Step By Step: Building a MythTV PVR for $635 282
hesby writes "Anandtech has just published the first half of a two-part article on building a MythTV PVR that they will ultimately compare with Microsoft's Windows Media Center Edition on very similar hardware. As a result, they selected some components that the average user might not choose, just to keep things fair in the second part, where they pit the two PVRs head to head."
Or (Score:4, Informative)
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For the PC based Tivo, if I get a RAID 5 card and a few 250GB HDs, I could have 1TB+ of storage - enough for TV shows and a video on demand system with a bunch of my DVDs ripped. Yes, it gets a lot more expensive, but 250GB drives are under $150 these days (Fry's ad had both PATA and SATA 250GB drives for under $150 - no MIRs).
Re:Or (Score:3, Insightful)
Cheers,
Erick
They don't.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Want to watch that Seinfeld episode with the toothbrush? You can pull it up only if you have all 100 or so hours of Seinfeld stored.
You probably don't want to watch it yourself. You probably want to show it to someone else. "There was this great episode of such and such the other day, man, you should have seen it."
Call it an extension of memory. It's well worth reading what C.S. Lewis said about this in "Perelandra", and of course if the text were online I could link you to the right bit.
These sorts of people used to download a lot more music before the iTunes music store for the same reason. They want to be able to have any song, any time. Now you don't have to download the song until you want to hear it because you know the download will work.
The music packratting is starting to fall off... you don't stockpile every kind of snack just in case you have a craving because you trust 7-11. The video packratting is just getting started.
Re:They don't.... (Score:2)
Thanks -- you made my day.
Yikes! (Score:2)
I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy!
Re:Or (Score:5, Informative)
Certainly, the linux/windows PVR has the plus of being able to play other media and donwloaded movies. Although I can't imagine a full fledged linux TiVo interface hack isn't in the works already to permit this functionality (Tivos come with USB, and support ethernet networking).
Re:Or (Score:3, Interesting)
The whole DVDs-on-demand is the primary reason why it would be better to use a PC based PVR as opposed to a Tivo. If all you want is more TV, then get a Tivo.
Re:Or (Score:2, Interesting)
Tivo's are great (I love mine), but I really like the flexibility of rolling my own ( so much so I put up a community dedicated to building your own PVR [byopvr.com] )
DIY is MORE about control and creativity than it is about saving a buck (you'd figure the
Although if you are creative with existing components you can build a tivo-esque workalike [byopvr.com] pretty cheap.
And do
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Tivo lets you play stuff back through a VCR or standalone DVD-R, but that's a half-assed solution at best. The integrated TiVo + DVD-R boxes from e.g. Pioneer are over $500 [crutchfield.com] for just the hardware. add $300 for lifetime service, and that MythTV box starts to look downright cheap.
why would you want to burn to DVD? well, because you might want to archive something on broadcast, or make copies to give to your friends. As a for-example, I'm on a masters' water polo team, and I'm fanatic about watching and playing polo. But there is never any polo on American TV... except during the Olympics! So yes, I went to Circuit City and bought a $99 TiVo with the 40-gig disk for the SOLE PURPOSE of recording olympic water polo matches. But guess what? Everybody on my team wants to watch them too, but since Tivo records the whole 8-hour block of programming, I had to delete some games from Tivo to make room for the next games. And I noticed something interesting- whatever algorithm Tivo uses to compress the video stream, it has some problems with water, especially at the lower quality settings... Often I could see rectangular divisions in the surface of the pool, and it's even worse on the VHS tapes I tried to make from the TiVo.
When you buy a Tivo, you're buying convenience, but if you also want to buy the ability to make archival copies on DVD, you're going to spend $500 on hardware either way... and then the MythTV box does save you money because you don't have to subscribe to get progam listings.
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I haven't paid a monthly fee to Tivo in almost 5 years.
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Ok, I'm curious.. how do you manage with out the service then? I want to buy an tivo, but don't want to pay either.. :D
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Nice when you have more than one, in that a computer under your direct control can manage it as if there is more than one. Who wants 3 tivo's all recording the same damn thing? Besides, some things like C band tv, just aren't supported by Tivo.
But how GOOD is Zap2It guide data? (Score:2)
Re:But how GOOD is Zap2It guide data? (Score:3, Insightful)
Before MythTV 0.15 came out, the data from Zap2It was "scraped" by grabbing HTML pages from their website and ripping the data from there. It worked, but Zap2It constantly broke the scrapers.
With MythTV 0.15, it seems that Issac (the core developer of MythTV) and Zap2It have worked out an agreement, where MythTV users can subscribe to Zap2It's guide data for free. The catch though is that in order to continu
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I dont think there's much point in putting such rapidly changing things such as video codecs into hardware, when you can economically buy a fast enough processor with high memory bandwidth, like an athlon64.
Re:Or (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, codecs change fast, but when you can offload 95% of the work the box would be doing, that's nothing to sneeze at.
Besides, you could record in MPEG2, and use your now free CPU time to do the transcoding (which you can also do when nothing is being recorded). That way you get the instant gratification of having things recorded small (and your CPU could handle 2 or 3 recordings at once as long as the HD could) and you could run a low priority cron job to transcode things when nothing else is going on so you get the space advantage.
But if you plan to backup (or just copy) onto DVDs (which are MPEG2), then recording in MPEG2 makes even more sense (because you wouldn't need to transcode to make a disc that would play in any player).
As for the Athlon 64, yes it could handle one or two encodes in real time, but with a RAID and a few cards, you could record 4 or 5 streams with hardware encoding. Also, MythTV supports multiple front/backends. That means you can take your old PII 233, stick a PVR-250 in it, and with a little setup it would look like an extra tuner to your main MythTV box. That would only cost you $99 or the card. Your idea would require a much faster computer.
The ideal solution would be some very fast ASIC/DSP/PGA that you could configure on the fly to do hardware encoding of any format, but that probably won't show up for years.
Also note that a hardware encoding chip does the work much more efficently (in terms of electricity used and heat produced) than a general purpose processor like a P4 or Athlon 64.
Re:Or (Score:4, Interesting)
It's recommended to have about 1Ghz per encoder, so if you want to record two programs, and be able to watch something, you're going to need at least 3 Ghz. Even with this much power, though, there can still be glitches when viewing or recording due to load. However, with with two Hauppauges you can record two shows and watch something at the same time with the machine hardly ticking over.
It's not unheard of to have both a Happguage and a different TV tuner card in the box as well, for when you want to record straight to a format other than MPEG.
Also, many people choose to use a less powerful, but smaller, quieter, and cheap machine like a mini-ITX as a PVR. In this case, it's a requirement to use a Hauppauge if you want to watch and record at the same time.
Re:Or (Score:3, Interesting)
The PVR-250 offers onboard MPEG-2 compression which gets you decent quality and acceptable file sizes and you don't need your CPU to do all the work. It would be nice to save some of those cycles to use on playback of t
Hauppauge PVR-250 (Score:2)
Not intentionally trolling, just posting the correct spelling for those who wanna look it up.
Re:Or (Score:5, Informative)
I've got a MythTV box running on a VIA mini-ITX using the slowest CPU offered, a fanless 533 MHz C3 "Eden." With the PVR-350 it loafs along at sub 5% CPU loading. The only downside to this slow of a CPU is occasionally there's a lag in menu selections or screens that need to do a lot of database work to update, but given the power savings and the fact that the box can be fanless, it's worth it.
Even cooler, I was able to use MythMusic to rip all my CDs that had been living in a 200 CD changer -- now I've got on screen menu, random access to the collection with complete artist/title info, instead of having to look up that a favorite CD is #153 in the changer. And I can create any playlist I want with minimal effort.
Tivo doesn't do anything like this -- one more advantage for MythTV.
Start adding up the cost of consumer electronic devices a Myth box can potentially replace, and it doesn't take long to make a compelling argument based on expense alone.
Re:Or (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder how the WinTV-PVR-usb2 is, and if it is supported in Linux?
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Secondly, it appears newegg.com is pulling an amazon.com. I went to their site and found the prices a little different then yours, so ans an experiment, I connected to my work machine, and used IE instead of Firefox, and checked out those prices... again, slightly different then what even I saw before
Re:Or (Score:2)
22:34:59 up 3:21, 4 users, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.00
An added plus, I can have as many tuners in there as I have PCI slots, should I want. I could purchase a WinPVR 250 for the encoding, use that as the primary recorder, and get another one for PiP. Or any multitude of other options, like putting a card in my dual Opteron server. It's qui
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I agree with the cost part of that especially because none of us know how long guide data will be available for free. On the other hand my wife has no problem using MythTV nor do friends and family. It really is just as easy to use as a Tivo. Also, adding MythMusic and Myt
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If you happen to live in one of the two [tivo.com] countries that TIVO is available in.
If you live anywhere else in the world, building a MythTV box is one of the few ways to get a PVR. (yeah, I know some cable companies will rent you a box with PVR functions, but they are very short on features, and not hackable)
Re:Or (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyways, TiVo is always going to offer restricted functionality - after all we wouldn't want to open up the possibility of piracy just so you can do whatever you want with your own hardware.
Then there's the fact that they monitor and record everything you do with your TiVo.
Oh, and reserve part of your(?) hard drive to record programs of their own choosing.
And the pesky subscription fees.
And you can't add a second (or third...) tuner to the Tivo to expand its capabilities, or even put in a bigger hard drive without voiding the warranty.
And of course the TiVo can't also be your fileserver, mailserver, webserver, WiFi access point, mp3 jukebox, and DVD player like my under-the-TV linux box is.
Re:Or (Score:4, Interesting)
When we want something, we usually exchange something called "money" for what we want. We have money, which really isn't any good for anything except getting other things you want.
And someone else has a TiVo service, which they want to give some someone with money. They can't eat TiVo service, after all.
So, we both do something called an "exchange". We give them the money, and they give us the TiVo service. This is not a one-sided transaction. We had money which we didn't want, but the other person did. They had some TiVo service, which they can't eat, but can give to us in exchange for the "money" that they can use to get something to eat from someone else. To say that it's cornholing, or flagpole rape is just a little ridiculous.
So as I said, it's not a one-sided deal. Both parties of this exchange of "money" for "TiVo service" benefit. In fact, usually both parties are so pleased at the exchange from which both of them benefitted, that they say "thank you" to each other at the conclusion of the deal.
So buy the damn TiVo service and qwitcherbitchin.
Only 15 minutes to put hardware together? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Only 15 minutes to put hardware together? (Score:2)
80GB? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:80GB? (Score:2)
Re:80GB? (Score:3, Informative)
If your antenna reception is poor, you need to use higher bitrates. All of that fuzz is going to compete with the actual show for bits, so you need to provide more.
When the signal is nice and clean, you can lower the bitrate.
Re:80GB? (Score:3, Informative)
Sempron? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Sempron? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Sempron? (Score:3, Informative)
Mythtv can re-encode the mpeg2 files into other formats in the background once a recording has completed. Mythtv nices the re-encoding processes down so they don't impact much of anything else on the box.
I have a 700MHz duron w/ 2 pvr-250's and have no trouble at all recording two programs at a time while re-encoding in the background.
Just For Comparison (Score:5, Informative)
So just for comparison, a low end brand new TiVo is $99 after rebates. A lifetime service contract is $299. The total is there for about $400. That's still about $250 under what the box in the article is. For that extra money you could get a 140 hour TiVo and still have $50 to spend on something else.
Or, if you have DirecTV, you can buy a DirecTiVo for about $100 and monthly service is $5 on top of your DirecTV bill. So that $650 will buy you the lowest end DirecTiVo and 110 months of service (about 9 years). DirecTiVos are wonderful machies, and can record two things at once, and it's all pure digital. I don't know the prices, but for $650 you could probably get a HD-DirecTiVo and a few months of HD/TiVo at least.
All that said, check out MythTV. If you already have parts on hand, it would be cheaper. It's a fun little project that can do tons of stuff, and there is no DRM (always a /. favorite). It was facinating watching the development list when I did. At that time they were discussing (and testing) ways of automaticaly skipping commercials, and it was very interesting to read. They talked about blank frame detecting (but you have to be careful so you don't miss a Simpsons's "eyeball" scene), using time (commercials come at fairly regular intervals), "bug" detection (the logo in the corner), etc.
MythTV can also show you weather, they were working on DVD and video playing as I remember, and MP3 playback. Plus you can have different frontend and backend boxes which would allow for very cool things.
All that said, if you just want a DVR, a TiVo is probably better. If you want your own Home Theater PC that can do all sorts of stuff and you want to be able to extend it yourself, check out MythTV.
Re:Just For Comparison (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Just For Comparison (Score:2)
But, if you've got the money for a HDTV and want a PVR and could afford the $650 to build one, there is a decent chance that you can afford a HD TiVo instead.
TiVo = A linux distro (Score:5, Informative)
you can get TiVo source code at:
http://tivo.com/linux/linux.asp
Broadcast flag coming up... (Score:5, Informative)
if you're interested in building your own PVR, you should take a look at EFF's broadcast flag page:
http://www.eff.org/broadcastflag/ [eff.org]
in less than a year, it will no longer be possible to buy a PC/HDTV decoder that is free of broadcast flag restrictions.
something to think about...
Re:Broadcast flag coming up... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Broadcast flag coming up... (Score:2)
Buy foreign (Score:3, Insightful)
And this is why Linux is not mainstream (Score:4, Insightful)
"We can attempt to load the card right now using the commands below:
# modprobe i2c-core
# modprobe i2c-algo-bit
# modprobe tuner type=2
# modprobe msp3400
# modprobe videodev
# modprobe saa7115
# modprobe ivtv"
And
"dmesg also reports success:
# dmesg | tail
[] sys_init_module+0xeb/0x1e0
[] sysenter_past_esp+0x52/0x79
ivtv: No mem on buf alloc!
ivtv: Buffer alloc failed!
ivtv: Registered v4l2 device, minor 0
ivtv: Registered v4l2 device, minor 32
ivtv: Registered v4l2 device, minor 224
ivtv: Registered v4l2 device, minor 24
ivtv: loaded "
Uh huh
"# cat
And finally:
"And finally, after several hours of turmoil and despair, we have installed and tested our Linux device. Its far from perfect - we cannot readily work with digital TV broadcasts, for example."
It's for exactly these reasons that people use Windows and Macs... this sort of thing is far above the average Joe's understanding I'm afraid, and it really shouldn't be stuff they have to know as it's not user friendly, confusing and assumes far too much prior knowledge.
Re:And this is why Linux is not mainstream (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:And this is why Linux is not mainstream (Score:3, Insightful)
People who know better figure "hey, it works fine for me, you lamers should learn more."
People who don't know better go out and buy macs or windows boxes, and never bother learning, 'cuz they already know they sure as hell ain't going to learn shit from people like you. They don't even like people like you.
To read an attitude like yours is depressing, because while you could be doing so much more, you're simply prancing about on your
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:And this is why Linux is not mainstream (Score:4, Informative)
Good luck? It would be easier to do on a mac than a Linux box. Anything you can't find a native OS X app for, you can usually grab the unix tools and install to fill in the gaps. And you never have to recompile the kernel to get your hardware to work.
Re:And this is why Linux is not mainstream (Score:2, Interesting)
Hmmm... This article [macosxhints.com] seems to have nearly what you're asking for. And it's nearly six months old. As for storing it to a network file server attached via IP over Firewire, you don't think the company that invented Firewire knows how to make that work? Think again buddy. And I'll second what somebody else already said ab
Re:And this is why Linux is not mainstream (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, I know what you mean. I had all these issues with my Linux-based TiVo. It's so hard for the average Joe like me to understand, and it's not user friendly at all. Apparently you need to have prior knowledge of things like "TV", "Cable", "Schedules", and "Shows."
Where does it end?
Re:And this is why Linux is not mainstream (Score:2)
Seems like you're only proving his point further here.
If you're so sure, then how about a real example of how average-user-friendly it is to setup, instead of taking the cop-out of basically saying "It's easy for me, how could it possibly be
Re:And this is why Linux is not mainstream (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, I suppose so, if you count merciless ridicule as honest user testimony.
If you're so sure, then how about a real example of how average-user-friendly it is to setup, instead of taking the cop-out of basically saying "It's easy for me, how could it possibly be hard for anyone else?"
Fine. How to set up a TiVo:
- Take you TiVo out of the box.
- Oh and ah, then pet TiVo affectionately.
- Put batteries in remote.
- Connect cable wire to TiVo.
- Set the channel switch on TiVo to "3".
- Connect one end of red/white/yellow wire to TiVo and other end to TV.
- Connect one end of phone cord to TiVo and other end to phone jack.
- Plug in TiVo, turn it on, and turn on the TV.
- Set the TV channel to "3".
- Follow the on-screen instructions.
- Record stuff.
- Watch recorded stuff.
- Drink beer. Eat chips.
See? Easy. No, recompile of the kernel was necessary.The point was that the TiVo is a simple to use device that is based on Linux, and is widely used by the unwashed masses. The parent concluded that Linux isn't ready for the mainstream by citing parts of an article about custom building a machine from scratch, while ignoring the counterexample of consumer-oriented products already using Linux.
Re:And this is why Linux is not mainstream (Score:4, Informative)
Well, my bad for not reading your comment a bit closer before posting. One would think though that on a story about custom buiding a Linux PVR system, you'd comment on, well, a custom-built Linux PVR system.
We all know TiVos are easy to use and based on Linux, but that's not the subject of this story or what the original poster was commenting on.
The fact remains that if you want to achieve what the story is concerned with, and build a custom solution, you have to go through a lot of needlessly complex configuration that should really be automated in some fashion by now.
Fair enough... (Score:2)
While you're at it, you might as well mention that a Windows PVR isn't mainstream either.
And then mention that there is nothing comparable running on a Mac.
Face it, a PVR using any standard, unmodified OS is not mainstream. Anywhere.
Not quite (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.elgato.com/
I believe there's another service/hardware, but I don't remember the name.... But I do remember this....
http://www.lowendmac.com/500/mactv.shtm l
http://www.apple-history.com/noframes/body.php?p ag e=gallery&model=tv
http://applemuseum.bott.org/se ctions/computers/mac tv.html
Very interesting reading... now don the tinfoil and tell us why the tech isn't really pervasive...
Oh yeah, meant to add... I think it's cool, but too
Re:Not quite (Score:2)
Because, aside from the Tivos and Replays, until recently you couldn't build or buy anything that would sit and play nice in your component rack (which is why I mentioned that there is no Mac PVR solution, really).
Re:And this is why Linux is not mainstream (Score:2)
Re:And this is why Linux is not mainstream (Score:2)
Or prefer to put their time into investments with better returns like career, their home, relationships, learning skills outside the world of PCs, etc.
Those of us who do don't care about being "mainstream."
Oh, you're such a rebel! Kiss me, you fool!
Re:And this is why Linux is not mainstream (Score:2)
Re:And this is why Linux is not mainstream (Score:2)
Re:And this is why Linux is not mainstream (Score:5, Informative)
There are good reasons for having many distros. This is one of them.
another source (Score:4, Informative)
http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/ [wilsonet.com]
Re:another source (Score:2)
I installed FC1 and set up Myth using that guide in an afternoon. It's an excellent article.
bleh (Score:2)
So why is this MythTv box worth 400 more? Is this what "free" costs? Granted, I wouldn't consider the Microsoft offering either. Unless you consider a 100 dollar xbox running XBMC or gentoox a Microsoft product. But then, you get no video encoding and less than stellar video playback.
Whatever. It's cool having a multi function device, but sometimes paying (in this case, less) for specialization is good.
Re:bleh (Score:2)
Oh no sir, you're forgetting about Tivo's $13/month charge. So, in approximately 30 months of use, the Tivo will actually cost MORE.
Of course, by that time, you would have died of loneliness since you wouldn't have had time to make any friends since you were spending so much time setting up Myth TV.
Re:bleh (Score:2)
ah.. but that is lifetime of the UNIT (not your lifetime)... if it breaks after the first year, you woulda been better off doing $13/month.
What about the folks in Canada, eh? TiVo doesn't accept dad's beer money there... (translation: they don't provide listing service/support for Canada)... although there are some clever folks in the tivocanda forums that figured out some clever ways to load tivo guide data slices =)
They won'
Re:bleh (Score:3, Insightful)
I paid more than the $600 for my MythTV machine, but then again, I went pretty high end (dual PVR-250's, Athlon XP 2400+, fancy Antec Sonata case, etc.). It has more than paid for itself, in the ability to:
1. Skip commercials without hacking it.
2. Play my DVDs (my other DVD player is an XBox)
3. I can use a universal remote, so that I only have one remote - mind you, I think that even TiVo has some sort of universal remote control now
4. I can play games in MAME while recording TV shows
5. Weather f
another downside to TiVo (Score:4, Insightful)
Me I just edit out some commercials, burn a DVD, and go! Now only if there was something worth archiving =(
I can play MAME, pull up local movie schedules, RSS feeds (*cough slashdot*), instant weather (no waiting on the 8's on TWC for me) on my DIY PVR, not so much with those features on the TiVo =)
And since it's PC based, it's somewhat trivial to add new features or ideas as I come up with them (or the community writes more apps). I don't have to wait for corporate bigwigs to decide how I want to watch TV/use my DVR/PVR... I decide.
The price you pay for the level of customization/freedom is:
1. possibly more initial costs
2. time/effort
3. more time
4 patience =)
I think it's worth it, because I like TV/PVR's, and I like futzing around with my PC case off... and it's an another excuse to buy a dremel (for case modding)
e.
Old News for ReplayTV (Score:2)
ReplayTV fans have been sharing shows across LANs, WANs, and between all (Java-enabled) platforms for years. We didn't have to wait for permission from the FCC. Check out Poopli [avsforum.com]. And my ReplayTV disk server is also my complete MAME ROMs and HTPC server. Snap!
ReplayTV + DVArchive - Simpler, Around Same Cost (Score:5, Informative)
If you want one... (Score:3, Informative)
Although I do have a couple of TB of storage on the LAN, I do of course run out of space and some burning is required. Personally, I convert most everything to DIVX and burn to CD - stil working through an odd thousand or so free-after-rebate blanks. But I hear you can get DVD burners for basically free [fatwallet.com] these days.
Personal experience. (Score:5, Interesting)
Unfortunately, in many countries, Tivo is not an option.
Tivo is also not quite as flexible.
- Use a PVR-250 for encoding.. heck, get two. The onboard mpeg encoder is definately worth it.
Think of it as a general purpose home PC.... I built a mythtv box for my folks.. it has xvids, records tv shows, does the weather, lets them browse photo albums (which is great when they have friends over).. it's accessible over SSH so I can upload new shows / videos / pictures to them, as well as record some of my favorite shows and download them (I live in another country.)
They use it to listen to streaming mp3 over the stereo when they have friends over playing poker...
Now, sure you can do all that with a PC.. yup. The point is to have this PC that's geared towards your home entertainment center rather than your desktop.. with an interface so simple an adult can use it, and a geek can tinker behind the scenes endlessly.
Re:Personal experience. (Score:2)
I showed mine to my parents and my dad was very impressed. He asked how much it cost and how long it would take to set it up. Once I tinker with it some more and see if I can make it a little more stable in certain items (like trying to browse the program guide while watching tv could hard-lock the system) I may set one up for him.
Australian pre-packaged MythTV (Score:4, Informative)
same old feel'n, different skills (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:same old feel'n, different skills (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, but the car is pretty important, and home improvements have a retun on the investment of sweat equity.
I bought a Tivo despite being pretty damn tech savvy (I'm a hardware engineer AND software engineer BOW TO ME!) because, well, it's just friggin television. I use a DVR to reduce my time wasted on television.
The real satisfaction is in creating something original. The MythTV thing seems more like a Heathkit approach. Follow the directions and you're done.
For you young whippersnappers who don't know what a Heathkit was: http://www.heathkit-museum.com/ [heathkit-museum.com]
$635? What the hell? (Score:2, Interesting)
Hardly a high end system these days, b
Tivo?? No way, get a ReplayTV (Score:4, Informative)
Replay TV is about the same price as a Tivo. And unless I haven't seen the latest version of Tivo yet, you still can't easily get the vids off of your Tivo and onto a PC. With Replay TV, it is easy. Use a piece of software called DVArchive.
And yes, you can share recordings with other ReplayTV's of the same (or similar) model. Yes, you can program it over the web (my.replaytv.com I think it is, I never use it personally)
You can buy a good ReplayTV 5040 unit on Ebay for about $300 last I checked. This model has automatic commercial skip, and 30 second skip if you prefer to do it manually. I have one of these models and it kicks the crap out of my cousin's Tivo simply because I can network it with the 10/100 port on the back and get stuff off of it and onto my PC.
Lastly, if you want a bigger hard drive, there are instructions for installing dual 160 GB drives out there on the internet. I personally have plenty of room on my 40GB drive since I can archive to my PC.
Tivo I give a 7/10, Myth I give a 6/10 (mostly because it is more tedious to set up and lacks the all around neatness in the entertainment center) and I give ReplayTV 9/10. I do wish they had the thumbs up/down type thing Tivo has.
I don't want a Tivo (Score:3, Insightful)
I love it. This project is not about saving money, or convenience. It's about fun. It's also about control. I'm having fun. My box does what I want it to, not what someone else thinks will sell best. If I want three tuners, I can have them. I can have as little or as much storage as I want. I can watch shows from any computer on my network. I can transcode recorded shows into any format. It's all about the freedom to do whatever I am willing to put the effort into.
If you want to save money, buy a Tivo, it's a good product. If you want convenience, rent a dvr from your cable company. I want more than that, and am willing to spend the time and money to get it.
Excellent Documentation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, by the way? I have a job already, and a family, and a life. So don't tell me it's my fault I can't digest the haystacks and make a map for the world. I'm a supporter of Myth, I'm just saying that the review does not set reasonable expectations for the effort it takes unless you're installing KnoppMyth.
Bah, too expensive.. (Score:3, Informative)
- PVR-350 - $180
- My old 800 Mhz P3 computer from years ago - "Free"
- Newer, quieter power supply - $50
- 400 GB worth of hard-drives bought over the course of a few months with CompUSA rebates - $230
Then MythTV + Zap2It datadirect.
So for $460 I have a 400 hour PVR. Of course it would be a lot cheaper for just a 120 hour machine (substract about $180).
It's better than TiVo for a number of reasons:
- I can watch the recorded shows from any computer in the house from the web interface. The web interface lets me do things like schedule shows, see the program guide, and watch recordings.
- I can easily burn anything I record to DVD because everything from the PVR-350 is recorded in standard MPEG2 DVD format. I don't even need to re-encode, I just burn straight to DVD (fast).
- MythTV is way more configurable than TiVo. I mean, there are settings for doing all sorts of things.
- Things like MythVideo let me watch stuff that wasn't recorded on the machine (like downloaded items or whatever; stuff recorded from your old VHS tapes, etc.)
And probably other stuff I'm forgetting.
With the PVR-350 you absolutely do not need a powerful computer. I ran MythTV on a 200 Mhz Celeron system with PVR-350 for over a year. MythTV itself is kinda slow but there are a lot of people working on making it better. The video quality is excellent though. Even the "low quality" (1GB per hour) is way better than what TiVo encodes.
Re:or just get a TiVo (Score:2)
I use mine as a file server (samba/nfs) and firewall/content filter. I'm also able to watch any tv shows I've recorded from any of the other desktops in my house and anywhere in my house/yard from my laptop. My box also has two capture cards and can tune 2 shows at once from cable tv.
You can hack your tivo to do some of the things mentioned above, but then you have to buy more hardware, void your warranty, spend some time, etc.
Re:or just get a TiVo (Score:2, Insightful)
One word: ReplayTV (Score:2)
You can do all this with ReplayTV straight out-of-the-box, no hacks required.
Re:or just get a TiVo (Score:2)
yeah, but as a regular
Might as well be Doom3 and building HTPCs, eh?
E.
Networking (Score:2)