[TheMagikarp]

In the coming week I'll be putting together a HTPC. I've got the hardware side of things mostly figured out, but the software has got me stumped.

I'd like to use XBMC for all my media (movies, tv shows, music, DVDs, etc.), and then later on, when I get my hands on a TV tuner, be able to watch and record TV through the XBMC interface too.

What's the best way to do this? After days of Googling, I've found a few different options:

*Use Mythbuntu as my OS and install XBMC
*Use Windows or Linux as my OS and install both XBMC and MythTV
*Use XBMC Live and install MythTV

Then once I've decided on which way to go, how to I integrate MythTV into XBMC? Do I use Mythbox? Add MythTV as a video source? I'm sure there's other ways of doing this too.

There seems to be so many ways to get the result I want, but I haven't been able to find a solid answer as to which will be the easiest to use and (preferably) set up.

I think part of the problem is that 90% of the results I found on Google on the topic are from 2009 or earlier.

So, what's the best way for me to go about doing what I want?

[jschoen]

As you have noticed you have multiple options. What you need to do is forget everything you read first. Then ask yourself one question:

What Operating System are you most comfortable with?

That is the one you should go with, be it Linux, Windows, or OS X. If you are not a tinker or if you have a significant other that you need to impress very quickly, I would recommend you take a look at openelec. It is more of an appliance version of xbmc. You install it, and the majority of things work out the box, it is very fast and lean. Plus it comes bundled with tvheadend if I remember correctly. So when you add the tuner cards you should be good to go.

So in short the optimal setup for XBMC is different for everyone, and also arguably different for each room the setup is for.

[pcdude]

Since live TV recording on xbmc is not quite ready for prime time yet, you have 2 options: run a mythTV backend on the same or another PC as xbmc and use xbmx to view the recorded shows, or use Windows Media Center for your live TV recording and playback. I personally have a dedicated Linux-based server running in the back office that has mythTV running, and use xbmc on the HTPC to watch the shows. Live TV support with pausing, etc, is not possible, and recordings must be set up via the mythTV web interface, but it does work quite well.

However, setting up sickbeard has just about eliminated the use of mythTV altogether.

[darkscout]

3 of them are nearly all the same.

MythBuntu is Linux with Myth Installed.
XBMCLive is Linux.

[TheMagikarp]

Thanks jschoen, openelec looks very impressive. My main concern about al of this was getting the TV recording software to work with XBMC, and it looks like openelec gets it doen without a hitch.

That's definitely the path I'll be going down (at least at first, haha).