Myth BOX
The home of guides for Myth TV, IPTables, and other linux based phenomena.
 
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Getting streaming content

Streaming music using Ampache

Once you have put all your music on the mythbox, wouldn't it be good to be able to downsample it and then stream it wherever you go. Better yet, allow several users to simulateously listen to your music catalogue. Ampache allows you to do this - here's how:
  1. Make sure you have subversion installed by doing emerge subversion.
  2. I assume at this point that you have installed mythweb and apache previously.
  3. Ensure that you emerge mp3splt id3v2 before continuing.
  4. Change your apache root in /etc/apache2/conf/apache2.conf to be /var/www/localhost/htdocs. Now navigate to this directory.
  5. Now checkout the subversion trunk using svn co https://svn.ampache.org/trunk/ ampache.
  6. Restart apache with /etc/init.d/apache2 restart.
  7. Use a browser to navigate to the ampache folder (i.e. http://yourdomain/ampache/).
  8. chmod 777 /var/www/localhost/htdocs/ampache/config, so that the config file can be written to disk.
  9. Follow the instructions on the webpage to setup the accounts.
  10. chmod 700 /var/www/localhost/htdocs/ampache/config, so that the config file
  11. chown mythtv:users -R <you_music_dir>, so that mythtv owns all of the files.
  12. chmod 755 -R <you_music_dir>, so that ampache can access your shares.
  13. Use ampache to add a catalogue, specifying your music directory.
  14. Edit the file /var/www/localhost/htdocs/ampache/config/ampache.php.cfg, and make sure the following line exists: allow_downsample_playback = true. Then restart apache.
  15. Now log into ampache as admin, go into the Admin section, and change the downsampling settings
  16. Enjoy the sound of music!

Streaming video over the network

In order to be able to view your myth recordings on networked machines, you first need to make sure that the mythbox allows a client access to the database.
  1. Edit the file /etc/mysql/my.cnf and comment out the line beginning with bind-address.
  2. Login to mysql as root, using mysql -u root -p mythconverg.
  3. Grant access with the following:
    grant all on mythconverg.* to mythtv@"192.168.0.<your_major_range>%" identified by "mythtv";
    flush privileges;
    
  4. Now ensure that all IP addresses are correct and not set to 127.0.0.1:
    update settings set data = '192.168.0.<your_server_ip>' where value='MasterServerIP';
    update settings set data = '192.168.0.<your_server_ip>' where value='BackendServerIP';
    
  5. Now get the frontend on the client using USE="frontendonly" emerge mythtv.
  6. Start up the new frontend and specify your server's IP address to allow Myth TV to connect to the database on the server. This is then saved in ~/.mythtv/mysql.txt.
  7. Try it out!

Troubleshooting:
  • The frontend seems to connect to the database, but then the menu doesn't appear and X locks up!
    If you are using an Nvidia graphics card, check that your xorg.conf doesn't contain Option "RenderAccel" "true" or similar. With some Nvidia cards, this can cause X to crash when accessing the Myth TV menu.