[vox] Tivo question

[John Mark Walker]

On Monday 08 December 2003 03:31 pm, Dave Margolis wrote:
> On Mon, 8 Dec 2003, John Mark Walker wrote:
> > Why bother? You can get a slim PC with cheap, commodity components, a TV
> > tuner, a graphics card with video out, install Freevo or MythTV with
> > MPlayer, Xine or your favorate DVD-capable video software, use XMLTV, and
> > voila, you've got your total Linux multimedia hub where you can rip DVD's
> > to your personal libraries, record TV shows, burn whatever you want to
> > Video CD, DVD, or whatever format you choose, and without any stupid DRM
> > or pay-for-play service restrictions.
>
> I agree with this statement, and I have been actively researching doing
> just that for the last couple of days.  However, I have almost decided
> that the price in both money and time might be way to much too invest.
>
> A super-bad linux based home-brewed DVR (probably based on an XPC) would
> cost quite a bit more than the used Tivos I'm looking at run from
> $100-$200.
>
> $12.95 per month will add up fast to the amount of said linux box, but I
> don't think the $299 lifetime subscription would.

So if you can build a decent Linux box for $300, doesn't that pretty much make 
it worthwhile? I've been pricing out components, and that's about what it 
comes to.

>
> MythTV looks pretty amazing, but getting all the harware to cooperate
> would be no small chore.  For example, getting TV-out to behave under linux
> is pretty tough.  Lirc is really neat, but that took WAY to long to even
> get to where I thought the remote was working, and I still haven't tied the
> remote signals to anything useful.  TV-card support through BTTV is good
> so that's no big deal.

Good point. I haven't made it that far, so I have nothing to contribute here 
yet.

>
> > By the way, No Starch Press is actively looking for a book on the subject
> > :@)
>
> I'd buy that book!

Cool! Do you know anyone who would be interested in writing it?

-JM