Practical MythTV - Book Review

The most recent MythTV book to hit store shelves is
Practical MythTV, written by Stewart Smith and Michael Still. Apress was nice enough to send me a copy for review, which I have spent a few evenings reading through.

True to its' title, the book really does contain practical information about MythTV. It’s part reference, part user manual, and part high level overview of various aspects of MythTV.

After an introduction to MythTV, the authors run through how to compile and install MythTV from source code on Ubuntu Linux. This part of the book really is a reference manual.

I’m surprised and disappointed that the installation of MythTV through pre-built packages or a CD distributions like KnoppMyth or MythDora were not covered deeper than a sentence or two in passing. This is likely to be a turn off for readers who were hoping for a quick and simple method of getting MythTV up and going.

Moving on past the installation section, what I generally consider the second part of the book covers the basics of how to use MythTV’s core functionality from a user perspective. This is great for new users who are looking for simple instructions for how to use MythTV.

This part of the book seems to me to be an excellent user manual similar to what might come with commercial DVR’s. It provides step by step instructions complete with screenshots for how to perform different actions in MythTV.

If you’re already a MythTV user, looking through this section may teach you things about MythTV that you never knew you didn’t know. I consider myself a somewhat experienced MythTV user, and feel that going through this section was certainly worth my time.

Lastly, and maybe more interesting, Practical MythTV gives an overview of some of the more advanced features and plugins of MythTV that the average user may not have another good way to learn about. For example, I learned how to use the on screen display to display custom information such as popping up a message to tell me it’s time to go to sleep a midnight.

MythWeb, DVD’s (watching and burning), MythPhone, and network control are also covered in this last section.

I was surprised that so much attention was given to the compilation of MythTV from source code. To me, the technical depth of that section didn’t really fit in with the technical depth of the rest of the book. Not that it was bad, but it just seemed to be at a different level.

This would be a great gift for someone whom you are helping to get started with MythTV, and may save you from being asked a bunch of the more basic questions as they are getting up to speed. Help them get MythTV installed first, then give this book to them as the “user manual” once their system is up and going. KnoppMyth and MythDora are also options for the beginner to get started quickly and easily. You can learn more about installing KnoppMyth or installing MythDora on this website.

On the whole I consider this a good book that is excellent for the new to intermediate MythTV user, although advanced users may pick a few good pieces of information out of it as well. It was well written and covered most items at just about the right introductory (yes -- practical) level. Once it has taught you the basics, you can then go and look up more details online for features you want to get more information about.

You can purchase Practical MythTV at Amazon.com for around $20.