[mythtv-users] Reasoning...help....

[Brad DerManouelian]

On Oct 5, 2006, at 4:54 PM, Nathan Allworth wrote:

> David Brodbeck wrote:
>> RH wrote:
>>> I need help to justify a $400 myth box that can record only one show
>>> at a time vs. a $25 VCR that can record one show at a time?
>>>
>>
>> The really addictive part isn't the ability to record multiple  
>> shows at
>> once.  It's the scheduler.  It changes TV from something you have  
>> to fit
>> into your schedule into an "on demand" sort of thing.  I can't  
>> believe
>> how nice it is to have a machine automatically record all my favorite
>> shows for me so I can watch them at my leisure.  I almost never watch
>> live TV anymore!  And I get more sleep, 'cause I'm not staying up  
>> late
>> to avoid missing Adult Swim. ;)
>
> Not only that but there's also the ability to watch things over the
> network, on your laptop or PC (provided your network bandwidth is
> there). You can use it as a DVD player, a music player, and a video
> player if you use the plugins and your hardware supports it. You can
> copy over your DRM-free music collection over to it, or any downloaded
> video content.
>
> Above this your video quality will be *far* better than that of a  
> 25USD VCR.
>
> We're even using SPDIF over optical/toslink to the surround receiver.
> With a good enough sound card you can all but eliminate interference.
>
> Myth/Linux is also expandable: you can over the life of the device
> insert new capture cards. With enough hard drive space you can record
> more than one show at once, give shows priority, tell them which input
> card you want it to use, if it's free, and myth will work out  
> conflicts
> and schedules without your intervention, all based on the preferences
> that you've set. You can even over-ride myth's recording selections  
> on a
> per showing basis.
>
> It's really quite neat!
>
> Commercial skip seems to work well enough too :)

Commercial skip is the single feature that made me ditch my Tivo  
forever. Not until after I got my system up and running did I do the  
super-cool stuff like getting everyone's machine in the house set up  
as a frontend thereby removing televisions from every room but the  
living room. automatically copy tv shows over to my iPod without  
touching a single button, playing arcade games with MAME, upgrading  
my system when I was ready to make the LCD display/HDTV plunge. The  
cost is the only reason not to go with Myth. It's not cheap to build  
a system. It's not meant to be. It's meant to be a fully functional  
home-entertainment/media center. A one-stop shop for TV (SD, HD),  
movies (videos, DVDs, internet streams), music (CDs, mp3's, internet  
streams), games (MAME), photos, weather, news, and yes.. even  
NetFlix! That's what it's become for me.