[mythtv-users] Slightly OT - MythTV wins again!

[James Abernathy]

I've been looking to simplify my TV watching both for myself and my wife.
Her TV in the sitting area in the bedroom is down to 1 UHD TV and a FireTV
4K stick. Everything can be controlled with the FireTV remote.

However, the switching between FireTV apps and the TV tuner isn't easy with
just the one remote so I've struggled with the best way for her to watch
live TV and also streaming apps on FireTV.

On my TV until recently, you needed too much hardware and remotes to make
that a reasonable solution for anyone. So I've rebuilt my setup in the den
to a NUC PC on one HDMI input and a FireTV on the other input. But that
creates the same situation as my wife's setup; how to switch between
streaming and live TV.

We have a MythTV backend in a closet recording OTA ATSC recordings from US
based TV Networks like CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox. All this we watch using the
FireTV app Leanfront for MythTV. Yes, that has live TV but that portion of
the Leanfront app is hard to use.

The biggest problem comes from how various DVRs work. Only MythTV allows
you to precisely skip 30 or 60 seconds instantly to easily bypass
commercials which in the USA have grown to 4-5 minutes 4-5 times during a 1
hour program.

But the DVR for Cable, Satellite, and streaming services like YoutubeTV,
DirecTV Streaming, etc. only allow fast forwarding or rewind like a VHS
tape and you have to guess when to stop.

MythTV has set the bar too high for how skipping commercials should work.
But for just watching live TV like the current news or weather, it's now as
easy.

Even if you spend $200/month for a cable or Satellite TV, you may get all
your services in one place, but you still have the skip and rewind
functions like a VHS tape and not like MythTV.

Recently I thought I found a solution when switching from DirecTV
Streaming, which includes local channels but cost $100/month, to Sling TV
which cost $35/month. Sling doesn't provide Local channels, but allows you
to integrate an AirTV Anywhere box to record local OTA channels and you
access them through the same Sling app on the FireTV stick.

But same issue with everything else, on precise 30/60 second skipping past
commercials.

So for now we will still use MythTV via the Leanfront app for Local
recordings and streaming for Netflix, Prime Video, etc.

What seems to be happening to streaming in the USA this year is every
network is offering their complete library of programs on their own service
either with commercials or commercial free for a higher price.  For me that
means I could use one of these commercial free streaming services to get
all the stuff I used to record on MythTV.

The cost may work out as well. By eliminating Cable or a cable replacement
streaming service you have $100 to spend in small chunks for more targeted
streaming services. For me it breaks down like:

Sling TV for mostly ESPN/CNN $35/month
Discovery+ ad free for lifestyle/crafts $7/month
Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu ad-free bundle $20/month
You could add Paramount+ and Peacock+ ad-free for $6/month each and still
be cheaper than Cable TV.

I don't think I'll ever live to see this all simplified to an acceptable
level or any of the DVR solutions be as good as MythTV.

I shouldn't really complain. I used to be the kid who had to get out of my
chair to turn the knob on the TV to change channels when my Dad wanted to
watch one of the other 2 channels we got OTA.

Jim A
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