[mythtv-users] Re:Sell mythtv "set-top" boxes

[Graham Dunn]

On Mon, Jun 02, 2003 at 10:08:22AM -0500, larry wrote:
> --- "Robert Kulagowski" <rkulagowski at thrupoint.net> wrote:
> 
> > Now, lets look at the consumer side.  Assuming that someone is going
> > to buy it, sight unseen, then you're going to need to be worried
> > about two things:
> > 1)  XMLTV / Zap2It
> > 2)  General hand-holding support
> > 
> > The first one worries me more than the second.
> 
> What do you mean?  Are you talking about general setup?

I think he means that you'd be betting the life of your product on the
fact that Zap2It will keep providing free listings to your customers.
You might be better off selling a myth solution as a "VCR++" ... let
the customer's cable / satellite box program your myth machine via IR
(the SA 3100 DCT I have has a "vcr commander" option, hopefully this
will talk to a home brew IR reciever). Then people still use the EPG
provided by their cable / satellite provider to schedule recordings.

Pros:
- lower hardware requirements (never going to be in "live TV" mode)
- don't have to worry about Zap2IT going out of business, messing with
  XML, etc

Cons:
- lose advanced scheduling / recording capabilities of Mythtv
- lose most of frontend / backend slickness (I suppose you could still
  use a frontend as a "tv terminal" to watch previously recorded shows)

So in summary, you'd really be selling a crippled myth box.

Graham