<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 5:27 PM, Paul Harrison <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mythtv@sky.com" target="_blank">mythtv@sky.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">With all the talk of users preferring to use XBMC my question is simple.<br>
<br>
What needs to change to make you want to use MythTV again?<br>
<br>
Paul H.<br>
_______________________________________________<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>As a front end, XBMC isn't good. It's just a bunch of ugly Python scripts and doesn't work so well. And MythTV's back end is pretty great. The underlying technology and how well it works is really a great system. That being said, Myth has some serious drawbacks in this age of content-everywhere:<br>
<br></div><div>1) Its media organization and playback, in a word, sucks. It was a nice start when MythVideo became an integral part of MythTV and the interface controls were united, but it's still just plain terrible. Navigation is awful, metadata parsing is awful, usability is awful. XBMC and Plex for the most part "just work" with media files. Back in the day I used to set up XBMC and Boxee shortcuts in the MythTV menus and switch to those apps when I wanted to watch any of my ripped media. Nowadays I switch to either my Roku or Chromecast and use Plex. The devs should scrap the media playback altogether and just find a way to bake XBMC or Plex into its interface. <br>
<br></div><div>2) Playback on different device - Now that I have the Plex plugin for MythTV recordings, I can play my recordings virtually anywhere, on any device. Plex transcodes the data for me based on my connection speed, and it works rather well. Unlike MythTV's HLS, I can seek, pause, and resume shows where I left off. I can watch recordings at home, at work, in the car, and anywhere else there's internet access on my phone, tablet, work PC, iPod, iPad, Roku and Chromecast. The closest Myth came to this was the Torc iOS app (which is a fantastic interface as a remote but not so much for playback), but in the end using Plex is so much easier.<br>
<br></div><div>3) Setup, even of front ends: Setup has grown in leaps and bounds over the ten+ years I've used Myth, but it's still not as easy as it "should" be (Yes, it's a free product and no, I'm not a developer, so I'm sorry if I sound like a pompous end user but I'm comparing products here). I have several front ends throughout my house and rarely ever is it as simple as install Myth and go. I usually have to have the mysql password, unlock the proprietary drivers, and set up my video & audio settings. I will say that the setup wizard is fantastic compared to the 'old way' and really makes life easier. And yes, setting up XBMC or Plex Home Theater, especially on Linux, takes some tweaking, but for whatever reason Myth just takes /more/. I've resorted to putting an HDMI splitter in the basement and driving three monitors from one Front End, just to make life easier. <br>
<br></div><div>4) Lack of a decent ARM or $100 solution - We see all of these threads on "would this work with Myth" and "why not this cheap box", but nobody can ever get them to work. Meanwhile a Roku device can render 1080p video for $50 with a remote! Why isn't there a low-end version of Myth FE tailored to some specific devices? If somebody came out with a Myth front end device with a custom build of MythTV for $199 or lower, I'd buy it in a second. Why hasn't this happened yet? Resources? Funding? Lack of interest? Surely somebody can build a no-frills FE interface similar to a Roku or Boxee Box, no?<br>
<br></div><div>5) Apps and the ability to use Myth as an all-in-one appliance: I use MythTV for two things: LiveTV and recorded programs. That's it. When I want YouTube I switch to my Xbox. Anything else I use the Roku. For all the horsepower MythTV needs, I'm surprised that nobody has written a decent, /simple/ application framework. MythNetVision is too clunky and hard to set up. With Plex, Roku and XBMC, I load up an app and go. This is another piece that Myth should just integrate from XBMC and call it a day.<br>
<br></div><div>7) *Cast support: When the Airplay support came out, it was pretty sweet and a great way to send media to my front end. But the more Apple locked things down, the less Myth supported it. Now it seems to be abandoned altogether, or I'm just doing something seriously wrong because I can't send data from my Apple devices anymore. Why not adopt the Chromecast / Allcast / Whatevercast protocols that are out in the Google world? If my FE showed up as a *cast device and worked, I'd use it with my phone for a lot of the YouTube and other media viewing options I currently use my Roku and Xbox for.<br>
<br></div><div>I've used XBMC since it was on the original Xbox, and I've used Myth since at least 0.24, but I've never had a good reason to use just one over the other. However, the world of media consumption is changing rapidly, and more and more I find myself watching my media on something like a Roku or Chromecast device. I hope Myth can keep up with the changing techs and come out with a product that somebody like me could use for all my media. I'd gladly pay real money for it.<br>
</div></div></div></div>