This thread proves once again that Slashdot needs a (-1, Cheapskate that won't ever buy anything their mommies don't give them the money for, but will whine endlessly for it to be free anyway) rating.
Ahem. I bought a Series 1 TiVo box in June 2000, later upgraded it myself to 200GB (the absolute most space available at the time), and happily bought a lifetime subscription. (The sort of idiots here who whine and complain about the horrible, awful TiVo subscription fee has always been around and always will; please ignore them.) However, five years later my box sits in the closet. In part it's because a drive died, but it's mostly because, yes, I built a MythTV box.
I *didn't* built a MythTV box because of:
* The subscription fee. See above. I always felt I got way more than my money's worth from TiVo; heck, were I to sell my box on eBay it'd still be worth a few hundred dollars due to the lifetime subscription. * A desire to export TiVo recordings to elsewhere. I never quite understood the fascination people had and have with decrypting TiVo's file system and exporting programs to elsewhere. If anything I wanted my TiVo to act as the portal through which I could view my video library.
I built a MythTV box because I wanted to:
* Bring programs *into* the box, not out of it. MythTV lets me view all my videos and DVD images in a nice, neat, format that resembles the directory hierarchy they are stored in. * Record HDTV programs. Thanks to two cable boxes and two FireWire cables, I can today record two HD programs simultaneously. * Have plenty of storage space. MPEG-2 HD programs take 7GB/hour. about 10 times more than TiVo's about 700MB/GB on the lowest-quality standard. With MythTV I can use NFS (or, in my case due to mysterious performance issues [gossamer-threads.com], Samba) to put all the recordings I want on my 2.8TB RAID 5 array [google.ca]. From the description it sounds like the Series 3 TiVo will have an Ethernet jack, but a) it's likely to be 100Mbps--likely to be problematic in real-life conditions when recording two HD programs and watching a third at the same time--and b) who knows what type of external storage the box will ever support in practice.
That's it. No, I really don't care about MythTV's themability (Why, oh why, do people focus on themes in free software so much? Don't they realize that 99% of them look eye-meltingly awful--Kids, raytracing is, like, *so* 1995--and don't do a thing to fix any underlying usability issues with the application?), MythWeather, MythGame, MythPhone, etc., etc. Hey, they're nice, but I'd give them up in a flash to fix the last niggling bugs in mythfrontend (Geez, folks, what *is* up with the "displaying OSD in some recordings consistently crashes mythfrontend" bug in 0.18.1? Linus used to call such issues "brown bag" bugs, as in bugs in Linux kernel releases so showstoppingly bad he wanted to wear a brown bag for letting it loose into the world.) and the annoyances (some pretty colossal) in MythVideo's Video Manager module. If TiVo Series 3 manages to robustly support external filesystems (I have *no* problems with some sort of encryption scheme here) *and* let me view my preexisting videos through the elegant TiVo interface, I'm there. (Especially if TiVo kindly offers us longtime lifetime-subscription owners free upgrades.) I am, however, not waiting for these things to occur; there's TV to watch, and record, today.
* The subscription fee. See above. I always felt I got way more than my money's worth from TiVo; heck, were I to sell my box on eBay it'd still be worth a few hundred dollars due to the lifetime subscription.
I don't like subscriptions, but even more than that I don't like being locked into a single service provider. What if, in two years, the scheduling on the Tivo service is always wrong, or the prices raise outrageously. Having the choice to switch providers is a big plus for me. Right now I use a free
I don't like subscriptions, but even more than that I don't like being locked into a single service provider. What if, in two years, the scheduling on the Tivo service is always wrong, or the prices raise outrageously. Having the choice to switch providers is a big plus for me. Right now I use a free, web based service with my PVR.
"You get what you pay for" (which is probably what I should've titled my post, because that's what it really boils down to). In four and 1/2 years of daily, heavy TiVo use I never
Hmm, I use another provider yet, and grab updated scheduling information about every two hours. That was the default for my setup, and I've had one or two instances where a sporting event would run long, but aside from that, no problems at all. Oh, and it is banner ad supported via their web interface.
If TiVo Series 3 manages to robustly support external filesystems (I have *no* problems with some sort of encryption scheme here) *and* let me view my preexisting videos through the elegant TiVo interface, I'm there.
Tivo2 allows you to view your external videos and movies files and browse the directories on tivo today.
Yes, if they're in certain formats and resolutions [tivo.com]. I have, alas, too many files whose names end in that obscure and unknown.avi [wikipedia.org] extension.
While Galleon is a very useful utility, there's a world of difference between any backup procedure--even a relatively-sophisticated one with rules--and having transparent, read-and-write, real-time access to a real NFS or Samba-mounted directory tree.
TiVo (S2 and above) can do that with home networking. It's not quite as flexible as a MythTV box, but it's very easy to do.
From the description it sounds like the Series 3 TiVo will have an Ethernet jack, but a) it's likely to be 100Mbps--likely to be problematic in real-life conditions when recording two HD programs and watching a third at the same time
No it's not, because TiVo records all the programs to the local drives. You can then transfer them to another Ti
I'm crossing my fingers here -- a little while after the S2 boxes were first released TiVo did this. You could transfer your subscription (monthly or lifetime; obviously it only made sense for lifetime) to a S2 box at no cost.
I'm glad to read your message; I have vague memories of TiVo doing so through an email offer to Series 1 owners like me, but am not sure. Yes, we're all crossing our fingers here.
Believe me, as I wrote in my original post, I *want* to go back to TiVo if it can offer what I currently ha
My biggest reluctance to moving away from TiVo is it's got the most usefully laid out remote I've ever used for watching video. When I watch a DVD or VHS I miss my TiVo remote terribly. What do people who set up their own box do for a remote----are there IR receiver cards that would let me use my TiVo remote, or am I stuck with something third-party?
My biggest reluctance to moving away from TiVo is it's got the most usefully laid out remote I've ever used for watching video.
Amen and amen; it's yet another example of something TiVo got right six years ago.
If I wanted to I could use a $10 IR sensor (I can't find the address right now, but some guy sells them in USB and serial varieties for about that price) and the TiVo remote with lirc, the usual standard daemon for IR stuff in Linux. That said, I read many complaints about
b) who knows what type of external storage the box will ever support in practice.
The E-SATA kind. External sata is a simple pin thru for the data cable. that means any power brick that can hook up to a SATA drive, and Any Sata drive, and a SATA cable are all you need. E-SATA requires no bridge controller, it's a direct pin thru to the drive.
so in practice, I'd say the 200 GB SATA drive i have sitting on the shelf in the room is Tivo HD series 3 compatable, since I have an old firewire drive bay that i can u
The E-SATA kind. External sata is a simple pin thru for the data cable.
I should've been more clear, since you're not the only one who misunderstood me. By "external storage" I meant NFS or Samba through the Ethernet jack, not through the SATA jack (of which I agree any external drive should work).
I'd be very happy if Tivo Series 3 supports NFS or Samba as storage (again, I have no problem with Tivo using whatever encryption methods they'd like on said files), but I'd also be very surprised.
This dungeon is owned and operated by Frobozz Magic Co., Ltd.
Sounds great, but is it too late? (Score:5, Interesting)
Ahem. I bought a Series 1 TiVo box in June 2000, later upgraded it myself to 200GB (the absolute most space available at the time), and happily bought a lifetime subscription. (The sort of idiots here who whine and complain about the horrible, awful TiVo subscription fee has always been around and always will; please ignore them.) However, five years later my box sits in the closet. In part it's because a drive died, but it's mostly because, yes, I built a MythTV box.
I *didn't* built a MythTV box because of:
* The subscription fee. See above. I always felt I got way more than my money's worth from TiVo; heck, were I to sell my box on eBay it'd still be worth a few hundred dollars due to the lifetime subscription.
* A desire to export TiVo recordings to elsewhere. I never quite understood the fascination people had and have with decrypting TiVo's file system and exporting programs to elsewhere. If anything I wanted my TiVo to act as the portal through which I could view my video library.
I built a MythTV box because I wanted to:
* Bring programs *into* the box, not out of it. MythTV lets me view all my videos and DVD images in a nice, neat, format that resembles the directory hierarchy they are stored in.
* Record HDTV programs. Thanks to two cable boxes and two FireWire cables, I can today record two HD programs simultaneously.
* Have plenty of storage space. MPEG-2 HD programs take 7GB/hour. about 10 times more than TiVo's about 700MB/GB on the lowest-quality standard. With MythTV I can use NFS (or, in my case due to mysterious performance issues [gossamer-threads.com], Samba) to put all the recordings I want on my 2.8TB RAID 5 array [google.ca]. From the description it sounds like the Series 3 TiVo will have an Ethernet jack, but a) it's likely to be 100Mbps--likely to be problematic in real-life conditions when recording two HD programs and watching a third at the same time--and b) who knows what type of external storage the box will ever support in practice.
That's it. No, I really don't care about MythTV's themability (Why, oh why, do people focus on themes in free software so much? Don't they realize that 99% of them look eye-meltingly awful--Kids, raytracing is, like, *so* 1995--and don't do a thing to fix any underlying usability issues with the application?), MythWeather, MythGame, MythPhone, etc., etc. Hey, they're nice, but I'd give them up in a flash to fix the last niggling bugs in mythfrontend (Geez, folks, what *is* up with the "displaying OSD in some recordings consistently crashes mythfrontend" bug in 0.18.1? Linus used to call such issues "brown bag" bugs, as in bugs in Linux kernel releases so showstoppingly bad he wanted to wear a brown bag for letting it loose into the world.) and the annoyances (some pretty colossal) in MythVideo's Video Manager module. If TiVo Series 3 manages to robustly support external filesystems (I have *no* problems with some sort of encryption scheme here) *and* let me view my preexisting videos through the elegant TiVo interface, I'm there. (Especially if TiVo kindly offers us longtime lifetime-subscription owners free upgrades.) I am, however, not waiting for these things to occur; there's TV to watch, and record, today.
Re:Sounds great, but is it too late? (Score:2)
* The subscription fee. See above. I always felt I got way more than my money's worth from TiVo; heck, were I to sell my box on eBay it'd still be worth a few hundred dollars due to the lifetime subscription.
I don't like subscriptions, but even more than that I don't like being locked into a single service provider. What if, in two years, the scheduling on the Tivo service is always wrong, or the prices raise outrageously. Having the choice to switch providers is a big plus for me. Right now I use a free
Re:Sounds great, but is it too late? (Score:2)
"You get what you pay for" (which is probably what I should've titled my post, because that's what it really boils down to). In four and 1/2 years of daily, heavy TiVo use I never
Re:Sounds great, but is it too late? (Score:2)
Hmm, I use another provider yet, and grab updated scheduling information about every two hours. That was the default for my setup, and I've had one or two instances where a sporting event would run long, but aside from that, no problems at all. Oh, and it is banner ad supported via their web interface.
Re:Sounds great, but is it too late? (Score:1)
If TiVo Series 3 manages to robustly support external filesystems (I have *no* problems with some sort of encryption scheme here) *and* let me view my preexisting videos through the elegant TiVo interface, I'm there.
Tivo2 allows you to view your external videos and movies files and browse the directories on tivo [galleon.tv] today.
You can also use galleon to backup your movies and other shows automatically [galleon.tv] over wireless or wired network.
Given these two and the fact that you can attach a fat external SATA hard di
Re:Sounds great, but is it too late? (Score:2)
Yes, if they're in certain formats and resolutions [tivo.com]. I have, alas, too many files whose names end in that obscure and unknown .avi [wikipedia.org] extension.
While Galleon is a very useful utility, there's a world of difference between any backup procedure--even a relatively-sophisticated one with rules--and having transparent, read-and-write, real-time access to a real NFS or Samba-mounted directory tree.
Re:Sounds great, but is it too late? (Score:2)
TiVo (S2 and above) can do that with home networking. It's not quite as flexible as a MythTV box, but it's very easy to do.
From the description it sounds like the Series 3 TiVo will have an Ethernet jack, but a) it's likely to be 100Mbps--likely to be problematic in real-life conditions when recording two HD programs and watching a third at the same time
No it's not, because TiVo records all the programs to the local drives. You can then transfer them to another Ti
Re:Sounds great, but is it too late? (Score:2)
I'm glad to read your message; I have vague memories of TiVo doing so through an email offer to Series 1 owners like me, but am not sure. Yes, we're all crossing our fingers here.
Believe me, as I wrote in my original post, I *want* to go back to TiVo if it can offer what I currently ha
MythTV vs TiVo (Score:1)
My biggest reluctance to moving away from TiVo is it's got the most usefully laid out remote I've ever used for watching video. When I watch a DVD or VHS I miss my TiVo remote terribly. What do people who set up their own box do for a remote----are there IR receiver cards that would let me use my TiVo remote, or am I stuck with something third-party?
Re:MythTV vs TiVo (Score:2)
Amen and amen; it's yet another example of something TiVo got right six years ago.
If I wanted to I could use a $10 IR sensor (I can't find the address right now, but some guy sells them in USB and serial varieties for about that price) and the TiVo remote with lirc, the usual standard daemon for IR stuff in Linux. That said, I read many complaints about
Re:Sounds great, but is it too late? (Score:2)
This is in obsession/OCD territory.
Is this all set up in your Mom's basement? Sounds sweet...
Re:Sounds great, but is it too late? (Score:2)
The E-SATA kind. External sata is a simple pin thru for the data cable.
that means any power brick that can hook up to a SATA drive, and Any Sata drive, and a SATA cable are all you need. E-SATA requires no bridge controller, it's a direct pin thru to the drive.
so in practice, I'd say the 200 GB SATA drive i have sitting on the shelf in the room is Tivo HD series 3 compatable, since I have an old firewire drive bay that i can u
Re:Sounds great, but is it too late? (Score:2)
I should've been more clear, since you're not the only one who misunderstood me. By "external storage" I meant NFS or Samba through the Ethernet jack, not through the SATA jack (of which I agree any external drive should work).
I'd be very happy if Tivo Series 3 supports NFS or Samba as storage (again, I have no problem with Tivo using whatever encryption methods they'd like on said files), but I'd also be very surprised.