…apparently. I saw this on a sign in the window of a restaurant this morning. I rather like it – it has an aburdist mystery to it – so I’m going to re-name my blog in its honour.
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Author: latepaul
I deliberately made this extra section so M would read it. She’ll skim, probably yawning, through the technical stuff in the other posts. I’ll make this short and non-techy. ;o)
So was it worth it?
From the point of view of what the MythTV box can do, definitely. It can do the usual stuff that a PVR can do – pause and rewind live tv, record something and watch the beginning whilst it’s still recording the end. However where it comes into its own is on finding stuff to record. You can search for stuff, so unlike my commercial PVR, I don’t have to manually trawl through the program guide to find stuff. If there are multiple showings of the same show, it can record the one which doesn’t conflict with other stuff I want to record. All in all it’s pretty cool and so definitely worth it.
And yet… I have now ordered a box for phase 3. Phase 3 was supposed to mean buying the pieces and building a custom box, but it turned out expensive. I couldn’t get it in under £400. Which isn’t a lot, but for a PVR it is. I can buy one like mine for £150. It has a smaller hard drive and no cool search features but still. So instead of trying to build one, I bought a PC from Dell Outlet. Dell Outlet is where you can buy returned PCs at a discount. You can get some pretty good bargains. So I ordered one. Which means if I could have lived with the smaller disc space until it arrives, I could’ve saved myself a day and a half of effort. Effort which will in some ways be repeated once I have to set up the new machine.
So was it really worth it? Yes – because what else would I be doing other than slobbing around actually watching these programs I’m recording! Heh.
Of course the next problem is whether I can easily transfer the recordings to the new PC. But that’s next weekend’s problem…
(P.S. the observant amongst you will have noticed that today’s tuesday therefore yesterday wasn’t sunday. I wrote this yesterday but am only posting it now. Because of no internet access at home.
P.P.S. Did I mention I have no internet access at home???)
So finally what I did today, and most of yesterday. Which you could call phase 2½. The PC I’d used for phase 2 had a 60Gb hard drive. With stuff that was already on there and by the time I’d used the Myth box for a week I’d used nearly 2/3rds of that, leaving about 20Gb or roughly 20 hours worth of recording time. Which is OK, but after using it for real the first thing you realise is you can never have too much disc space. The whole point about MythTV is that you set it to just ‘collect’ stuff you’re interested in and watch it when you get around to it. However to really take advantage of that you want enough disk space so that you’re not juggling what to delete when wanting to record something new. In other words the more disk space the better.
So this weekend was all about adding another 60Gb drive. In order to do that however I needed to have a version of Linux that had something called logical volumes. It’s a feature that allows you to present two or more disk partitions as if they were one unit. Which means I could add an extra disk and have it look as if I had one big disk.
Unfortunately Suse 9.3 didn’t appear to have this feature. It might have been possible to add it by downloading the necessary software but I don’t have the internet at home yet (recall the stuff with the phone – not sorted yet, not quite). Also it’d just be easier to just install a version that had it all integrated and working. So the plan was
- Back up data from PC including existing recordings and all the settings needed to put MythTV back the same way.
- install the new disk
- install a version of Linux that has logical volume support (Fedora Core 6)
- set up a small partition for the OS, and use the rest of both disks to set up a logical volume to be used for the recordings
- compile a new kernel – the TV card needs a later one than comes with FC6
- install the various software that MythTV needs.
- recover the data from the back up
- install MythTV and configure it
- recover the MythTV settings – this involves restoring a MySQL database backup
And go!
Simple right? Well a couple of hours on Saturday night had the backup and the new disk and OS installed. Yesterday was a slow process of re-installing software. It took 75 minutes to compile the kernel and an hour to compile MythTV – the later I ended up doing twice. About an hour to restore the backed up data. So how come it took around 12 hours to get a working system?
The problem was that MySQL database. Even though it was a brand new installation and I could connect using the MySQL client, MythTV itself wouldn’t connect to the database. The socket, a file MySQL uses for connections was configured to be in one place, but MythTV was convinced it was in another. I couldn’t understand this. It was a clean compile of MythTV and an installation of MySQL from the FC6 disks. It couldn’t be pointing to the wrong place. I checked the MySQL config file and that was pointing to /tmp, but every time I ran MythTV is was pointing to /var/lib/mysql. And I couldn’t find where this was set. I grep’d the entire source tree of MythTV and couldn’t find it. How could that be?
In the end I had to grep my entire hard drive to find it. I realised that I’d copied the MySQL config as part of my backup. That was the one that pointed to /tmp. The default one that came with Fedora pointed to /var/lib/mysql. But it’s a config setting so it should be changeable right? Well MythTV uses a programming system called QT and QT has a MySQL plugin library. So it seems that MythTV calls MySQL through this library rather than directly. Fair enough – but it’s this library that’s pointing to /var/lib/mysql. As far as I can tell it’s hard-coded i.e. there’s no way to tell the QT to look elsewhere. This seems daft to me. So daft that I hope I’m wrong, that it can be configured. But so far I’ve not found a way.
Anyway I just reset the MySQL config file to point to /var/lib/mysql and everything worked. Hoo-(finally)-ray!
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MythTV part 2 – A Phased Approach
OK, so you’ve got the background to how I got myself a Linux box with a working TV card – what’s that got to do with MythTV? I think I said previously that I’d been thinking about MythTV for a while. The thing that really made me want to do it was my new house. However that’s the same reason that made me a bit short of cash – so going out and buying the hardware for a custom-built myth box wasn’t realistic/wise.
Then it hit me one day that I already had 90% of what I needed. I had a Linux box with a TV card that worked. So enter the big idea – a phased approach.
Phase 0 – Do the research. Figure out exactly what software I need.
Phase 1 – Install the software on my existing machine.
Phase 2 – replace my aging analogue TV card with a freeview capable one.
Phase 3 – buy the parts and build a custom box for a really good Mythtv box.
Phase 0 I kind of did though I could have done more. My main goal in phase 0 was that I knew I’d probably be installing over a weekend and that, as we know, at present means no internet access. Which means I didn’t want to be stuck half-way through but have that one tantalising problem left to solve, or one missing prerequisite program. On that score I succeeded phase 0.
Phase 1 was what I had done last time I blogged about MythTV. It showed the possibilities of the software. But the quality of the picture, and the size of the recordings made it nothing more than a proof-of-concept.
Phase 2 came last weekend when I spent £60 on a Hauppage Nova T 500 card. I’ll pause a moment to say how good this card is. It contains not one but two Freeview tuners – which for the price is very good value. It’s well supported under Linux. True, I had to compile a new kernel but that was straightforward and whilst it took time, it was no three-day marathon. Within a few hours of installing the card I was using it to watch TV using some very basic tools. Once I’d re-configured the MythTV software I had something which was actually useable as a PVR. And I did use it. I started recording whole programs, not just ‘tests’.
The reason it was so useable was because the Nova T card resolved the two problems with the older card. First since it is Freeview and Freeview channels are natively mpeg2 streams, the file sizes are inherently smaller. (with analogue cards you typically re-encode the files to make them smaller, but with my old PC the CPU was too slow to do that and do, well, anything else). Second, since it’s digital, if the channel tunes at all it’s as good as it going to be. The other fact is that because it’s actually two tuners then it’s actually useful because you can record two channels at once, or watch one and record another.
So that was last weekend. More on this weekend in part 3.
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MythTV (part 1 as it turns out)
So what did I do with my Bank Holiday long weekend? Well the first day and a half I did what I always do – slob around the house and watch TV etc. The rest of the time, aside from a little eating and sleeping, has been taken up with re-configuring my MythTV box.
But let’s take a step back and review – cos last time I blogged about MythTV I was rather brief.
So let’s go back to… to this entry. Or in fact a little further. Sometime in 2002/2003[?] I bought a Hauppage WinTV card. From that point on I was interested in using my computer to record programs from the TV.
Although I had the software to do timed recordings, to make my computer a PVR, I never did that as it meant leaving the computer on all the time and the software wasn’t that reliable. So I mostly used it to record programs and make VCDs and SVCDs, and later DVDs. By the time I wrote about changing to Linux and nearly changing back, I had been doing this for a while and doing it quite a lot. (I still have nearly two series of West Wing and various movies on S/VCD).
One day my computer (running Windows XP) started behaving strangely. I recall I rebooted it once and it got worse. I rebooted a second time and it wouldn’t boot at all. This was obviously some form of malware – virus, whatever. But my computer had a firewall, up-to-date anti-virus and all the latest security fixes. I know that’s no guarantee but it angered me that I could do everything right and still have my system unusable. So I decided to switch.
I didn’t do it straight away, impulsively, as I am prone to do sometimes. I used my internet connection at work to find out something – could I use Linux to do all the things I did under Windows? Well I already knew I could do things like web browsing and email. I could do the odd bit of word-processing. The big question was whether I could use my TV card. Could I a) watch and record programs under Linux and b) do all the conversion, editing and manipulation needed to generate DVDs etc? Under Windows I’d amassed an impressive array of (mostly free) programs for manipulating audio and video. After brief googling I found that others were doing it with the same TV card as me and that there were similar programs available – which must mean it’s possible.
So I booted my computer using a Linux ‘live cd’ (i.e. running from the cd without using the hard drive). Using that I was able to back up data from my hard drive. Then I installed SuSE 9.3 from a cover disc from some magazine. That was the easy part. Finding and compiling the programs to replace my Windows tools was only moderately harder. (Mplayer is great and will nearly always compile, it’s whether it compiles with all the various formats supported that’s the trick. Still mostly that’s just a time investment – you try to compile, it fails, you figure out there’s a library you need, you find it, install it, re-compile – lather, rinse, repeat.)
The hard part was getting the TV card to work. Although I had done my (minimal) research before switching, I’d found that the instructions I’d found didn’t work. It took me three days of it almost working but not, of reboots, of compiling kernels and kernel modules, of figuring out why said modules wouldn’t load, to finally get it working. It took another couple to get all the channels tuned in and figuring how to record. It was during this time that I almost went back to Windows.
Oh dear. As usual what was meant to be a bit of background has taken over. I feel a part 2 coming on…
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email from Jesus
Jesus sent me an email today. He wanted me to buy viagra…
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Reading
I used to be a voracious reader. I read a lot. The story I always tell of primary school is that I was upset when I ran out of books to read because they wouldn’t let me read further than 3 years ahead of anyone else. Also of being shooed out of the classroom at playtime to go out and get some fresh air when I was huddled under a table reading.
And right through my teenage years, student years, years at work – I was an avid reader. Tended to stick to the same genres (SciFi/Fantasy mostly) and same trusted authors (Niven and Pratchett).
When I quit my last job and was unemployed for 5 months I read a lot and had started to branch out. Read a lot of books on spec. Got into sort of boys chick lit (Mike Gayle) and other stuff not necessarily just in the SF aisle of Waterstones.
But at some point, some point after I moved down here I think, I slowed down. Then pretty much stopped. I’ve read in the last 7 years the number of books I’d’ve read in 6 months 10-15 years ago.
Why? Well it’s tempting to blame M. Not blame blame, just that talking to her fills the end of day slot where I used to do most of my reading. But that would be unfair, because apart from anything else it’s inaccurate. 2 or 3 years before I even met M. I had replaced reading with watching TV and chatting on the internet until late and then collapsing into bed. Often with the aid of alcohol that ensured I was too “sleepy” to read. This was about the time I became a Buffy fan and so watching DVDs and TV was my new “hobby/obsession”.
So I got out of the habit of reading. Which is a shame. I was never a fast reader but sheer enthusiasm meant I would get through quite a few books because I was reading every day. Not any more. Days, weeks, months went by and I wouldn’t complete a new chapter in whatever I had officially “on the go”.
I am being a little unfair on myself because in many ways I did as much reading as I ever did – it was just not books, it was the internet. Newsgroups, web forums, blogs. I was reading these every day. And with my TV/DVD consumption it didn’t leave much time for books.
And the sad thing is that it became harder to read through lack of practice. I used to have a certain anal obsession with never starting a new book before finishing the old one. An obsession that could lead to me “stalling” on an uninteresting book. But I would force myself to finish them or – in rare drastic cases – write them off. That discipline of persevering through the boring bits was something I’d let slip. Which is a shame because I like the idea of being someone who reads a lot, someone who absorbs different ideas and perspectives. But to do that you have to read stuff you’re not especially interested in or enjoying. But then it becomes part of your experience, part of the background reading against which really good books shine. So if I read a thriller I can compare it to all the other thrillers I’ve read and see what it did differently that did or didn’t work. What the cliches of a genre are and why they work. That kind of thing.
Also of course there’s the fact that many books take a while to get going. I just finished “We Need To Talk About Kevin” by Lionel Shriver which takes at least 50 pages before anything interesting happens and probably 300 to get to the really gripping stuff.
So I’m trying to get back into reading. I’m forcing myself to finish books. I have my old pile of unread books (even though my earlier “reading” years I’ve nearly always acquired new books more quickly than I’ve finished reading them. The general rule would be to avoid bookshops until the unread pile got below 20 or so.) and I’ve also “joined” the Ship of Fools book group. Actually I suppose I started before Christmas with Hogfather which I’ve had for a decade but not read and which was being adapted for TV. I wanted to read the book first – which I managed.
I then re-visited the 5th Harry Potter book – which I picked up about a year ago after seeing the film of the 4th, read about 100 pages on a long train journey and then put down never to be picked up. Well not never, I picked it up again and finished it before reading “Kevin” for the book group. Because there was a deadline for the start of discussions I wanted to finish HP5 quickly and then read Kevin. I had about 2 1/2 weeks to do that. HP5 is 976 pages, Kevin is 468. I did it by working out how many pages per day I had to read, with longer allowances for weekends. M. laughs at me because she’ll ask me how I’m getting on in my book and I’ll say “page 276” which isn’t as informative as “the bit where Harry…” (she’s a HP fan so would know the book) or “about half-way, it’s just starting to get really good”.
But I kind of cherish my page numbers because they are a sign of progress towards finishing another book. And finishing another book is an achievement in itself but also a step (back) to being a “reader” again.
*sigh*
Did it again didn’t I? I was supposed to post all three “catch-ups” in one evening. In fact by the time I’d done the Riley’d one it was late and I wanted to go home, so I intended to finish the following (two?) night(s). However then I got ill and couldn’t get out of bed. Then I was fine and couldn’t be bothered.
Very briefly – cos I’ve lost enthusiasm a bit – MythTV was about the fact that I’ve decided to build a MythTV box
I even did a proof of concept by installing the MythTV software on an existing linux machine with a Tv card. It works quite well, except that the card’s analogue and I want a freeview one. So the next step is to spec up a cheapish “bare-bones” system with a decently large disk and fast processor but no monitor and install MythTV on it. Step after that is to get it to stream media to other computers and possibly eventually a second MythTv box.
All this is because I now have two rooms with a TV in. I have my DVR – which I love – but if I record something on it I can only watch it in the lounge unless I unplug it and move it to the bedroom.
DVD Rentals – not sure what I was going to say about that – except that I hadn’t watched any for a while and maybe talk about how you really need to be honest with yourself that you want to watch something.
That’s all for now. I have another topic in mind but if I promise to post on it I’m bound not to and then look stoopid.
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They RILEY’d her!
The Five US channel is showing Dawson’s Creek from the beginning. It’s perhaps appropriate that I started watching since in a sense I would never have become a Buffy fan if not for Dawson’s – so perhaps it’s right to complete the circle. There’s also a sense in which Buffy fandom was about stuff that had happened to me in my – for want of a better phrase – spiritual journey. And Dawson’s was a kind of precursor to that. I started watching it (intermittently) when staying home from church (deliberately). But before a certain point I hadn’t really watched it consistently.
(In fact I wasn’t someone who always tuned in to see a particular show until I left church, Newcastle, and living with others, behind.)
Anyway. Part of my enthusiasm to watch now is to fill in the missing gaps in the early seasons and to wallow in a bit of nostalgia for the later ones.
Which is all pre-amble to what this post is about – which is Andy MacPhee. She was the one they brought in to be Pacey’s girlfriend in Season 2. At the end of which she gets carted off to a mental health institute amid tears and haertfelt protestations of her and Pacey’s feelings for each other. Season 3 opens and someone has obviously decided that not only must MacPhee-Witter split but that she must be the one to bear the blame.
Why? Because they wanted to set up the Dawson-Pacey-Joey triangle. You can’t have Joey be the one to break them up as that would damage her likeability. Pacey can’t be to blame because we need to start seeing him as the kind of man who’s good enough for Joey. So Andy draws the short straw. Which involves –
- a revelation in the first episode that she’s slept with someone whilst in the institution
- stealing exam results to further her academic career (not specifically to do with Pacey but it damages her character for a while)
- manipulating Pacey into getting back together with her when he’s really not wanting to (this is genius because not only does it show her downside, it shows that from his pov she’s not the one for him.)
I never realised it first time around (probably because I missed those episodes) but this all feels like they’re trashing Andy’s character merely to further the plot. Which kind of reminded me of Riley Finn – hence the title.
Riley – Buffy’s S4/S5 boyfriend and rebound guy after Angel – started off as simply a good guy. He had a secret but it was a good secret (he’s a monster fighter too). But people not loving him and the Buffster together. Unlike Andy I think there were plenty of people who disliked him before the writers moved in on him. I found him boring but ok. What I disliked intensely was the way the writers decided they needed to write him out (fair enough if he’s boring at best) and so proceeded to make us dislike him in order to justify his exit. At least that’s how it felt. The S4 Riley wouldn’t have being seeing vampire “prostitutes” and complaining about Buffy not being there for him whilst she dealt with her mother’s ultimately fatal illness. But he had to have a reason to leave, and from the first moment, when he told Xander that “she doesn’t love me” it struck and incongrous note and I knew something was up.
So I’ve always felt that Riley was sacrificed on the altar of plot (on-going). He wasn’t a bad guy he was just written that way.
Andy MacPhee was totally Riley’d. They made her the scapegoat, made her the one to blame and dislike so we could safely root for the Pacey-Joey romance to come. They give her other things to do and to some extent she becomes ok again and we like her, it’s just she’s not going to be with Pacey. She leaves completely after the High School seasons (I can’t figure out if that’s S3 or whether they played with the time and stretched it out to a S4, seems like there’s a lot of stuff still left to happen)
In a way it’s a shame. I did enjoy the Pacey-Joey-Dawson triangle, but the Andy-Joey romance was so sweet and life-affirming.
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Catching up
I’m going to attempt to do some catch-up posting tonight. Attempt to do it quickly i.e. 3 posts in under an hour. You see what often happens is that I get an idea for a post but never get around to writing it. This is even more true now that my internet access is at work only. Then I’ll get the idea for another post, perhaps developing the theme of a previous idea, and then I’m loathed to post it because I haven’t done the previous one. Then – usually after about a month, 6 weeks – I decide it’s been too long and the events I wanted to refer to aren’t current enough.
Hence my catch-ups. They will be:
- They RILEY’d her!
- MythTV
- DVD rentals
Here goes.