HowTo: Install custom channel icons for MythTV

HyRax1 · 13th July 2009, 4:52 PM

For those who don't like the standard icons that are generally provided by MythTV when doing an automatic icon scan, you can replace the icons with your own custom icons such as those below.

Click to view full size!

EDIT August 2009: Added an icon to the archive for the new GO! channel.
EDIT October 2009: Added an icon to the archive for the new 7TWO channel.
EDIT January 2010: Added an icon to the archive for the new ABC3 channel.
EDIT January 2010: Added an icon to the archive for the existing Teachers TV channel.
EDIT July 2010: Added icons to the archive for Channel 31 in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, plus ABC News 24.

Personally I like using the original channel icons rather than ones done up to look arty. Amazingly, no-one seems to have a proper collection of standard channel/network icons, so above are a number of icons I put together to cover most Australian channels. All icons are 132 x 99 in size and feature the channel logo on a transparent background (no borders - the preview just renders a border on the image edges).

You can download a copy of these icons from here. In case my server is having a bad hair day, you can also get the archive from here, courtesy of Oblong Cheese (please note this archive may not be up to date with additions and modifications).

A number of black and white alternate icons are provided for monochrome logos to suit those with light or dark coloured MythTV themes.

BONUS: You can download the raw logos I used as templates to create the custom icon archive for your own edification here. These icons are of various sizes and not all contain transparent backgrounds. I used The GIMP to produce the custom icons, so you should have no trouble manipulating these icons for your own uses. It is not recommended that you use these icons directly as some will appear stretched and skewed, hence the custom set.

Once deployed to your installation, the icons can appear in:

the MythTV Guide,

Click to view full size!
.
the MythWeb TV Guide,

Click to view full size!
.
and of course the program description when watching LiveTV.

Click to view full size!

So how do you do this? Simple.

These instructions are written with Ubuntu 9.04 in mind but should work equally well with any MythTV installation on any distribution.

First up download or create the icons you wish to use. All your icons should be kept a consistent size. In my case, I settled on 132 x 99 because those dimensions are used by most MythTV icons. The images are saved in PNG format to enable use of a transparent background.
.
The icons need to be present on the MythTV Backend server in order to appear in the MythWeb guide and need to be installed on all MythTV Frontend installations in order to appear in the Live TV description and in the MythTV Program Guide. Since the location of the icons are defined on the Backend, the last thing you want to do is set them up to be read from a user's Home directory. We need some place neutral. A perfect place is /usr/share/mythtv/icons but we need to create this directory first, so jump into a terminal and type in at the $ prompt:
Code:
```
$ sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/mythtv/icons
```
Let's assume you've got the icons you want to use under /home/jbloggs/Pictures/MythTVIcons - we need to copy these icons to their new location for MythTV to pick up from using:
Code:
```
$ sudo cp /home/jbloggs/Pictures/MythTVIcons/* /usr/share/mythtv/icons
```
Repeat this for every machine running the MythTV Frontend (or put all icons in a common shared location if you are already using something like MythVideo). If you only have a single machine running both the Backend and Frontend, you do not need to do anything else.
.
Now we need to configure MythTV to use these icons. Fire up the MythTV Backend Setup. You will be told that the MythTV Backend needs to be stopped. Click OK.
.
When the Setup menu appears, choose "5. Channel Editor" using the arrow and Enter keys.

Click to view full size!
.
You are shown a list of all your configured channels. Highlight a channel for whom you wish to configure an icon for and press Enter.

Click to view full size!
.
You are now shown the particulars of that channel. Press TAB or use the arrow keys until you get to the "Icon" text box (highlighted in orange below).

Click to view full size!
.
Type in the path to the icon you want to use for this channel. In the case of "Nine HD", if using my icons, you'd want to use the path "/usr/share/mythtv/icons/nine_hd.png".
.
Press the Next button or ALT + N on the keyboard.
.
Now press the Finish button or ALT + F on the keyboard. You will be returned to the channels list.
.
Repeat steps 7 to 11 for all channels you wish to set an icon for.
.
Press ESC to exit the Channel Editor. You will be returned to the MythTV Setup menu.
.
Press ESC to quit the MythTV Setup application. Acknowledge any exit messages (and address any errors raised).
.
After a handful of seconds, you will be asked if you wish to run the MythFillDatabase application. You don't need to do this, so just click Cancel.
.
If you fire up the MythTV Frontend or MythWeb and then bring up the Guide listings you should now see a channel icon next to each entry. Likewise LiveTV will show the channel icon you configured above the channel number in the show description too.
.
Pat yourself on the back.

wombo · 13th July 2009, 10:09 PM

Nice guide, I am going to be doing a rebuilt when I new release comes out so I will come back to this.

Also make sure you link this thread from the Mythtv page on the OCAU wiki

HyRax1 · 14th July 2009, 12:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wombo

Also make sure you link this thread from the Mythtv page on the OCAU wiki

Good point. Will do that now...

w00tsTyLeZ · 11th August 2009, 3:04 PM

what theme is that for the guide, tv overlay, looks better than the one im running

the-enigma · 11th August 2009, 5:06 PM

I prefer http://ash.ms/projects/channels/logos/frogman/hybrid for my icons, makes it all "flow" better since all icons are similar yet still different.

Also, if you're already share a video recordings directory for video files, you can put the icons in there as well. Personally I have all icons under /storage/video/.icons/ so all frontends actually access the same icons. Makes it easier to update and keep an eye on them.

HyRax1 · 11th August 2009, 5:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by w00tsTyLeZ

what theme is that for the guide, tv overlay, looks better than the one im running

That's Blootube Wide and Blootube for the OSD as well.

other ed · 12th August 2009, 11:42 AM

Thanks for the guide and the icons.
I had to install ark to extract the icons from your zipped file. I'm running Mythbuntu-hardy though.
you may want to add this step to your guide

Code:

sudo apt-get install ark

Cheers.

kreegor · 12th August 2009, 11:47 AM

This is a good guide! Thanks HyRax1. Do you (or anyone else) know how to edit the mythweb channels page to allow users to put in the icon path rather than having to go into the setup?

HyRax1 · 12th August 2009, 1:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by other ed

Thanks for the guide and the icons.
I had to install ark to extract the icons from your zipped file.

It's a zipped tarball - every Linux distro already comes with tar to extract such archives:

Code:

$ tar -xvf AustralianMythTVChannelIcons.tar.gz

...and the GUI archive manager will also happily extract them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kreegor

This is a good guide! Thanks HyRax1. Do you (or anyone else) know how to edit the mythweb channels page to allow users to put in the icon path rather than having to go into the setup?

No - MythWeb only allows limited Backend changes (such as global key bindings) and modifying channel properties (where the icon path is) is not one of them.

oge · 14th August 2009, 3:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kreegor

Do you (or anyone else) know how to edit the mythweb channels page to allow users to put in the icon path rather than having to go into the setup?

Easiest option is to use 'phpMyAdmin' (or some other database browser/editor) and edit the "icon" field in the "channels" table in the myth database. It's dead easy!

HyRax1 · 30th August 2009, 11:52 AM

Small update: Added a new icon for the new GO! channel to the archive. I have not updated the preview thumbnail, but it's a scaled version of the logo on Wikipedia on a transparent background to match the other icons.

HyRax1 · 31st October 2009, 6:18 PM

Small update: Added a new icon for the new 7TWO channel to the archive.

Oblong Cheese · 1st November 2009, 5:57 PM

Your link (http://www.serenux.com/~hyrax/pics/A...elIcons.tar.gz) is broken.

HyRax1 · 1st November 2009, 6:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oblong Cheese

Your link (http://www.serenux.com/~hyrax/pics/A...elIcons.tar.gz) is broken.

Whoops - had incorrect permissions on the archive. Fixed.

Oblong Cheese · 2nd November 2009, 1:22 AM

It's broken again.

"No route to host" ...

13th July 2009, 4:52 PM	#1
HyRax1 48656C6C6F20576F726C6421 Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: At a desk. Distro:Ubuntu Posts: 7,077	HowTo: Install custom channel icons for MythTV For those who don't like the standard icons that are generally provided by MythTV when doing an automatic icon scan, you can replace the icons with your own custom icons such as those below. Click to view full size! EDIT August 2009: Added an icon to the archive for the new GO! channel. EDIT October 2009: Added an icon to the archive for the new 7TWO channel. EDIT January 2010: Added an icon to the archive for the new ABC3 channel. EDIT January 2010: Added an icon to the archive for the existing Teachers TV channel. EDIT July 2010: Added icons to the archive for Channel 31 in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, plus ABC News 24. Personally I like using the original channel icons rather than ones done up to look arty. Amazingly, no-one seems to have a proper collection of standard channel/network icons, so above are a number of icons I put together to cover most Australian channels. All icons are 132 x 99 in size and feature the channel logo on a transparent background (no borders - the preview just renders a border on the image edges). You can download a copy of these icons from here. In case my server is having a bad hair day, you can also get the archive from here, courtesy of Oblong Cheese (please note this archive may not be up to date with additions and modifications). A number of black and white alternate icons are provided for monochrome logos to suit those with light or dark coloured MythTV themes. BONUS: You can download the raw logos I used as templates to create the custom icon archive for your own edification here. These icons are of various sizes and not all contain transparent backgrounds. I used The GIMP to produce the custom icons, so you should have no trouble manipulating these icons for your own uses. It is not recommended that you use these icons directly as some will appear stretched and skewed, hence the custom set. Once deployed to your installation, the icons can appear in: the MythTV Guide, Click to view full size! . the MythWeb TV Guide, Click to view full size! . and of course the program description when watching LiveTV. Click to view full size! So how do you do this? Simple. These instructions are written with Ubuntu 9.04 in mind but should work equally well with any MythTV installation on any distribution. First up download or create the icons you wish to use. All your icons should be kept a consistent size. In my case, I settled on 132 x 99 because those dimensions are used by most MythTV icons. The images are saved in PNG format to enable use of a transparent background. . The icons need to be present on the MythTV Backend server in order to appear in the MythWeb guide and need to be installed on all MythTV Frontend installations in order to appear in the Live TV description and in the MythTV Program Guide. Since the location of the icons are defined on the Backend, the last thing you want to do is set them up to be read from a user's Home directory. We need some place neutral. A perfect place is /usr/share/mythtv/icons but we need to create this directory first, so jump into a terminal and type in at the $ prompt: Code: $ sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/mythtv/icons Let's assume you've got the icons you want to use under /home/jbloggs/Pictures/MythTVIcons - we need to copy these icons to their new location for MythTV to pick up from using: Code: $ sudo cp /home/jbloggs/Pictures/MythTVIcons/* /usr/share/mythtv/icons Repeat this for every machine running the MythTV Frontend (or put all icons in a common shared location if you are already using something like MythVideo). If you only have a single machine running both the Backend and Frontend, you do not need to do anything else. . Now we need to configure MythTV to use these icons. Fire up the MythTV Backend Setup. You will be told that the MythTV Backend needs to be stopped. Click OK. . When the Setup menu appears, choose "5. Channel Editor" using the arrow and Enter keys. Click to view full size! . You are shown a list of all your configured channels. Highlight a channel for whom you wish to configure an icon for and press Enter. Click to view full size! . You are now shown the particulars of that channel. Press TAB or use the arrow keys until you get to the "Icon" text box (highlighted in orange below). Click to view full size! . Type in the path to the icon you want to use for this channel. In the case of "Nine HD", if using my icons, you'd want to use the path "/usr/share/mythtv/icons/nine_hd.png". . Press the Next button or ALT + N on the keyboard. . Now press the Finish button or ALT + F on the keyboard. You will be returned to the channels list. . Repeat steps 7 to 11 for all channels you wish to set an icon for. . Press ESC to exit the Channel Editor. You will be returned to the MythTV Setup menu. . Press ESC to quit the MythTV Setup application. Acknowledge any exit messages (and address any errors raised). . After a handful of seconds, you will be asked if you wish to run the MythFillDatabase application. You don't need to do this, so just click Cancel. . If you fire up the MythTV Frontend or MythWeb and then bring up the Guide listings you should now see a channel icon next to each entry. Likewise LiveTV will show the channel icon you configured above the channel number in the show description too. . Pat yourself on the back. __________________ If practice makes perfect, and nobody's perfect, why practice? Last edited by HyRax1; 17th July 2010 at 10:51 AM. Reason: Added icons to the archive for Channel 31 in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, plus ABC News 24.

13th July 2009, 10:09 PM	#2
wombo Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Tokyo, Japan Posts: 1,538	Nice guide, I am going to be doing a rebuilt when I new release comes out so I will come back to this. Also make sure you link this thread from the Mythtv page on the OCAU wiki __________________ My Camera Gear

11th August 2009, 3:04 PM	#4
w00tsTyLeZ Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Canberra Posts: 497	what theme is that for the guide, tv overlay, looks better than the one im running __________________ ...sTyLeZ...

11th August 2009, 5:06 PM	#5
the-enigma Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: BrisVegas Posts: 1,734	I prefer http://ash.ms/projects/channels/logos/frogman/hybrid for my icons, makes it all "flow" better since all icons are similar yet still different. Also, if you're already share a video recordings directory for video files, you can put the icons in there as well. Personally I have all icons under /storage/video/.icons/ so all frontends actually access the same icons. Makes it easier to update and keep an eye on them. __________________ Official Talleh Fan Club Member #1 Official Biatch Fan Club Member #1

12th August 2009, 11:42 AM	#7
other ed Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Sydney, South West. Posts: 548	Thanks for the guide and the icons. I had to install ark to extract the icons from your zipped file. I'm running Mythbuntu-hardy though. you may want to add this step to your guide Code: sudo apt-get install ark Cheers. __________________ trades: kaspa_lee, bluedreamer, ccwd, Roscoe, silver6, dillusional, s3kemo, sheikhabe, Active Snail, AzNBoi, bYrd, Andres, vinnY, MiniDisc, vazzy, mr_nguyen, Squeezer, Fwoor, Jon187

12th August 2009, 11:47 AM	#8
kreegor Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Adelaide Posts: 3,438	This is a good guide! Thanks HyRax1. Do you (or anyone else) know how to edit the mythweb channels page to allow users to put in the icon path rather than having to go into the setup? __________________ [Logitech 'G' Owners Club Member #381]

30th August 2009, 11:52 AM	#11
HyRax1 48656C6C6F20576F726C6421 Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: At a desk. Distro:Ubuntu Posts: 7,077	Small update: Added a new icon for the new GO! channel to the archive. I have not updated the preview thumbnail, but it's a scaled version of the logo on Wikipedia on a transparent background to match the other icons. __________________ If practice makes perfect, and nobody's perfect, why practice?

31st October 2009, 6:18 PM	#12
HyRax1 48656C6C6F20576F726C6421 Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: At a desk. Distro:Ubuntu Posts: 7,077	Small update: Added a new icon for the new 7TWO channel to the archive. __________________ If practice makes perfect, and nobody's perfect, why practice?

1st November 2009, 5:57 PM	#13
Oblong Cheese Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Brisbane Posts: 9,837	Your link (http://www.serenux.com/~hyrax/pics/A...elIcons.tar.gz) is broken. __________________ My Website \| My Computers \| Grado Labs Alessandro MS-1, Shure SRH-840, Topping TP30

2nd November 2009, 1:22 AM	#15
Oblong Cheese Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Brisbane Posts: 9,837	It's broken again. "No route to host" ... __________________ My Website \| My Computers \| Grado Labs Alessandro MS-1, Shure SRH-840, Topping TP30