MythTV 0.25 hardware accelerates video and adds AirPlay

Following nearly eighteen months of development, the MythTV project has released version 0.25 of its open source digital video recorder (DVR) software. According to its developers, the major update is made up of more than 5,200 commits and includes a number of "significant new features", such as VA-API video acceleration – alpha support for DirectX Video Acceleration 2 (DXVA2) on Windows has also been added.

MythTV's audio capabilities have been improved with the addition of support for E-AC3 (Dolby Digital Plus), Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD digital pass-through, and users can now stream audio and video from compatible iOS devices using AirTunes and AirPlay, though AirPlay video support is experimental at this time. Initial support for controlling capable AV components such as TVs over HDMI via Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) is built-in, and third-party app developers can control both the frontend and backend of MythTV using a new API.

Other notable changes include a "completely re-written" MythMusic plugin for managing and playing back audio files, and the merging of the MythVideo plugin into the core of MythTV instead of being distributed separately. The developers also note that MythThemes are no longer being maintained as a separate repository; instead, all of the themes are available to download from the theme chooser.

More details about the major update, including a full list of changes and new features, can be found in an announcement news post and in the release notes. Version 0.25 of MythTV is available to download from the project's site; users wanting to try out MythTV or setup their own dedicated system may be interested in a tailor-made distribution, such as Mythbuntu or MythDora. Source code for MythTV is hosted on GitHub and is licensed under the GPL.

See also:

• Open media centre XBMC 11 "Eden" released, a report from The H.

(crve)