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

[Ben Scott]

On 11/8/06, Tom Buskey <tom at buskey.name> wrote:
>>    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 :-)

  I do wonder about the guide data for MythTV.  I guess it's freely
available on the 'net right now?  Will that last, I wonder, if MythTV
really started to gain market share.  (Say, because turn-key MythTV
boxes enabled more adoption.)  I'm always suspicious of a free lunch.
FOSS works because one frequently gets payback on one's contributions,
in the form of other contributions, free advertising, collateral
services, etc.  What's the payback for giving away guide data?

  I guess what I really need is to check out a MythTV box myself,
hands-on.  If I go looking for MythTV info or opinions, I tend to get
lots of people talking about how cool time-shifting is.  I already
know that; I've had a TiVo since 2002.  :-)  I want to know how MythTV
compares to a TiVo.  Maybe I'll just buy a tuner card and toss it in
my regular desktop, just to check it out.  If I like it, I can buy a
compact box for it.

  From what I've read, Hauppauge is *the* brand of card to get, but
I'm a little confused about the differences between the PVR-150 and
the PVR-250.  Is it just the software bundle, or is the hardware
different, too?  Also, does the decoder/output on the PVR-350 work
with MythTV?

-- Ben