[mythtv-users] Freevo, Tivo & MythTV
Richard Freeman
r-mythtv at thefreemanclan.net
Sat Nov 18 15:23:11 UTC 2006
Phil Bridges wrote:
> Perhaps if everybody that uses MythTV gets exactly the same hardware,
> we can optimize the code for that hardware like the tivo people do.
>
> Honestly, if you've experienced 17 seconds to start up live TV, that
> sounds like an issue outside of the MythTV world.
Keep in mind that the Tivo world is full of diversity too.
Many of the stand-alone boxes are attached to set-top boxes and they can
take a second or two to change channels via serial or IR-blasters. I'd
say they are somewhat faster than myth, but not by much.
On the other hand, many of the newer units have integrated
tuners/decoders, and obviously this sort of setup is going to be faster
than having a daisy-chain of adapters from encrypted feed to tuner card.
Perhaps Cablecard could change this some day - if it ever is made to
support non-blessed hardware.
Sure, it would be nice if MythTV was able to stream the live TV a little
faster and not buffer it quite as much, but this is probably a difficult
optimization considering the variety in hardware that must be supported,
and the split frontend/backend configuration that it supports. With a
Tivo they could probably just put a splitter on the decoder output and
run it directly to the video out when watching live TV. Unless we all
buy the same tuner cards and start soldering parts onto them we'll
probably never get to that point.
I think the important thing is to be constructive here - the myth devs
have created a GREAT product but they aren't being paid and obviously
they're going to focus more on the features that THEY use. I'm sure
they're all to happy to improve things like live TV, but try to come
with suggestions and not just gripes. Or at least make the gripes sound
nice... :)
For the record, I think that MythTV live TV support isn't nearly as
polished as the Tivos I've used, and even some non-Tivo DVRs. Also, for
the record the last time I watched Live TV was probably months ago - but
this might also be the result of it not being worth the trouble. And
finally, for the record I find my Myth setup FAR more useful than my
Tivo ever was - especially after DirecTV pulled the plug on any new
useful features being deployed! Sure, there are aspects of it that I'd
like to see improved (support for non-uniform keyframes so that I can do
my own transcoding, a working mythweather in the main tree, fewer
freezes and hangups in general - not that they're all that common on the
backend where it counts), but I've only been happy with the decision I
made to switch to Myth...
More information about the mythtv-users
mailing list