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I was looking at the pictures here and here, and it looks strikingly similar to MythTV screenshots. Being the owner of a 2wire DSL router, I know they use linux and ipfw, so I think I am correct in assuming they're also using MythTV for its UI.

Let's hope they give back to the community. This could be a great thing (or a bad thing) for MythTV

Can that $100 Tivo box rip my DVDs and store them on the Tivo device for later viewing (DVD jukebox)? Can it rip my audio CDs and act as a music Jukebox? Can it recognize and skip commercials on recorded TV shows? Can it play my DivX files? Can it act as a server and broadcast audio/video to different devices on my network?

What, it can't? Linux based MythTV can. You see, there's a tiny little difference there :)

Its a shame they didn't compare these products against MythTV. I've been using it quite happily for some time on my Linux box equipped with a Hauppage TV card. I suspect it works out cheaper than the options offered in the article and has comparable features to a tivo...

Its a shame they didn't compare these products against MythTV. I've been using it quite happily for some time on my Linux box equipped with a Hauppage TV card. I suspect it works out cheaper than the options offered in the article and has comparable features to a tivo...

..the possibility of replicating such features on your Windows PC

Windows PC? You mean Linux or other OSs can't do that task? Well.. MythTV is the killer app and it runs on Linux. While all my Windows apps died waaay too often I'm glad I found a rock solid Linux solution that has impressive list of features.

If you really want to get a PC for your livingroom, consider building your own and fitting it to PC cases like these.

Then install Linux and MythTV software. MythTV really rocks! It can act as a DVD jukebox (you can rip your DVDs and store them on the HD), music jukebox, video recorder etc. and it has some really nice features like automatic commercial skipping. Definitely worth checking!

Here is the answer.. Linux based MythTV is the leader of the pack! Check out the features!

Is this something that perhaps could be integrated into MythTV?

As it stands, I'd love to have something like that. My family room and kitchen are together in the same area of the house. It'd be trivial for me to walk over to the TV when I run out of something and scan it (with my CueCat) so that it can be added to a grocery list before I toss out the empty container.

In the future, an RFID scanner placed in my recycling box could do this trick automatically.

A quick click of the remote could then print the list, or even better access it from work via MythWeb. Perhaps even having a menu of additional items to add (for produce or cold cuts, for example) before finishing the list, the whole thing could be managed fairly easily.

Anybody game to program that?

I can't speak to LinDVR, but a decent MythTV setup can be built for less than $500.

MythTV has most of the features listed for LinPVR, plus some additional modules. It's really nice to use, and it can handle HDTV in the US. I may be wrong, but I think that LinPVR is based around DVB, which is the digital TV format for much of Europe.

Another Linux-based PVR will allow you to record HD. The catch is that it only records HD over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts. So if you live in an area with HD broadcasts (at the least, most major metro areas in the U.S.), and you have an antenna, you can have an HD-capable MythTV PVR.

The card is the pcHDTV 3000, available at http://www.pchdtv.com/.

The MythTV web site is http://mythtv.org.

For info about HD and MythTV, search the MythTV mailing list archive for "hdtv" or "pcHDTV".

Finally, a step-by-step install guide for MythTV is available here.

Here are some links to some sites that teach you how to build a Linux PVR:

http://www.mythtv.org/
http://anandtech.com/linux/showdoc.aspx?i=2190
http://www.linuxprofessionalsolutions.com/pavlicek /tv.html
http://ozzzy.dhis.org/poorpvr-gtk.html
http://www.bluelightning.org/ebox/status.html
http://www.cadsoft.de/people/kls/vdr/

This distribution could prove very useful in recording videos such as these.

Not necessarily...with MythTV you can have multiple tuners...so, they can record independantly of each other, so, this overlap is no problem.

I ran into this issue lastnight, I just told mythtv to stop recording the show 1 minute early and the problem was solved.

The new MythTV 0.16 has this feature. Note the change log on this page http://www.mythtv.info/moin.cgi/WhatsNew

New Recording Options Screen The advanced recording options screen has been given a much needed make over. The various Qt controls are gone and the dialog is now themeable. Recording options are now set using a list control. The options are grouped into categories and can be selected using the arrow keys and the SELECT button. For simple items such as the start early/end late options you can just use left/right to increment them. For list types such as the recording group selection you can scroll through the options with left/right or press SELECT to see a list of the items and select which one you want. Items that can be scrolled left or right have arrows pointing to the left and/or right.

On the whole - if you are looking for some free PVR software NOW, get MythTV or Freevo. There are excellent tutorials on the net on how to set up a MythTV system - from scratch - no hardcore Linux skills required.

You could submit a patch to http://www.mythtv.org/.

Check out This Site. It has a bunch of awesome cases for making media center PC's - not NEARLY as expensive as the Hush box, but just as sexy IMO. Xoxide has the best (read: most interesting) case selection that I have seen on the internet thus far. I am considering purchasing one of these cases for a MythTV Box.

Why not run this
with mythtv or freevo?

Not that I've done it myself yet.

"Could this be the perfect media center box?"

running media center 2005

Can anyone spot the deliberate mistake here?

I was considering getting a basic PVR for UKP 150.00 in February, but it was very limited

Have a look at MythTV - with the advantage that it's opensource so if theres a feature missing you can implement it yourself.

I went for Myth because it's open source and at the time Sky Plus had some long standing (and serious bugs) with the "series link" feature which lets you record a whole series whcih showed no sign of getting fixed. I still think the way Myth decides what to record is superior - I can tell it to "Record all episodes of Battlestar Galactica on any channel" and it will. If there are 2 programs it wants to record at the same time it will look around to see if any of them are repeated later (even on another channel) and reschedule to avoid the conflict. At the end of the season I won't delete the instruction to record Battlestar Galactica so when the next season starts it will automagically start recording it for me so I don't have to keep an eye out for the new season starting.

Well, in 2-3 years time you'll probably be able to get a 1ghz phone with 512mb ram and 10gb solid state storage.

Then you'll be complaining that your tv doesn't have usb or bluetooth or wifi to transfer recordings onto your phone.

But seriously, a PC could easily perform TiVO like functions, given the right hardware to interface with the TV.

While I may be a paranoid tinfoil hat wearing nut who doesn't want Tivo knowing what I watch and rewind, my reasoning is dictated more by the fact that I like to customize my box, add functionality, watch videos I download, and freely distribute content to every PC in my house.

The WAF (wife approval factor) is quite high, and it's definitely a hit with the kids. Add the fact that I've learned way more about Linux in the past year than I did over the past 6 years as a casual user and I consider the project a huge success.

Of course they are only likely to get information from people they can easily find, such as Tivo Customers and Sat TV companies who supply boxes with recording cabpabilities.

They will totally miss those using Mythtv ( http://www.mythtv.org/ ) or Freevo ( http://freevo.sourceforge.net/ ) or any other home brew solution.

Windows CE ? come on... they can do better than that!

Every day that I read /. I start loving my MythTV box ;) more and more...

mythtv.

this is easily one of the greatest open source projects ever. easy setup, incredible documentation, insanely stable....the only time i've had to shut the box down was to add a dvd drive. if you add the extra components, you get a dvd player, an ok mp3 player, weather, news feeds a total media package.

I would recommend either Freevo or MythTV. Both are very nice. The problem with Windows Media Center is all the DRM crap. Recordings get DRMed and become a pain to play anywhere else. I personally recommend Frevoo, as it is very easy to use and setup.

MythTV plays my OGG's just fine, as does my wife's Rio Karma. Given the openness and Freedom of OGG (not to mention quality) versus MP3 and AAC, any new device I am going to use must be able to play OGG. I regret that I got my Aiwa MP3 car stereo before I knew about OGG, but at least it has a line in for things like the Karma. Or, I might just replace it with a Linux based deck.

http://www.mythtv.org/

MythTV

No AAC support that I know of but is does support FLAC and Ogg.

http://www.mythtv.org/

I use MythTV, of course! Actually, I use KnoppMyth, but -- same thing.

FABULOUS TiVo replacement, but sometimes a bit hard to get working, especially if you only have seemingly random hardware, or just whatever is laying arround. The machine I dedicate for this is piped into my TV, stereo, local network, and it is convenient to drag-and-drop whatever media files I want (including MAME ROMs!) onto the MythTV box, and play away! Check it out, it really is worth it. Use an MPEG tuner card if you can.

If you are technically inclined (this _is_ slashdot) then perhaps you may want to check out Freevo or perhaps MythTV.

Seems to me, this might be the way for interested Linux/Opensource people... a great way to avoid BorgBill's assimilation.

I've shown those sites to a few people, and they get very excited... especially since Tivo like services are only now penetrating in my area.

Tivo's not everywhere... yet. Maybe MS can be headed off a the pass, too.

MythTV would do the application part quite well. Comparisons between MythTV and MCE have made it to Slashdot before.

One more reason to just build a MythTV box.

MythTv

PVR Hardware Database

RedHat install guide

Gentoo Install Guide(I went this route)

Knoppix Myth

They do, it's called MythTV.

Well, that article pretty much convinced me not to buy a Tivo. I'm going with MythTV. The hassle of setting it up properly is worth being able to use it as I wish.

It's unfortunate that commercial companies can't release a product without having to deal with lawsuits regarding how their client's use the product. All that does is shift the supplier to someone who can effectively avoid these lawsuits.

tivo isn't the only game in town and they should recognize that it's easier in the long run to just roll your own. you can get one of those mini-pc's with a pci slot, put in a pvr card (there are many available) from hauppage, ati, or any other vendor, install linux and http://www.mythtv.org/the mythtv software (which i understand doesn't work well with ATI or Creative cards) and begin enjoying your shows. Remember...the more drive space you have the more you can record and if you get a dvd burner into the same box, you may be able to back up your programs for later viewing (may not work on all shows). Tivo? who needs 'em....

The folks over at pchdtv.com are now taking orders for the new HD-3000 *linux only* HDTV video capture card.

And yes, they are working on QAM digital cable support for this new card. Here is a nice FAQ about what is new in this card.

A path that could be very fruitful is to design a video card to be used in a TiVo-like device. In particular, in addition to the good suggestions involving the Render and Damage extensions, a 2D-only card should do some hardware accelerating of IDCT and motion compensation, so that i.e. DVD's and MPEG-4 files can be played with a very minimal CPU. Work with systems integrators that are willing to put MythTV on a silent fanless system with a pcHDTV card and your video card/chip. This could be a good way to go for smaller but demonstrated market, where the part is easier to design than a 3D-nvidia-ati competing beast. Actually doing the video and TV on the same part is a good idea, if it can be done, since these machines are usually space and PCI-slot constrained.

I do not think, out of the gate on a small budget is reasonable or feasable to get a 3D part. It would be better to start small, and plan some features for the second generation. For funding, take pre-orders. Oh and hype the shit out of it, on slashdot.

Secondly, how feasable is it to put a cheap off-the-shelf CPU on the part to handle the 3D workload. Certainly that's faster and cheaper than a FPGA. CPU's with MMX or Altivec instructions can be had in the 1-2 GHz range for < $50.

-- Bob

MythTV

Why pay thousands for something you can do for a couple hundred?

Cute, but I still plan to build my own around MythTV. That will work both ways (allowing me to record TV and then view it over the network) as well as dealing with DVDs and MAME.

torrentocracy has political content that is set up to work with MythTV and a corresponding Blog so you can point their custom BitTorrent client at the RSS feed and automatically have your MythTV box download the content as it becomes available and view when you get around to it. This is really a great example of the RSS & BT Together idea that was discussed here on slashdot a while back. Until I saw Torrentocracy, I really didn't "get it", but now I do. This kind of thing could really change the way we get our newertainment.

I been pretty happy with The OU and MythTV for a while now. Not sure if you can get OU in the states though.

Gates: What the consumer wants is pretty clear: a single remote control that lets them navigate photos, music, videos, TV in a very rich way. They want to see that on any screen in the house and then have a great portable device where they can take that stuff wherever they want anytime. The full realization of that dream is still years away, but we've taken a dramatic step in delivering that with Media Center.

I think it'd be great if we could beat Microsoft to the punch by offering all of this and more using Linux and open formats (not WMA Bill!). It seems like there is already a lot of work in the area going on (MythTV, Freevo, Mister House, VLC) but is any of this ready to be easily set up by the average Joe? Is there any work being done to put all the pieces together. Perhaps a modded distribution geared specifically to creating and setting up a Media Center type environment. Not only could a Linux based solution put anything from MS to shame it could also force Movies/TV/Music industries to support open formats if the Linux Media Center becomes the dominant player.

Am I dreaming or can the open source community take the lead here?

For Linux, there's MythTV and Freevo. They're both free, and I've heard good things about both of them.

I'm planning to get a mini-ITX form-factor computer and install Linux and one of the above to use as a media box. I'd also like to put some games and possibly Stepmania on it. That would be a nice setup.

Anyone care to share any personal experiences with MythTV or Freevo?

http://www.mythtv.org/
http://freevo.sourceforge.net/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/knoppmyth/
Maybe give you a start.

This is courtesy of MythTV and Freeview DVB-t. Unfortunately Mythtv doesn't really understand radio stations so you have to record it with some video too. I chose the video of bid-up-tv as its really low bitrate! MythTV is set to record it whenever it comes on too...

I then demuxed the mpeg stream and extracted the 192k MP2. Its very good quality (equivalent to 128k MP3 I'm sure) and playable in all MP3 players that I've tried.

I tried lame --r3mix --mp3input to convert it but it only became 6 MB shorter (out of 38 MB) so I didn't think that the additional lossy coding step was worth while.

Custom pvr