18 September 2004
More convergence: PVRs
Over at /., the geeks are duking it out over MythTV (a Linux-based, open source PVR) and Microsoft's Media Center Edition.
I love what MythTV is doing, but the geek-based set-up and maintenance (as one of the geeks admits) may not be worth it. Honestly I am glad that I went w/even less painful option of Tivo but that's me.
If MythTV eventually streamlines the setup, which they've been doing, to the point of near-effortlessness, I'll consider it. I want to watch TV, not tinker with it.
Throw some open source programmers at the problem of media convergence and many of those that'd-be-really-cool features that a corporation would never implement will just appear. This is part of the beauty of open source: coders doing what they love, doing it well, and others benefitting.
- Desire, life, and gadgets posted by sstrader on 5 April 2010 at 7:29:53 PM
- Joining the ranks of gamers posted by sstrader on 29 March 2010 at 1:06:07 PM
- Updating multiple domains with DDNS using a Linksys router and DynDNS posted by sstrader on 25 March 2010 at 8:20:39 AM
- Android, iPhone, criticism posted by sstrader on 18 March 2010 at 6:18:11 PM
- New server posted by sstrader on 5 March 2010 at 12:25:11 AM
I tinkered with MythTV for a few weeks. I sort of got the video working, and the sound sometimes worked, but it was sometimes out of sync. Performance was horrible, with lots of dropped frames. I had endless requirements for other open source programs I had to install, sometimes building from source.
It was interesting from a tinkering aspect, but it was just too much hassle for ordinary folks, when they can spend $60 on SageTV or other PVR solution for Windows, and it works perfectly.
Posted by: David at September 19, 2004 2:29 AM