Welcome to the MythTV InstallFest and Conference.

On Saturday, October 10th, 2009 a MythTV InstallFest and Conference will be hosted by Freeside Atlanta (location). The event is offered free of charge; however, we request that you please register here .

Google Maps Location

TEMPORARY ENTRY GATE CODE: 9023*

Isacc Richards created MythTV as an open source Digital Video Recorder project in 2002. Soon the open source community built the project into a Home Media Center capable of managing your personal videos, DVDs, photos and music. The project continued to grow and now provides full-featured weather information, ZoneMinder home security, telephony and many other fun useful and amusing “plugins.”

MythTV InstallFest and Conference – Musings

Join us Saturday, October 10th, as MythTV mavens and novices meet for a day dedicated mostly to MythTV. Marvel as MythTV systems are installed and configured in a mere 45 minutes. Matriculate at MythTV presentations, and then mull over your MythTV misteps, miracles and future motivations with like-minded folks.

MythTV InstallFest – The Mechanics of MythTV

The day will begin at 9:00 AM with an InstallFest during which participants will provision computers with the appropriate hardware, install the MythTV software and configure the systems. Experienced MythTV users will be on hand to assist with installations. All skill levels are welcome. Our objective for the InstallFest is to enable those who are entirely unfamiliar with MythTV to arrive at the event with a suitable computer and leave with a functioning MythTV system. To that end, we recommend that you establish an account with Schedules Direct. Schedules Direct provides MythTV users with television programing and scheduling information. Also, we recommend a system with following characteristics:

Distribution: Mythbuntu (preferred by InstallFest registrants) MythDora and KnoppMyth/LinHES are all user-friendly distributions. We will have several copies of the installation disks on hand. 

For detailed information on MythTV system design (click here).

Minimum System Requirements:
    * 1.0 GHz x86 or x86_64 Processor
    * 192 MB of system memory (RAM)
    * 2 GB of disk space (Frontend Role)
    * 20 GB of disk space (Backend Role)
    * Graphics card capable of 1024x768 resolution
    * Supported TV Tuner Card (Backend Role)

Recommended System Requirements:
    * 2.0 Ghz x86 or x86_64 Processor*
    * 1024 MB of system memory (RAM)
    * 10 GB disk space (Frontend Role)
    * 80 GB+ disk space (Backend Role)**
    * Supported TV Tuner Card (Backend Role)

Hardware that will be available at the event:
    Video Capture card: pcHDTV HD-5500 cards at the discounted price of $92.73. Regularly $99.00 plus shipping and/or tax.
    Video Display Card: We are currently seeking special offers on this graphics cards.

MythTV Presentations – MythTV Matriculation of MythTV

1:00 PM – Hacking The Tivax T-8 by Keith Watson

Keith Watson began his IT Career as a submarine crypto electronics technician and currently works for Georgia Tech's College of Computing. Keith was one of the lucky few who obtained a federal coupon toward the purchase of a digital converter box. Like every natural born hacker, Keith calculated the cost of accidentally bricking his brand new Tivax T-8, and then cracked it open.

Join us as Keith shares his discoveries and discusses how to hack the Tivax T-8 digital converter box. A note of caution, Keith is also a talented juggler known to keep six objects afloat. In the unlikely event that his presentation stinks, don't throw rotten tomatoes, apples, etc. at him; they are likely to come back to you.

1:40 PM – Digital Video's Perpetual Proprietary Flaws by Aaron Ruscetta

Aaron Ruscetta is best known in the Linux community as the tireless leader, soul and wit of Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts -- Atlanta's oldest and most prominent Linux Users Group. He is also an ardent advocate of the free software movement, civil liberties and human rights.

Following a decade of experience in commercial television broadcast and post production in the high end analog video world, Aaron joined the vanguard of the digital media revolution with a (then state of the art) Amiga computer. His career experiences have since touched on most all the facets of digital media creation, production and delivery, including several years of teaching various computer art and animation classes at the Atlanta College of Art.

His MythTV presentation will focus on navigating the inordinately complex maze of proprietary media encoding and encryption schemes in order to minimize their impact on delivery quality and your rights of fair use.

2:20 PM – ZoneMinder Howto by Abe Caleb

One of the many “plugins” available for MythTV is MythZoneMinder. It allows MythTV to display and capture video from a ZoneMinder close circuit TV system.

Abe Caleb has been an IT professional most of his career and currently works with the contracting firm of Computer Science Corporation (CSC). Abe does more than monitor his front door or the baby's crib with ZoneMinder, he actually catches bad guys! In addition, Abe is a musician and uses his MythTV system do DJ mixing, sound mastering and recording, sound conversion, TV recording, DVD creation, and many other media tasks.

MythTV – Mixing and Amusement

Following the presentations will be ad hoc refinements of systems, socializing, pizza and grilling and tours of the Freeside Atlanta Hacker Space.

Helpful Links:
Registration Form
MythTV Project Home Page
Freeside Atlanta's location
Schedules Direct

Special thanks to Schedules Direct for supporting this event.