[mythtv-users] Why cant we make a STB?
Simon Hobson
linux at thehobsons.co.uk
Sun Feb 15 10:59:17 UTC 2009
Udo van den Heuvel wrote:
>Mitch Gore wrote:
>>Why cant someone with the know how build some STB/Media Extended for MythTV?
>
>First think about one basic software issue:
>Memory leaks
>
>I guess you missed my posts about these?
>If you are going to produce STBs with MythTV hunderds, thousands,
>etc people will be using this software. Not all of them will want to
>dig into the stuff as we do. They expect stuff to work.
>So recording a few channels off of one multiplex should just work,
>for weeks, months on end.
>
>And no, a nightly stop/start is not acceptable because their
>favorite TV-show will be on at that time anyway.
Doesn't stop some of the big names dealing with it that way !
I know exactly what you mean - "consumers" expect a box that they
take home, plug in, it works ... and keeps working. If it doesn't,
then the scope for damage to reputation is immense.
A couple of years ago, bought my parents a Panasonic Freeview PVR -
nice specs, twin tuners, reasonable size hard disk, perm pretty well
any combination of recording and viewing that doesn't exceed the
hardware interfaces (ie you can record or watch any two channels off
air, you can watch any recording including ones still recording, and
you can play out stuff through the VCR/DVD scart socket - all at the
same time).
Trouble was, it was many many months late, in short supply, and when
it did arrive, it was bug ridden to the point of barely usable. In
hindsight I should have just sent it back (like many did), but we
waited for the broadcast software update - which was late, and didn't
fix all the bugs, but it did make the box usable (mostly). Some of
the lockups they dealt with by simply getting it to restart itself
periodically !
But the thing is, Panasonic then abandoned the product - and the only
reason they didn't get a good ravaging is that they sold so few
boxes. But for those of us who did buy it, it's meant that in the
future, I'll think carefully before buying anything technical from
Panasonic.
So the thing is, if someone starts selling a "consumer" product, then
expectations are very different. It has to "just work", "mostly
works" and "restart occasionally" just don't do it. So if the product
isn't 100% you'll get a lot of returns. Even if the returned boxes
are not faulty - there's a cost to cleaning them up, restoring the
disk to factory image, and putting in new packaging, before selling
them at a discount as "grade B" product. But the damage to brand
reputation can be enormous - how often have you heard that "Linux can
never work on the desktop, I tried it once and it didn't work <insert
reason>" ?
At the moment, my impression is that Myth is not there yet - OK for
enthusiasts, but not polished and turnkey enough for the consumer
market. That limits your market somewhat - there's a big difference
between investing for a market of hundreds of thousands, or even
millions, or boxed to the worldwide consumer market; and a few
hundreds or thousands (if lucky) to the enthusiast market.
--
Simon Hobson
Visit http://www.magpiesnestpublishing.co.uk/ for books by acclaimed
author Gladys Hobson. Novels - poetry - short stories - ideal as
Christmas stocking fillers. Some available as e-books.
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