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Not sure about Freevo, but MythTV supports external channel changing via either a serial connection (some DSS receivers and digital cable boxes have them) or via an IR blaster.

http://www.mythtv.org

You flash the TSOP so you can put on the hacked BIOS to play pirated (excuse me, "legitimate backups").

1. It doesn't play WMA (which is a downside for those of you not rabidly anti M$) but has a plugin (Mythmusic) to play OGG.
2. It pauses live TV.
3. It has AWESOME recording and scheduling feature (including features like "record this program when ever it plays anywhere" "on this channel" "only this time" and recording conflict fixer).
4. It has a great TV guide list.
5. It displays information on current programs on demand.
6. It shows local weather forecasts.
7. It will display photographs.
8. It will play videos from you local hard drive.
9. It supports multiple TV tuner cards! (if you want to watch a different program then the one your recording, record more then one program, etc)
10. Its supports Picture in Picture.

Try MythTV

You might think it's overkill, but consider it because it can combine lots of separate functions together....

Not just a PVR, but an MP3 jukebox, video server, web/weather/informaiton services and so on...

As anyone who is familiar with the MythTV project will attest, the feature list trumpeted by TiVo is precisely what is available for MythTV, an open source, volunteer effort (although MythTV supports more, and more diverse features). Isn't competition grand!

MythTv and products like it could use development. Fuck subscriptions, get some code flowing.

It costs $99 just to unlock the software. You still have to buy a USB ethernet adaptor. And for the old-timers like me, you have to get a series 2 TiVo. (And pay for a new lifetime subscription)

All I wanted was to dump the crappy built-in modem that has died twice in 3 years and use my internet link to get the guide information.

Stuff like this makes me want a roll-your-own PVR. (Gratuitous MythTV link)

You can do pretty well with a linux box and myth tv, although its not quite as feature-complete as tivo. A nice solution though :)

Doesn't the ReplayTV already do all that for free? Why do you have to pay $99 to upgrade a TiVo to support something as simple as playing mp3's from a PC? Let me guess, you need Windows software to stream it to the TiVo right? I'm glad I waited on the ReplayTV too! That just cements my decision to just build a Linux-based custom PVR, maybe using MythTV. Ahhh, Debian GNU/Linux in the living room. I just need to make it quiet enough and find a decent case so the wife doesn't kill me.

For software, you might want to check out MythTV. It needs MySQL and QT 3.1, but most distros (eg Redhat 8) have those.

Now, there's no competition and anyone who is addicted to PVR functionality is basically stuck with TiVo. (MythTV not withstanding.) And TiVo now has little reason to fear the loss of customers, so they have less reason to actually improve the product.

I love my TiVo, but this I think this is a bad thing.

Check out MythTV

MythTV

Maybe not quite to the modular level described, but www.mythtv.org can have a front-end decoder box, a back-end encoder somewhere else, each connected by ethernet. Hell, if you wanted, you could share a stand-alone harddrive tower via NFS and whatnot. As long as you have a v4l compatible tuner, you're ready to roll.

See the mythv web page for more info on what it can do.

Yes, mythTV is your friend. Mix one part MythTV, and one part Shuttle XPC and you have the ultimate Linux PVR.

• Games - Let's face it, some games (especially things like emulators) are just better on a TV with a real controller than on a PC with a keybaord. I'd like to be able to program games and have them running on my TV without having to go through all the hoops I'd have to for many other systems.
• MythTV - I've been running MythTV for a while now, but I don't keep my PC at my TV on all the time because of the high noise. But the current CVS version (what will become v0.8) allows you to have a seperate PC run the interface than is running the actual recording/encoding parts. Having an X-Box (which is already next to my TV) as a front end would be very nice. It would be quieter for one thing. I also would then have another spare PC to use in something else. The X-Box is also much more powerfull than the little PII-450 I'm currently using, which would allow me to use higher resolutions, etc (not to mention the built in MPEG2 decoding hardware) than I can right now because of lack of processing power (I get skipped frames, etc).
• Geekiness - You've got to admit it's geeky!

A MythTV (or other media center type app) is something I'd love to be able to use my X-Box as. A wallmart PC may be a better option for real work, but when I plan to use a TV as a monitor in the first place, I'll get much better quality out of something designed to interface to a TV than the built in graphics in a Walmart PC if it supports TV out or any decently priced video card I'd put in that Walmart PC. Or I could pay $100 or so for a scan converter, which would be another little box, which is less simple and elegant. Plus built in HDTV out support. Glaggghhhhh.... (Homer drool sound)

MythTV

That user interface is ugly. Try mythTV for a great Linux Tivo/MP3/Ogg/Image/MAME media center. I'm putting one together in a Shuttle XPC box. Making it as pretty as possible increases the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor).

You can do this using MythTV.

But there is a big difference between going through the TV Guide and seeing listings for everything that's on, and scrolling down through TiVo's list of TV shows and seeing an entry for a show that TiVo thinks you "might want to watch".

You "might need something to make your dick bigger", or you "might want to work from home and make thousands of dollars licking envelopes", or you "might want to see barely-legal teens in provocative poses". That's all spam, because it shows up in your e-mail inbox under the guise of something you "might want". Obviously, most people don't want any of that, and even though it's just a matter of hitting the trash button on those messages, it's still infuriating to receive them in the first place.

With your TiVo, you have a limited resource (hard drive space) being taken up in significant quantities by each show, and TiVo tells you that you "might want to watch this show" even though there is no real heuristic for determining whether this is the case. And no, if(1){record("show")} does not count as a heuristic.

It's also different from broadcasting, because a broadcast program is shown by the TV station and then "goes away" in a sense. A program recorded to your TiVo stays around until you delete it, which makes it far different from a broadcast program. It's solely a marketing ploy to take advantage of that, and people don't like it when marketers invade their home without permission.

On a side note: There is another way to watch your TV.

Come on, Intel. Do it. Centrino for the desktop. I dare ya. I double-dog dare ya.

Oh yeah...any DRM features in Centrino? That's the only downside I can think of.

Does this mean we might see mythtv on xbox? Now then I would definately buy an xbox!!!! MythTV

I am a dirty, dirty, dirty whore.

Development is currently in the works for mythtv to do this. Hopefully 0.8 release will have this in it. Isaac and crew are working on it.

See MythTV.

At least the more computer savvy and DIYers are. There are several packages out the to turn your pc into a PVR, such as:

Freevo

and

MythTV

The problem with these packages at this point are twofold.

First, they aren't exactly easy to set up. Most people will need to recompile their kernels for bttv support, and not every Linux user out there knows how to safely rebuild a kernel. Then, at least with freevo, there is the matter of getting your dependencies set. This can be difficult for some, especially Redhat 7.3 users, as many of the packages that freevo relies on claim Redhat's versions of gcc or some obscure perl module are b0rked.

Also, they are missing some of the features that some commercial PVR's boast, such as HDTV (the tuner cards cost about as much as a PVR) and making suggestions for shows you might like.

Personally, I'd like to see a PVR distro.. perhaps a even Live CD. That would help solve the difficulty of setup, but as far as lack of features go, given time, I suspect any one of these projects can superceed commercial PVR's, at least among the slashdot type crowd.

Check this out:
http://www.spartantech.com/product.asp?m1=pw&pid=S HSN41G2. This is the new Shuttle XPC based on the NVidia NForce2 chipset. Just add CPU, RAM, vidcap card and drives, and you are set. The capture card MythTV is based on is dirt cheap. The NForce2 basically has a GeForce 4 MX 440 as part of the package. If you want to game with this, get a GF4Ti 4200, 4600 if you want a real monster video card. This barebones box has video out and even Firewire.

It might be more expensive than a TiVo, but you can DO MORE with it. And it's about the size of a shoebox and weighs about 10 pounds. Take the ride.

All credit really should go to Issac and the other guys contributing to this project.

Recent CVS additions include a mythweather module and support for running decoding and encoding on different machines on the network (for a truly connected home ;p)

www.mythtv.org

check it out. the screenshots are amazing. I personally haven't had time to play with it but it's newsgroups are extremely active with lotsa happy users.

It's worth noting that MythTV (PVR software) already has a "MythGame" addon, which is a mame frontend. MythTV is designed with control from an IR remote in mind, so it would make a really good candidate as software for a set-top box. Now, if you'll excuse me, *unpauses CSI*.

MythTV!

... these are still more Apples-to-Apples with XP than the Linux Video Disk Recorder:

MythTV
Freevo

Check it out!

The project mentioned in the topic is only for DBS satelite users. For everyone else, check out MythTV. This project is so impressive I cannot even explain all its features here. Just go look at it yourself. It is amazing, does almost everything TiVo does (including interactive electronic program guide), plus is a MAME front end, CD player, image browser, and more. Make sure to check out the screenshots!

I've been considering buying one of Via's mini-itx mobo's to use as a thin client with MythTV. With case they run just under $200.00 but start adding RAM (pc133) and a DVD player, and the cost goes up to about this price range. If I could use this to display video captured on my central server, I'll be a happy camper.

It seems to me that most commercial PVR's are running on a Linux platform, not to mention the several PVR projects for Linux such as MythTV and Freevo.

I use both of these and they both work great (with much tweaking on my part) and I don't have to deal with any of the PVR bs like commercials or having to subscribe.. which makes all the work it took in getting a solution working up more than worth it. If more people would support one of these projects it could easily grow into an easy to use package that anybody can setup in a realatively short time and we can circumvent DRM. "You wanna stick DRM on all the PVR's? Fine, my PC is DRM-less.. do something about it."

Now, if I could just get my system properly set up for it...

It already does:

• Live TV/timeshifting
• Program guide
• Record individual programs, or regular timeslots
• Basic editing of pre-recorded shows (bye bye ads!)
• Uses XMLTV for guide information, which has grabbers for many geographical areas.
• Kicks Ass

MythTV works quite a bit better than this one does. Check it out here.

and I got an All-in-wonder 7500 for my homebrew PVR.

It looks like nothing more than a very small form factor PC with a "special" version of Windows on it. Nothing that a decent geek with a barebones small form factor PC and a customized Linux couldn't do... See also:

Freevo-http://freevo.sourceforge.net/
MythTV-http://www.mythtv.org/

Discuss amongst yourselves.

I am a troll, yessir yessir I am a troll. Three bags full and all the jazz.

Well there's MythTV and FreeVo.

The latter can't record as of yet AFAIK. While MythTV is more or less a complete TiVo replacement. (But apparently it's a bit of a bitch to get installed.) None of these are actual distros BTW. Both are just programs you run.

Or mythtv, which actually works as a PVR, unlike freevo.

At the current rate of development mythTV http://mythtv.org/ will be a better Tivo soon.

Well, a linux solution is closer than you'd think. Check out MythTV. This guy has been working on a PVR in Linux running fairly cheap hardware. Definately worth a look-see.

Myth TV is also a Tivo style device that allows the pausing of live tv as well as recording shows, a nice xmltv based scheduling system, and a sharp interface.

my machine isn't fast enough (400 Mhz) to run this, but take a peak.

Not to mention MythTV... already has a nice program guide, interface conducive to using with a remote and irxevent, etc... It can record to an extremely hacked NuppelVideo codec or some mpeg4 codec. Check it out if you haven't.

Have a look at this project @ SourceForge; Freevo

There are others, like DVR, MythTV, HomeDVR

And there are here and here

Really, we dont need another device - a PC will work for this...

You mean mythtv.org, not mythtv.com