MythTV
A free open source digital video recorder and home media center for recording and watching TV.
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About MythTV
MythTV is an open source digital video recorder (DVR) that has been in development since 2002. It records television and plays it back, with the features people expect from a DVR, and acts as a home media center for watching recordings.
The project publishes a new stable branch roughly once a year; version 36.0 was released in February 2026. It is distributed under the GNU GPL, with documentation, a wiki and forums for setup help.
Strengths
- Long-running project, in development since 2002
- Regular stable releases, most recently 36.0 in 2026
- Documentation, wiki and forums for setup help
Limitations
- Needs TV tuner hardware and setup work to record
- More complex to configure than a simple media server
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree and open source under the GNU GPL.
- License
- GPL
- Developer
- The MythTV contributors
- Platforms
- Linux, Self-hosted
- How it runs
- Downloadable app, Self-hosted
- Account
- Not required
- Best suited for
- People who want to build their own TV recording and playback system at home
- Categories
- Video editing, Media servers
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Facts checked against the developer's own pages and store listings, 1 sources on file.
Alternatives to MythTV
Compare allSoftware that can replace MythTV for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
Tvheadend
A Linux TV streaming server and recorder for DVB, ATSC, IPTV and other live TV sources.
Tvheadend is a Linux TV streaming server and recorder that handles broadcast tuners and IPTV together, without MythTV's home media center front end.
NextPVR
A whole-home personal video recorder that records live TV and streams it to your devices.
NextPVR runs on Windows, Linux, macOS or Docker with broad tuner support and a web scheduler, but it is closed source and free only for personal use.
Channels DVR
A home DVR server that records live TV and streams recordings and personal media to your devices.
Channels DVR is a paid, closed-source DVR server that records antenna, provider and internet TV in one guide, with apps for Apple TV, Fire TV, iOS and Android.
Jellyfin
A free media server for your own films, shows and music, with no premium tier and no account.
Jellyfin is a GPL-2.0 media server that includes live TV and DVR alongside movies, shows and music, with server packages for Windows, macOS, Linux and Docker.
Emby Server
A personal media server for video, music, photos and live TV, with the good parts behind a subscription.
Emby Server offers live TV and DVR from tuner cards plus a full media library, but it is closed source and puts hardware transcoding behind a paid subscription.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
Kodi
Media centre that turns a computer, box or TV stick into a home theatre front end.
Threadfin
An M3U proxy that presents IPTV playlists as a live TV tuner for Plex, Jellyfin and Emby.
Dispatcharr
A self-hosted IPTV stream and EPG manager that serves channels to media servers.
ErsatzTV
A self-hosted IPTV server that turns a media library into scheduled live channels with a program guide.
