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<TITLE>MythTV vs. SageTV vs. Etc....</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>Now, before we get started, let me say that I am a true believer in MythTV and its bright future. I also now understand fully what a convergence appliance can mean and expect this industry to grow quickly in the coming years. <BR>
I really want this to be a fair discussion about where MythTV stands in the PVR market. What has spurned this debate in my own mind is the discovery/re-discovery of a program called SageTV:<BR>
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<a href="http://www.freytechnologies.com/">http://www.freytechnologies.com/</a><BR>
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Now, from a first glance, SageTV looks like the closest real competition to MythTV’s PVR functionality. It can timeshift television, schedule programming from a non-subscription based service through available internet connection, and most surprisingly to me, handle multiple tuner cards. It can also act as a server/client to stream programming thoughout a LAN. Like MythTV, it seems to have a very active development cycle and user/fan base.<BR>
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It does not, however, support some of Myth’s peripheral features. I can find no mention of transcoding, DVD ripping or modules like weather, news, or game emulation. It does look like the conflict resolution is quite good and they claim the box can actually predict programming that you might want to watch based on viewing habits, like TIVO. <BR>
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The most interesting thing to a nOOb like myself is that is runs on Win2k/XP. For me, and likely many others, this is attractive in that we don’t have to learn a new OS. Personally, I enjoyed the thrill of setting up my MythBox in that I learn something new everytime. I feel more comfortable with Linux in general now, but still realize that I am missing some basic level knowledge that would make me less dependent on the various guides and community support. In other words, whenever something “breaks” I feel a little helpless and frustrated. It is only a guess, but I feel much more confident fixing something in Windows and would therefore feel less likely to bash my little computer into junk less quickly should, say, my system crashed in the middle of a high-load operation (transcoding, 3 weeks ago).<BR>
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So, how do we feel about how Myth stands up against the competition? Linux is undeniably more stable in general, but support for the hardware is behind that of the Wintel world. Truth be told, my general wish for my PVR as it stands is an easy way to archive my shows to DVD-Video. Right now, it isn’t easy for me and if Sage or anyone else can give me the PVR functionality of Myth, with an easy archival tool (and yes, I know several on the list have talked about development of such a system) I will take a hard look at it.<BR>
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-Sean</SPAN></FONT>
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