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Since 2004 I’ve been a user of the rather excellent MythTV software – its open-source Personal Video Recorder (PVR) softare which runs on commodity PC hardware and is highly configurable. I originally ran it in dual front-end and back-end mode in the lounge, using Fedora running off of an ABIT BP6 (Dual Celeron), with it connected to the TV. A Hauppauge PVR-350 was installed, which was used to record Analogue TV as MPG files, and used to display the MythTV interface and video. Back then it took a couple of days fiddling around with settings to get a stable and working system – the PVR-350 causing most of the issues.

Fast forward 5 years to the present, and I’ve been through upgrades, re-installs due to the boxes dying (one was a blown motherboard through a dodgy power supply).

I’m now running MythTV in back-end only mode, using a low power VIA PC1500 Platform Motherboard, with 1.5TB of disk space, 2GB Ram, and a Hauppauge Nova-T-500 (Dual Digital Tuners). This box sits in the spare room, with an internal ariel providing the feed for Freeview. I have the box connected to my home network via a pair of ZyXEL PLA 400‘s, which connects nodes via the electricity wires already in my flat.
I’m stilling running MythTV, but instead of spending hours upon hours building and configuring MythTV from scratch, I now use a purpose-built distribution of MythTV called MythDora. This distribution is based on Fedora (Current Version is 10), and after doing everything manually from the command line, I have to say this distribution is outstanding – configuration was straightforward and painless, and one I easily recommend.

My current box runs in Backend-mode only. This is accessed via web interface which allows me to select what programs to record. It also allows me to download recorded programs to my PC to view locally. MythTV also has UPnP AV MediaServer built into it, which means the recorded content can be shared on a network with any devices which can understand this protocol. In my case, this means to view the recorded content on my TV in the lounge, I’ve a choice of either AppleTV, which I’ve hacked to run Boxee, or Playstation 3, which natively shows the content on MythTV.

I’ve also got PHP installed on this box, and have built a Twitter interface for MythTV (Coded in PHP), so it Tweets completed recordings to a special account I have setup. If anyone wants a copy of this, just let me know.

Having recently installed a Sky HD box at home (Amstrad model number DRX780UK), I quickly decided that the default hard drive that comes with the box (320Gb, with 160Gb devoted to Sky Anytime) was far too small for the household viewing habits, especially when recording HD programming which eats up Hard Drive space like no tomorrow.

Therefore, I decided to upgrade it to 1TB, which should be more than adequate for our households’ recorded viewing needs.

The box uses a SATA interface, therefore any low power HDD model should suffice (though I take no responsibility if you follow this guide and it doesn’t work).  I used a Western Digital HD103UJ (1000GB/7,200 RPM) and it worked without problem.

Here’s a guide detailing what to do, should you wish to do the same.
Note:   There are no warranty stickers to peel off / break through, therefore if the box dies you could (in theory) replace the HDD with the original,  and then call Sky to sort it out.

What you’ll need:

• Philips Head Screwdriver
• Replacement Hard Drive
• A PC with a spare SATA header and free disc space

Dismantle The Box

So, to start, unplug the box, and look at the back of it. You’ll see a single screw in the middle top, which holds the cover onto the back.  Unscrew this.

Turn the box upside down.  Within the outer black strip (for the cover), there are 6 recessed holes, with screws at the bottom of the holes.  Remove all of these.

To take the cover off, you need to lift up the three tabs towards the front of the box and pull the cover forward slightly away from the box.  As you can see in the picture, I’ve placed some knives and a screwdriver under the tabs to lift them away from the retaining bumps.

With the tabs clear of the bumps, you are now free to pull the box out of the cover.  Turn the box over and this.  You may find it a little easier if you also pull the two sides of the cover away from the box slightly as you pull.

With the cover removed from the box, you’ll see a controller daughterboard on top, a circuitboard on the front which holds the indicators and other controls, and three screws on the left hand side of the box.

Remove these three screws first, and then turn your attention to the daughterboard.  This is held in place by four screws, and has a ribbon cable linking it to the circuit board at the front of the box.  Remove these screws, and move the daughterboard so its hanging by the cable over the front of the front circuitboard.

You can now lift the metal cover off of the top of the box, exposing the motherboard, power supply, and hard drive in the bracket.

Swapping the Hard Drive

Unplug the red SATA cable and the power cable with four wires from the hard drive.

Remove the screw at the right back of the bracket which holds the hard drive bracket to the motherboard.

Then remove the screw at the front right of the hard drive bracket.

You can then pull the hard drive up and away from the case.

Remove the three screws on the side of the bracket which hold it to the hard drive.

Remove the foam triangle from the top of the hard drive.

Plug the removed drive into your PC and boot up. You’ll need to use Sky Copy+ to clone the old drive onto your new hard drive. I recommend you follow these instructions. I would use suggest you do not copy the Sky Anytime files, as this process can take a long time; even longer if you include the Anytime programming.

Once finished, reverse the process listed above, starting with attaching the all-important foam triangle!

The Sky box will always reserve 140GB for the Anytime programming, but the rest of the hard drive space is yours for recording purposes.
Enjoy!

Spotify have made no secret recently at the fact they are working on mobile versions of their service.  Lets face it, having access to millions of tracks on your handheld device whilst on the move has to be one of THE killer apps of all time.  They’ve previously released a video of Spotify running in an iPhone emulator to get the public’s mouth watering, and yesterday provided some more exciting news.

At the Google I/O conference yesterday, they showed off their work-in-progress demo of Spotify for Android. Yes, it’s coming! It’s a great looking app; it’s responsive, it syncs playlists between handset and desktop in seconds, and it can search the whole of the Spotify library just like you’re on your desktop. One much needed feature which they’ve given though to is the ability to cache tracks offline, so you can carry on in your listening pleasure without a Wifi or 3G/GPRS signal, i.e. on the underground tube here in London.

Take a look at the shiny new Spotify for Android application below. Exciting times!

…since I last blogged – about anything. Back in 2007 in fact

I used to blog about my experiences with MythTV, amonst other things, but due to work and continutally getting the work / life balance wrong, I left it slip in favour of getting things done.

So now its fast approaching the middle of 2009; my life is somewhat more organised, and I’m setting up this site using WordPress to see what this modern blogging tool can do, and to see where this blog can take me…

Stay tuned.