Comcast, TiVO, MythTV, and cable cards

[David Kramer]

Tom Metro wrote:
> Doug wrote:
>> I recall seeing on slashdot that the free video list
>> guide is going away, and a new $10 service is taking its place. 
> 
> Just to add to what Dan said, there has also been talk on the 
> MythTV-users list of a few free sources for TV listings, though if 
> Schedules Direct achieves it's $20/year target, it'll be the least 
> effort solution.

SchedulesDirect's dilemma is this: they are licensing the data service 
from TMS, and this entails a large fixed fee.  The $15/3 months was a 
complete S.W.A.G number on their part, and is a one-time thing for the 
first three months.  Until they know how many customers they will have, 
they won't know how many users they can spread that large fixed cost 
across on a monthly basis.  Judging by what I see on the MythTV and 
SchedulesDirect mailing lists, it seems the majority of North American 
users are willing to pay for the service and move over.  But it's not 
just MythTV users; it's the users of about a dozen non-commercial 
solutions, so I feel they will be able to successfully launch the real 
monthly number at an acceptable range.

About the free services that are coming about: First of all, the ones I 
have heard about are scraping web page tv listsings from other sources, 
which is horrible for the net as a whole, and was the reason Zap2it Labs 
was created in the first place.  I would be willing to pay someone else 
(and I am: Changing from Zap2It to SchedulesDirect took me about 20 
minutes) rather than use a free service that harmed the company 
providing the data.

Also, part of SchedulesDirect's contract with TMS is that they have the 
right to clean up and improve the data, and they've already started 
doing that.  I'm getting episode names for shows that I wasn't getting 
before with Zap2it.

>> That would make MythTV go for $600 over five years.  Cheapskates must be
>> working hard to avoid this cost.
> 
> If you want cheap, I don't recommend MythTV. You'll end up spending more 
> on hardware than you planned - even if you repurpose existing hardware. 
> After you've seen the benefits of it, you'll be even more willing to 
> spend more money for more disks. And then there are ongoing costs for 
> electricity and time for maintenance.

I assume you mean "ANY computer-based PVR solution vs a DVR unit" there. 
  Even there I'm not sure I agree with your logic.  You seem to be 
saying that since it's expandable, you're going to want to expand it, 
and that costs money over buying something you have no expansion options 
at all for.

To get the same abilities as a Tivo, all you need is a $150 capture card 
and a $100 hard drive, and not even a very fancy processor.

On the other hand, what you gain is incredible power and flexibility:
- Being able to make DVDs of your recordings
- Being able to do very complex searches: "record all shows with Bruce 
Campbell in them that have a category of scifi, and rated less than 
three starts (as if there were any other kind) and record them at a 
lower quality than my normal DVD-resolution recordings.  Oh, and once 
it's recorded, mark all the commercials for me."
- Being able to watch content from other computers
- Web-based control and reporting
- Distribute encoding and commercial flagging among other computers
- More tv schedule information (both more information about each show, 
and more days of look-ahead)

And, yes, it's expandable.  Add more drive space.  Add more capture 
cards.  Add more processong power.  Or not.  Your choice.

My wife has a Comcast DVR in the bedroom, and I have my MythTV in the 
office.  She has more scheduling problems and lock-ups, and the guide 
only shows 2 or 3 days ahead, instead of the two weeks I have.  And they 
keep dying on her.  They run incredibly hot, so I'm not even that sure 
they use much less power than a properly-speced computer.  After all, 
it's a Linux box inside.

> If you want cheap, rent a cable company DVR. If you want the power to 
> customize your DVR, go for Myth. (If you go with Myth, chances are 
> you'll also be better positioned to deal with the IPTV revolution.)

I'm still not sure why you're saying the DVR is cheaper. On a monthly
basis, the $5/month for SchedulesDirect (which may become even cheaper) 
is less than $15/month for the DVR.  The DVRs usually only have 120GB or 
so hard drives (about $70 today), so the only specialized hardware you 
need is the capture card, and one with hardware encoding is only about 
$150, so that's the only one-time initial cost.





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