[mythtv-users] Cost of MythTV Machines

[Raphael Pooser]

Brian Wood wrote:
>> [The following is *not* addressed to Brian specifically; Brian, please
>> don't take it as such. It's also in some ways a repeat of what I wrote
>> in
>> <URL:http://www.mail-archive.com/mythtv-users@mythtv.org/ 
>> msg53363.html>.]
>>
>> I know this is the cue for half the list to jump in with how they
>> built a great MythTV box out of the parts sitting in the closet, or
>> how they bought a $100 motherboard and a $25 case and a $100 CPU,
>> etc., etc., and built a great MythTV box. Hey, more power to
>> you. Guess what? Most of you aren't even trying to do HDTV, or if you
>> are you're likely the ones trying to play 1080i with a low-end Celeron
>> or two year-old AMD and finding that even XvMC doesn't help much. Let
>> me repeat: My time is worth money. Or, conversely, it can be
>> worthwhile to pay someone else to do the heavy lifting in the whole
>> parts procurement and assembly phase of MythTV. Heaven knows this list
>> is living proof that the software phase is difficult enough!
>>
>>     
> I would not have taken the above incorrectly, even without the  
> disclaimer, your points are quite valid.
>
> I realize that time is money of course. I just happen to be retired  
> from the television broadcast business and have more time to tinker  
> than most, and I can't resist playing around with Video.
>
> I do of course miss the days when the 3TB that I see mentioned as  
> "huge storage" was the size of the RAM cache for our server, and our  
> encoders cost more than the house I now live in :-)
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>
>   
If time is money, you know DirecTV does have HD PVRs too, and they skip 
commercials, maybe do other mythlike things too, not sure.  So if you 
want to do HD and time IS money, then, well, for one, highly expensive 
mythTV set ups may not be the way to go, because mythtv isn't the only 
game in town for HD.  Seems like some people think that for some reason.
At any rate, most of the people here who are so happy to scavenge out 
boxes and build myth machines have all pretty much disclaimed that HD is 
another story altogether.  I think most people are focussing on SD 
because they're getting mainly SD through their standard cable services, 
etc.  Unfortunately in my area, HD just isn't an issue, unless you go 
with some type of satellite dish TV.  They do have digital, but the 
price is sort of prohibitive with respect to the amount of TV watched 
per month - in my case.  It's not that we don't care about HD or are 
patting ourselves on the back for building such cheap and resourceful 
systems, it's just that we like building capable things for cheap 
period.  That's why people are getting into the problem areas with 
trying out 1080i on celerons.  Plain and simple HD is cpu intensive no 
two ways about it.  Driver support is great, but get a fast processor in 
order to get it up on your screen at the moment, until the drivers 
really get there.  So, the only things driving up prices in HD systems 
are your top end athlon64s or you 3+GHz P4s and a good HD tuner, which 
gets a bit of a premium over an SD hardware setup; no biggie.
There was one email I sent out that showed a mythtv machine that 
basically could do the bare minimum and is a complete underclass 
compared to a High def setup, but it was to show that a machine at the 
quality level of a tivo is already possible for the same price as a 
series 2 tivo with the lifetime subscription, just to provide a matter 
of perspective on the low end.  Maybe someone can look into the prices 
(or monthly fees) of a HD PVR premade system and compare what it would 
cost to make an equivalent myth set up for us?  That would probably help.
Raphael