If you are looking to connect your Mac’s EyeTV application to a set top box such as Directv, Dish Network, Sky Boxes or virtually any other box there are several low cost options that make it easy.

If you have Directv you have two options

1.  SerialChannel.  SerialChannel provides a reliable and clean installation. It works through a serial or ethernet connection that connects to the usb or data port of your Directv box.

2.  SerialChannelIR. SerialChannelIR is an Universal IR blaster solution for the mac.  It uses USB-UIRT and an IR blaster cable connected to the front of your box to mimic your box’s remote to change channels.

Which ever one you choose will provide a seamless channel change from EyeTV to your box.

If you have Dish Network or virtually any other box use SerialChannelIR.

If you have a standard Sky digibox, Sky+, Sky HD, Foxtel iQ (but not Foxtel iQ2) or Foxtel Pace 420 you also have two options.

1.  SerialChannelSky.  SerialChannelSky provides a reliable and clean installation.  It works with Dusky-control hardware to change the channels on your box.

2.  SerialChannelIR.

See www.coolDVR.com to get more info.

When you record something on mythtv it creates a entry in the database and names the resulting recorded file.  However, if you were to look in the recordings directory you would see that the given name is a bit hard to figure out.  In this post I will show you how to create a directory that holds links to these files with user friendly names.  In Mythbuntu there is a script which does most of the work for us. We’ll then share that directory on a network via SAMBA and NFS

1.  On your myth box open a terminal window (or ssh into the myth box).

2.  Change directory to /home/mythtv and create a directory called readable-recordings.

prompt$ cd /home/mythtv

prompt$ sudo mkdir readable-recordings

3.  Change directory to /usr/share/doc/mythtv-backend/contrib and locate the file named mythrename.pl.gz.

prompt$ cd /usr/share/doc/mythtv-backend/contrib

Unzip the file:

prompt$ sudo gunzip /usr/local/bin/mythrename.pl.gz

Make the file executable:

prompt$ sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/mythrename.pl

Move the file decompressed file to /usr/local/bin:

prompt$ sudo mv /usr/share/doc/mythtv-backend/contrib/mythrename.pl /usr/local/bin

4.  Run the script with the –link option:

prompt$ /usr/local/bin/mythrename.pl --link /home/mythtv/readable-recordings

The files in the readable-recordings directory should be easy to read with the proper episode name and title of the recording.

5.  Setup the script to run automatically.   This script works great but does not run automatically so we need to schedule it with cron to do this hourly.

prompt$ sudo nano /etc/crontab

Create the following entry to run the script every hour:
0 * * * * /usr/local/bin/mythrename.pl --link /home/mythtv/readable-recordings

5.  Sharing the readable-recordings. From the MythUbuntu Control Center select services from the right side menu.  You should see options to enable NFS and SAMBA sharing directory.   Then go to the desktop Applications –>System–>Shared Folders.   The shared folders application will appear with functions locked.  Click on the unlock button to allow editing.  Create an entry for the readable-recordings directory for SAMBA and one for NFS.  **Note if you are going to NFS share with a OS X box you will need to edit the /etc/exports file to include the insecure option.

Restart Samba:

prompt$ sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

Restart NFS

prompt$ sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart

You should now be able to mount the shared file system from the network