New MythTV Based PVR Available

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?"

Comments

mythtv is still alittle too arcane....

[nblender]

I have a mythbackend and 2 frontends. I'm building a new backend for my DVB card. Ignoring installation issues and everything, 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". My dad has a laptop and knows how to use various MS productivity things... The myth recording profiles, and schedules, and so forth, are poorly designed so an average run of the mill person has no idea what any of it means. MythTV is still a product by geeks for geeks. For example,

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.

Would need a lot of work

[Brix Braxton]

As much as I love homebrew PVR's (I use several along with my Tivo) I can't help but think that for most people - the better value would be to just buy a Tivo and a lifetime subscription (and if they no longer offer that, then three years of service). If you want to copy MPEG files over, use Tivo to Go or get a ReplayTV. PC's are sloppy compared to these options.

Re:Trully

[nagora]

While it might say it supports DVB-T , without full native support for digital cable, any kind of DIY PVR or MCE PC is just a gimmick.

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

[barawn]

where the only way you can record digital cable or HDTV is to connect the cable box to your video in, and hit play and record on two remotes.

Uh, you do realize that it's not only possible, but rather easy, to set up MythTV to work with cable boxes?

Hit play and record on two remotes? What is this, 1980?

Re:Bye, bye DRM-crippled Intel Viiv

[Cromac]

Who would buy a pre-built system at all? Setup time for building your own is slightly less than an hour.

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.