New MythTV Based PVR Available

aotea_Joe writes "OpenMedia is putting together a mad crazy Linux based home media pc. It's DVB-T and HDTV capable, network ready (streaming, control, sharing). Has all the standard PVR features (real time pause, scheduling, listings etc). Plus you own the hardware, get support and get updates/maintenance. Is it too good to be true?"

Mad Crazy???

[Anonymous Coward]

What the??? Can we at least create a summary that doesn't sound like someone playing counter strike wrote it?

Re:money

[minus_273]

why? its like saying does linus get anything from redhat?

cablecard

[Anonymous Coward]

Ummmm....not really. If it doesn't support CableCard....MOVE ON...wait I should create a website. Lets call it moveon.org ( blowhards ).

Anyway this is no different than the HP systems that support MCE. Come on get on board and put together some innovation, isn't that what OSS was suppose to be about...but atlas, not really. They just do the same thing as everyone else and just put it in a different package......How many linux distro's do we have again ? If its more than 5 you can NEVER EVER AGAIN complain about MS having to many windows version.

Seriously though if someone is going to repackage MythTV and offer an OSS DVR like that including the hardware it should support cablecard(s).

Re:money

[10Ghz]

Which was mighty nice of them, but they weren't required to do so.

Re:money

[The Asmodeus]

100% Correct.

Zap2it has been awesome to let us use their listing feed. But they expressly forbid this kind of for-profit usage. I'm hoping they are using another feed..

Of course, they might say on their site if it wasn't melted already...

Are they paying TiVo Licensing Fees?

[IflyRC]

I wonder if any of the technology in this makes use of anything patented by Tivo. It should be interesting to see if Tivo ever goes after them.

Bye, bye DRM-crippled Intel Viiv

[UseFree.org]

MythTV-based [mythtv.org] systems like OpenMedia will blow DRM-crippled products like Intel's Viiv [slashdot.org] right out of the water.

I mean, who in their right mind would buy a restrictive system like Viiv when free-as-in-speech OpenMedia [openmedia.co.nz] systems are available? Of course, the challenge is explaining to consumers why Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) [eff.org] is against their interests, and spreading the word that MythTV-based systems are superior to DRM-crippled offerings.

Re:What's the big deal.....

[Delphiki]

DRM should never be an issue if you're using a tuner card created before broadcast flag legislation gets passed (if it ever does). But unfortunately anyone who wants cable stations in HDTV is already screwed. MythTV along with just about every other decent DVR solution doesn't support CableCard or any other way to get digital channels off cable unless you are lucky enough to have a cable company who allows you to use firewire on the cable box or doesn't encrypt their signals. So basically this device won't help you watch The Sopranos in HDTV. Lame.

mythtv is still alittle too arcane....

[nblender]

I have a mythbackend and 2 frontends. I'm building a new backend for my DVB card. Ignoring installation issues and everything, if a pre-built box were to just show up, it would still be a little too arcane for the general public to use. I see my parents as "general public". My dad has a laptop and knows how to use various MS productivity things... The myth recording profiles, and schedules, and so forth, are poorly designed so an average run of the mill person has no idea what any of it means. MythTV is still a product by geeks for geeks. For example,

In the mythweb page "recorded_programs", how is a non-geek supposed to know what "has commflag: Yes" means? "has cutlist: No". How bout "recgroup"?

Don't get me wrong. I mythtv. In fact, I never watch livetv anymore and don't think I've seen a commercial in over a year. My wife has an xbox on 'her TV' as a mythfrontend to the backend. It's relatively wife-friendly. But it's not ready for the 'out of the box' market yet.

Would need a lot of work

[Brix Braxton]

As much as I love homebrew PVR's (I use several along with my Tivo) I can't help but think that for most people - the better value would be to just buy a Tivo and a lifetime subscription (and if they no longer offer that, then three years of service). If you want to copy MPEG files over, use Tivo to Go or get a ReplayTV. PC's are sloppy compared to these options.

They must be good

[Junta]

I've only gotten my HD mythtv setup to 'crazy', acheiving 'mad crazy' is a huge step in the right direction.

Seriously though, not that hard. I have a box that does ATSC and mythtv and displays via DVI to HDMI cable to my TV. (AirStar HD5000 tuner, onboard GeFore 6150 for DVI video). It could do unencrypted QAM channels if I wasn't too much a cheapskate to buy cable.

I would be impressed if they had something that took CableCard or something for encrypted QAM channels on cable.

Re:Trully

[nagora]

While it might say it supports DVB-T , without full native support for digital cable, any kind of DIY PVR or MCE PC is just a gimmick.

Speaking as someone who receives all his television via DVB-T in the UK, I can say that I have zero interest in digital cable.

Looking through an interactive guide for up to a weeks worth of programming and then picking and choosing the content I want recorded, and then forgetting about it.

Well, I suppose I could ask my MythTV box to cut back to only one week's programming but otherwise, that's what I do.

will hold of on wasting any money on concepts like MythTV

My copy of MythTV was free. Sounds like you've been ripped-off.

The Myth is that is can record television,

I appear to have 198GB of mythology on my hard drive, then!

which means that analogue PVR's like this won't work, period.

DVB-T is digital.

Until I can sit back and fire up a PC that displays the same interactive guide data I am currently getting in a proprietary cable box, I don't think these things will find any success.

Good news! You already can!

TWW

Re:Trully

[barawn]

where the only way you can record digital cable or HDTV is to connect the cable box to your video in, and hit play and record on two remotes.

Uh, you do realize that it's not only possible, but rather easy, to set up MythTV to work with cable boxes [irblaster.info]?

Hit play and record on two remotes? What is this, 1980?

Re:Bye, bye DRM-crippled Intel Viiv

[Cromac]

Who would buy a pre-built system at all? Setup time for building your own is slightly less than an hour.

Setup time might be less than an hour for you but not for the mass market that can't stop the clock from blinking on their VCR. Do you really think the average Tivo owner can build their own DVR, especially using Linux, in less than an hour? Not a chance.

Re:Bye, bye DRM-crippled Intel Viiv

[wheany]

Bullshit.

I consider myself a professional computer user. I know Windows and its quirks pretty well. I couldn't get Mythtv working from scratch even after a month. I tried Knoppmyth, but at least them it didn't have new enough kernel to support my DVB card, and when I tried to compile a new kernel, everything broke horribly. Finally I succeeded with Mythdora.

Mythdora has been updated at least twice after I got my box running. I have been too afraid to try and update my box, because even if DVB subtitles don't currenlty work, I prefer that to not having Mythtv at all.

Re:MythTV + Bittorrent

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes but then you run the risk of getting sued by "big Media" and having your life ruined because you downloaded the latest Sopranos. It's honestly not worth the risk. Right now I haven't heard of anyone being sued for downloading OTA network shows but even that may change.

I know millions of people(mostly 21) could care less, but the risk is definitely there. Personally I'm not willing to take it.