[mythtv-users] My experience with MythTV on a day-to-day basis

[Brian Wood]

On Jun 11, 2006, at 1:43 AM, Yeechang Lee wrote:


> mythtv-users often makes depressing reading. Having done so daily for
> the past six months, I find that 90% of messages can be filed into one
> or more of these categories:
>
> * "I've neither bothered to read the extensive online tutorials and
>   walkthroughs, nor have I searched the comprehensive mailing-list
>   archives or the Wiki. Thus I will ask a question that others hashed
>   out just two days ago."
> * "I top post and can't be bothered to only quote relevant portions of
>   preceding messages."
> * "I bottom post and can't be bothered to only quote relevant portions
>   of preceding messages."
> * "This message has nothing whatsoever to do with MythTV, but I will
>   ask it here because I can't be bothered to find some more
>   appropriate venue and believe that prefixing the subject line with
>   'OT:' will magically make it right and proper."
> * "I will say nothing of my particular financial circumstances,
>   computing knowledge, or personal preferences, but nonetheless
>   request recommendations on the 'right' set of hardware components to
>   build a MythTV box."
> * "My MythTV setup was working great. I then [made a major change to
>   the box] without backing up and now nothing is right. WHY WON'T IT
>   WORK?!??!"
> * "I am trying to get a [grossly-underpowered CPU] to play HD video
>   without XvMC. WHY WON'T IT WORK?!??!"
> * "I am trying to get a [totally-unsupported video card] to play HD
>   video. WHY WON'T IT WORK?!??!"


A good cross-section of a lot of posts, to be sure.

People reading this list who are intending/hoping to get a Myth  
system running should remember that most of the posts here are from  
the (hopefully) minority who are experiencing problems.

Nobody posts to say "I read all the docs, followed the instructions  
and everything is working". You just don't see that sort of thing.  
I'd like to see a "counter" of some sort for people running Myth to  
register (bad word I know, negative connotations, but what else can I  
call it?).

I suppose if anybody could tell us how many Myth systems are running  
without posting here, in the US at least, it would be the folks at  
DataDirect.

Anyway, IMHO it is worth wading through all of the posts, and reading  
as many as I can, for the occasional one that expresses a problem  
that I think I might be able to help with, usually because I have had  
that problem, or made that mistake myself, at least once.

It is well worth reading the list for the rare times when somebody  
posts back and says: "Thanks, it's working now".

Because that means that Open Source and all it stands for is working  
too.