MythQML


QML based frontend for MythTV

These instructions are for users who have a existing Ubuntu installation and just want to try out MythQML


Add the MythQML projects PPA

This project has both stable and development PPAs. Most users should use the stable PPA where the packages are built from the stable branch and the hope is they should be fairly stable but note some features are still not fully functional and subject to change.

To use the stable PPA

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mythtv-paulh/mythtv-qml
$ sudo apt-get update

To use the development PPA

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mythtv-paulh/mythtv-qml-dev
$ sudo apt-get update

NOTE: newer versions of the Apt tools will do the update automatically after adding a repository but doing it again doesn't harm anything.

Install MythQML

$ sudo apt install mythfrontend-qml

This will install MythQML and all required dependencies. It's that easy!


Running MythQML for the first time

At this point you can run mythfrontend_qml for the first time. It will download the default themes background video which is only 22Mb so should download fairly quickly. You can now try a few things that don't require any further configuration like the IPTV Channel Viewer, or WebCamViewer but a few others will need you to configure them before use.

There are 2 programs you can run mythlauncher_qml and mythfrontend_qml. If you are just trying it out on a desktop environment then mythfrontend_qml is what you should use. If you are running it on a dedicated machine connected to a TV then mythlauncher_qml is probably better since you can start several different frontends from the launcher (including the normal mythfrontend, NetFlix, Pluto TV and Kodi if you have it installed) and when you exit a frontend you are back to the launcher screen. You can also choose to shutdown or reboot the machine from the launcher.

Basic operation is hopefully how you would expect. Arrow keys move the highlight or scroll through lists and ENTER will perform some action on the selected item.

Many screen have a footer with options available by pressing the RED, GREEN, YELLOW and BLUE buttons on a remote control, like the old fast text teletext buttons for those in the UK, which are the F1, F2, F3 and F4 keys on the keyboard.

By default both mythlauncher_qml and mythfrontend_qml will start fullscreen but you can change the default in the Theme Settings or the F key will toggle windowed or fullscreen mode.

Many screens have a help page you can access by pressing HELP (H) or you can choose the 'Help' option on the popup menu on some screens. If you have any questions then the help pages are where to look first although I haven't finished writing them so if you can't find an answer then please don't hesitate to ask :)

One thing the family really love is the different themes for each season, for example we have themes for Autumn, Halloween, Christmas, Bonfire Night, Winter and Easter. Each theme has a video background that needs to be downloaded before it will play. If all is well when you first switch to a theme the video will download and then will be stored on the local machine so next time there is no need to re-download it. All the video's are fairly small less than 200Mb but two are rather large. The SlideShowXMAS theme is similar to MythTV's MythCenterXMAS-wide theme but whereas that has about 45 background images the MythQML version has about 370 images so the download is much larger at about 600Mb so may take a little while to download (My website host is rather slow sometimes) I really like the slow Ken Burns like transition on that theme. The other theme with a big video is the MythQML MythCenterXMAS theme which is also about 600Mb.

There is some further post install hints and tips here