Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: rabbidrabbit on December 20, 2006, 02:21:28 PM
-
OK,
We lost power for nearly a week and now my Tivo is toasty. It is the old series 1 with life time transferable warranty so maybe a series 3 is my best choice. What about Mythtv? Other options?
Any ideas on an integrated home entertainment option?
-
I'm very happy with Dish TV and their DVR.
-
I use a ReplayTV at home and love it. I'm planning on setting up MythTV on a spare computer to try out in the near future because it will do the automatic commercial skipping (fully automatic, no interaction required, like my ReplayTV) and can record HDTV over firewire from my Comcast box (local channels aren't encrypted).
If you have a PC you can use for an experiment, and it's at least a ghz and has video capture, it might be worth a shot. The Mythdora ISO is a neat way to get all set up by just burning a CD and letting it install itself.
-
live on a lake with lots of tall trees... = dish not so good option.
I hated the DVR interface on Comcast. Is it better? Even if my box is a hulk its worth quite a bit with the lifetime service.
The question is what is my best multiroom multimedia option. I like the Tivo interface and it does offer a (slingbox) multiroom option. I'm wondering if any opensource options like MythTv are better or if anything else will beat the Tivo option.
-
I took the laziest route possible. I got the one that comes with Time Warner service for an extra $5/month. Worked perfect so far, usb & firewire ports for extra storage, high def capable, etc, etc.
If you want a totally integrated option though, a media center PC is a fun way to go. It can easily function as your Tuner/DVR/DVD player/Home Stereo all in one box. Spend alittle more and you can go with Creative Labs audio kit and have a THX certified 7.1 system for far, far less than you'd pay anything else that's THX certified.
-
One nice thing about MythTV is that it's designed to serve content to multiple televsions/rooms. The only requirement is a PC, and the playback machines need just about nothing in terms of CPU power because they don't have to encode. I think there are people using 200-300mhz machines as media terminals to feed their TVs and not seeing any performance problems. This is nice (imho) over Slingbox because you might be able to extend your media to other rooms without buying any equipment (if you already have or can get ahold of some cheap computers).
Also, the full interface of MythTV is available on all the remote stations, so you'd be able to do all the weather viewing, web browsing, music browsing, etc from anywhere.
I'm doing my setup when I upgrade my gaming PC (an Athlon XP2400 I think, it's been so long). I'll put the Athlon w/ its memory and a Hauppage card I got from a friend downstairs and have it recording normal TV from my cable box and local HDTV over firewire. I'll use a VGA->DVI adapter to get an HD signal to my HDTV, I'll use the DVD-ROM drive to play movies (the MythTV DVD playback program will do nice things like skip all the "Yarrr, piracy off the port bow" warnings at the beginning of the disk and just start playback immediately). An IR receiver is cheap, so I'll just use my remote that I'm comfortable and probably train it to use my existing ReplayTV commands.
I'll put a cheapo PC in the bedroom if I get around to it.
Another nice thing, I'll be able to playback all the media content on my PC without any extra effort.
Well, that's the dream on paper. When I actually do the project, I'll report back here if anyone is interested to hear how it actually goes.
-
Chairboy, according the the MythTV guys.
"For a good MythTV experience, you must understand that MythTV exercises your hardware more than a typical desktop. Encoder cards generate DMA across the PCI bus. The CPU is busy encoding / decoding video. Hard drives are constantly reading and writing data. Building a MythTV system on older / "spare" hardware may be an exercise in frustration and can waste many hours of valuable time."
Later in the same docs:
"A PIII/733MHz system can encode one video stream using the MPEG-4 codec using 480x480 capture resolution. This does not allow for live TV watching, but does allow for encoding video and then watching it later.
A developer states that his AMD1800+ system can almost encode two MPEG-4 video streams and watch one program simultaneously.
A PIII/800MHz system with 512MB RAM can encode one video stream using the RTjpeg codec with 480x480 capture resolution and play it back simultaneously, thereby allowing live TV watching.
A dual Celeron/450MHz is able to view a 480x480 MPEG-4/3300kbps file created on a different system with 30% CPU usage.
A P4 2.4GHz machine can encode two 3300Kbps 480x480 MPEG-4 files and simultaneously serve content to a remote frontend. "
Just FYI.
EDIT: Keep in mind the above assumes you do not have a hardware based encoder/decoder card. If you do, then it reduces the load on the CPU.
-
Exactly, and the Hauppage I'm using _does_ have a hardware encoder.
-
Be sure the thing you build is not using a VIA based motherboard. VIA's DMA implementation hurls chunks. No overlapped DMA operations can happen without corrupting data.
Originally posted by Chairboy
Exactly, and the Hauppage I'm using _does_ have a hardware encoder.
That's fine, I ws just concerned about your original post being misunderstood, about the requirements.
-
FYI,
I called Comcast and they are offering theirs for $6.99 per month. The problem with a Cablecard is you can not get any on demand programing or pay per view. I would not be able to hand then their box back for the $5 per month since my son loves on demand PBS Sprout.
I have the extra PC power but am wondering if the open source is all that yet. I'm going to have to spend a fair amount on hardware which might be nearly equal to the Tivo cost once I get remotes etc.
So, I have a flaky Tivo but it has a pre 99 full lifetime transferable warranty which has to be worth a few bucks. I could buy a series 3 for about $550 and keep the lifetime subscription which I paid ~$150 for 7 years ago or I could take the Ebay on the old box and go comcast and wait for Tivo/comcast and not fork the coin up front.
Or Myth it.
Thoughts?
-
love our old series 1 tivo (lifetime) and have come to appreciate the dvr's our cable company provides. they can record two different channels or record one while watching another.
I have a HD and a regular dvr, both Scientific Atlanta series. I do not have to pay for them as I am an employee of the cable co.
what is wrong with your tivo? it is usually just the hard drive, I have replaced mine before. not hard. I had to download the software for a couple of bucks but pretty easy to get it up and running again.
-
I wish mine had dual tuners and HD...< The OS is probably messed up but I finally got it to whipe the preferences so maybe if it finishes that it might work. I don't think its a hardware issue but don't know for sure.
-
Originally posted by Chairboy
I use a ReplayTV at home and love it. I'm planning on setting up MythTV on a spare computer to try out in the near future because it will do the automatic commercial skipping (fully automatic, no interaction required, like my ReplayTV) and can record HDTV over firewire from my Comcast box (local channels aren't encrypted).
If you have a PC you can use for an experiment, and it's at least a ghz and has video capture, it might be worth a shot. The Mythdora ISO is a neat way to get all set up by just burning a CD and letting it install itself.
Hey chairboy, that mythdora stuff looks interesting. I found its website, but is there anywhere that has some recommended guides, for things like hardware and remotes it supports (I've got some spare PC's kicking around).
-
Here is some hardware information (http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-3.html) Vulcan. Dunno if you have already seen it or not.
-
Originally posted by Ripsnort
I'm very happy with Dish TV and their DVR.
Same here:aok --wish it had network out that I might copy stuff straight to pc, without having to capture it
-
The HD DVR from DiSH has an Ethernet port on it. However, they have not said exactly what they intend to do with it yet, but it is initialized at power up.
I also like the HD/DVR system from DiSH.
The only downside I have with DiSH and thier PVR's is you cannot replace the HD in it. You have to send the unit in if the HD fails and they put the same thing back in. I would really like to increase the capacity of the HD.
-
holy crap Skuzzy, go to bed!
-
Just went HD with comcast and picked up their HD-DVR box. Damn thing has more access ports than my audio system...dual firewire, HDMI, USB, Ethernet, along with the standard optical, component videao and audio jacks. Dunno if the firewire jacks are enabled tho.
Two tuners are nice too, letting me watch on channel ad record another, or record 2 channels, swapping back and forth to watch without interrupting recording.
Drive size seems a bit small, tho..and I've just started playing with it. I envision it to just record shows I miss until I get a chance to see them, and am not planning on using it for long trm storage. Comcast plans to add box supported picture in picture in the future, eaning even those sets that don't have PiP would be able to use it.
-
Yeah, the DiSH HD PVR has PIP, and it can record two non-HD broadcasts, while you watch an HD broadcast, or it can record two of any broadcast while you switch between them or watch something you already have stored.
Sounds like the boxes are similar.
-
Originally posted by Skuzzy
The HD DVR from DiSH has an Ethernet port on it. However, they have not said exactly what they intend to do with it yet, but it is initialized at power up.
I also like the HD/DVR system from DiSH.
The only downside I have with DiSH and thier PVR's is you cannot replace the HD in it. You have to send the unit in if the HD fails and they put the same thing back in. I would really like to increase the capacity of the HD.
Mine's an older one and has been great--but the HD has gone once, is flaky now--stuff that has been on there a while starts to lose its audio track in spots-- I deal with CCTV dvr's every day, and though there's nothin to replacing the IDE HD's, you're likley not gonna have access to whatever shell software is on them to make them run...bastids. The major manufacturers most all use Maxtor, which ALWAYS fails in 2-3 years (having ups helps much) talked to a rep from Integral Technologies--they had to yank some 2000 hard drives out of field (lot of units have multiples) and change them to Western Digital per gov' mandate
-
a dvr/tivo gives you back 20 minutes of your life per hour as that is the min commercials bloat the average 60 minute tele program these days ... don't watch anything "live" anymore
-
I have digital cable with 2 series 2 TiVos and one PVR from Comcast.
The Tivos are much better since the recent software update, they were really sluggish before that. They do not do HD, but that's OK because the TVs they're on aren't HD.
The Comcast PVR (Scientific Atlanta) is the biggest POS ever. However it does record HD, and does record 2 channels at once.
The TiVo interface is great. The Comcast PVR interface SUCKS.
As for the Dish PVRs, I wonder if you could just yank the drive and ghost it onto another... I've done it with the TiVos, which use (I believe) ext2 filesystem and a monolithic Linux kernel, and only require a file change to indicate the size of the new drive(s)... I put in 2 150GB drives in one of the Tivos, it was pretty easy, I think I used TiVoMAD.
-
Originally posted by Eagler
a dvr/tivo gives you back 20 minutes of your life per hour as that is the min commercials bloat the average 60 minute tele program these days ... don't watch anything "live" anymore
AMEN, BROTHER. I don't think I've watched anything live besides the news in years.
-
I am stoneage and record shows once in a while with a vcr. How do these dvr things skip commercials? With vhs I have to fast forward through em.
lazs
-
Originally posted by bj229r
Same here:aok --wish it had network out that I might copy stuff straight to pc, without having to capture it
Dishboxes run something called 'Dishlinux' or somesuch junk, and there are ways to grab video I have read about.. but I'm too lazy for that.
-
The DiSH boxes do run a Linux variant. I have considered yanking the HD out of the older non-HD PVR we have and seeing if I if my Linux box could mount the drive's filesystem.
If it can, then I can replace the drive.
I hope they are not using the ext2 filesystem, although that would explain why it takes so long to delete a recording.
-
The TiVo series 2 does use the ext2 file system... that could explain the slowness. I wonder if the software upgrade changed the caching system to make it better performance-wise.
It encodes its recording using MPEG1 I think... with some proprietary encryption at the file header... I believe I saw something on slashdot recently that announced someone had broken the encryption. Ah yes: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/04/1952224
http://www.alt.org/wiki/index.php/TiVoToGo
Have to mess with this one day.
I noticed that the commercial/program ratio on some shows has gone up dramatically. Lost went up quite a bit after the first season and this year it's ridiculous. Also finale shows during sweeps appear to have increased commercials almost 20%. Jerks.
Don't use reiserfs, it will make you kill your wife and go to prison.
-
Lazs, none of the modern commercial DVRs skip commercials, the last company to do that was ReplayTV. Mine still has that feature, and it's fantastic. But the media companies sued them into the stone-age.
Tivo, Dish, Comcast, at best they allow you to fast forward like on your VCR. Some of them can be hacked to skip 30 second chunks per click.
The only way to currently get a new setup that has automatic commercial skipping (as in, it fades to black at the end of a scene, then the next scene starts, no interruption) is probably with a PC based DVR like MythTV.
The technologie usually uses a combination of monitoring black cut screens and volume changes. Very rarely my commercial skip will go off at the wrong time, usually during Law & Order because of how they switch scenes sometimes, but it's an infrequent problem.
-
DiSH still has the 30 second skip forward.
And yes, never use ReiserFS for anything like this. It will corrupt data. ext2 is ok for writting, it is just horrifically slow for deleting large files.
-
Originally posted by Skuzzy
DiSH still has the 30 second skip forward.
And yes, never use ReiserFS for anything like this. It will corrupt data. ext2 is ok for writting, it is just horrifically slow for deleting large files.
I was actually taking about this (http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_345150640.html). :)
-
Originally posted by Ripsnort
I'm very happy with Dish TV and their DVR.
Me too. I have 2 DVR's with dual controllers running 4 different TV's. You can record 2 progs while watching a 3rd. I think Dish is the only one offering this option with an HD receiver too.
-
Tivo does have a 30 second skip option. Also, the fast forward is nice in that at the higher speeds you are taken back so you don't accidentaly ff over the first minute of the show. For example: commercial break starts and I go to hit ff 3 times. When I see the show again I hit ff again and it backsteps to right before the point I hit the button again. It is a manual mode but I can fly through a commercial break in about 5-10 seconds or less and land at the beginning of the next segment every time.
-
Neat. I fly through a commercial break in 0.0 seconds, and never have to touch my remote to do it. :D