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This is an example of something that is not straight-forward. The point is that, even with something as simple and widely used as Firefox, it isn't a simple and intuitive process that users don't have to struggle with to accomplish. At least with the distribution I chose to install (which has been widely hailed as the most user friendly distro).

It's not that I can't do it. But I would bet it's above the abilities of the average user. I just don't like fighting with my PC. That's part of what this discussion is about.

Now, installing MythTV is the big pain in the ass that I can't get accomplished. This wiki is a testimony to the fact that it's not an easy process and most users would not tolerate the difficulty of such a setup. I can't tolerate it myself.

For those not in the know, it's an excellent linux-based media center:

http://www.mythtv.org/

Perfect compliment to cheap modded Xbox 1s.

TV control MAX!

Not sure exactly what the situation is like with XBox Media Center these days, but the last time I looked into it, it wouldn't run a real MythTV frontend. It ran a psuedo-MythTV thing, where it would play the contents of a Samba share that had MythTV recordings on it, but I didn't think it would run the interface and basically work like a real MythTV box. That's important if you're going to have nontechnical people using a system.

Also, if you use a hardware MPEG-2 decoder (any of the Hauppauge PVR-x50s, which I think most people do for SDTV right now), the XBMC won't work, at least according to the wiki here. You have to transcode everything to some other format first, because the Hauppauge cards' output will just choke the XBox for some reason. (I don't understand why, though -- it's 4.5Mb/s MPEG-2 video, shouldn't be any harder to decode than a DVD...)

I'm not crapping on XBMC -- it's a neat system, and more than once I've come very close to buying an XBox purely to play with it -- but you can have a lot more flexibility with the power that you get with an Apple TV. Given that up-front hardware costs really are pretty small when you divide them out over a few years that you'll hopefully use an entertainment system, every day, a lot of people are willing to spend the cost initially for the hardware.

(Also -- Apple TV will do highdef, or probably will once they get the software issues worked out; a lot of people are purchasing hardware with HDTV in mind. Personally though, I think this is less important than having a seamless interface that's the same as all the other MythTV units in one's house, though.)

Of course, there's Freevo or MythTV.

This is why projects like MythTV are so critical. Eventually this will be expanded to "All cable operators must disable the fast forward when playing back videos of our stations on their DVRs". Sure, some cable operators might hold out, but there will be a user revolt when JimBob can't get his left-turning action on ESPN, and they will accept this limitation. MythTV can't be bullied as easily, and will gain in popularity.

Running hdparm isn't the problem. It's setting the drive to use DMA that will solve most of your choppy video problems.

There are a number of gotchas that can cause problems such as buggy motherboard support or using the wrong cables. R'ing t FM can help out a lot.

Yes: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Myth_on_Mac_O S_X

I've been running it for a few years now on my PowerBook and MacBook Pro and it works great over WiFi. Needless to say I don't pause TV for the bathroom break anymore ... did I say that?

Yes, MythTV runs just fine on OSX, both Intel and PPC.

An important addendum applies to all of you wishing to use HDTV with a PCHDTV card. Playback of HDTV is *very* computationally intensive, and requires a Pentium class processor of at least 1.3GHz or equivalent in conjunction with a graphics card with accelerated drivers, according to the documents at http://www.pchdtv.com./ Pretty much any system built in the last two years with an nVidia graphics card will be fine.

what's to legally stop you from changing the format and just saving it in MPEG4

It might be a couple more years till someone gets around to doing it

A VCR doesn't prevent you from fast-forwarding over the commercials and FBI notices at the beginning of the tape.

My DVD player doesn't, either. It's a pity that yours appears to be broken.

Rigt before going to spec out a nice bunch of PC components on NewEgg and build a good box, I always pass by the Myth TV Users Mailing List to make sure that I get the most relevant and updated hardware necessary, and instead end up reading a sampling of the horror stories they go through, taking a few minutes to savor the different tortures one can be subjected to (video out of sync with audio, artifacts on certain channels, MySQL database corruption, NuvExport screws up, X breaks dependencies, and all the rest) and decide to wait another few weeks, certainly the new upcoming release will be much more reliable and user-friendly? And by the way, what happened to all of the things that were done during last year's Google's 'Summer Of Code' for Myth TV ? All the great features and enhancements that were worked on?

So I keep waiting, hoping that the next time I check the mailing list, their version of Matt Groening's Life In Hell have died down a bit....

Even though I am definitely doing a fair amount of Sys Admin duties on various distros, this is different, the killer part is what will happen when something screws up while I'm not around, and my wife gets mad because something didn't work, (provided I can even teach her to deal with all of these menus, options and the whole 'watching Live TV through Myth' syndrome) or my kid decides that he knows better and starts trying to hack the box himself in frustration....?

Surely the TiVo is an attractive box for the wife and kids, but with technology changing as rapidly as it has been, it is questionable whether to invest in such a product today, unless we were hard-core TV addicts, and could justify the cost as it would immediately be recouped.

Funnily enough, the most expedient thing I've ended up doing has been to identify the things I want to watch, and as a previous poster pointed out, just BitTorrent the shows in HD without commercials the next day, no matter where in the world I may be. (...and yes, it is sweet to download things at 10 Megs speed while in certain countries like Japan or Norway!!...LOL!)

Net result: I hardly EVER watch any TV whatsoever, and the few shows I care about can be watched on my laptop.

Well, I wish I had more time to tinker.... and still, major kudos to Jarod Wilson for having created this amazing open-source wonder. But as others have pointed out, for either of these two options, it's really going to all be about being able to have Myth TV interact with the CableCard slot, at least in major urban centers where cable companies rule the roost, and antenna reception is unwatchable!! The killer is that companies like Time Warner Cable are offering their own PVR deals, so they will make sure to lock anyone else out of the convenience until forced to do so by the FCC... Or that someone learns to hack the Firewire outputs of some of those new set-top decoders. Then you potentially still have HDCP to contend with. Oh, brother!! Brave new world !!

Z.

(and its not as hard as you make out)

Well, I just read the TF installation Manual and it seems quite complicated. Mostly due to the hundreds of different hardware that is not compatible or will not work one way or another in Linux.

From what I have read so far (from chapter 1 to 4, without counting: Download&Compile, Config Sound, MySQl,Setup Remote Control, Configuring MythTV, Configuring Frontend, installing Plugins, Troubleshooting) it seems you will need to spend a good 5 hours of your time just to make sure the components you buy are all compatible. At $200 the hour this is $1000 of my time (without including the cost of the hardware and config). Against $200 for a year of Tivo...

Although PCI based CableCard readers aren't readily available, you can still avoid the IR emitter and get a full digital feed from many set top boxes using IEEE 1394 (Firewire). See the MythTV Firewire page. The FCC requires that all U.S. cable providers offer a box with a Firewire interface to any customer with an HD subscription who requests one.

That it's also free-as-in-speech is a nice bonus.

Here are a few choices:

http://www.mythtv.org/
http://xinehq.de/
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/news.html

You could also by a DVD player from any of a large number of SouthEast Asia based companies that don't implement region locking, MacroVision, and customer skip lockout flags. I bought an Apex 600-A years ago for just that reason.

While my home theatre doesn't look anywhere as nice as this guy's, it is imporant to note that he's using a projector, and not a (hugely expensive) plasma or LCD -- far less glass to move, HUGE image size, and higher quality

Of course, I'm using MythTV, and an NEC 135LC analog 3-tube projector. Captain Kirk's head is sometimes 6 feet tall.

The fact is that I'm not going to pay $50 a month for cable or satellite for something that's, frankly, not worth that much to me.

I agree, and this is why Free-to-Air satellite, and the dismal excuse for basic cable that Comcast gives me are okay options. I record those things of interest with my MythTV Knoppix distro. While there aren't that many science fiction shows, I am quite satisfied to watch whatever comes across the airwaves, like ST:TNG, and the weekly episode of Farscape. I can't justify spending an additional $40-$80 per month for expanded cable -- I just don't watch that much TV, and I generally don't care to have the latest and greatest shows.

That being said, there are a few movies that I haven't seen yet, which I record and watch at my leisure. We do have a Netflix account, which satisfies any other desire to watch anything else. Besides, I spend my days in front of a monitor, I'm not so interested in sitting in front of a TV when I get home.

The day when I can press a button on my remote and record/watch a tv show in a few presses will be the day I switch to Linux.

Ummmm... MythTV?

Neat idea and all -- the TiVo. Rather than fight with DRM, I'm using MythTV. All the shows I want are recorded, plus I get the added bonus of being able to drag and drop shows to my laptop for watching later. Add in the many other features that come with MythTV, and it's a wonder why people would use a TiVo. Check it out, and you'll be amazed.

Think of it another way....do the PC, and use it to tune your HD, to play your DVD's and CD's and everything. You could get rid of settop box and cd/dvd player...hell. put MythTv on it, and get rid of the TIVO too. Get a wireless card in it..and download all you want from the net onto it...

Wait for it to power on?? Why would you turn it off? I don't turn off any of my computers around the house.....

Running MythTv .

:-)

I also miss my unix tools like sed, awk, grep, diff...etc. These don't come with windows installs.

Not much. Installing MythTV (which many people may want to do), however, is another matter entirely.

You're right. We shouldn't give people the ability to learn how to edit movies, record music, author DVDs, etc.

There is however an audio recording function built into the Mac version of Word so you can record the lecture as you take notes ...

Commercial detection is done by a program called mythcommflag which you'll find in (surprise) programs/mythcommflag

It really has to do with what hardware you have. My motherboard's onboard audio did not work well with FC5 (it was always really soft), so I loaded up Ubuntu and 3 hours later I had a working MythBox. I did have to compile IVTV and Lirc from source, which is not too hard. There are a lot of great tutorials on how to setup a build environment just for this! http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu_Dapper _Installation Granted Gnome is over kill for the GUI, but it makes your system a lot more versatile. I really like Ubuntu and it seems loads better to upgrade than FCX. I'll probably upgrade this weekend, because I have been waiting patiently for the new MythTV 0.20 repositories! Woo Hoo!

If you do decide to setup Linux for a media center you could use MythTV to create your own personal video recorder (PVR). I haven't tried it yet, but I am a Linux user who has been thinking about trying MythTV. I plan to get a copy of the book "Hacking MythTV" and try it out. The easiest option would probably be for me to use KnoppMyth which is a Linux distribution specially designed to make installation of MythTV as easy as possible. I also ran across some info about KnoppMyth at KnoppMythWiki. I am not really sure what effect a DRM restricted future might eventually have on a Linux media center. Perhaps Hollywood, Microsoft and Congress will somehow eventually block access to most content for open non-proprietary solutions.

If someone isn't already a Linux user Ubuntu or Kubuntu might be a good choice for general use. I have not looked into how they would be for multi-media or PVR use though. With Ubunutu or Kubuntu you can use the Synaptic package manager to download free software from the list of thousands of free progams that are avaiable and have it installed with the dependancies taken care of automatically. For various legal reasons most versions of Linux don't come preconfigured to play DVD movies or MP3 files. That is somewhat of a nuisance, but instructions on how to do that are available on the Internet and in some books.

With Linux I can rebuild my computer with a new motherboard and other hardware without worring about licensing issues. With Linux, no need to scan for viruses or worms either! My understaning is that viruses and worms are pretty much a Microsoft only problem. It's not a significant issue for Linux, Mac OS X, or Unix. As much as I like Linux, a barely computer literate computer user would probably be best off hoping that the day eventually comes when local stores start selling boxes with pre-installed with Linux just like Windows. Go ahead and make Windows licensing as annoying as possible to help that day eventually come.

Tivo: Go go gadget 30 second skip!

MythTV: Go go gadget commercial detection and skip!

Windows DVRs: Uh... Go go gadget DRM! Aw, crap!

Ryan Fenton

Erm... Excuse me parent, but is starting to support recording from Firewire in OSX, and it DOES support FreeBSD. RTFA, and look at the release notes (http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Release_Note s_-_0.20). It's all in there:

Added beginnings of firewire capture support for MacOS
and
Fixed FreeBSD compilation

I think you're trolling, but I'll bite. There are other, easier guides to follow for the installation of MythTV. The Wiki on MythTV is helpful, and so are the numerous forums for each distribution of linux. (At least, the ones where I've searched have been helpful).

I don't see how you can predict the death of OSS based on the documentation. The documentation for other OSS projects is just as convoluted (see MySQL or Apache's HTTP server) and they're not going away anytime soon.

MythTV is available on FreeBSD, as others have pointed out. http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/FreeBSD

Visit the MythTV web site, for example, this page, http://mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythInstall, and you will get an idea of why so much OSS is doomed to failure, at least outside the tiny world of dedicated computer hobbyists. This page represents the opposite of "ease-of-use."

No link. You can find info about it at http://wiki.mythtv.org/

That is if the slashdotting is over....

Here you go! http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/SoC2006(Curre ntly down) http://code.google.com/soc/mythtv/about.html(No Detailed Info)

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Motorola_DCT- 25xx

One of MythTV's Summer of Code projects was more automated configuration of MythTV - I'm not sure how successful it was, though. (The branch used for development looks a bit sparse in terms of changes...)

I felt the same as you do for several weeks and I also consider myself pretty well acquainted with linux. And, contrary to some of the testimonials I'm reading, KnoppMyth did not do it for me and my pcHDTV 3000 card.

Now I'm in pretty good shape with a simple, single broadcast tuner system. I'm not using MythGame, MythFlix, or MythPhone but I am using MythStream, have all the other modules working whether I'll use some of them or not, and have only one significant bug to squash (for which I _do_ have leads) before I would declare my setup perfect for open source.

If I could put my finger on one key to success, I would say documentation. I blew away the KnoppMyth and installed Fedora 4 because a guy who has used various versions of MythTV with various versions of Fedora has the best documentation I found on the net. But not _comprehensive_ documentation. All-in-all, I have an expandible two-ring cover binding about an inch of hints, tips and other documentation printed single- and double-sided. Whether that is encouraging or discouraging depends upon the reader I guess. It _can_ be done. Some key links from my bookmarks:

http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php#hw
http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/tips.php
http://www.irblaster.info/
http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-23.html
http://yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialMySQL.ht ml
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/User_Manual:D aily_Use
http://www.opensubscriber.com/message/mythtv-users @mythtv.org/1654163.html
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users /170450

I felt the same as you do for several weeks and I also consider myself pretty well acquainted with linux. And, contrary to some of the testimonials I'm reading, KnoppMyth did not do it for me and my pcHDTV 3000 card.

Now I'm in pretty good shape with a simple, single broadcast tuner system. I'm not using MythGame, MythFlix, or MythPhone but I am using MythStream, have all the other modules working whether I'll use some of them or not, and have only one significant bug to squash (for which I _do_ have leads) before I would declare my setup perfect for open source.

If I could put my finger on one key to success, I would say documentation. I blew away the KnoppMyth and installed Fedora 4 because a guy who has used various versions of MythTV with various versions of Fedora has the best documentation I found on the net. But not _comprehensive_ documentation. All-in-all, I have an expandible two-ring cover binding about an inch of hints, tips and other documentation printed single- and double-sided. Whether that is encouraging or discouraging depends upon the reader I guess. It _can_ be done. Some key links from my bookmarks:

http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php#hw
http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/tips.php
http://www.irblaster.info/
http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-23.html
http://yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialMySQL.ht ml
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/User_Manual:D aily_Use
http://www.opensubscriber.com/message/mythtv-users @mythtv.org/1654163.html
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users /170450

First, please see http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=193371&cid=158 64227a prior Slashdot comment for my detailed writeup of what a totally state-of-the-art MythTV high-definition system is capable of. I've had this system up and running since early January 2006, and its power and features still so far exceed any available commercial application it's not funny.

The funny thing is that I heard so many stories about how MythTV is the ne plus ultra of difficult installations that I actually put off getting started for some time after assembling the necessary parts. Some common MythTV installation mistakes:

MISTAKE: Not trying to build one because everyone knows MythTV installation makes grown men weep.
SOLUTION: It might do so . . . For those who've never installed Linux before. Yes, having some experience with Linux, or the willingness to learn along the way with learning MythTV internals, is essential.

MISTAKE: Not trying to build one because MythTV only runs on custom-built, homemade systems and I don't know how to build one.
SOLUTION: I'm two thumbs when it comes to hardware; even my earlier 2.8TB RAID 5 array (which I'm not using for MythTV storage, but will at some point) was more a software project than a hardware one. For MythTV, as I mention in my message above, I simply bought a stock 3.0GHz Pentium 4 Sony Vaio system. It did have the advantages of a) being pretty darn quiet and b) being black with flip-down covers covering the drive bay (a family member who visited recently didn't even recognize the case as belonging to a PC until I pointed it out), but these were simply superficial bonuses. There's no need to have to handcraft a SFF system in a "media PC" case unless one really wants to.

MISTAKE: Trying to build a high-definition system on the cheap.
SOLUTION: Anyone who does not feel confident about his technical skills and doesn't need high defintion ought to buy a TiVo. Seriously. Don't think that a MythTV system will somehow save you money, because it probably won't and probably won't look as nice sitting under the TV set. For those who moan and groan about the monthly TiVo fee, I'll bet they're also the ones who moan and groan about paying $15 a month for World of Warcraft despite it being a far, far, far better value per dollar than any movie, DVD, or other videogame purchase. Get out of living in mom's basement, loser!

That said, anyone who wants to build a high definition-capable system needs to look at MythTV hard because, as mentioned, it can do things no commercial system can do. However, high definition takes horsepower. Lots of horsepower. The mythtv-users list sees a constant influx of new people who think that they can get away with assembling a HD-capable system with the spare parts sitting in their closets. They fail, then go away whining about how "MythTV is hard."

Here's what one needs:

* 3.0GHz Pentium 4 or better. Don't try to use a less-powerful system and then rely on XvMC to fill the gap.
* Nvidia FX 5200 or better. No, don't try ATI. No, don't try a MX400.
* Lots of storage space. Each high-definition recording stream takes 5-8GB per hour. I can record three such at once. Do the math.
* A standalone PC. The best way, by far, to install MythTV is to follow Jarod Wilson's justly-famous installation guide, which uses Fedora Core. Don't try to press in a system already being used for something else to the task (at least not as a frontend); it's not worth the hassle.

BOTTOM LINE: Anyone with some prior Linux i

In order to prevent a massive lawsuite storm from all the major networks, TiVo officially only allows you to fast-forward through commercials, not skip them

Or you can just use MythTV, where you can automatically skip them without pressing anything.

by using mythtv and having the
ads stripped out. A typical show, sans ads and theme music,
can be watched in 40 minutes reducing her watching time from
624 hours to 466 hours.

Linux already plays HD content. I have proof in my living room today.

See http://mythtv.org/ and http://www.pchdtv.com/

Enjoy! I can do soooo much more with my myth box than a cable or sattelite provided pvr. I can store to DVD, I can watch from multiple networked locations, etc.

Westinghouse Digital has almost single-handedly pulled retail prices for quality flat panels down to earth. Its first breakthrough, a little more than a year ago, was the LVM-37W1, a 37" 1080p model which by Christmastime was selling for $1,600. Just a couple of months ago, it released the LVM-47W1, a 47" 1080p model which Crutchfield sells for $2,499 with free shipping and no sales tax outside Virginia. (Who could have imagined a 47", 5"-thick panel that can handle 1920x1080 for under $5,000 a year or even six months ago?!?)

Attaching the panel to a MythTV system and using Bob deinterlacing to double the framerate results in true 1080p video output from ordinary 1080i content that's *better* than anything else out there.

Remind me to never buy something that can be taken from me...remotely.

Then you might be interested in this and/or this, depending on your level of expertise.

>no one I know have a stand alown DVD, since they breaks so fast.

You know, a few of us at work were talking about this recently, and the funny thing is that my DVD player from 1999, which has since moved from an apartment to two other houses is still almost fully functional (some of the newer discs give it fits, and it willfully does not read CD-R audio discs). Several other people have had more than one DVD player quit on them in one or more ways, the most common being a posessed tray that requires manual intervention (one output or another stopping working was also common). Of course, most of them didn't pay even $35 for the DVD player, and they just replace it with another $30 player. The well built ones actually do last longer (shocking!), and as long as they aren't as old as mine, they actually support all of the reasonable things (MP3, CD-R audio, etc).

That being said, I built a PVR box myself using a hauppauge PVR-500 for capture and GB-PVR and Myth-TV for the interface and such. That is where we play our DVDs in the family room now, so the old DVD player has moved to the TV in our room.

If people actually wanted Viiv-like products, there'd be a lot more do-it-yourself versions while we're waiting for Intel. If the problem were a lack of software, there'd be plenty of open-source projects by impatient hackersthat's how we got Napster and BitTorrent. But the geeks seem uninterested. Where are the obsessive bloggers? The forum feuds? The amateur meetups? Show me any truly hot technology, and I'll show you 100,000 guys who can't wait to tell you about it. Has anyone bored you to death talking about their Media Center PC lately?

This is a joke, right?

People are talking, but you can't do it with free software. Just telling people how will get you tossed in jail, thanks to the DMCA and greedy big media. Rather than buy a big screen TV, I'd love to have a projector and stereo hooked up to computer. I've already got my music collection digitized. The access and convenience of Amarok are awesome. It would be great to do the same thing with movies. The cost of a projector is about the same as a big TV, but it's much more portable and gives better quality. The problem is CSS. I can't watch or archive DVD movies with my software. It's against the law to distribute software that would let me in the US or even tell people what sites in countries with sane laws have it.

Did they name the article "Myth" for kicks or what? So many people talk about Mythtv, it's hard to believe a Slate Editor has not heard of it. It even made it into the EFF's "Corruptables" video.

You can do it with non free software, sort of. The author mentions the miserable death of ViiV. Paul Boutin did not receive his promissed test model and wonders why. He must have missed this Washington Post review where the damn thing did not work at all because of all the DRM nonsense. You might be able to watch current DVDs if you fall all the way back to Windoze 98SE and have a stash of the now illegal Xcopy and other software required. The network and file system restrictions of such a computer would make most people cry, but it's the easiest route for honest people. People unafraid of the law have been swapping movies almost forever, but the effort and risks are way to great for "normal" people who will just rent a video. Yes, you can even find software that works with your free software, it's just a huge pain all around and you will again be stuck with a static system because upgrades will break it. Contraband is not free, it's not convenient and it's hard to trust.

Big Media is the root cause. They do not want their media on computers they don't have complete control over. They want it to act like a cable box, to shove adds down your throat, tell you what you can watch and when and how much you will pay for it all. Given that most media buffs already have a cable box and all the gear, the computer version that does not work looks really lame and big media is happy. There will be no video Napster, they think.The customer is not happy, too bad.

This represents a tremendous opportunity for independent media and it's why Net Neutrality is such a big deal. Already, artists can get great viewings on youtube, google video and other sites. These are just the beginning because they rely on flash and other crappy software. The quality sucks and you can't save them without a lot of effort that's liable to lace your computer with malware. The potential of the media are better seen with stuff like Star Wreck, a free, full length movie. It's a big file and independent productions are going to stay that way due to patents on video streaming and more advanced compression routines. "So what", you might ask, "I've got broadband." That's where Net Neutrality comes in and independent media gets the shaft. Warner Brothers, which so badly mangled AOL and squandered their c

Very savvy consumers will hack together ["PC-TV hybrid"] setups themselves.

Yes, we are indeed building them ourselves. However, we are doing so primarily because we can't find what we want on sale anywhere for any price. The below is an adapted version of a recent Usenet post of mine describing what I have come to daily take for granted with my high-definition MythTV setup:
------------
. . . MythTV works, and works well, for those who are interested in a "HD TiVo" without any of TiVo's limitations. I must admit to chuckling whenever I see a question in alt.tv.tech.hdtv or elsewhere asking how to record from a HD video source with a computer in terms that make it clear the poster and the respondents view the task as something akin to cavemen discovering fire.

I work long, long hours and, when I get home, often don't have any more energy left to do more than want to just relax in front of the tube. When I do so, I want to have as much choice in what to watch as possible. Let me tell one and all of what I with 100% reliability do with my MythTV setup every day:

• Push a button on the remote[1] to wake the 47" 1080p[2] LCD panel[3] from its DPMS slumber.
• Pick from a gigantic library[4] of high-definition programs that MythTV constantly adds to[5] based on my choices.[6]
• While playing the program, rewind, fast-forward, and jump to arbitrary points as desired. I can also adjust the playback speed anywhere from 0.5X to 2X without affecting audio pitch.[7]
• I can push a button to instantly and accurately skip over commercials.[8] If I've gone too far, another button will skip me back to the previous spot.
• If I exit a recording, the next time I watch it the playback will continue where I left off.[9]
• If I ever need to restart MythTV, pushing a button on my remote twice within three seconds will cause it to do so.[10]
• If I want, I can run MythTV on my MacBook and watch the exact same programs[11] with the exact same elegant and attractive user interface.[12]
• All this time, MythTV is silently recording yet more for me to watch.[13]

If any of this intrigues you, I recommend visiting:

• The MythTV Wiki and the mythtv-users mailing list archive, the two largest repositories of MythTV knowledge.
• The terrific Fedora Core-based installation guide I used.
• A well-regarded MythTV reference design for those who want to either buy it off the shelf from the vendor or build it themselves. I'm neither a customer nor an employee; all I did for my own setup was buy a Sony Pentium 4 system on sale at Fry's then add the video card, ATSC capture card, gigabit Ethernet card, remote, and NAS. However, in retrospect, there's something to be said for buying at once all the parts except the NAS in one convenient, already-integrated form.

[1] Home Theater Master MX-500 universal remote. I programmed it using a $30 infrared keyboard/mouse combo.

[2] MythTV does an *excellent* job of deinterlacing 1080i recordings into 1080p for those displays that can handle it. Any Nvidia video card from the FX5200 to the present will work.

[3] Westinghouse LVM-47W1. Under $2500 from Crutchfield for 1080p LCD goodness.

[4] MythTV tells me that I have "242 programs, using 1.7 TB (427 hrs 33 mins) out of 1.8 TB (54 GB fr

You'd be silly to buy a non-Intel Mac right now.

And yet, I'd desperately like to find a new non-intel Mac Mini at close out prices!

(I wanna build a diskless Myth frontend)

Face it, there is still software out there that won't run on the Intel based Macs that will run on the PPC Macs.

Since I can't find one at a reasonable price, I have my eyes on this instead...