[mythtv-users] Market for mythtv boxes?

[Leandro Dardini]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ben Nolan" <ben at ripcord.co.nz>
To: "'Discussion about mythtv'" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 4:07 PM
Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] Market for mythtv boxes?



> As for market - I'm thinking of high end (pro looking, quiet, simple,
> effective) pricing on commodity gear (to reduce construction costs).
> There are a lot of problems with long term support of xmltv etc - but
> there are ways and there are ways.

About xmltv, we are not using xmltv, but we provide our listing to our
users.

>
> Wrt networking - just require home Ethernet. You're in truth - not going
> to deter too many punters from the system by forcing them to plug a 30m
> cross-over cable between their tv box and their win xp dial-up machine
> (worst case scenario).

Wireless networking is not a problem. Linux support is here and there are a
lots of Wireless gateway that do all the work. However, transferring a 700MB
divx through a 11Mbit WiFi can be very long.

>
> As for x breaking - mythtv problems etc etc - I think people are missing
> the point. A mythtv box would be rock-solid.

Is there digital receiver rock-solid? my Nokia 9303S hangs more often than
my Win98 machine. I am using Dreamux from a very very long time and it never
hangs for me... am I specially lucky?

> It would have a readonly
> system partition - a secret root password and an md5sum that checks for
> validity every boot. If xyz user hacks the box or tries to update it or
> whatever - and software guarantees are null and void.

No, this is not my way to go, our product is based on open source and it is
inspired by an open policy. Togheter with the box there is the root password
and the user can do whatever he wants. If something goes wrong, make a fresh
install with the enclosed cd and retry...

Leandro