[mythtv-users] Why did you pick MythTV VS the other PVRs?

[Paul Gardiner]

The reasons I originally chose MythTV and the reasons I now
keep it are not exactly the same.

Reasons for choosing it:

1) The thought that I could have a tiny silent frontend and
lose the noisy bits (fans, discs) from the viewing room.

2) One box does all. Previously I had a DVR, a DVD recorder
and a separate high quality DVD player. MythTV replaced the lot.

3) Being able to add as many tuners and discs as I like.

4) Having access to the raw recordings to put them on DVD,
if really good or if a friend misses an episode.


Disappointments:

1) I built three frontends before I managed image quality
(sharpness, colour and fluidity of motion) that equalled
my Thomson DHD 4000, and in doing so I had to drop the
"small and silent" requirement, because very few video
chips/drivers can produce interleaved output from VGA.
(The Ion may be a possibility, but didn't exist then.)

2) Various little problems that aren't considered bugs
so are probably here to stay.


Reasons for keeping MythTV:

1) Although I never added more than two tuners, the
ability to record multiple streams from a single MUX
is brilliant.

2) MythTVs scheduling is just amazing, especially access via
Mythweb. That's probably the thing that would most stop
me going back to a commercial DVR.

3) MythVideo is brilliant. I used to have to burn shows from
the web to DVD to play them. Now I just play them directly.
This was an unexpected benefit.

4) Having plenty of storage, and being able to vastly compress
recordings with little loss of quality.

5) I still value access to the raw recordings, although
I find I rarely use it.

Cheers,
	Paul.