I'm thinking of launching a MythTV distro website

[richb-RBmg6HWzfGThzJAekONQAQ at public.gmane.org (Rich Braun)]

Jarod Wilson <jarod-ajLrJawYSntWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org> wrote the final nail in the coffin of my idea:
> Call me dubious, after having worked on MythDora in my spare time
> ... There are ALWAYS
> combinations of hardware and/or software where things aren't stable,
> ALWAYS users asking for support for new hardware/software/features, etc.

It didn't take y'all very long to talk me out of this idea.

But I do think that "this time is different" thanks to trends in the economy
and the state of the PC industry.

First, the economy:  there aren't very many Mega Corp Media companies able to
raise the capital right now to change fundamentals of the business.  Hence now
is a time when volunteers and non-profits can make more of a difference than
in boom times for big companies.

Second, the PC industry.  There is no more "IBM clone" mentality: every
company is fending for itself, utterly refusing to share/unable to impose
standards for basic stuff like graphics adapters, infrared remotes and so
forth.  And there is enough capacity even in the cheapo PCs (like the Aspire
R1600 at $199) to run full 1080p.

I'd compare this stage of the industry to roughly 1995 when MP3 was first
coming to the desktop PC.  I struggled mightly to get sufficiently-stable
software to move my library of CDs onto a hard drive:  the hardware had gotten
cheap enough but the software was all fundamentally unstable.  A few years
later everything came together and today we all take for granted that a home
music collection can and should be put onto a shared hard drive.

By 2015 (probably sooner) it will be an article of faith that a home video
collection should be housed and accessed from the same user interface as an
audio collection, a computer game, the Internet, cable, satellite, everything
else.

If MythTV doesn't get some help now, it's going to be obsoleted by commercial
hardware platforms.  And soon.

Will we enjoy the consequences of losing fair use?

I do have an approach that will solve the problems raised here but not without
help.  It'll require building a QA lab and coming up with a business model
that can employee a handful of intern-level QA people in order to compete with
the onslaught of commerce heading our way.  That's why I posted here, not to
argue the merits of my technical approach.

-rich