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

[Kevin hjelden]

--snip--

>take a system that costs you about $550 (wholesale - keep in mind that
>you can't get rebate-type deals on any hardware, etc.).  Then take into
>account that it took you an hour and a half to build it, and another
>half hour to install things into it (slower if you haven't made up an
>image with something like redhat's kickstart).  that's another $50 to
>the cost (since most of the builders at my place make $25/hour).

Would it really cost this much wholesale? From newegg.com:

Core (Intel):
$58 micro-ATX motherboard w/ onboard sound, video, lan (N82E16813141103)
$55 1.7Ghz celeron (N82E16819112169)
= $113

Core (AMD):
$47 micro-ATX motherboard w/ onboard sound, video, lan (N82E16813138201)
$61 Athlon XP 1800+ retail (N82E16819103353)
= $108

Components:
$18 RAM: 128mb DDR PC2100 (N82E16820150522)
$114 WD 120g hard drive (N82E16822144107)
$39 XFX GeForce2 MX400 w/ composite and svideo (N82E16814150019)
$45 ATI Radeon VE (N82E16815116304)
~$30 Case
~$20 IR blaster/receiver
=  $266

Total: ~$400 (with shipping)

Now I put the case cheaply because I work at a computer store and I can get 
them
for pretty cheap there. And I know enough electronics that I can solder the IR
blaster/receiver or get my dad to do it for me and get those parts from a 
surplus
store that's local here (HSC Electronics if you're in Sacramento). Keep in 
mind that
this comes with a 120 gig hard drive too. Tivo comes with a 40 gig one for $250
and you can upgrade to the 80 gig one for $350?

>Then you have to actually MAKE some money on the box, so you add another
>15-20% to the cost of the machine as retail.  That places the price of
>your machine at about $700.  Then you have to support it, which means
>hiring a few phone people, or setting up a contract with a phone support
>agency.  And train them.  And be ready to have a coder or two on hand to
>fix bugs that Isaac isn't going to want to fix.

>Will people pay $700 for a machine when they can pay $200 + $13/month
>for something that does just as good (most people won't want/need the
>extra features in Myth)?  You'd be limited to the geek-types who know
>what they're missing, but would be more inclined to build their own
>machines from scratch.

Why would you need to add another 15-20% to the cost? Isn't that what you're
charging $25/hour to set the thing up? Maybe if you want to run a business off
of this, but the impression I got was that it would be more like a service 
to make
a little bit of money, like the people that make the IR blasters and sell them.

Even charging $500 for the above setup without any "support" to add features
and such, just pointing to this list, that's the same price as getting the $250
tivo with the $249 lifetime service. Not to mention that, but it also has 
2-3x more
recording time than the $250 tivo, and it's still a computer when you're 
done with
it (and a pretty decent one, I might add). You can't really turn a tivo into a
windows box if you don't like it, can you? Not to mention the other neat 
features
it has that tivo doesn't, like the auto-commercial skip, the ability to 
burn vcd's and
transfer the recordings to other computers, and the easy frontend/backend 
setup.

And if people don't have a router already, they can throw in a second NIC and
let it be a router for them too which shouldn't peg the CPU at all, 
although this
is still kind of nerdy to do :)

My two cents,
Kevin