New MythTV Based PVR Available 214
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?"
Just SAY NO! to the USA? (Score:2)
And check out the prices!!
Re:Just SAY NO! to the USA? (Score:2)
Of course, they're pretty coy about it being a mythtv build.
And the exchange rate is something like 40,000 NZ Sheep Barter Units to the USD, so it's pretty cheap really. If you could get one shipped over, that is. And if you crazy americans would adhere to proper standards, like PAL and DVB-T.
(ducks and runs for cover)
Re:Just SAY NO! to the USA? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Just SAY NO! to the USA? (Score:2)
-nB
Re:Just SAY NO! to the USA? (Score:2)
Re:Just SAY NO! to the USA? (Score:2)
Re:Just SAY NO! to the USA? (Score:2)
Just last weekend we had a 48-hour maintenance window (meaning everything is going down, don't even TRY to work). This was on a saturday and sunday, with sunday being Easter sunday. The entire company got an email a week in advance and we assumed we had plenty of time to do our major rework/upgrade of lots of things. We shut everything down and started working on Satu
Re:Just SAY NO! to the USA? (Score:2)
Re:Just SAY NO! to the USA? (Score:2)
Re:Just SAY NO! to the USA? (Score:2)
And fortunately, thanks to the efforts of many of the people in that rounding error, you have an internet, computer, and forum in which to have read that description. ;)
Yeah, some of us (US-ians) are shortsighted, pompous, insipid asses, but we're not all *completely* worthless, you know.
Bye, bye DRM-crippled Intel Viiv (Score:2, Insightful)
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:Bye, bye DRM-crippled Intel Viiv (Score:2)
Re:Bye, bye DRM-crippled Intel Viiv (Score:3, Informative)
the part that says :
"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."
Re:Bye, bye DRM-crippled Intel Viiv (Score:3, Interesting)
Viiv is not crippled. True it supports DRM, but it does not force it. The application layer decides on the DRM. There is no reason you could not optimize linux and MythTV to run on this platform.
-nB
Re:Image constraint token (Score:2)
-nB
Re:Bye, bye DRM-crippled Intel Viiv (Score:5, Interesting)
That's actually very easy. You start with something they're familiar with:
"Don't you hate it when you have to sit through all that crap at the beginning of a DVD before you can watch the movie?" "That's digital rights management at work!"
Then you can explain how DVD player manufacturers are forced to sign an agreement stating that their players will allow Hollywood executives and lawyers to determine what you can and can't do in your living room. Anyone who makes a DVD player that circumvents Hollywood's protections, or otherwise helps you to do what would otherwise be perfectly legal, will run afoul of the DMCA.
Then you can move on to other things like the broadcast flag that will be used to determine wether or not you even get to record a show to watch later, or the restrictions on newer HD DVD players that will determine for you wether you get to watch the movie you bought at its full resolution on the expensive TV you bought.
In short, DRM allows movie and music producers to dictate what you can and can't do with stuff you pay for. Its not about preventing piracy (that's the herring that sells) its about controlling what the consumer can do after the sale.
That's all well and good but... (Score:2)
Re:That's all well and good but... (Score:2)
These two points should open their eyes quickly. After all, what's the point of buying Viiv if you can't even use it like TiVo?
Re:Bye, bye DRM-crippled Intel Viiv (Score:2)
How do these DRM-related agreements relate to DVD players that can upconvert, or can play DivX files? Wouldn't Hollywood execs con
Re:Bye, bye DRM-crippled Intel Viiv (Score:2)
Re:Bye, bye DRM-crippled Intel Viiv (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:3, Insightful)
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'
Re:Bye, bye DRM-crippled Intel Viiv (Score:2)
A few differences:
1. Windows isn't entrenched in the PVR market like they are with desktops.
2. People don't have a lot of existing Windows based apps that they want to run on their PVR.
3. People don't buy 3rd party peripherals for their PVR that may or may not work under different OSes.
Re:Exchange Rate (Score:2)
Given the current state of funding for schools in the U.S., I wouldn't be so sure about that.
money (Score:2)
Re:money (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah, a hearty "Thanks for doing our work for free, suckers!"
-Eric
Re:money (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:money (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:money (Score:5, Interesting)
No but these people need to look at the zap2it guide information download terms of use. They can't sell something for profit that downloads from their free service.
Re:money (Score:3, Insightful)
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...
Re:money (Score:2)
so the users can share the bandwidth load of the schedule.
Re:money (Score:5, Informative)
Re:money (Score:2)
Um, because MythTV does? And we don't want anything to damage the relationship with TMS/Zap2It?
Re:money (Score:2, Funny)
Re:money (Score:2)
Using the DVB EIT info would provide plug-and-play zeroconfig so I'm betting they do not use xmltv by default (would require user intervention probably)
Re:money (Score:2)
Thanks for the info. Altho I still don't like the idea of making a profit off of someone elses freeware app. Selling it as a turn-key set would mean they are supporting it as well.
Re:money (Score:2)
Its pretty ugly, but the scrapers are impressive and do their job well. The pick of the bunch is written by Riven. [riven.co.nz] Its a
My suspicion is that these guys are using Riven's work, or they have inked a deal with Sky. It is extremely unlikly they have inked a deal with any of the free
Re:money (Score:2)
TVNZ does send free EPG data over DVB-T (only available in Akl IIRC). Unfortunately, it is crap.
Sky however, sends unencrypted EPG over DVB-S that is of quite high quality. The reason that you cannot get it on your system is that it is copyright by sky so the people with it (anyone with a DVB-S card) cannot share it for long before sky shuts it down. However, any mythtv system with a DVB-S card in it can get sky's EPG data legally.
Sadly, you cannot decrypt sky using your DVB-S car
Re:money (Score:2)
Re:money (Score:2)
Zap2it is irrelevant because they don't provide listings for New Zealand, where this box is being sold. Aside from that, the box is not being sold with Zap2it's data on it, just the ability to use Zap2it's data. I can't see how Zap2it can refuse service just because someone is using a paid-for device to access their feed.
Re:money (Score:3, Informative)
Does[sic] the mythtv people get anything out of this?
Yes, sort of. They get any changes or bugfixes this company makes to the code. Basically, they get free labor. Since MythTV is an open project the license is designed to benefit the users, not the developers (except in that the developers are users, which is why they are developing it).
Re:money (Score:2, Informative)
ChavDot: News fo Chavs, stuff dat be madder. (Score:5, Funny)
Is it the mad crazy super duper bomb diggity, for shizzle?
Re:ChavDot: News fo Chavs, stuff dat be madder. (Score:5, Funny)
-Eric
Re:ChavDot: News fo Chavs, stuff dat be madder. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:ChavDot: News fo Chavs, stuff dat be madder. (Score:3, Funny)
Mod -1 ... (Score:2)
Re:ChavDot: News fo Chavs, stuff dat be madder. (Score:2)
Or a mad crazy word up to my mizzle?
Re:ChavDot: News fo Chavs, stuff dat be madder. (Score:2)
Vanilla Ice!! [break.com]
Re:ChavDot: News fo Chavs, stuff dat be madder. (Score:2)
One day, if you millenium-dwellers work hard, you may once again rediscover our wisdom, our glorious slang, and our Aidas jogging suits.
-Eric
If it's not Insanely Great, I don't want it... (Score:2)
Re:If it's not Insanely Great, I don't want it... (Score:2)
Mythical Exhortations (Score:2)
Some say that the fact that people might believe that MythTV is too good to be true is a myth. But I am not sure, so we are sending some scientists to test it. We can then find out if it indeed exists, observe its behaviour, and how it is supported by its environment. Stay tuned for the real-time results.
Let me guess (Score:3, Funny)
mythtv is still alittle too arcane.... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:mythtv is still alittle too arcane.... (Score:2)
Thanks,
the_crowbar
Re:mythtv is still alittle too arcane.... (Score:5, Funny)
It's sentences like that which keep Linux in general, and MythTV in particular, relegated to geek obscurity. ;-)
-Eric
Re:mythtv is still alittle too arcane.... (Score:2)
It's sentences like that which keep Linux in general, and MythTV in particular, relegated to geek obscurity
Two parts wishful thinking and one part loving the look of your own posts, in my humble opinion.
Tried google?
Re:mythtv is still alittle too arcane.... (Score:2)
-Eric
Re:mythtv is still alittle too arcane.... (Score:2)
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"... But it's not ready for the 'out of the box' market yet.
I disagree. I know plenty of people who are tech-savvy enough and willing to learn their way around somewhat arcane configuration options, but not able or not willing to install their own MythTV system from scratch.
There is a part of the "market" that can and will build their own, and a part of the m
Would need a lot of work (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Would need a lot of work (Score:2)
Re:Would need a lot of work (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Would need a lot of work (Score:2)
Re:Would need a lot of work (Score:2)
Re:Would need a lot of work (Score:2)
They must be good (Score:3, Insightful)
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:They must be good (Score:2)
Even if you weren't a cheapskate, don't even bother. There are almost no unencrypted QAM channels on cable. On my cable system (Cox) the only unencrypted channel is one the local WeatherChannel Weather Scan channel thing. A homemade DVR, be it MCE or MythTV, is really pointless from HDTV perspective except for OTA, and what's on that? The FCC has really screwed us over here.
If somebody has any way to get DVR functionalit
You can get a dual tuner version too (Score:2, Interesting)
Additional Dual Tuner Model Now Available
Wednesday, 19 April 2006
Due to customer demand an additional standard configuration of myPVR has been released.
It appears by far that customers want their "Personal Video Recorders" to have dual tuners. Hence we are please to announce the availability of an additional dual tuner model with the smaller 250GB Hard Drive.
For the average user this HTPC can handle between 100 and
Myth Project (Score:3, Informative)
Pluto - Combines Security, Home Automation, Telecom (and other things) into a single package. Uses bluetooth roaming to follow your audio around your house.. OpenSource, and it also utilizes Myth. I thought Its a neat project.
Link - http://plutohome.com/ [plutohome.com]
Nope, it's too true to be good (Score:2)
Re:Nope, it's too true to be good (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Nope, it's too true to be good (Score:2)
What do people do in the UK? (Score:2)
If you have Sky, it seems like you're locked into using Sky+ - which admitidally is rather nice and has possibily the next best UI to Tivo (but is still way ahead of everything else out there). However I don't want to pay £15/month for half the channels I want and then an extra £10/month for the subscription to the + service.
For Freeview, you seem to be left with Humax, DigiFusion or Toppy - all of which are substantially low
Re:What do people do in the UK? (Score:3, Interesting)
If you want freeview going through a pc (the DIY part) then get a freeview pci card or usb box and plug it in. You can use Myth on Linux, or various solutions on Windows XP such MS Media centre, Media Portal [team-mediaportal.com], (I was going to add Meedio [meedio.com], but it seems they've been bought out by Yahoo [meedio.com]), Snapstreams "Beyond TV". [snapstream.com]
If you're on linux, then you could use the Hardware compatibility list at LinuxQuestions [linuxquestions.org] to help in choosing a card.
There is a nice selection of DVB-T cards available
MythTV + Bittorrent (Score:3, Informative)
Until I discovered TvTorrents.com [tvtorrents.com]. Why bother going through all the trouble of recording, waiting for the backend to flag the commercials and transcode to Xvid when I can just subscribe to a RSS feed using Azureus and have the final product appear automatically (almost... you have to manually rescan for them to show up in the list of videos).
In my opinion, this is the future of TV, whether the networks want it or not.
Re:MythTV + Bittorrent (Score:2)
You're assuming I live in the US(DMC)A. I don't. Individuals don't get sued for alleged copyright infringement where I live. Even then, first they'd have to prove that watching a recording of something that was broadcast free-to-air isn't fair use.
Re:MythTV + Bittorrent (Score:2)
Get TiVo now, and wait... (Score:2)
If you use a TiVo for a year the component cost of a given custom PVR will drop by the amount you put into the TiVo. You can then decide to stick with TiVo or switch to a custom PVR. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Re:What's the big deal..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What's the big deal..... (Score:2)
This is the first link I found:
http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/fcc-requires-fire
Re:What's the big deal..... (Score:2)
The broadcast stations may not be encrypted, but there's no point in paying your cable company for those. They're free over the air.
Re:What's the big deal..... (Score:2)
Re:Trully (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Trully (Score:2)
The only reason I pay for a POS SA8300HD is the ability to record two shows at once on either digital or regular cable. I say POS because on a good day when the wind is blowing in the right direction, the cable gods are feeling good, and the onboard software decides to actually work, I can get all the shows I schedule for r
haha, yea they're available (Score:2)
And that, my friend, is the bigger issue.
Re:Trully (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:4, Informative)
I think a more significant problem is DVB-S support. Speaking as someone who uses Myth with Sky by having an S-video connection between the sky decoder and the Myth box, I would far prefer to just stick a DVB-S card in my Myth system. There are currently 3 problems here:
1. Sky encrypt their channels using VideoGuard and won't produce a CAM to decrypt it. This ties you into using an official Sky branded decoder (which are also completely useless for picking up stuff not covered by Sky). There are 3rd party CAMs available which claim to decrypt VideoGuard but they are relatively expensive (~100ukp) and I suspect the EUCD renders them illegal. I've yet to find a SoftCAM that will work under Linux.
2. DVB-S cards with a common interface are still reasonably pricey compared with DVB-T cards and DVB-S cards which don't have a common interface. This is probably down to lack of demand caused by (1).
3. To record multiple programs at the same time would involve having multiple CAMs and multiple Sky subscriptions. Ideally what would be better is to either do the decoding on playback (like Sky+ does), or (better) do the decoding in a post-processing job much like the commflag and transcoding jobs.
which means that analogue PVR's like this won't work, period.
Well I'm not sure what the GP is smoking here, as you pointed out the PVR being discussed in the article is DVB-T (i.e. digital), however I use my MythTV box with a plain BT878 card in it to record the analogue S-video signal off my Sky box and it works just fine.
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.
Infact, I get _better_ guide data through my Myth box than I do through my Sky box. The Sky box gives me a week's worth with often very short descriptions, whereas the Myth box gives me 2 week's worth of listings (pulled from radio times). Additionally, having looked at the Sky+ feature set I'd say my Myth box is a hell of a lot more capable (especially when I hear my sky+ owning friends complain that they missed the first episode of the new series of $foo because sky+ doesn't automatically record it, whilest my Myth box noticed the new series had started and automatically scheduled in the recordings).
Re:Trully (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
Who needs cable? (Score:2)
What planet are you from? In my area there are 8 broadcast stations and many of them are just starting to figure out what subchannels are. The result? 13 distinct programs available at most times of the day - with nothing but some old rabbit ears. That's with the TV. My HD2000 card in the PC is happy to record any of it in nice digital (ATS
Re:Digital Broadcast flag? (Score:3, Informative)
----
The HD-2000 was a 5v PCI card with two RF inputs and mono sound for NTSC. The HD-3000 is a similar card with one RF input, one SVIDEO input, one COMPOSITE VIDEO and AUDIO input and one audo stereo output for NTSC but the HD-3000 also supports Cable/QAM. Neithor card detects the broadcast
----
Re:Digital Broadcast flag? (Score:2)
Re:Digital Broadcast flag? (Score:2)
Re:Are they paying TiVo Licensing Fees? (Score:2)
On another note, I am not exactly sure how I feel about a for profit business using MythTV like this. It is one thing to sell a service/device that takes advantage of a couple Open Source tools just to use as tools but this is basically letting ALL of the software work be done by someone else and then profiting on it. I would hope they would at least donate some proceeds to MythTV.
Actually, I don't have any problem with it at all. It is a self correcting problem. If the developers don't like it, they can
Re:Are they paying TiVo Licensing Fees? (Score:2)
Are you one of the MythTV developers? No? Then who cares how you feel about it?
If the MythTV developers were worried about this, they never would have released it as free and open-source soft
Re:Are they paying TiVo Licensing Fees? (Score:2)
No shit sherlock, I know it isn't mandatory, I hate that people keep stating the obvious. I just hope both sides get some benefit and not just OpenMedia.
No, I don't have any projects of my own right now but I have worked on a few open source projects and if I do come up with a project that I think other people could use then I wouldn't mind putting it out into the open source community. I also never said I was against them using it, it just made me think about what is going on mor
Re:Are they paying TiVo Licensing Fees? (Score:2)
What, you mean like publically contributing their own modified code back to the MythTV community, of which they are a part? You couldn't even be bothered to check before assuming the worst about them? Are you a troll? (Pardon, that last question was just a rhetorical one.)
Re:cablecard (Score:2)
Ummmm....not really. If it doesn't support CableCard....MOVE ON...
Yeah, because their market (in New Zealand) is sure demanding CableCard support... right?
Re:cablecard (Score:2)
Re:TV OUT limitations (Score:2)
Ratboy