythTV box. I thought it would be cool to install the xscreensaver... http://danandsherree.com/2006/05/12/mythtv_construction.php 1855@http://danandsherree.com/ I recently caused some significant trouble with our MythTV box. I thought it would be cool to install the xscreensaver to display photos while not watching TV. What a mistake.

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]]> MythTV Construction Diary Fri, 12 May 2006 11:19:36 -0500 http://danandsherree.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1355 0 http://danandsherree.com/2006/05/12/mythtv_construction.php#comments Silverstone Lascala 10 Case and Noise The Silverstone Lascala 10 is a great-looking case that matches nicely in our A/V rack. The hidden DVD drive goes... http://danandsherree.com/2006/04/13/mythtv_construction.php 1829@http://danandsherree.com/ The Silverstone Lascala 10 is a great-looking case that matches nicely in our A/V rack. The hidden DVD drive goes a long way towards achieving this match, but the brushed aluminum look really completes it.

Despite all the reviews I read of the case, though, I was most disappointed with how loud the case is (or, more appropriately, the fans). Quite simply, it's unacceptable for a home theater. All the reviews simply say the case is a little loud. AnandTech's review provides a real measurement (51 dB at 12 inches), though it's difficult to really know how loud that is while sitting in the living room watching TV.

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]]> MythTV Construction Diary Thu, 13 Apr 2006 19:02:28 -0500 http://danandsherree.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1330 1 http://danandsherree.com/2006/04/13/mythtv_construction.php#comments ModeLine for a Sony KDF-E42A10 Connecting the MythTV box to a TV was the stumbling point last time: I couldn't get a clean s-video connection.... http://danandsherree.com/2006/04/06/mythtv_construction.php 1835@http://danandsherree.com/ Connecting the MythTV box to a TV was the stumbling point last time: I couldn't get a clean s-video connection. DVI and a Sony KDF-E42A10 took some effort but works much better.

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]]> MythTV Construction Diary Thu, 06 Apr 2006 19:37:25 -0500 http://danandsherree.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1334 0 http://danandsherree.com/2006/04/06/mythtv_construction.php#comments Assorted Usability Fiddling with a bunch of things will--hopefully--make MythTV a little easier for us to use.... http://danandsherree.com/2006/04/02/mythtv_construction.php 1832@http://danandsherree.com/ Fiddling with a bunch of things will--hopefully--make MythTV a little easier for us to use.

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]]> MythTV Construction Diary Sun, 02 Apr 2006 20:28:01 -0500 http://danandsherree.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1333 0 http://danandsherree.com/2006/04/02/mythtv_construction.php#comments Channel Icons and VNC Getting channel icons and installing VNC are two good usability steps that should be done for any MythTV installation.... http://danandsherree.com/2006/03/29/mythtv_construction.php 1831@http://danandsherree.com/ Getting channel icons and installing VNC are two good usability steps that should be done for any MythTV installation.

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]]> MythTV Construction Diary Wed, 29 Mar 2006 17:21:19 -0500 http://danandsherree.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1332 3 http://danandsherree.com/2006/03/29/mythtv_construction.php#comments Microsoft MCE Remote and LIRC Getting our Microsoft MCE remote to work with LIRC (and MythTV) proved to be a little more challenging than expected.... http://danandsherree.com/2006/03/27/mythtv_construction.php 1830@http://danandsherree.com/ Getting our Microsoft MCE remote to work with LIRC (and MythTV) proved to be a little more challenging than expected. However, quite a bit of reading and a few hours of trying later, it works!

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]]> MythTV Construction Diary Mon, 27 Mar 2006 17:42:28 -0500 http://danandsherree.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1331 1 http://danandsherree.com/2006/03/27/mythtv_construction.php#comments KnoppMyth Installation After getting the hardware assembled for our MythTV box, I dropped a KnoppMyth disc in the DVD writer to get... http://danandsherree.com/2006/03/23/mythtv_construction.php 1828@http://danandsherree.com/ After getting the hardware assembled for our MythTV box, I dropped a KnoppMyth disc in the DVD writer to get the software installation started.

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]]> MythTV Construction Diary Thu, 23 Mar 2006 17:09:02 -0500 http://danandsherree.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1329 0 http://danandsherree.com/2006/03/23/mythtv_construction.php#comments Hardware I spent a few hours reading about what computer hardware other MythTV users are successfully using. I wanted to build... http://danandsherree.com/2006/03/21/mythtv_construction.php 1827@http://danandsherree.com/ I spent a few hours reading about what computer hardware other MythTV users are successfully using. I wanted to build a system that went together as quickly and easily as possible--but more importantly, stable and reliable. So here's the shopping list.

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]]> MythTV Construction Diary Tue, 21 Mar 2006 20:08:33 -0500 http://danandsherree.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1328 0 http://danandsherree.com/2006/03/21/mythtv_construction.php#comments Preparation Since our ReplayTV has died, we considered some replacement options. We've decided to use MythTV as a replacement.... http://danandsherree.com/2006/03/19/mythtv_construction.php 1826@http://danandsherree.com/ Since our ReplayTV has died, we considered some replacement options. We've decided to use MythTV as a replacement.

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]]> MythTV Construction Diary Sun, 19 Mar 2006 19:15:11 -0500 http://danandsherree.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1327 0 http://danandsherree.com/2006/03/19/mythtv_construction.php#comments