[mythtv-users] two and one

[Joseph A. Caputo]

> 1) I'm curious as to what brings people to try out MythTV.  Is it
> the geeky
> pleasure of building something oneself?  Is it wanting to be independent
> from TiVo's feature control or fate?  Is it cost?  Is it the
> extra features
> that one can't get from the commercial PVRs out there?
>
> Spec'ing out a Athlon/shuttle/WinTV-PVR/IR box, I can't quite seem to make
> it cost less than a TiVo + a year's service, so I'm trying to figure out
> why it's still really alluring to me to try building one.  Figured asking
> why it's alluring to other people might help illustrate it.
>



Well, for me, I've really wanted a PVR for a while, but
(a) wasn't confident that Tivo or ReplayTV, etc, wouldn't go under, leaving
me with a useless device
(b) didn't like the idea of paying a subscription fee -- I don't pay a
subscription fee to set up VCR recordings, why should I pay to use my PVR?
(c) I think multimedia/digital convergence is the next big, largely untapped
consumer tech market.  I had been kicking around the idea of developing my
own, open PVR system based on Linux and building a business around it.  Then
I tried MythTV (then at version 0.7) and realized it had already been done.
Still wondering if a viable business could be built around selling
pre-configured boxen... seems a reliable (not controlled by an independent
commercial entity) source of TV listing data would be needed, otherwise
you'd have major support issues if a listing source changed...



> 2) What have people's experience been with the amount of time it takes to
> go from "Machine assembled and hard drive blank" to "Machine
> running mythtv
> reliably, recording, scheduling, playing back"?  Anyone had a
> very short or
> very long breaking-in period, i.e. fixing minor audio/video glitches,
> getting channel-changes happening reliably, etc?  Anyone on the
> list have a
> non-technical family member who's taken to mythtv easily?
>


My initial setup went pretty quick.  I had initial issues with duplex
sound... even after I got it working, the quality was bad (but looking back
I think I was probably pegging the CPU capturing at too high a
resolution/quality, causing stuttering).  Once I realized my WinTV-PCI card
could do btaudio, I was a happy camper.

My wife has adjusted to life with MythTV, and enjoys its benefits, although
she's not comfortable in the driver's seat yet.


-JAC