MythTV (was: Possible FreeBSD port?)

[usleepless at gmail.com]

Stephen,

On 12/20/06, Stephen Hocking <stephen.hocking at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/20/06, usleepless at gmail.com <usleepless at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > i did not make a port, but i am willing to help. but if people are
> > interested in a 0.18-fixes-postgresql-heavily-modified port of mythtv,
> > let me know. if there is enough interest we might pull it off.
> >
> > but i got the impression of the list that only the most recent version
> > of mythtv is worth aiming for ( i have no need to go to .19 or .20 )
>
>
>
> I think that you're probably right as regards the versions, but have you
> thought of pushing your patches back to the maintainers
> of MythTV?
>
>     Stephen

thank you for asking.

are you subscribed to any of the mythtv lists? i am.

they don't want to talk about changes to the database-layer: they
don't think the database is important and would rather have nothing to
do with sql. when i proposed to make mythtv cross-database-compatible
( mysql, postgresql, mssql etc ), they responded with "we might move
to a embedded db like firebird"?. shutting off postgresql totally.

furthermore, the interprocess-communication in mythtv is horrific,
mostly busy wait loops, which makes a context-switching-hell.
unfortunatly mythtv developers lack essential db and ipc skills. the
abstraction is pretty good though.

they are hunting ghosts too: in the mailing lists "hickups" are
discussed regulary: they are fiddling with process priorities between
frontend and database/backend. at the same time they throw immense
queries to the db which could be so much more efficient with a proper
datamodel.

for my own install, i implented a "settings cache" even before they
did! before this, every setting was queried from the db _everytime_ it
was used (ie: roundtrips all the time ).

sorry for the rant, but i don't have the energy to "evangelize" the
mythtv-developers. i just maintain my own version. if people on
fbsd-mm are interested, i am willing to commit and make a port out of
it.

but it is:
- 0.18-fixes
- postgresql, no mysql
- i am not fixing what doesn't work ( but most stuff works excellent )

i am under the impression that most of the changes in .19 and .20 are
digital-broadcast-specific. this is of no interest to me: i am running
on 2 pvr500s.

regards,

usleep