[mythtv-users] Considering MythTV, curious about relative WAF.

[Gavin Haslett]

On 6/9/05, David Asher <david.asher at caviumnetworks.com> wrote:
> Our household is currently all DirecTivos (2 series 1, 1 HDTivo).
>
> My wife LOVES her/our tivos.  (As do I)
>
> Unfortunately, DirecTV ticked me off recently with the NFL Sunday Ticket
> pricing, and I've always loved the convergence possiblities (realities?)
> of MythTV, so I'm thinking of using it as an opportunity to bring in MythTV.
>
> Once MythTV is working, is it as stable as the tivos?  Is it as
> trustworthy as the tivos?  I haven't had a chance to play with it yet,
> is it as easy to use as the tivos?  I know it can do things that the
> tivos can't, but I'm not sure my wife will be interested in those things.
>
> Anyone with experience using both directivos and MythTV please chime
> in.  I really,really,REALLY don't want to lose the WAF of the Tivos.
>
> Thanks,
>
> David.

You know, I think a lot of the reliability of MythTV comes from the components you use, how good you are at integrating them and so forth. I have a box I built from older but good quality components, and my reliability is excellent. About the only time it actually breaks is when I fiddle with it and break it!
 
There are a few annoyances; I still have random failures of the mythbackend service for no obvious reason... but I implemented a little script that checks if mythbackend is running once a minute and restarts it if not. Usually a minor inconvenience since it only fails every few days if at all.
 
I have a Series I DirecTivo as well... the Tivo is probably a little more "reliable" since it's truly dedicated hardware designed for a specific purpose. No matter how good the Myth software, it's still a general-purpose PC being used for one specific purpose and therefore not as "efficient" as the DirecTivo. However, the fact that said DTV now sits in my study disconnected and unused tells you how much I prefer Myth. Besides, the flexibility of the MythTV box is significantly better. The ability to get weather in realtime, read news, browse my sizeable MP3 and Picture collection on my TV and all with a single IR remote that closely resembles the one from the Tivo is incredible. Add the expandability (I recently traded out my single 60Gb drive for a pair of 160Gb in a mirror for my recordings in about an hour and a half) and I think Myth makes a better solution.
 
Of course, YMMV... but my experience has been extremely positive to the point that my family and myself don't really even think about the fact that the Myth box is a "hobbyist" project.
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