MythTV - Build your own PVR

[Mark Holtz]

Another link that a co-worker has passed along is the www.mythtv.com website which is basically is a homebrew "PVR" running on a Linux box. While it's still in the early stages, some of the stuff looks like something TiVo would do.

Hmmm.... I wonder if this can be adapted to the 721....

[RichW]

It's a hit and myth proposition! :)

Years ago and COMDEX, Adaptec introduced an Echostar decoder for the PC. Marketing folks from E* were actually there in the Adaptec booth touting that you now can have DBS on your PC. As far as I know, that product never got to market. I was hoping and waiting for it but it never came.

Now, the best bet is to hope for DBS PVRs tha tallow you to archive programs in digital form on your computer. But the motion picture industry is dead set against this feature for obvious reasons.

[gcutler]

Unless the PVR system can change channel on the Cable/Satellite box (or the Sat Box can start the PVR like a VCR event time) it is useless to me. Many of the Homemade systems out there will only work with analog cable or having to leave the Sat Reciever on the correct channel before the recording starts (useless if recording 2+ shows on different channels in one evening out)

[Scott Greczkowski]

Check out http://www.snapstream.com

Great software, they just upgraded to 3.0 and it's just like a Tivo and works well, I can even add events via the internet or my cell phone!

This software kicks butt, its on sale for $50 now in a few weeks the price goes up to $100.

[Mark Lamutt]

Another great option to check out is SageTV (www.sage.tv). All the functionality of a Tivo, but much more intelligent. Supports as many tuner cards as you can fit into your computer (there's one user running 8 tuners out of 1 box!), networkable with a fill client version to stream video throughout your network and over the web as well. This is what I use, and I haven't looked back ever since I was on the beta team 9 months ago.

And with an IR transmitter, it very nicely controls satellite and cable box channel changing.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Mark Lamutt
...And with an IR transmitter, it very nicely controls satellite and cable box channel changing.

I was shocked to see how many units did not have the IR transmitter, but that one sounds nice.

The only thing is that it seems that most PCs background noise is much louder than the average retail PVR units.

[Mark Holtz]

Well, the reason why I put up the link to MythTV is that, according to the SourceForge Page (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mythtv), it operates under the "GNU General Public License" structure. In other words, it's free, although if you make changes, you have to submit them back.

Now, if I recall correctly, the 721 operates under their own version of Linux called DishLinux. For that matter, the TiVo operates under their own Linux as well. It would be interesting if someone at Dish configured the MythTV to work under the 721.

Now, I don't use it myself. With the exception of the hard drive space, I wouldn't part with my 501 unless I switched to DirecTV. Still, I notice these things and wonder... what if?

[Jacob S]

The link you gave goes back to this thread.

[Mark Holtz]

Sorry about that. I've been runnng MyIE2, so things have been running slightly differently.