MRD said:
MythTV is a lot more versatile and powerful than Tivo, and there are no monthly fees. It does cost more to set up though in most cases, and takes a lot more work. When it's set up though, it's much nicer. Some things MythTv does that Tivo doesn't:
1) Rip DVD's and create a video library. It De-CSS's and removes region codes..
True. The reason for this is due to copyright issues with a TiVo with
integrated Digital Tuners. There is never a generation loss to analog in these TiVo systems (like my DirecTV TiVo), so burning a DVD from one of these TiVo's is equivalent to a bit-accurae clone of the material. Standalone TiVo's DO have DVD-R capability, but MUST use an Analog Video Input from another Tuner Box (no digital video connections, so you get a generation loss).
MRD said:
2) Arbitrarily large storage, just throw more drives in. Kaltag has 2.4 terabytes of storage on his mythtv system. Tivo is limited to one small drive.
FALSE. You can put upto TWO 127GB drives in a TiVo. Even with my single 120GB drive, I stil have 105 Hours of recodring time. Plenty for me. Max wold be arouind 230 Hours on a TiVo. If you have that much free time, I truly admire you
. Last time I checked, I have 50 odd "Season Passes", and I have plenty of room to store 5 or 10 episodes of most of my favorite shows. TiVo uses a smart storage strategy and continually makes room for new recordings, and you can opt to store certain programs "Until I Delete" them. Plug-n-play.
MRD said:
3) client/server architecture so you can have one central server doing the work and he recordings and then you can watch it from any tv in the house that has a frontend attached. .
Standalone TiVos (w/o built in tuners, with analog inputs) can be networked IIRC, and the DirecTV TiVo's (w/built in tuners) can also do this with a USB-to-Ethernet adaptor and some special Linux software w/ appropriate hacks. This goes back to the copyright issue of sharing "Bit Accurate Copies" of the program material. TiVo is just "smartly" protecting themselves from Copyright Infringement Lawsuits. The ReplayTV also has networking ability IIRC (also has analog inputs w/generation loss - no digital inputs). PS - There is a whole community involved in "hacking" TiVo's. Check
www.tivocommunity.com , or
http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/ . Pages and pages of cool stuff you can do on a TiVo.
MRD said:
7) arbitary number of tuners- Tivo has one. You can't record one thing and watch another with tivo. With MythTV, I can record 5 programs at once and watch another if I have enough tuners in my PC. .
Partially False - My DirecTV TiVo has 2 BUILT IN tuners. I can record 2 different DirecTV programs, and watch a 3rd pre-recorded program all at once for $5/month. Does the Myth TV have built-in tuners, or are you required to supply your own tuners? IIRC - you also have to pay to purchase any extra Tuners, and you still have a monthly fee for "extra tuners" (at least DirecTV does). 1 Tuner plus 4 extras would be an extra $20/Month on my DirecTV bill
opposed to the $5/mo I pay for my TiVo with 2 tuners. If you have a standalone TiVo, then you are limited to ONE analog input. This is why the INTEGRATED DUAL TUNER models are so appealing IMO (and the fact that there is NO generation loss - fully digital streams).
MRD said:
Lots of advantages to MythTV, although the install is challenging for sure. I'm working on mine atm, and it has already taken several days.
This sounds like a cool system. I'll have to look into it. Is this essentially a dedicated PC, or is this proprietary hardware? My TiVo is just so darn convenient. 2 Satellite cables, a Phone Line, TOSLINK Optical and S-Video to my Reciever, and a power cord. Very clean, VERY small, and dirt cheap IMO ($100 "out the door" INSTALLED with a 4-way switch included
). It has not crashed on me once in over 2 years. I'll do some searching for the MythTV system since I have no clue about it. Something to consider (assuming the cost is not much more than a $100 TiVo
).
Rock On