Test Driving Linux

MythTV: TiVo for Your Linux Computer

If you're reading this book, you're probably tech-savvy enough to have heard of TiVo, the handy appliance that records television for you. Yes, that is what a VCR does, but the difference is that TiVo can hold 40 or more hours of high-quality video, provides a graphical and easy way to program shows to record, lets you jump around almost instantly in a recorded show, and even gives you the ability to pause the Superbowl while you go to the bathroom. TiVo is part of a new category of appliances known as Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) and sometimes called Digital Video Recorders (DVRs). TiVo has become so popular that TiVoed has become a verb. What few people know is that TiVos run on Linux. This makes it a lot like Google, which also runs on Linux and has its own verb—Googled.

Unfortunately, the TiVo program code is not available for download, which means you can't make your own. But about three years ago, someone decided to create his own alternative. Isaac Richards started the MythTV project in 2002 to create a PVR for himself. He opened up his code and made it available for others to contribute. The result is a very successful project used by many Linux users to create their own multimedia center for their home. You can find out more at the project's homepage, http://www.mythtv.org.

I say that MythTV is a multimedia center because it has moved beyond the basic recording abilities of TiVo. It can also play music files, display digital images, ...