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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?
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.
Like Californians.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
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.
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?
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.
Of course, the challenge is explaining to consumers why Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) [eff.org] is against their interests,
That's actually very easy. You start with something they're familiar with:
"Don't you hate it when you have to sit through all that crap at the beginning of a DVD before you can watch the movie?" "That's digital rights management at work!"
Then you can explain how DVD player manufacturers are forced to sign an agreement stating that their players will allow Hollywood executives and lawyers to determine what you can and can't do in your living room. Anyone who makes a DVD player that circumvents Hollywood's protections, or otherwise helps you to do what would otherwise be perfectly legal, will run afoul of the DMCA.
Then you can move on to other things like the broadcast flag that will be used to determine wether or not you even get to record a show to watch later, or the restrictions on newer HD DVD players that will determine for you wether you get to watch the movie you bought at its full resolution on the expensive TV you bought.
In short, DRM allows movie and music producers to dictate what you can and can't do with stuff you pay for. Its not about preventing piracy (that's the herring that sells) its about controlling what the consumer can do after the sale.