KnoppMyth is one of the easy ways to get started with MythTV. It's is really two products bundled into one.
KnoppMyth is:
- An easy way to install MythTV and Linux onto a system
- A bootable CD that can run a MythTV Frontend without needing to install anything onto the computer
View a screencast of the KnoppMyth Install process.
On the one hand, KnoppMyth is a Linux is a full fledged Debian based Linux distribution designed intended for a dedicated MythTV system. It will format your hard drive, install Linux, MythTV, and leave things so that the system acts as a dedicated MythTV “appliance.”
With many hardware choices, the KnoppMyth install is very quick and straightforward. I’ve done it in about 20 minutes on hardware that is a few years old. View the screencast.
The other way to use KnoppMyth is as a MythTV Frontend booted from the CD. This is a great way to temporarily make another PC on your network a temporary MythTV viewing client. The nice thing about this is that it does not modify anything on the hard disk, and doesn’t require installation.
When using the bootable CD as a MythTV frontend, you will need to enter some information about your networking, and provide information on how to connect to your MythTV Backend.
Either way you use it, KnoppMyth solves a very useful problem. In general, MythTV can be rather complicated to install and configure. With KnoppMyth, you won’t have to deal with getting all the software components MythTV requires installed, working together, and configured. KnoppMyth handles all of that for you.
