[mythtv-users] MythDevice?

[Anil Gupte]

Yes, but I have made a living selling PCs (486s in those days) to dumb 
customers, and not so dumb customers as well.  I think one could have a living 
at it.  Of course my gig would be to be a supplier to all the people who wanted 
to sell to the end customer.  BTW, you can't buy new PIII machines and you can't 
buy any Intel chips lower than 2Ghz - I think they buy them back so they won't 
be in the market.

Well, it's a thought - I will investigate the possibilities and get back to you. 
:-)  In my spare time of course.

Anil Gupte
www.keeninc.net
www.icinema.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brian Wood" <beww at beww.org>
To: "Discussion about mythtv" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 3:50 AM
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] MythDevice?



On May 31, 2006, at 6:20 AM, Anil Gupte wrote:

> "As I said, you have described a TiVo perfectly "  Yes, but I
> cannot tinker with
> it or modify it etc.
>
> If TiVo can sell a box for $400 lifetime cost, then surely they
> must be making
> it for about $250.  In other words, it is possible to make this
> hardware at that
> price (in volume).  Perhaps I will make such a box and try selling
> it to all the
> mythtv, freevo etc users out there. :-)  Or if someone is already
> planning this
> let me know, I will buy a few.  I could make money selling it to a
> couple of
> hundred people and adding some custom apps.

TiVo has yet to actually make a profit, and they have been at it for
many years, they have also stopped offering the lifetime deal. So, if
you believe you have discovered a path to instant riches I suggest
you look elsewhere :-)

Several folks have brought up the possibility of doing what you
describe, I believe that most of them faltered on the "where do I get
the data" problem.


Still, have a look at:

http://www.vwbinc.com/

http://www.koobox.com/

and many others.

You can pick up working PIII 750-900 Mhz. machines for less than $75,
fast enough to do SD with hardware compression. Add a capture card or
two, perhaps a video card, and you are pretty close to the $250 you
mention for building a TiVo (I suspect it costs them much less than
that).

But who would WANT to ??

My opinion is that I have no desire to have to answer the inevitable
idiotic questions from customers, as once you take their money they
have no compunctions about bothering you constantly with questions
that will make even P.T. Barnum's assessment of human intelligence
seem optimistic. There must be easier ways to make a living.

_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users at mythtv.org
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users