[mythtv-users] More problems than it's worth?

[yan seiner]

James Minihane wrote:

>Initially I thought MythTV was THE ANSWER. But reading these lists, it
>seems that MythTV is more of a headache than a godsend. I'm not about to
>invest a few thousand in hardware into a problem ridden system.
>Here's the question...
>How many of you actually use MythTV to...
>Time delay live TV, watch DVDs, schedule recordings, listen to music, and
>view pictures and actually have things work without reboots etc?
>  
>
Just my own $0.02.... 

If you try to do things on the cheap, you will have problems.  (I'm not 
being holier than though; I am the original computer scrooge...)

The newest computer I have is about 6 years old; my server is ancient, 
my hard drives equally so, and my frontend is a castaway....

So yes, I had quite a few problems that could have been eliminated by 
having a frontend that can handle an AGP 8X NVidia card, a backend that 
doesn't redline when recording, and hard drives that don't crash...

But the fact is that I can now have more flexibility than any commercial 
product out there.

I can control my TV, my stereo, record the shows I want, watch movies, 
and do it all in a way that is largely transparent.

I started digitizing videos to eliminate the stacks of VCR tapes spread 
all over the living room.  Now I can't imagine not being able to 
instantly rewind, ff, skip, etc. - and all with a single remote.  No 
more clutter of multiple remotes.

No, it's not easy.  You'd better have pretty in-depth knowledge of many 
things, but that's the linux way.  Linux is stable by and large, but the 
learning curve is steep, and myth is not an appliance.  It has way too 
many options and uses to be a toaster....

My total investment so far (not counting 2 new harddrives to replace the 
ones that crashed) is $180 for an HDTV tuner, $50 for a PVR-150, $100 
for a used box for a secondary frontend, and probably $50 for assorted 
cables.

YMMV; computers are my hobby as well as my profession so I enjoy doing 
this kind of stuff.  If you don't, get a Tivo... (That's not meant to be 
a put-down; it's recognition that spending hours to get OTA recording 
working is not for everyone...)

--Yan