[mythtv-users] Myka is Shipping

[Mike Perkins]

Brian Wood wrote:
> It seems Myka is finally shipping, at least I received mine yesterday, having 
> waited since last February.
> 
> http://www.myka.tv/home.html
> 
> Not a replacement for Myth, obviously, but an interesting (though perhaps 
> over-priced) product.
> 
> It will play my PVR-150 recordings via Myth's UPnP server, my D-Link DSM-520 
> would not do that, apparently too high a bitrate. It plays h264 files quite 
> well.
> 
> Since the OS is open and available for hacking, it might ultimately be 
> possible to make this unit a complete Myth frontend. The AppleTV-like form 
> factor is nice, and it has a full set of A/V output connectors, a nice remote 
> and a decent user interface. It has 2 USB host ports and a downstream 
> (type "B") port for direct access to the internal storage. It also came with 
> an 802.11n WiFi dongle. It does have a small fan, but I can't hear it (though 
> I admit my ears are not what they were 40 years ago). You can also connect a 
> USB DVD drive to it.
> 
> In the meantime, it's a decent UPnP client, with several other useful features 
> (I'll not discuss the BitTorrent and Usenet clients here).
> 
> I had ordered the 80GB unit, figuring there was no point in buying hard drives 
> from them, but it came with a 250GB drive, perhaps in an attempt to 
> compensate me for the long delay in shipping. In fact, I don't even see a 
> 250GB unit for sale, perhaps it's hard to buy small drives these days.
> 
> It's certainly useable out of the box by non-techies, but seems to have a lot 
> of potential as an adjunct to a Myth system.
> 
> My only complaint so far is the front panel LEDs are almost bright enough to 
> read by, I may have to put some ND gray gel over them.
> 
Having had a look at the referenced page, my take on this is that this device 
has to "phone home" in oder to do almost anything. On the server side of the 
architecture diagram, for instance, there's "account management", and also "The 
Myka interface is actually downloaded from our servers".

I'd be as interested as any other Myth user to see what people can actually do 
with this device on it's own, although it sounds expensive.

-- 

Mike Perkins