[Discuss] Is MythTV dead?

[Richard Pieri]

On Sep 12, 2011, at 7:25 PM, Rich Braun wrote:
> 
> My overall point is that these open-standard UI systems like MythTV *ARE* dead
> unless a more aggressive posture is taken.

Even then, I don't know that it will help.  Blu-ray didn't win the Hi-Def war.  Streaming did.  The studios are getting wise to it.  Notice that Starz is withdrawing its library from Netflix over money -- as in Starz (and the studios it represents) want more of it.  Going a bit further back, Comcast is yanking all of the NBC content from the Netflix catalog for similar reasons -- so that Comcast can charge Comcast customers more than Netflix did for the same content.

Given our new formerly-NBC overlord now FCC overlord, it's only a matter of time before all of the content providers are owned by content distributors.  When that happens we can all say goodbye to broadcast TV and conventional cable.  It's not just Myth feeling the pinch.  TiVo is scrambling to cut itself a piece of the pie as time shifting is pushed aside by on-demand streaming.  Amazon and Google are trying to play the game, and there's Microsoft and Apple of course.  And there are dozens of boutique streaming channels to choose from.

Welcome to the future.

--Rich P.