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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">We have a library of ~2400 old movies
and and ~1000 old TV shows. We use MythTV primarily to record old
movies off of TCM with a Ceton-infiniTV cablecard tuner.<br>
<br>
My wife tolerates the Kodi UI. She hates the MythTV UI. She uses
MythWeb and stays away from MythTV UI for scheduling. I am okay
with using Myth as a PVR. I don't use it to view or navigate
through our library of recordings. <br>
<br>
Our typical use of Mythtv is:<br>
<ul>
<li>Use MythWeb to schedule and manage recording of movies (even
here we would like a one-click "record this damn movie" button
instead of: select movie, select "record once" button, return
to previous menu). I modified the record scripts so that a
symlink is created in our own "ReadyToTrim" folder once the
recording is complete. <br>
</li>
<li>Use Avidemux to trim the (TCM) movie, which has no
commercials.</li>
<li>Save the Avidemux output into a folder where a script feeds
it to HandBrake to create an .mkv, detelecined, deinterlaced.</li>
<li>After HandBrake is finished, I manually check that that
everything worked okay.</li>
<li>I manually delete the intermediate copies and delete the
recording from Mythtv.</li>
</ul>
We used to use SageTV, which had it's own movie trimming and
encoding capability. Handbrake is superior, but my wife hates
having to use multiple tools and having to perform so many manual
operations. She really wants to:<br>
<ul>
<li>Select movie</li>
<li>Trim movie</li>
<li>Once the trim is complete scratch files are automatically
deleted<br>
</li>
</ul>
I started with XBMC/Kodi, so I am a bit biased. I found it much
easier to setup and maintain than MythTV. Myth is a bit more
troublesome (having to restart the backend for various reasons is
annoying and requires me to lookup how to do it each time).
Recently, I have to manually intervene every time Mythweb updates
(the update configuration script fails because a symlink already
exists). <br>
<br>
In general, I would say that Mythtv is good, but needs polish. It
is not something that my wife could maintain for very long. Kodi
does have its challenges, but is generally much smoother to
install and maintain. Kodi PVR support is not very good, but it is
fairly new and requires support from the PVR backend, which is
still in its infancy, and more complicated, due to more parties
having to agree on the api, etc.<br>
<br>
I do wish the metaphor of Kodi and MythTV were converging. Stupid
things are annoying, like in Kodi, up-arrow means advance 10
minutes into movie, while in MythTV it means go back. It would be
great if there was a "Kodi" theme.<br>
<br>
I should point out that my wife has low-vision. She basically sees
in black and white, and so requires high contrast. She can't see
the difference between blue/red/green, etc. She also can't read
the menus on the TV screen 3 feet from her. She much prefers an
applet, or very predictable remote behavior. Context sensitive
menus can drive her nuts (as well as me). <br>
<br>
I should also point out that I have a "mildly mentally retarded"
brother (a very experienced first or second grader, but unable to
learn much more) who I have setup a highly customized Kodi system
for all of his Godzilla, Frankenstein, I Love Lucy and other
shows. You would be amazed at how he can mess the system up or get
completely lost. I would never, never, never dream of having him
use Mythtv. Nor would I ever try to get my mother in law to try
it. <br>
<br>
I think both Kodi and Myth could benefit from a UI rework, with a
focus on simplification, in an, "Apple" sort of way. A mindset
that an 8-button remote is better than a 100-button remote is a
good thing. <br>
<br>
Don't get me wrong. MythTV is very, very valuable to is. However,
I wish things were a bit smoother, a bit more similar to Kodi, a
bit easier for my wife to use.<br>
<br>
On 2015-05-20 10:15 AM, Damian wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:555CA51C.3080608@surr.co.uk" type="cite">Hi
all,
<br>
<br>
I'm really surprised to hear so many of you moving over to Kodi as
a front end. Am I right in thinking that Kodi is based on (or
'is') XBMC? I have tried XMBC roughly once every year or two since
it came out as I feel I must be 'missing something'. Every time I
try it, I uninstall it after a couple of days. I find it
repeatedly horrible to set up, sluggish and ugly (compared to the
best Myth themes) and I just don't see any benefits. I think
MythTV with one of the nice themes (like the most recent Steppes),
is SO much better.
<br>
<br>
What am I missing? What is it about XBMC/Kodi that people like and
even prefer?
<br>
<br>
I'm not trying to be on a high horse, I'm genuinely interested.
<br>
<br>
Maybe XBMC/Kodi doesn't work very well with Ubuntu/MythBuntu
setups for some reason?
<br>
<br>
Looking forward to reading your thoughts,
<br>
Damian
<br>
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</blockquote>
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