myPVR Support

Overview

One of the most powerful features of myPVR is the ability to both access your stored media, and control your recordings, over a network connection. This means that all of your stored media is available for anyone on your home network to access. This guide is broken down into the following areas to assist you with accessing myPVR from your home computer through the following sections :-

• Network Settings
• Web Browser
• Windows File Browser
• Troubleshooting

Network Settings

In order to access myPVR over your network you first need to know the name or address assigned to your unit. On most home networks myPVR will automatically be assigned the name “mythtv”.

You can also check for the assigned IP Address via the Network Settings screen.

• Main Menu
  • myPVR ->
    • Network Settings ->
      • Get Current Network Status

For more details see the separate guide on using the network support tools.

There are two standard ways to access myPVR over your network :-

1. Via a web browser
2. Using Windows network browsing

The easiest and most common options is via your web browser. We advise customers to make sure they can connect via a web browser before attempting to connect directly via Windows.

Web Browser

By far the easiest way to access media and control myPVR over your network is via a web browser. We recommend the use of Firefox rather than Internet Explorer. The normal method to access the MythWeb interface would be via http://mythtv/mythweb/.

If this doesn’t work you might need to use the numerical address you got from the network settings screens. For example if your myPVR has the address 10.0.1.2 you would need to type http://10.0.1.2/mythweb/.

Once you have connected you should see a page similar to the screen shot on the right. From here you can perform a number of the tasks that are also available via the main myPVR GUI. Typical use of the web interface would be to :-

• Check listings and program new recordings
• View, delete or browse recorded programs
• Check on the system status

Web – Check TV Listings

Clicking on “Listings” or “Program Listing” will bring up the EPG screen shown to the right.

You can quickly browse all of your channels selecting a date and time. Holding the mouse over a program name will bring up additional background information as shown in the screen shot.

If you click on a program name you will be taken to an additional screen where it is possible to define a recording rule for that show.

Web – Recorded Programs

Clicking on “Recorded Programs” brings up a page showing all currently stored TV recordings. It is possible to sort this by program name or one of your recording groups. You can also re-order the display by clicking on the column names. For example you might decide to order by “file size” so that you can see which recordings are using the most disk space.If you click on the thumbnail image for a recording an attempt will be made to stream the recording to your PC. There is a chance that your PC does not have all of the required codecs to play these video files.The MythTV Team have a page to assist troubleshooting called “Play Recordings On Windows From MythWeb“. Please only follow the section on tools and codecs, as everything else should be preconfigured and working.

Web – Status

The “Status” screen provides useful information for a couple of key areas :-

• Encoder status
  • which capture cards are busy
• Schedule
  • What recordings are pending
• Job Queue
  • Background jobs such as commercial flagging or transcoding of recordings
• Machine Information
  • Amount of disk space in use and available
  • System load average
  • Details of last EPG data update

Logging In

You should now get a login prompt as shown to the right. The default user id and password for access is “mythtv”.

Browsing myPVR

Once logged in you should see a directory layout similar to the one on the right. There are several user accessible directories you need to be aware of.

• Gallery
  • You can store and organise your photos here so that they can be browsed on the TV.
• Games
• Music
• MythArchive
  • When creating DVDs you can choose to generate an ISO file which would be stored in this directory
• Raw TV
  • All original recordings including any currently cached Live TV. This directory is read only so that you can’t accidentally delete any TV recordings.
• Recorded TV
• VideoTroubleshooting
  • You can copy and organise any videos you already have in this directory.The files will show up under “Watch Videos” or via the button “My Videos” on your remote control.

Recorded TV

This is a read only directory with all of the shows you have recorded on your myPVR. You can choose to play these files directly over the network, or copy them locally to your PC in order to edit them.

Music

This is where you can store all of your MP3, OGG, FLAC and WAV music files. If you have imported any CDs on your myPVR they will also show up here. This directory has write access so you can re-order, and organise your music via your PC.

Music stored here can be played on myPVR and also by any other computers on your home network.

Games

The games folder allows you to upload ROMS for a number of the game emulators. The most common of these are ROMS for Mame. To upload new Mame ROMS browse to the xame\roms folder.

Troubleshooting

Checking Network Connection

The most common problem is a problem with the local network. First check the IP Address of your myPVR as shown in “Network Settings“. Then using this address you need to start a Windows Command window. The easiest way to do this is to Start -> Run -> CMD.

Once you have the Command window you can “ping” myPVR. Simply type “ping IP_ADDRESS”, e.g. “ping 192.168.0.16″. You should see a response similar to the screen shot on the right.

If you aren’t getting a response then you may need to restart the myPVR network connection.