[mythtv-users] To TiVo or mythTV it

[Christopher Flynn]

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 07:55:41 -0500, David George <david at thegeorges.us> wrote:
>Your assertion that "what your TiVo
> Records is forsale to the highest bidder" is just false.  These are just
> another form of optional advertising, and I actually liked a lot of
> them.  The ones I watched were actually well done.

I'm not the OP of the comment but what really scares me is that they
could tell all their units to do whatever they want. I mean recording
something that I didn't necessarily want wouldn't be a big deal
because I could just delete it. However what really scares me about
tivo is that at any point in time they could limit just about
anything. Getting too much pressure from the MPAA... take away some
features that they don't like. I mean they could pair up with a studio
and make certain ads unskippable. Sure all of this may be a little
tin-foil hatish but with tivo there are a lot of unknowns about the
future. Heck they could go out of business and then what would you do
with your hardware?

With mythtv about the only thing that would curb what it does would be
a law because I don't think the authors of mythtv would be willing to
break any laws. Even then I imagine something like this might work
it's way into the code:
/* This part of the code commented out because it breaks the law ;-) ;-)
 some code here
*/

Sure at one point tivo was on top of the world. They used linux and
allowed you to do a lot of cool things when no one else was really
doing them. The problem I have with them both then and now is mainly
that I don't want to pay a subscription for a vcr. Granted I know that
it probably goes towards getting tv guide information but I already
pay for my cable so I really couldn't see justifying another expense.
If mythtv had a pay service I probably wouldn't have one either
because I consider it a luxury item that I don't really need. The fact
that it was open source, ran on linux and would keep me busy for a
little while made it worth while to me.

However tivo certainly fills a need. The truth of the matter is that
not every tv viewer would have the ability to build a computer,
install linux, install a capture card, configure the capture card
install and configure mythtv. For people who don't want to tinker with
things to get them to work, tivo is the better option. Fortunately I
think in the next 5-10 years we'll see a bunch of other tivo like
companys come to be. A little competition is always good.
-Chris 

-- 
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. - Gandhi