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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?"
Is it the mad crazy super duper bomb diggity, for shizzle?
why? its like saying does linus get anything from redhat?
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Does the mythtv people get anything out of this?
No but these people need to look at the zap2it guide information download terms of use. They can't sell something for profit that downloads from their free service.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one the bus load of girls just went down.
They are using one as a server while they watch a movie?
Which was mighty nice of them, but they weren't required to do so.
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
100% Correct.
Zap2it has been awesome to let us use their listing feed. But they expressly forbid this kind of for-profit usage. I'm hoping they are using another feed..
Of course, they might say on their site if it wasn't melted already...
Like Californians.
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MythTV-based systems like OpenMedia will blow DRM-crippled products like Intel's Viiv right out of the water.
I mean, who in their right mind would buy a restrictive system like Viiv when free-as-in-speech OpenMedia systems are available? Of course, the challenge is explaining to consumers why Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) is against their interests, and spreading the word that MythTV-based systems are superior to DRM-crippled offerings.
Get computers and accessories from Linux-friendly manufacturers
DRM should never be an issue if you're using a tuner card created before broadcast flag legislation gets passed (if it ever does). But unfortunately anyone who wants cable stations in HDTV is already screwed. MythTV along with just about every other decent DVR solution doesn't support CableCard or any other way to get digital channels off cable unless you are lucky enough to have a cable company who allows you to use firewire on the cable box or doesn't encrypt their signals. So basically this device won't help you watch The Sopranos in HDTV. Lame.
Feel free to mod me "-1 - Angry Jerk".
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.
Why (in the absence of a non /.ed TFA) do people assume its using Zap2it? I think that is US only anyway.
Note they said it supports DVB-T (Thats digital terrestrial TV outside the US). Don't know about NZ but in the UK there is a free 7-day EPG broadcast with the DVB-T signal which MythTV happily grabs.
Plus MythTV supports xmltv which can scrape listings from a variety of websites worldwide.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
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.
www.wildpad.com
I've only gotten my HD mythtv setup to 'crazy', acheiving 'mad crazy' is a huge step in the right direction.
Seriously though, not that hard. I have a box that does ATSC and mythtv and displays via DVI to HDMI cable to my TV. (AirStar HD5000 tuner, onboard GeFore 6150 for DVI video). It could do unencrypted QAM channels if I wasn't too much a cheapskate to buy cable.
I would be impressed if they had something that took CableCard or something for encrypted QAM channels on cable.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Few markets advertise cable card support, but they are actually available widespread. We are fast approaching the deadline requiring companies to provide cablecard support (if we haven't hit that deadline already).
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
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
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?
Additional Dual Tuner Model Now Available
Wednesday, 19 April 2006
Due to customer demand an additional standard configuration of myPVR has been released.
It appears by far that customers want their "Personal Video Recorders" to have dual tuners. Hence we are please to announce the availability of an additional dual tuner model with the smaller 250GB Hard Drive.
For the average user this HTPC can handle between 100 and 300 hours of TV, dependant on capture quality and the use of myPVR to store other media such as Music, Games and Images.
You will be pleased to know that our current Limited Period special offers sill apply with this new model.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 19 April 2006 )
Pricing Information Now Online Monday, 10 April 2006 We are very pleased to announce the initial pricing for our standard versions of myPVR 1.0. For a Limited Period we are offering the following special deal -
Software support extended from 3 to 6 months
Free delivery within New Zealand
Onsite install within the Auckland area
Note some conditions apply
This innovative HTPC (Home Theater PC) solution, with all of the features you would expect from a PVR, is now available for the New Zealand consumer.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 19 April 2006 )
Australian running a company that does C# / C++ / Java / SQL / Python / Mathematica
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.
I think a more significant problem is DVB-S support. Speaking as someone who uses Myth with Sky by having an S-video connection between the sky decoder and the Myth box, I would far prefer to just stick a DVB-S card in my Myth system. There are currently 3 problems here:
1. Sky encrypt their channels using VideoGuard and won't produce a CAM to decrypt it. This ties you into using an official Sky branded decoder (which are also completely useless for picking up stuff not covered by Sky). There are 3rd party CAMs available which claim to decrypt VideoGuard but they are relatively expensive (~100ukp) and I suspect the EUCD renders them illegal. I've yet to find a SoftCAM that will work under Linux.
2. DVB-S cards with a common interface are still reasonably pricey compared with DVB-T cards and DVB-S cards which don't have a common interface. This is probably down to lack of demand caused by (1).
3. To record multiple programs at the same time would involve having multiple CAMs and multiple Sky subscriptions. Ideally what would be better is to either do the decoding on playback (like Sky+ does), or (better) do the decoding in a post-processing job much like the commflag and transcoding jobs.
which means that analogue PVR's like this won't work, period.
Well I'm not sure what the GP is smoking here, as you pointed out the PVR being discussed in the article is DVB-T (i.e. digital), however I use my MythTV box with a plain BT878 card in it to record the analogue S-video signal off my Sky box and it works just fine.
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.
Infact, I get _better_ guide data through my Myth box than I do through my Sky box. The Sky box gives me a week's worth with often very short descriptions, whereas the Myth box gives me 2 week's worth of listings (pulled from radio times). Additionally, having looked at the Sky+ feature set I'd say my Myth box is a hell of a lot more capable (especially when I hear my sky+ owning friends complain that they missed the first episode of the new series of $foo because sky+ doesn't automatically record it, whilest my Myth box noticed the new series had started and automatically scheduled in the recordings).
http://blog.nexusuk.org
Does[sic] the mythtv people get anything out of this?
Yes, sort of. They get any changes or bugfixes this company makes to the code. Basically, they get free labor. Since MythTV is an open project the license is designed to benefit the users, not the developers (except in that the developers are users, which is why they are developing it).
I believe this was making its round couple weeks ago, so skip the crying over dupes..
Pluto - Combines Security, Home Automation, Telecom (and other things) into a single package. Uses bluetooth roaming to follow your audio around your house.. OpenSource, and it also utilizes Myth. I thought Its a neat project.
Link - http://plutohome.com/
-- I Dont Deserve A Sig I Have Bad Karma
pcHDTV - http://www.pchdtv.com/
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The HD-2000 was a 5v PCI card with two RF inputs and mono sound for NTSC. The HD-3000 is a similar card with one RF input, one SVIDEO input, one COMPOSITE VIDEO and AUDIO input and one audo stereo output for NTSC but the HD-3000 also supports Cable/QAM. Neithor card detects the broadcast
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My MythTV box changes channels on my cable box using the same serial connection that TiVo uses. It works perfectly every time. If your serial connection isn't enabled, call your cable provider and tell them you've got a TiVo.
Um, America != World...
Until I discovered TvTorrents.com. Why bother going through all the trouble of recording, waiting for the backend to flag the commercials and transcode to Xvid when I can just subscribe to a RSS feed using Azureus and have the final product appear automatically (almost... you have to manually rescan for them to show up in the list of videos).
In my opinion, this is the future of TV, whether the networks want it or not.
If you want freeview going through a pc (the DIY part) then get a freeview pci card or usb box and plug it in. You can use Myth on Linux, or various solutions on Windows XP such MS Media centre, Media Portal, (I was going to add Meedio, but it seems they've been bought out by Yahoo), Snapstreams "Beyond TV".
If you're on linux, then you could use the Hardware compatibility list at LinuxQuestions to help in choosing a card.
There is a nice selection of DVB-T cards available at DVBSHOP in Germany, which I have used, and they are pretty good with quick orders. They also sell Common Interfaces for some of the DVB-T cards so you can add a TopUp TV CAM and smart card and get subscriber stuff.
Ok, so you have to build the box yourself, but that's DIY for ya !
If you can be bothered, here's a list of my media centre related bookmarks -
Bookmarks
media centre
Overclockers UK SATA/RAID Overclockers UK Coolermaster Cases Overclockers UK Seagate Overclockers UK Hard Drive Accessories Enlight EN-8950 Server Case Black EN-8950 EYE-910 Full Tower 10 Bay Server Case - Gamecase.co.uk Mobile Rack-Backplane TheDigiboxShop.com Technotrend, Technisat DVB-S DVB-C and DVB-T cards at DVBSHOP.NET LinITX.com - Software - Mini ITX and computer components shop mini-itx.com - store LinITX.com - iMON Inside - Black Ceratech Wireless Keyboard, Built in trackball PSK573 at ITX Warehouse : Uk retailer of VIA Mini ITX form factor computers. £ $ Delivery World Wide Kustom PCs YOYOtech.co.uk suppliers of computer hardware, including, ready made pcs; laptops; motherboards; and all other pc related products. "LOWEST PRICES ON THE NET" www.mediaPC.tv / www.u-SM.com Media and Bespoke Computers Kustom PCs Cubid 2699 ITX Case Black mini-itx.com - store Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre Edition MCE2005 OEM XPMCE2005 at ITX Warehouse : Uk retailer of VIA Mini ITX form factor computers. £ $ Delivery World WideYes. We are already contributing patches and tweaks back via the Knoppmyth community. Our support team monitors the Knoppmyth Forum and the MythTV mailing list. We are fully comitted to OpenSource and any major changes/patches/tweaks will be made publically available. In order to support a diverse range of customers we need to fully test all patches before rolling them out. Any issues/problems are reported back, if possible with a fix. Hence the whole community benefits.
OpenMedia Limited - Home of NZ's first OpenSource PVR http://www.openmedia.co.nz