[mythtv] MythTV: Isaac Tivo: > 100 tech guys

[Kevin Elliott]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mythtv Mythtv" <almyth at sbcglobal.net>
To: <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
Cc: <mythtv-dev at mythtv.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2004 4:09 PM
Subject: [mythtv] MythTV: Isaac Tivo: > 100 tech guys


> Is it amamazing that MythTVs just Isaac, a few
> part-time guys, while Tivo has more than 100 full time
> tech guys?  (no offense to Tivo tech guys, I believe
> they are also very bright).
>
> Sure, Tivo has GUI guys, application guys, system
> engineering guys, QA... But MyMythTV's quality is
> comparable to Tivo  It's ridiculous for Tivo tolose
> money when they have 2 million customers.    Tivo was
> a nice startup,  but now ends up with a company that
> looks like very ininefficient, and clumsy,...
>
> Any thoughts on this?

I would have originally agreed, having had used MythTV for
many years now, but MythTV has lost a lot of forward progress
over the last 6+ months. If you review the CVS commit logs, you'll
notice that much of the commits to the code base are really just translation
patches to other
languages.

IMHO, and Isaac and other will flip a lid when I say this
(like they usually do), but I attribute much of the development
"slowdown" to Isaac's personal direction and resistance to
third party recommendations and design strategies. While I
agree that keeping a fast codebase is important, Isaac tends to
prefer execution speed over proper design. In the long run, it
has made things such as "communication between modules"
and "simultaneous activity in modules" non-existant in MythTV.
The simple fact that MythTV can not properly play music while
browsing photos or searching for things to record is proof of
this stagnation. It was over 16+ months ago when people attempted
to work with Isaac to solve these sorts of problems, and he rejected
most ideas in favor of his own needs. Certainly this is OK, because
it is his project. But Isaac has admitted on many occasions that his
needs are met, and he has no interest in developing features that he
is not interested in, and that others should. Excellent, that is how
Open Source projects work, others will write functionality that
others want. But Isaac (and a few others from his tight-nit group)
have had no interest or time to assist with the conceptual direction
in conversation. And those that have attempted to make design
changes, were simply shunned away after submitting patches,
deeming the patches unacceptable due to the wrong direction.

Even more so, developing modules in general are overly complicated
than what they should be. Even some of the once deemed "bad" Windows
PVRs are ages ahead in that sense, some having tens of plugins, most of
which are quite solid.

Am I dumping on MythTV, Isaac, and others who have put hard work
into writing this useful multi-platform Open Source project? Perhaps a
little. It certainly does not negate the hard work everyone has put in.
I don't entirely blame Isaac for wanting to have a specific direction
either.

But in many ways, MythTV has not kept up with the TiVo flexibility,
and feature sets. Addons to TiVo, GB-PVR, etc are very easy to write.
And with TiVo having their HMO functionality, MythTV's seems a
little prehistoric don't you think? The true ability to access all shows
from any home computer, TiVo, or HTPC. TiVo certainly has its
flaws though.

Until the structure of MythTV is redesigned, I don't think there will be
much growth by contributing developers.

My sincerest apologies if I have insulted anyone personally,

Kevin Elliott
kevin at phunc.com

>
> Thanks
>