Anyone know of a cheaper solution ? Tivo is approx. $699 in Oz now. It is a fantastic product
Surely there must be a few other products that compete with it ?
Surely there must be a few other products that compete with it ?
Tivo
- Thread starter LearningMan
- Start date
Great question!
And I know there's a few really informed SSers that should be able to reply. I love the concept of an integrated PVR / HDD tuner / IceTV kind of solution so that I can record free to air content and view it at my leisure whilst fast forwarding through ads, or better still having had the ads already deleted by the likes of IceTV.
I'd love to specify genre, or have a smart algorithm just figure out what I like to watch and automatically just record content for me based on my preferences. A nice fat HDD to store heaps of content would be great.
Duel tuners so I can watch one thing whilst recording another. And I'm tight so I'd rather have the whole lot with no monthly subscription, just a once off capital purchase cost for the hardware.
Round it out with the ability to also store streamed internet content via my wireless ADSL2+ connection and its happy days!
Cheers,
Michael
And I know there's a few really informed SSers that should be able to reply. I love the concept of an integrated PVR / HDD tuner / IceTV kind of solution so that I can record free to air content and view it at my leisure whilst fast forwarding through ads, or better still having had the ads already deleted by the likes of IceTV.
I'd love to specify genre, or have a smart algorithm just figure out what I like to watch and automatically just record content for me based on my preferences. A nice fat HDD to store heaps of content would be great.
Duel tuners so I can watch one thing whilst recording another. And I'm tight so I'd rather have the whole lot with no monthly subscription, just a once off capital purchase cost for the hardware.
Round it out with the ability to also store streamed internet content via my wireless ADSL2+ connection and its happy days!
Cheers,
Michael
Slightly off topic, but there was a story on Today Tonight tonight about how you can get up to 4000 channels of streaming channels over the net and play through your TV - all perfectly legit. Costs are $30 for 2000 channels, to $50 for 4000 - a 1 off fee for the software - no monthly charges!
Here's the story =
http://au.todaytonight.yahoo.com/article/4821852/consumer/cut-price-pay-tv
Olly
Here's the story =
http://au.todaytonight.yahoo.com/article/4821852/consumer/cut-price-pay-tv
Olly
OMG 4000 MORE channels
- already have to drag partner away from free to air stuff - without paying for even more!Cheers
Stella
OMG 4000 MORE channels
Cheers
Stella
I think the idea would be to cancel Optus or Foxtel and go for this instead and save money. But I know what you mean. My eyes lit up when I heard 4000 channels - then thought 'when would I ever have time to watch them'!!!???
Ah no - Optus & Foxtel are banned in this house - partner finds more than enough to watch on free to air!
Cheers
Stella
Mythtv has my vote
Mythtv (Mythbuntu) has my vote.
I'm just completing a build of one now using old PC components - have been running one in the study for a fewmonths. In a black piano finish case filled with old bits, it will blend perfectly with the home theatre equipment and will play HDTV and all media content directly to my projector and sound via SPDIF through the home theatre amp.
Some other features:
- Automatic recording and timeshift of live tv
- Extermely powerful recording features - search on words / phrases etc and easy setup of regular recording. EG, I record one version of all wiggles, playschool, Spot, Top Gear, Simpsons and others automagically and call call them up anywhere / anytime.
- Automatic commercial flagging and skipping - no ads when watching playback.
- Complete convergence of all media types through one system - music, videos, DVD's, downloads, IPTV, web surfing, blah blah... Do online shopping in the loungeroom.
- Distribute other front-ends around the house to connect to other devices... old laptop becomes a another PVR attahced to another TV capable of serving all content - event the live TV from the backend.
- Full integration with a range of remotes - independently control each frontend.
- Record and watch recorded media in multiple locations at the same time.
- the list goes on.
- My HDTV card cost $65... The software was free.
The Mythbuntu distribution dose most of the config for you, but you may need to get your hands a little dirty to get the most out of it.
Cheers,
Mythtv (Mythbuntu) has my vote.
I'm just completing a build of one now using old PC components - have been running one in the study for a fewmonths. In a black piano finish case filled with old bits, it will blend perfectly with the home theatre equipment and will play HDTV and all media content directly to my projector and sound via SPDIF through the home theatre amp.
Some other features:
- Automatic recording and timeshift of live tv
- Extermely powerful recording features - search on words / phrases etc and easy setup of regular recording. EG, I record one version of all wiggles, playschool, Spot, Top Gear, Simpsons and others automagically and call call them up anywhere / anytime.
- Automatic commercial flagging and skipping - no ads when watching playback.
- Complete convergence of all media types through one system - music, videos, DVD's, downloads, IPTV, web surfing, blah blah... Do online shopping in the loungeroom.
- Distribute other front-ends around the house to connect to other devices... old laptop becomes a another PVR attahced to another TV capable of serving all content - event the live TV from the backend.
- Full integration with a range of remotes - independently control each frontend.
- Record and watch recorded media in multiple locations at the same time.
- the list goes on.
- My HDTV card cost $65... The software was free.
The Mythbuntu distribution dose most of the config for you, but you may need to get your hands a little dirty to get the most out of it.
Cheers,
Awesome ! I will give this a go ...
I have always wanted to stay away from maintaining another PC in our living room but this looks tough to beat.
Oh no ! I just realised that software does not run on Windows
Excuse my ignorance, Barracuda, but what content do you get? I had a look at the website but it wasn't obvious to me where the content comes from.
Only free-to-air? Foxtel/Optus as well if you have it? Or could you get the internet TV as per Olly's suggestion, streamed "through" this interface?
The followup story the next night was a guy saying that the "dontpaytv" guy was charging for software that's free off the internet. I've since downloaded software called TVU and Joost that he mentioned and there's heaps more all offering more/different. TVU's picture quality is poor (think poor youtube clips) but heaps to choose from. Overseas programmes, soccer from all over, comedy channel, news channels (one dedicated to property and what's happening to it around the world) etc. Joost is crystal clear video quality but not offering TV channels or movies you've heard of, but there's still a great variety to choose from i.e. video clips, cartoons, indie movies, bollywood movies. I only spent an hour all up downloading, installing them and checking them out so there's probably way more than I've mentioned here.
Today Tonight haven't put this story on their website yet but apparently it lists the best software to use, TVU & Joost being 2 of them because he mentioned them during the story.
Olly
This is similar to the "I hate banks" guy (a mortgage broker) offering loans through banks.
http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43674
Ok everyone ... spent $66 on unit listed below. I have thrown in a 40GB hard disk drive and I have a complete Hard Disk Recorder !
Best bit is I got it all working in less than an hour.
Awesome solution !
http://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/dvx-555u-sd-digital-set-top-box-stb-pvr-review/
Best bit is I got it all working in less than an hour.
Awesome solution !
http://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/dvx-555u-sd-digital-set-top-box-stb-pvr-review/
MichaelWhyte said:
That'd be too much time sailing - wanna swap? Pretty please?
The content I mean is things like music (mp3's and the like), home movies, downloaded content, DVD's, pictures and even things like IPTV I believe. Being open source, someone may come up with a way to intergrate the new online ABC channels too - but that is just speculation on my part.
TV content comes from the backend system having one or more TV tuner cards installed. It controls the TV tuner card, eg I have a single HDTV card in mine (Leadtek DTV2000H), through which I can watch & record HD & SD tv. To help with terminology here, MythTV has both Backend and Frontend applications. A backend can service multiple frontends with discrete content - ie, they can be watching different things at the same time. In my case, I run both the backend and frontend in the same box. I also have another frontend on a laptop.
As for presenting the "Youtube like media" - don't know - also don't know if I would be bothered as it would look crap on a big screen. Myth's flexibility means that there might be a way to configure it - like most things with open source software, your best friend is google to see if someone has already done it and provided instructions on how they achieved it.
It doesn't do Foxtel natively; however there are ways to integrate it with your Foxtel unit so that you can control everything from one place and record, timeshift etc so that you don't need to buy Foxtel's expensive box. I believe it relies upon the capture of Foxtel output via component or the like. Channel changing on the Foxtel unit is achieved through an "IR blaster". It is geek level stuff, but achievable.
As for the Windows question - well, it is linux based, not windows based. However, there is Windows Media Center (licensed) that does TV and media convergence. I haven't tried it, but understand that it can be slower and maybe not as flexible as the MythTV solution, but it can do things like using an X-Box as a frontend (so can Mythtv).
One warning - Mythtv hasn't been a point and click style implementation, but there is alot of information on the web. Even for someone like me - a IT Architect with a background in Unix adminstration (admittedly I haven't done administration since the 90's), it still took me ~3 hours to configure the correct output for the projector over component output. Depending on your gear it can be easy or a trial. It's all installed and working beautifully now. It's hooked up through the home theatre amp and has replaced both the old VCR and an HDTV STB. All up it took about a week's worth of nights to properly configure.
I have configured another frontend on a laptop with bugger all changes to the what the installation CD configured. This frontend will be able to control and present anything the backend can offer - TV, content, scheduling recordings etc.
My neighbour has a backend in his study - this system also manages an opensource PABX and VOIP system (that's another story). He then uses an Xbox and 2 laptops connected to LCD TV's around the house as frontends which present content. He can schedule recordings etc over the internet from work, or via his telephone at home. Haven't gone that far yet...
The best part about it is it is free. You can download a CD image of Mythbuntu and do a trial "liveCD" install on your system or on a hardisk partition / old harddrive to see if you like before you blow away your system. Also, it is upgradable. As soon as BlueRay becomes the norm at the video shop, I'll swap the $40 DVD burner for a Blue-Ray drive and have a Blue-Ray player ready to roll.
Cheers,
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