[mythtv-users] MythTV channel buffer

Gert van der Knokke gertk at xs4all.nl
Fri Apr 14 20:56:46 UTC 2006


Felix Rubinstein wrote:

> Hello All,
>
> While watching Live TV, there is a pause of several seconds while 
> MythTV buffers the new channel.
> If I use S-Video/RCA instead of antena and I have satellite receiver 
> it's very annoying to have 3-4 seconds delay while changing channels 
> by satellite receiver! Once again, I use S-Video not antena so browse 
> mode doesn't help.
>
If you can't use browse mode you have set up MythTV incorrectly

> Just in case I do have development skills and must say that it is very 
> bad idea to have so called channel buffer!!
> Just in case I utilize Philips HDRW 720 and guess what, it doesn't 
> have this problem at all.

And it doesn't run Linux or MythTV, it is not a computer, you can not 
set it up as single/multiple backend(s)/frontend(s) it does not play all 
kinds of audio and video formats etc. etc. etc. Apples and Pears..

> My point is that if MythTV is ever longing to be a mature software and 
> not a banch of integrational tools where every user rewrites it for 
> it's personal usage, it must drop such ideas, like above mentioned 
> channel buffer.
>
MythTV is all about viewing things you like and not zapping and channel 
surfing from commercial break to commercial break. You use it wrong.. 
Period.

> Linux is very mature OS where one can allow itself to read and write 
> simulteniously from any buffer.
> Personally, I was shocked when first read about this limitation.
> Why by choosing watch tv from main menu should there be any delay 
> before seeing live tv, why people why??? Why cannot I see the live tv 
> right away and buffer it right away too? Why? Because Philips 
> developers smarter?
>
Why would you want to use MythTV for viewing LiveTV of you already have 
a TV ?

I personally use MythTV for a couple of years now and I seldom watch 
Live TV, my backend system consists of 2 analog tuners and one DVB-S 
tuner. Having small low-power frontends (unlike MCE...where you need 
ultra fast CPU's and advanced graphic cards) in the livingroom and 
bedrooms.
With a few hundred channels to choose from: with live TV I could be 
zapping the whole evening and not see anything  or keep falling into the 
middle of a show or film.. The whole point of MythTV is you can select 
what you want to see through the EPG let the backend record it and view 
it while you have time, skipping commercial breaks and other unwanted stuff.
Furthermore MythTV keeps my CD and Recordings/DVD-rip collection, tells 
me the weatherforecast, let me browse the web- and news sites, play 
arcade games all in one.. Now beat that with your 'locked-in' Philips 
HDRW720....

Gert



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