[mythtv-users] Live TV playback frustration

[Tyler T]

> For the other comments about watching live TV -
> in this case unless we wait 3-4 hours for the recording
> to finish we have to watch it live,

Why wait? Myth will let you watch a recording still in-progress. You
can start watching mere seconds after the recording starts
(personally, I would rather wait 12 minutes or so, so I could
commercial-skip).

> And I like
> watching old movies on TCM at bedtime. I do not want to record them,
> just relax watching.

I know you say you don't want to record them, but why not? Hard drives
are cheap, one movie won't take much space: you could set a rule to
record category=movies on TCM with a max recording limit of 1. Then
you'll be able to watch whatever movie is in-progress and it'll get
deleted automatically with no further action on your part. Plus,
you'll now have the option of watching a movie from the beginning (to
catch important early plot elements). And, you can play back with
timestretch for slow movies. You can also skip commercials or boring
bits. And should you discover a really great movie you might like to
watch again, or that your spouse or friend might like to watch later,
or if you just feel sleepy and want to finish it later yourself, you
can 'preserve this episode' or archive it or burn it or whatever. Or
you can export it to your mobile device for later viewing away from
home.

I agree there are valid use cases for LiveTV, but I think (IMHO) there
are many more compelling reasons to change your viewing habits
instead. Even if LiveTV were perfectly stable, leaving it behind would
be an upgrade in my book.