"better than tivo" dish network ad?

On 2008-03-25, wrote:
On Mar 24, 9:38*pm, "Bill's News" wrote:
Spider Dawg wrote

TiVo cons:
Monthly fee; archiving is slow due to encryption/decryption;
"having" to fast-forward to get past commercials (which is
great except when compared to Myth's automatic skipping).

I've had mixed results with Myths commercial skipping.

Same here, it works *most* of the time, but not always.

When I took my myth box out of service, I offered to a friend who is a
network admin and fluent in Unix

That's exactly how I got into it, a friend was moving from a house here
in Detroit to a small apartment in Chicago and didn't care to move the
Myth box since he never got it to work properly. He gave me the box with
the PVR350 card, a keyboard, and a small monitor. He included a
KnoppMyth cd, but I had no luck getting it to work and decided to just
reformat the drives, put a fresh installation of SuSE 10.3 on it, and
compile MythTV from source. It may be true that I wouldn't have had so
much confusion configuring Myth if I'd used one of the distros designed
specifically for Myth, but I'll never know because I'm not about to
start all over.

And spidderdawg, I spent enough
hours reading through the internet that I got the TV out working on
the happague card. Like everthing in unix, a simple text editor and a
few keystrokes is all that is needed to fix it once the solution is
known.

Perhaps I was unclear, I've got the tv out (audio and video) working
fine, except for the overlays such as menu and program/channel info. In
other words, the hardware mpeg decoder is outputting the mpeg itself and
nothing else. I've gone through the steps to get the X server to output
through the card, in hopes that the output would be the same as when
simply watching tv on the monitor, to no avail. It's still much better
than watching tv on the monitor (can't imagine why Wes would say not to
use the tv out from the PVR350).

Sorry folks, I never intended to turn this into a MythTV forum, I'm sure
the Myth stuff will die soon enough.

Jim

On 2008-03-25, Wes Newell wrote:
On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:38:07 +0000, Bill's News wrote:

Nice effort, Jim! I was unable to discern any "total points" regarding
your conclusion, but your point about initial setup is a biggie, highly
favoring TiVo over DIY MythTv.

Except for one small detail. It's mostly BS.

Thanks Wes! I've always wondered why so many around here consider you an
ass. Thanks for the clarification!

I posted my experience, every word is true. Now I find that *maybe* if
I'd used a different distro things *may* have gone easier. Just more
proof that dealing with the hassle of MythTV is not for everybody. I can
just imagine my mom installing Myth and getting it to work, whereas with
TiVo it's little more than plugging the box in and following the
onscreen instructions.

Jim

On 2008-03-25, wrote:
On Mar 24, 9:38*pm, "Bill's News" wrote:
Spider Dawg wrote
TiVo cons:
Monthly fee; archiving is slow due to encryption/decryption;
"having" to fast-forward to get past commercials (which is
great except when compared to Myth's automatic skipping).

I've had mixed results with Myths commercial skipping. Yes, getting
stuff off the box is a pain in the a$$ with Tivo. Then again, even
with full bandwidth, it will take a few minutes to move a multigig
program, so planning is required it you want to go mobile with it.
Tivo desktop is the posterchild for bloatware as well.


MythTV pros:
[deletia]
When I took my myth box out of service, I offered to a friend who is a
network admin and fluent in Unix; he did'nt want to deal with it
either! Anyone looking for a working (SD) myth box to play with, let
me know, you can have mine for cheap. And spidderdawg, I spent enough
hours reading through the internet that I got the TV out working on
the happague card. Like everthing in unix, a simple text editor and a

I dunno. If you spent any time at all reading through the internet
you would a) have no problem finding a home for your box and b) have
been quickly steered away from using a PVR card for your main display.

few keystrokes is all that is needed to fix it once the solution is
known.


--
On the subject of kilobyte being "redefined" to mean 1000 bytes...

When I was a wee lad, I was taught that SI units were |||
meant to be computationally convenient rather than just / | \
arbitrarily assigned.

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On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:30:05 -0700, zafdor wrote:

I don't think total points comes into play here. Most people are just
not willing to 'deal with it' set up and maintence wise. If you're a
techie in search of adventure and does'nt want sattelite or cablecard
support, Myth is the way to go.

MythTV doesn't support encrypted sat like DirecTV or Dish, but it
certainly supports sattelite. All FTA bands that I'm aware of. There are
tons of DVB-S cards for it, and fta can get hundreds/thousands of stations
if you're into that. But it's certainly not an alternative for any service
that has encrypted source. Other than for ATSC (OTA digital), the only
other thing I'd consider it for is sat, and analog cable with clear QAM to
receive locals in HD.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
My Tivo Experience http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/tivo.htm
Tivo HD/S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm
AMD cpu help http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php

On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:07:49 -0500, Spider Dawg wrote:

Perhaps I was unclear, I've got the tv out (audio and video) working
fine, except for the overlays such as menu and program/channel info. In
other words, the hardware mpeg decoder is outputting the mpeg itself and
nothing else. I've gone through the steps to get the X server to output
through the card, in hopes that the output would be the same as when
simply watching tv on the monitor, to no avail. It's still much better
than watching tv on the monitor (can't imagine why Wes would say not to
use the tv out from the PVR350).

Because you can use the TV out of the video card. And if you'd have put
some HDTV (ATSC) tuner cards in the box, you'd know why.:-) I built mine
close to 4 years ago now. But I didn't use any SD (NTSC) cards. That's
what I wanted to get away from since NTSC reception is crap where I live,
and I knew it was dying in a few years anyway. I originally compiled myth
from source and didn't have any major problems with it. The only major
problem I had was not knowing that one of the cards I was using required a
firmware file to work. And that took a few weeks to dicover. But the other
ATSC card worked right from the start. The nice thing about ATSC cards is
that there's no encoding to deal with. Within a month or so I had 4 of
them recording HDTV at the same as watching it on the same box. And that
was it for me. The S3 didn't come out til about a year later. By then, I'd
sold all my other recording devices. I've used nothing but Mythtv for over
3 years and wouldn't trade it for a thousand other recorders.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
My Tivo Experience http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/tivo.htm
Tivo HD/S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm
AMD cpu help http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php

On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:20:21 -0500, Spider Dawg wrote:

On 2008-03-25, Wes Newell wrote:
On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:38:07 +0000, Bill's News wrote:

Nice effort, Jim! I was unable to discern any "total points"
regarding your conclusion, but your point about initial setup is a
biggie, highly favoring TiVo over DIY MythTv.

Except for one small detail. It's mostly BS.

Thanks Wes! I've always wondered why so many around here consider you an
ass. Thanks for the clarification!

It's not just here. Many people everywhere consider me an ass. There's one
simple reason for that. I speak clearly and to the point. When it's BS, I
call it BS. That part of your post was BS.

I posted my experience, every word is true. Now I find that *maybe* if
I'd used a different distro things *may* have gone easier. Just more
proof that dealing with the hassle of MythTV is not for everybody. I can
just imagine my mom installing Myth and getting it to work, whereas with
TiVo it's little more than plugging the box in and following the
onscreen instructions.


My first box was also compiled from source. And I don't recall any of the
problems you claim to have experienced. Today, and that's what this should
be about, not 4 years ago, building a MythTV box is a piece of cake.
That's just the way it is. I recently upgraded my main server box with a
complete new Linux install. The whole process took less than a few hours.
That included re-installing mythtv and getting all my servers, including
mythtbackend, working again. And I didn't use a myth specific distro. I
used mandriva 2008 and just loaded the mythtv rpm's from the plf
repository. To completely install using a mythtv disro take less than an
hour. Now your that's pretty damn easy. Any normal person reading your
post would think there's no way they could do it. And that's so far from
the truth it's pathetic. Now that's the problem I have with your post.
It's pure FUD. At least the part I replied to.

Wes, the asshole that says it like it is.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
My Tivo Experience http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/tivo.htm
Tivo HD/S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm
AMD cpu help http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php

Spider Dawg wrote:

Except for one small detail. It's mostly BS.

Thanks Wes! I've always wondered why so many around here consider you an
ass. Thanks for the clarification!

Can I clarify something here.

TiVo SAT T60 install - Plug in audio cable. Plug in video cable. Plug in
two satellite cables, insert access card, plug in power (no need to power up,
it comes on itself), go through guided setup, watch TV.

MythTV - Find a screwdriver, open it up. Pop out two covers from the PCI
slots, insert video cards, find screws for video cards, find screws for
case, put case together. Find a monitor. Connect monitor to PC. Download
MythTV.........find a CD or DVD, burn the ISO file, take the CD/DVD to
the PC and then boot it...install the software then configure it and
I've not even got to getting it to work with DirecTV yet.

Wes Newell wrote:
some HDTV (ATSC) tuner cards in the box, you'd know why.:-) I built mine
close to 4 years ago now. But I didn't use any SD (NTSC) cards. That's
what I wanted to get away from since NTSC reception is crap where I live,
and I knew it was dying in a few years anyway. I originally compiled myth
from source and didn't have any major problems with it. The only major
problem I had was not knowing that one of the cards I was using required a
firmware file to work. And that took a few weeks to dicover. But the other
ATSC card worked right from the start. The nice thing about ATSC cards is
that there's no encoding to deal with. Within a month or so I had 4 of
them recording HDTV at the same as watching it on the same box. And that
was it for me. The S3 didn't come out til about a year later. By then, I'd
sold all my other recording devices. I've used nothing but Mythtv for over
3 years and wouldn't trade it for a thousand other recorders.

To be honest, I downloaded MythTV ages ago and even went looking for
video cards, but all this pushing of it has really put me off and I'm
not even bothered about giving it a try any more. Whatever you're trying
to do, Wes, has had the opposite result on me.

I guess most people are like that, the more you push, the more they
resist.

Once upon a time, said:
TiVo SAT T60 install - Plug in audio cable. Plug in video cable. Plug in
two satellite cables, insert access card, plug in power (no need to power up,
it comes on itself), go through guided setup, watch TV.

I got my TiVo HD yesterday (to replace my DirecTV TiVO HR10-250; I've
had enough of DirecTV). I had the connections (antenna for testing
before ordering cable, ethernet, component video, and optical audio) all
ready for it. I had it installed and recording TV in under 30 minutes
from the time the UPS delivery guy rang the doorbell.

--
Chris Adams
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.

It's nice to see you reinforce what is now a unanimous opinion, that
Myth can be a pain to set up; unless of corse you think a couple of
weeks to a month is a reasonable time to set up a DVR.

On Mar 25, 4:56*pm, Wes Newell wrote:
The only major
problem I had was not knowing that one of the cards I was using required a
firmware file to work. And that took a few weeks to dicover. But the other
ATSC card worked right from the start. The nice thing about ATSC cards is
that there's no encoding to deal with. Within a month or so I had 4 of
them recording HDTV at the same as watching it on the same box.