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Preview the New MythTV User Interface
Tombstone-f sent in a cool update on a project that I continue to keep an eye on. MythTV has become a dominant force in the do-it-yourself media-mega-box space, so any improvements to the UI matter significantly. "One of the biggest new features of the next version of MythTV (version .22) will be its new user interface. This new interface will offer many new features to MythTV, including animation, better interactivity, and faster and easier development for themers and developers alike." I think it still has a ways to go to compete with some of the more mainstream PVR boxes in terms of minimalism and good use of whitespace, but hopefully the improvements will get more people into the door.
Meh. I've tried a number of the various MythTV flavors and it all comes down to the stupidity that the "We're Linux, We Can Fix Anything" crowd insists that I blow upwards of $800 buying new hardware to get it to work.
Keep in mind: I've got an Athlon X2, 4 GB of RAM slotted, and the "incompatible" parts are (a) my video board and tv capture board (ATi All-In-Wonder 9600XT and HDTV Wonder respectively) and my remote control (Remote Wonder 2).
They work fine. I'm currently looking at XBMC's windows port as the 'replacement' for the aging ATi interface, but that interface has served me well and solidly for a few years now. MythTV, on the other hand, has not had support for my hardware in any of the flavors I've tried and has been annoying to get running even just to play back things I previously recorded.
If I had a no-name brand capture card from some fly-by-night taiwanese company, this might make sense, but there is NO excuse for Linux not supporting hardware from one of the two big players in the industry. I can stick to other solutions and be happy, and they can sit around congratulating each other on adding little bits of chrome to the interface while not paying attention to the big picture issue, which is that they can only grow their user base by making their software friendly to as much hardware as possible (especially when it's made by one of the "big 2").
The point is not "to buy compatible hardware from the start."
I've run this box for years, through various iterations. Every time I mention what I have set up, some linuxtard has to bitch and moan about why I'm not using MythTV/MythBuntu/etc instead because "oh itz so much bettor the linuz guyz rox."
The point is, I built my box, I have used the software I wanted, and I gave the Linux guys their fair shot at earning their chops by seeing whether or not their supposedly "superior" software would run well on my setup.
IT DOESN'T. NEVER HAS.
Every time I've taken them up on their bet, sure enough, it fails. Just like the dork above who got modded "insightful" above for providing wiki-links that provide "proof" in his mind that the stuff is "well supported"... when what they ACTUALLY say is (A) here's a bunch of hoops to jump through and (B) once you've jumped through the hoops, MAYBE it'll work, MAYBE it won't, and the instructions are also based on distributions 2-3 generations old and don't work on the (not precisely recent) Ubuntu 8.10 even.
So you're complaining that MythTV doesn't work well when you used cards (ATI) that do not have very good Linux support. When I built my DVR, I researched the type of card to use. By far, everyone said not to use ATi as there wasn't very much support. Not that some people couldn't get it to work, but that the support was lacking. There are other cards that you could have used. I would say rather it's a testament to Linux that it works at all.
And my counterpoint is: the linux nerds who keep bugging me about "you should use our software its so much betterz"... I've given them their fair shot. I've had my stable, reliable machine through years of (inexpensive) upgrades myself. It works well. Linux, on the other hand, has NOT served it well despite numerous attempts (probably FAR more than I should have wasted my time on) attempting to give them a fair shake.
The Slashdot crowd loves to sit around and attack Microsoft. I don't exactly love some of the things they've done myself. What I do know, however, is that on my MS-based setup my box works fine and Linux has never even come close to functionality or ease of use.
THAT is what Linux needs to get past if they want decent market share. Get back to basics, get functionality solid and as easy to use as possible, rather than having to hunt through ridiculous amounts of message-board posts and wiki hunting to find "instructions" for distributions 2-3 generations back that no longer even work for the latest distro.
My point was that your specific problem was foretold and you either didn't do your research or ignored it. For years now, anyone making or building a MythTV machine has known that using ATi cards would present problems. But instead of owning up to it, you blamed the developers who have tried to help the situation.
Know what? I've had dozens of linux nerds like you bugging me about how their software was "superior" and how I should convert MY box to it. Every time, they give me the same crap assurances like that asswad previously who pointed me to wiki pages he obviously hadn't even read and that are horribly outdated.
MY point is, whether or not you can point your fingers and blame ATi or anyone else, the failure of Linux/MythTV to run correctly on pretty ubiquitous hardware is Linux's problem.
I don't know about all your Linux attempts, but if they're like your MythTV attempts, ignoring general advice will not make your Linux experience any more pleasant than Windows.
I have not "ignored general advice." I have ignored STUPID advice from people who are self-assured, annoying, and convinced that everyone's system should be an exact carbon copy of theirs. I have ignored people who say that I'm not giving MythTV a "fair shake" if I don't shell out tons of cash and rebuild my already-working system just to install it.