Joshua Zeidner wrote: > Hi Leslie, > > Thanks for the reply. I am currently working with a local > entrepreneur to prototype a linux based 'PVR'( Personal Video Recorder > ). I see a great value in Linux due to its open nature and the ability > for 3rd parties to contribute to whatever basic functionality we deem > necessary for our market. Naturally, MythTV came up( also Freevo is > being investigated ). It would be really great to hear your experiences > with MythTV. Do you consider it to be a toy? A useful platform? What > hardware did you use( Hauppauge card )? any info would be great! > > Thanks, Josh Zeidner > I had the Cox DVR, but got tired of paying the $15 a month and whatever premium I was paying for Digital Cable, plus when I heard they were going to expire "Six Feet Under" episodes after 2 weeks, I assumed that they'd eventually start limiting everything, so I decided to try MythTV and have never looked back. Also, with Cox, I had it stop recording everything several times, one crash where I lost all my recordings, and a few spontaneous resets during a recording. I have a dedicated myth box running Gentoo and serving as both backend and frontend. It's an Athlon 1700 with a Hauppauge PVR-250 and a PVR-150, nVidia 5200 video card, plus 3 250GB disks using LVM to make 2 partitions - one for tv recordings and one for video. The 3 disks are overkill, but obviously provide much more space than the Cox DVR. I only have standard definition tv and analog cable, so it's a pretty simple setup. HDTV and/or digital cable complicate the situation. It is also in a plain beige case and is noisy but I haven't bothered to spend the time or money necessary to make it cool, quiet, and pretty. I also have frontends running on another Linux box and my Mac Mini - these just play on monitors. My first install was trivially easy, as I simply added the PVR-250 card and emerged the necessary packages on an existing Gentoo system with a 120GB drive, connected to a monitor. It just worked. However, I had to start fiddling with it, of course. At one point I had a separate Master Backend and a Slave Backend/Frontend, each with a capture card, but discovered (the hard way) that the Hauppauge PVRs don't play nice with motherboards with Via 266 chipsets. I also had a bad PVR-150 and spent a long time trying to make it work, convinced that I was doing something wrong. I got a replacement and popped it in the system, and it worked immediately. I've had some other problems, too and have spent a lot of time troubleshooting, but for me, that's fun. I wouldn't recommend MythTV yet to anyone who doesn't enjoy geeking around with computers, so in that sense, it is not as useful as a Tivo or something similar. Also, if you want something that looks like a Tivo, it won't be cheaper, and could be a lot more expensive, even without the monthly fee. But what you do get is control and features. Featurewise, it blows the commercial PVRs out of the water. I pretty much use it just to record tv, then watch, then delete, so I've barely scratched the surface. But two features I love are commercial skipping and time stretch. Time stretch allow you to speed up (or slow down) playback of the recording, but adjusts the pitch so the voices don't sound like chipmunks. Using both of these, I can watch a 30 minute "Jeopardy" in about 13 minutes! I'm learning Spanish, so I watch the Spanish channels and slow down the playback. I also like being able to schedule recordings from any web browser. I think there would be a market for a prebuilt myth-based PVR if it was in a sleek, quiet case - even if it was just a frontend only. However it gets problematic because the number of people who are satisfied with SDTV is shrinking daily, and making an HDTV product could be risky since it's likely Congress will pass some sort of Broadcast Flag and/or "Analog Hole" legislation, in which case you'd probably be somewhat screwed. I think MythTV, despite being at version .18 (.19 should be released very soon - like in a few days or weeks) is robust enough for it as-is. Most of the problems I have alluded to have been when I've changed or added hardware, upgraded my kernel or other software. Most of the time it has been fine and just worked. You might want to take a look at http://www.plutohome.com - they have put together a commercial system incorporating MythTV (as well as Misterhouse and Asterisk I think), and they have the source available for download. I hope this is useful. Let me know if I've been unclear or if you have any other questions. -Leslie --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss