Background

A Networked Media Tank (NMT) is a device that is capable to playing a multitude of media file formats on your TV set. Supported file formats including JPEG, MP3, MPEG2, xvid and H.264. It support video resolutions up to 1080P. The user interface is "skinnable", meaning that anyone can modify the look and feel of the display screens. The default NMT "skin" looks like a simple file browser. I've developed an alternative skin (screen shots) that enables one to view their mythtv recordings complete with air date, title, episode synopsis and other useful information, marking it a reasonable frontend for watching MYTHTV recordings. It can also be used as a front end if you are using my  Low Power MYTHTV Architecture.

Video outputs vary by model and can include HDMI, component, composite and S-Video.  An NMT can obtain media from multiple sources, depending on the model purchased:

• Your local area network, via ethernet or wireless.
  
• USB-attached storage device such as a flash drive of hard drive.
• Internally connected SATA or EIDE hard drive.
• Online "internet TV" stations.
  

There are many companies building NMT's. The first, and perhaps best known brand is called "Popcorn Hour", but my favorite NMT is the EGreat M-34A. At $129 it is a reasonably priced front end box, draws only 7 watts of power and comes with a remote control. It does not have space for an internal hard drive, but it has ethernet, USB and ESATA connectors. I use mine without any local storage so it is totally silent and suitable for my bedroom TV -- all storage is on the network.

Setup

1. Mythtv server changes
   
• Download and configure my xbmc_mythlink utilities, per the MYTHTV Configuration instructions found in my XBMC MYTHV connect page. It is important to note that you do not need to configure XBMC -- you only need to following the directions in the MYTHTV Configuration section.
  
2. Load the software that will run on your Networked Media Tank
   
• Create a network share on a server that is visible to your Networked Media Tank.  For the remainder of these instructions I will refer to this share as "NMT_cgi".
  
• Untar NMT_mythlink.tgz into the network share "NMT_cgi".
  
• Configure a share on your Networked Media Tank named "NMT" that points to the network share "NMT_cgi".
  
3. Configure a share on your Networked Media Tank named "MythRecordings0" that points to the to the network share that contains your mythtv recordings.
   
• You will experience better skip-forward and skip-backward performance during playback if this share is exported with NFS, but it will work properly with Samba, CIFS and windows shares.
  
4. On your Networked Media Tank navigate into the the share that you configured in step 4 and you are "off and running".

Step 2 describes loading the Networked Media tank software onto a network share. Alternatively, you should also be able to load the software onto an internal hard drive or a USB connected flash or hard drive, but I have never tried to do this, so I cannot guarantee it will work.

Performance notes

The views are created dynamically using a bash script. The creation of any page can take as long as 8-10 seconds, so please be patient. Once a view is created the associated HTML is cached so that subsequent visits to that same view can be created in 1-2 seconds. Any changes to the underlying meta data will automatically force a refresh of the cache, resulting in the 8-10 second delay.

You will experience better skip-forward and skip-backward performance during playback if this share is exported with NFS, but it will work properly with Samba, CIFS and windows shares.