[mythtv-users] Nbie question--should I take the plunge?

[William Munson]

mythtv at lrlart.com wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Sorry in advance if this is not an appropriate question for this
> forum--but I'd really like to build up a mythtv system. I have some
> linux chops and can probably get a system configured and running, but
> after reading the form I have the following questions:
>
> 1) I have a significant other who is considerably less technically
> adept. Is this going to be a pain in the *ss for her to use and will I
> have to spend a significant amount of time handholding? Or once the
> system is up and running will it be relatively problem free?
>   
Generally things are quite stable after the inital install and 
troubleshoot session. With my box on a UPS, my uptime is measured in 
months. Since everything the tv viewer does is by a standard remote 
control it is pretty much a no brainer. You navigate the menus to the 
function you want. My very non-tech wife took 10 minutes to get 
comfortable with the basics. One thing that may take a bit of getting 
used to is no longer watching "live tv". This is especially true if you 
only have one capture device. Multiple devices make this a non issue 
too. For me the hardware MPEG encoders of the PVR-250/500 cards was 
ideal. No cpu power needed to encode video.

 For my wife the big plus was no longer watching commercials. I have my 
system set to flag and auto-skip commercials. This is a feature that NO 
commercial dvr will ever have. The show comes to a commercial and a 
little box comes up for a second saying "skipping 59 seconds" and you 
are back to your show. No watching fast forwarded commercials, they 
simply are not there. Of course if she like to see the latest garbage 
about pampers not leaking then you are in trouble. Just kidding. You can 
turn off commercial skip for any show while you watch the show and they 
are all back. You can also configure it to show a warning when a 
commercial starts and she can press a remote button to do the skip. I 
feel the commercial skip code is good enough to trust on all the 
stations we watch. Your mileage may vary!
> 2) I'm looking at using the Antec Fusion case, but has anyone
> successfully set up the drivers for the display and knob on the case?
>
>   
Sorry cannot comment on that case but the name sounds familiar. Search 
the archives at gossimar-threads for those keywords. One nice thing 
about this project is that there is an amazingly large skilled user base 
to help you thru the rough spots.