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MythTV Links Up with Program Guide Provider
Neil Campbell writes "As a long-time MythTV user, I found this announcement to be quite a surprise. A company by the name of TechnoVera has partnered with the founders of MythTV on an interesting project: A pay service for electronic program guide information rivaling that of Microsoft's Media Center. No more Zap2It surveys to continue using their free albeit basic service. The most important part of this is the fact that revenues from the service will be used to fund Open Source development; most notably MythTV. Registered Users will even have the opportunity to vote on feature enhancements that they would like to be incorporated into MythTV. I'm sure there will be some initial trepidation from the Linux community, but overall I think this should be considered progress. More attention and money for MythTV will result in a better product."
The company providing this stuff is LxM Suite but, unfortunately, according to their FAQ this is a US only offering.
Damn, I would be willing to pay for a decent service in the UK. Oh well, time will tell...
All MythTV really needed was a well-funded and backed listing system. Zap2it was a good mid-point, but not on par with Tivo's or Microsoft's offerings.
Old (but very decent) PC hardware is getting cheaper and cheaper... (save for older ram.. but ddr is getting old too) So, for the enthusiast, MythTV just became a lot better..
If the price is right, this could definitely work out.
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
"More attention and money for MythTV will result in a better product."
...and lawsuits from the MPAA, etc. ;)
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
Why do you need a commercial service in the UK? The Radio Times provides an excellent free listings service for mythtv.
That programming guide information is sent over both cable and terrestrial broadcast systems.
If you pay for what is already being sent into your house for free, what does that say about you?
"I can't code?"
Look at http://www.atsc.org/ for free specs.
...and I don't like how I have to painstakingly re-enter my lineup (uncheck, uncheck, uncheck, uncheck), when it would be sooo much easier if I could just import my existing Zap2it lineup. But, I want to vote on new features - we'll see how this pans out. Only $30 for the six month pilot, not too much of a pain in the wallet for what we might get. Oh, and I'd really love to see the lineups tailored to individual subscription packages - THAT would makes keeping up with your sat/cable provider's constant lineup changes a bit less of a chore. We'll see if paying for it really gets you any more say...
Been using Myth since 0.15 in August, '04. With a PVR-350 in a Shuttle SN41G2 V2 box and 2x200GB LVM'd drives. Having a PVR really helped me to get the most out of my Dish subscription - hard to believe how cool it is to be able to record all those research and university networks in a managed way - you can take entire courses this way. And watching "Mosaic: News from the Middle East" has been an education.
No, the zap2it support still exists in MythTV. The new listing service even says in their FAQ that their service will only be one of many options, including XMLTV and zap2it, for finding TV listings. Their goal is just to sell a more complete set of listings that "just works," contributes money back to MythTV, and has an eye toward continued development based on what subscribers request.
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For someone to start a company building and selling MythTV boxes. Put a large hard drive in it, DVD burner, etc... Ideally it would be region free, HDTV capable, PVR features, able to play DVD/CD/MP3/VCD/SVCD/JPG/etc... You could rip DVDs and CDs, store your music library, use as a WebTV, and so on. It would replace your CD player, your VCR, your DVD player, your Stereo (with a radio card). It would be the one-for-all media box.
If someone started selling these pre-made and ready to go, I'll be the first to buy. Of course, I could probably build one, but I KNOW the market is there to buy them if somebody steps up to the plate.
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http://mythic.tv/ sells exactly that in their Dragon box. They also sell everything you need to just slot together a box to your specs, and pledge that everything will work out of the box with KnoppMyth. The guys who run the site are very active in supporting the MythTV community, and have been doing it for a while.