Tivo vs MythTV (was: *pout* HDTV No Recordee....)

[Tom Buskey]

On 11/7/06, Randy Edwards <redwards at golgotha.net> wrote:
>  > Those of you here who are already using MythTV, how do you find it
>  > works in day-to-day usage?
>
>    Brilliantly.  I have a back end on Debian Etch/Testing with 3 tuners (a
> PVR-350 and a PVR-500) and while the IVTV drivers aren't the most stable, I
> have very, very little problem with the system.  Once every few weeks it'll
> need a cold boot; the biggest "problem" is for me to resist the temptation to
> play with the OS and to upgrade things. :-)

>  > If I'm watching TV, it means I want to take my brain off-hook for
>  > awhile.  :-)  So I want it to behave like a good appliance -- something
>  > that, once installed, stays working for long periods of time.
>
>    Yup, that's been my mindset, and Myth has met that criteria well.  It's
> completely revamped the way I watch TV.  The number of hours watched has
> fallen a lot, but the quality of what I watch has skyrocketed.  I'm in a

All good stuff for MythTV.  Not so good news for Tivo shareholders :-)

> habit of scanning through the "new" listing once every two weeks to tag what
> looks interesting, and there's always something good on -- I no longer have a
> clue as to when anything is on; everything is on my schedule.

It makes it harder to talk to coworkers about "that show last night"

>
>    And the impact it's had on my four year old son is also dramatic.  He
> doesn't have a clue about something "not being on now" and his exposure to
> advertising (Myth's commercial skipping is a godsend!) is nil.  For example,
> he called me from the kitchen the other day hollaring about a clown he saw on
> some TV show.  When I walked in, it was a Nickelodeon show I didn't have
> tagged for commercial skipping and he saw Ronald McDonald.  It took a second
> for it to dawn on me that he wasn't on a firstname basis with Ronald. :-)

Hehe.  And if he likes a show, you can get 'em all.  We have 40+
episodes of Little Bill and growing.

On the Tivo, I can tell it to record everything with an actor (Tom
Hanks say) or genre (motorcycle racing) or keyword (quilting).  When I
select a series, I can say only 1st run; no repeats.  I guess alot of
that comes down to the quality of your schedule information.  Is it
there?

Can Myth be used like a PC displaying on the TV?  I use Galleon on the
Tivo to play shoutcast, show weather, podcasts, movie times and
locations, etc.  I'd imagine Myth can do that.