[mythtv-users] Reasoning...help....

Nathan Allworth dittobox at gmail.com
Thu Oct 5 23:54:15 UTC 2006


David Brodbeck wrote:
> RH wrote:
>> I need help to justify a $400 myth box that can record only one show  
>> at a time vs. a $25 VCR that can record one show at a time?
>>   
> 
> The really addictive part isn't the ability to record multiple shows at
> once.  It's the scheduler.  It changes TV from something you have to fit
> into your schedule into an "on demand" sort of thing.  I can't believe
> how nice it is to have a machine automatically record all my favorite
> shows for me so I can watch them at my leisure.  I almost never watch
> live TV anymore!  And I get more sleep, 'cause I'm not staying up late
> to avoid missing Adult Swim. ;)

Not only that but there's also the ability to watch things over the 
network, on your laptop or PC (provided your network bandwidth is 
there). You can use it as a DVD player, a music player, and a video 
player if you use the plugins and your hardware supports it. You can 
copy over your DRM-free music collection over to it, or any downloaded 
video content.

Above this your video quality will be *far* better than that of a 25USD VCR.

We're even using SPDIF over optical/toslink to the surround receiver. 
With a good enough sound card you can all but eliminate interference.

Myth/Linux is also expandable: you can over the life of the device 
insert new capture cards. With enough hard drive space you can record 
more than one show at once, give shows priority, tell them which input 
card you want it to use, if it's free, and myth will work out conflicts 
and schedules without your intervention, all based on the preferences 
that you've set. You can even over-ride myth's recording selections on a 
per showing basis.

It's really quite neat!

Commercial skip seems to work well enough too :)

__
Nathan


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