Installing FreeBSD-Release
Multimedia Drivers
Applications
Additional Myth Modules

Introduction

This is a guide created by Stacey Son and Ari Maniatis for installing MythTV on FreeBSD. Please feel free to send comments, patches, etc. to myth4fbsd (at) son (dot) org. Although these instruction may look daunting at first, it really isn't too hard. In fact, the installation process on FreeBSD is easier than many Linux based installations. The FreeBSD ports system makes the whole process very simple.

Why a FreeBSD port?

I currently run MythTV on Gentoo Linux for My Production Box but would prefer to use FreeBSD because that is what I use at work and run mainly at home. BSD is very stable and secure making it very popular as a server platform. Given that Mac OS X is based on FreeBSD it is also the most popular desktop flavor of UNIX.

Current State

MythTV works on FreeBSD but with a few known issues:

• MythTV on FreeBSD will record and playback TV programs and LiveTV works. However, more testing is needed.
• Work needs to be done on the CD handling code and some of this code has been disabled to make the port compile.
• The only capture card it currently supports is the Hauppauge PVR-250 (based on either the Conexant CX23415 or CX23416 chips) using a modified cxm driver. The cxm driver itself needs a lot of work as well. This driver is based on John Wehle's driver but with a Video for Linux two like ioctl() interface. We really don't have any desire to make MythTV work for older video capture cards based on the Brooktree chipset even though the bktr driver is available.
• Ports for MythMusic, MythWeather, etc. are also available (see Additional Myth Modules ).
• It will work with FreeBSD 5.3 (Release).
• We have not tested this on other hardware configurations. What we have tested this on is listed below.

An alternative guide to installing mythTV 0.17 is now available: MythTV Setup Guide

Reference Hardware

We have tested the MythTV port for FreeBSD on the following hardware:

Component	Description/Model
Processor	AMD Athlon XP 2500+
MotherBoard	LanParty KT400A (VIA)
TV Capture Card	Hauppauge PVR-250
Video Card	Matrox G450
Sound Card	Creative Sound Blaster Live!
Memory	256MB RAM

Component	Description/Model
Processor	P4 3.0Ghz
Motherboard	Gigabyte 8S661FXMP-RZ (Serial ATA)
TV Capture Card	Hauppauge PVR-250
Video Card	Leadtek Nvidia 5200 AGP (w/ TV Out)
Memory	512MB RAM

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