A glimpse into the MythTV network topology shows how any perceived difficulty in its setup or usage is ultimately balanced by nearly unlimited freedom and potential in the final system.

Wake me up when this article is over.

Great product but it can do everything BUT what I need.

Let me know when it can record High Def premium channels. i.e. ESPNHD, HBO, ya know the stuff then A LOT of people watch.

I agree what has kept me from joining the HTPC crowd is lack of HD support and lack of digital tuner cards. I wish someone would make a HD DirecTv PCI tuner. Let it have a slot for my subscription card that I could take out of my H10 and place in there. That would be bliss.

And the unabashed boosterism continues. Guys, at least TELL everyone clearly in the article that you are MythTV boosters to the Nth degree.

I mean, come on: "Any perceived difficulty in its setup or usage is ultimately balanced by nearly unlimited freedom and potential in the final system"

_Percieved_ difficulty? Really? As in not real, but just imaginary? "It's all in your head". Right.

This is exactly the attitude that prevented me from successfully installing Myth. I have a problem, and it is shrugged off because "Myth is actually easy to install, and any problems are the user's fault" is the predominant attitude in the community.

I have no problem with you guys saying how much you like MythTV. But doing it under the guise of exploring the media server options is just wrong. And your flippant dismissal of other products is really galling. MythTV is NOT the only product that allows for multiple backend recording servers, or multiple front end clients, or commercial removal, or really ANY of the features you tout.

One more question - why is this discussion topic buried in the "Memory" forum? It seems like this is the very last place it should be hosted.

It is not a software limitation that prevents non-free to air HDTV in HTPC's, it is the North American satellite/digital cable providers, who are unwilling to cooperate with video card manufacturers to provide the necessary rights and information so that these tuner cards can be produced. The hardware does not exist, because your satellite/cable provider wants to sell you a proprietary PVR for their service, which is overpriced with extremely limited functions and very poor programming.

I think the MPAA is also to blame, because they are trying to limit who is even able to manufacture PVR's. They are in court presently, trying to take total control of the PVR market. Do you think that is leading towards a consumer-built PVR solution? Nope. Just a money grab to keep us buying inferior hardware.

Be glad you don't live in Canada. At least there are MANY MANY more channels in the US. There is not even a digital cable/satellite service worth paying for in Canada. There is so much limitation from the government forcing Canadian content on our available services, that even with hundreds of channels, there can often be literally NOTHING ON. I don't get why people pay for such lame services, with such poorly designed PVR's.

The FCC stepped in and forced the Cable Card standard and should the same for sat service. Regardless it creates a limit on products like MythTV, which this site has glossed over if not hidden in its crusade to convert people to this product that DOES NOT DO WHAT CONSUMERS NEED. This article shows how little this site cares about the view of the reader. Look at the discussion forum for their last MythTV article for the proof.

Do fair reviews. Listen to the people who read the articles or they will go away.

I am guessing this is a symptom of the international nature of this website. Perhaps this article was written in Europe, where one can use an HTPC to receive and record HD content. It would have been nice for it to be edited for posting to the .com website though (with notes added in a few places warning about this limitation in North America).

Indeed, for most people an HTPC is not a future-proof device in NA, due to the analog-only cable cards you can utilize (unless accessing the limited amount of Free-to-air content). You REALLY have to want an audio/video streaming device to invest in this, without consideration for television really.

So is this article series just a How-To article on MythTV? I thought there was mention of some in depth comparisons to other products (SageTV, BeyondTV, etc). I'd love to see something that would show the pros and cons of each and which are more suited to which kinds of tasks.

An article that only lists one product and makes it sound like this is the only product out there is somewhat useless and misleading...

It does what people want RIGHT NOW. I know, because I have one, and it does what I want it to do. Will it work later on once the cablecard thing is forced is still up in the air. But just about everyone's current TiVo won't work with cablecard either, so what's your point? It is going to take a while for that to work properly on industry-made TV equipment, nevermind for the homebrew market.

But keep this in mind: The cablecard is a PCMCIA card, so I suspect several enterprising individuals will be able to make it usable with projects like mythtv.

I'm currently a Dish Network subscriber with PVR508 and recently it missed several recordings. I reached to the point that I want something better and RELIABLE to use so I found MythTV.

There is a distrubution out there that looks promising called KnoppMyth which is based on modified version of Knoppix.

I certianly would like to see an article written using KnoppMyth because most of us aren't savvy Linux users.

So right now I put together a backend server using AMD 2600+ with Hauppauge PVR350 and Dish Network 322 dual tuner receiver. Got IR blaster cable I ordered from online. There are some some quirks I'm still working out in getting the right hardware to work correctly such as video cards. I hear that MythTV just released .20 while the KnoppMyth is using .19 so I'm hoping they release the next version soon.

Would have been nice if Dish Network released a tuner card that works with their dish equipment but PVR is a huge market to make money so we're stuck using hacks such as IR blaster cables and external capture cards.

Darkk

It does what people want RIGHT NOW. I know, because I have one, and it does what I want it to do. Will it work later on once the cablecard thing is forced is still up in the air. But just about everyone's current TiVo won't work with cablecard either, so what's your point? It is going to take a while for that to work properly on industry-made TV equipment, nevermind for the homebrew market.

But keep this in mind: The cablecard is a PCMCIA card, so I suspect several enterprising individuals will be able to make it usable with projects like mythtv.

I am not sure I understand this cablecard technology's aim. would you be able to explain it? will this allow one to hook up a coax directly to a video card and have access to let's say all the Rogers digital cable channels including HDTV (providing you subscribe to those channels)? If so, at that point I'd be SO ready to jump on the digital cable bandwagon (in hopes that more HDTV content is introduced soon).

on the other hand, if HDTV starts broadcasting via pay services through the internet, bye bye Rogers! I'd much rather stream the specific channels I want only, and forget about all the multitudes of crap out there.

Take that up with the media conglomerates. They don't want you to record things (otherwise why wouldn't you just watch the show on a TV and not muck around with a computer?) so you will buy the shows you watch on DVD for outrageous prices. They also don't want you to skip commercials either.

Because of that, the media conglomerates lean REALLY HARD on the distributors (such as DirecTV) to make it as hard as possible for people to disrupt their nice little captive-revenue model. So it's certainly not MythTV's fault and not very much DirecTV's fault (although they could ship a device and flip the media congloms the bird.)

This series may be just what I needed. I have been testing win2000 for recording from my 8300HD box and actually just did a test install of MythDora after 3 failed attempts. If all else fails, read the directions. It makes a difference if you partition the way you want to vs the way they document it. I haven't used Mythdora yet because my video card is in the win2000 box and I need to record some stuff first.

Todays segment was very nice, I like the theory too!! Oops it is gone now, maybe the information was too good.

How many segments will there be? How long before all will be presented?

Thanks for the coverage. I'll use this for my frontroom. As an aside I am not into cable as I think the focus should be on Internet broadband media and devices/downloading with these types of devices. If people want cable Open source just wont do well with that, I don't think. It cant compete because cable is dying anyway.
One of the most importents to me is the true internal Web Browser. To me that's vital to have freedom of choice of what to download or stream on the Internet.
MythTV seems like a true media device. I prefer the Democracy player on Linux for video but that's more for the mouse.

All depends where you live at buddy. I run daisy chained firewire on the Comcast DCT6200's and in areas they are useable for this. It all however depends. Check on how to verify if your cablebox has 5C you can find guides on the net on how to do it.

Anyway Enjoy I have had my HDTV for quite some time now.

BTW I created this user account just to clarify it can be done. Regardless of what has been said there are ways to do it. http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/FireWire

I agree that this article is a complete waste of time. They talk about setting up this incredible network, all of the issues being your fault not Myths. Myth is definitely not the best out there in either hardware compatability or usability. Just complete the article and get this ridiculous issue off the site. If you just want to blow Myth, set up your own site.

Yes, Firewire is very doable for bot Myth and MCE. Not so with Beyond but appearently there is HDTV OTA support in v4.4 so that is half the battle.

Otherwise, yes, just another POS article that smells like it was written by MythTV fanboys.

Myth is good and all but it is not the freaking Holy Grail that they are making it out to be. Its only major claim to fame is the client/server design, which is also available in Beyond TV. If MCE had this as well, there would be little but the cost difference to debate.

It all boils down to time and knowhow with mythtv. If you know how to do it and have the time to do it. Its incredible I love mythtv and I would not trade it for anything. It all boils down to who likes what. I assume that most people who dislike it... dislike it due to linux requirement and most people seem incapable of manually editing files. This is fine but it does not diminish how awesome mythtv is if you can do it yourself.

Not to mention there is pretty much any answer to any question you may have regarding mythtv if you have what is called "google"