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

[ramon.roca at xcombo.com]

> 
> > 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'll give you an example:
I'm already doing this in Spain for friends, I have and Image that can be 
dumped on this: http://www.msicomputer.com/product/netpc/netpc_detail.asp?
model=Hermes_650
It is a 2+ GB Image!
Why? Take a look what's inside:

-Some mythtv cvs 
-XMLTV
-DVD rippers
-VDR (DVB is also wanted here, in fact, until now no one was interested only in 
having analog tv)
-mysql configured for Spanich channels...
-Support for SMB/NFS
-Support for PCMIA/Wireless networking...
-lirc & configured remote.
-Recording software for DVD/CD/VCD authoring...
-everything setup and tuned for an specific hardware and my country
... blah blah...
... in other words: much more that just mythtv. I can't call it mini-distro 
then.


... so, everything you need, as simple as just dumping the image, but the 
result is:

-mythtv is improving so fast... can an end user update compile latest CVS 
easily?
-xmltv can be broken at any time, who will apply the patches then?
-HW prices and models (motherboards, cpu, cases, drivers, capture cards) will 
change so fast, impossible to have everything certified unless you have 
enormeous resources for doing this... In the meantime, the iso is only usable 
for the hardware that you have certified.

So probably you can get an image of something that after a couple of weeks can 
be outdated.


As a summary: Right now it can be only done for friends, will take you a lot of 
time (while probably at this point you could be more interested on spending 
your few spare time in improving the project itself instead of working for 
others for free, that's my case).

Anyway there is a recursive idea going on this, and hopefully with time, easier 
setup methods etc... Any effort to popularize this wil be always good, although 
right now is the only tjing that you will get in return.

In the meantime a site with a forum, database, etc for sharing this kind of 
experiences could be a good start.

Ramon.