[mythtv-users] Myka is Shipping

[Brian Wood]

It seems Myka is finally shipping, at least I received mine yesterday, having 
waited since last February.

http://www.myka.tv/home.html

Not a replacement for Myth, obviously, but an interesting (though perhaps 
over-priced) product.

It will play my PVR-150 recordings via Myth's UPnP server, my D-Link DSM-520 
would not do that, apparently too high a bitrate. It plays h264 files quite 
well.

Since the OS is open and available for hacking, it might ultimately be 
possible to make this unit a complete Myth frontend. The AppleTV-like form 
factor is nice, and it has a full set of A/V output connectors, a nice remote 
and a decent user interface. It has 2 USB host ports and a downstream 
(type "B") port for direct access to the internal storage. It also came with 
an 802.11n WiFi dongle. It does have a small fan, but I can't hear it (though 
I admit my ears are not what they were 40 years ago). You can also connect a 
USB DVD drive to it.

In the meantime, it's a decent UPnP client, with several other useful features 
(I'll not discuss the BitTorrent and Usenet clients here).

I had ordered the 80GB unit, figuring there was no point in buying hard drives 
from them, but it came with a 250GB drive, perhaps in an attempt to 
compensate me for the long delay in shipping. In fact, I don't even see a 
250GB unit for sale, perhaps it's hard to buy small drives these days.

It's certainly useable out of the box by non-techies, but seems to have a lot 
of potential as an adjunct to a Myth system.

My only complaint so far is the front panel LEDs are almost bright enough to 
read by, I may have to put some ND gray gel over them.

-- 
Brian Wood
beww at beww.org