MythNetVision To Cure Borked MythTV Hacks

Another group of developers has stepped up to the plate in the never-ending attempt to integrate online streaming video with MythTV. The new plugin is called MythNetVision and aims to bring streaming and downloading video functionality both easily and legally. That means without violating the terms of service of the providing website.

We’ve seen so many attempts that fell short it’s easy to be skeptical about the chances of this plugin actually working. Plugins like MythStream and MythVodka worked only temporarily before breaking and never seemed to provide a reliable option. Many people have tried adding Boxee, Hulu Desktop, or XBMC integration by launching these separate packages via the MythTV UI but that’s far from a clean solution.

It looks like MythNetVision is taking a slightly different approach. Although not yet available, the designers have built the plugin in two parts. The frontend is a fully skinnable user interface that parses RSS feeds to provide the hooks needed to browse, search, and view video. Depending on the content, a browser may be spawned to play the video, it may be played within MythTV’s normal player, or a separate download thread can be launch with video following after the appropriate buffer level is reached. The RSS feeds come either directly from the provider, such as the Revision3 feeds, or a scraper can be written to provide custom RSS feeds from sites that don’t have them.

We’ve seen a glimpse of the progress and we’re optimistic that we’ll see a reliable plugin. Early adoption and user script contribution are the best way to help ensure this so keep an eye out for the public release of this package.

15 thoughts on “MythNetVision To Cure Borked MythTV Hacks

  1. /agreed vehemently

    MythTv seems to be achieving some sort of stability in other areas, thanks to many developers and debuggers out there.

    If MythTv can deliver online content reasonably and dependably, I’d throw just about any thing behind it settling the media box arena.

    I’m sure as heck going to volunteer my setup to help.

  2. @dave: you can play with the menu XML file to add a Huludesktop launcher, and nav around Hulu with the remote via lirc. Still a kluge, so I’m pretty excited about MythNetVision.

  3. MythFeed (available on the unofficial plugins) is another option for hulu that’s a little more integrated with Myth. It’s probably the sleaziest hack I’ve ever seen – basically it launches firefox with the correct URL and then uses xdotool to fake pressing the fullscreen button. But, well, it does work.

  4. @Dielectric: Thanks, I’ll check it out.

    @Hans: Got any specifics? What did you dislike about Myth that you like about Boxee?

    A year ago I had to spend a lot of time maintaining my myth, usually while the inlaws visited. Now setup is easier, it has been rock solid stable since setup, and the feature set has richened considerably. I’m impressed with the .22 UI features.

  5. @farthead: For 0.21 I’d agree with you. Have you seen the enhancements introduced in 0.22? Now it can auto-download fanart and associate it with a particular show or episode, and the storage groups are such that it all makes sense and looks really professional. For me there’s been 3 big improvements in this release:

    1. Stability
    2. UI
    3. Native support for the HD-PVR, so recording HD from a cablebox or dish receiver works great.

    I think they’re heading in the right direction.

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