[mythtv-users] Sell mythtv "set-top" boxes

[Max]

> Ah, this was my dream, too...
>
> unfortunately, I just don't see it as feasible, mainly from a support
> standpoint.  Unless you're prepared to give *lots* of support (costing you
> *lots* of time) to your customers, it won't work.  Keep in mind that the
> likely consumer base will be people not comfortable or familiar with a
> terminal prompt, much less any Linux commands.  They probably couldn't
even
> install a new rpm.  Those that could would probably just take the plunge
and
> build their own Myth box (just read the list archives!).

Actually there are also people like myself who have lots of experience with
linux (I am a unix sysadmin), but not too much time to tinker or knowledge
about MythTV itself. I'd love to be able to just buy a prepackaged box that
has known good drivers for all components and know that a good deal of
people have same hardware combination. In an event of future problems, I do
not have to debug by myself.

As for support, An easy way to reduce amount of support is to  standardize
hardware and software configurations and build our own distribution. It's
not as duffucult as it sounds, it will essentially be a stripped down redhat
(or even plain redhat  with a kickstart script) and create a "MythUpdate"
user interface module that will Install/Uninstall/Update/Verify RPMS's over
the network. You can even use something like apt4rpm to download rpm's from
multiple locations. You can alert users when new packages are available and
allow them to manually seelct the updates they want via a pretty little
menu.

> Even assuming that Myth itself was rock-solid stable (in a perfect world
> needing no support), the big issue (the real killer as far as I'm
concerned)
> is TV listing data.  Until there is a reliable, free & open source for TV
> listing data, Myth will only be for those able to support the installation
> themselves.  What would happen if you sold 20 of these boxen, then Zap2It
> ...
> they could, they wouldn't be buying it from you!).  Tivo and the other
> commercial PVRs solved the problem by maintaining their own listing
services
> (for a fee).

Having a fee based listing alternative to xmltv is NOT a bad thing in
itself. As long as the fee is for a single easily replacable module, it can
be a choice, yet not forced onto the users. If XMLTV goes out for a while,
you can always use the pay service while working on alternatives. Also if
the quality of listings is better, I bet many people would choose to pay.

-M