[mythtv-users] Myth with Dish Network / DirectTV ?

Matt White whitem at arts.usask.ca
Thu Dec 17 15:15:23 UTC 2009


Gavin Peters wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 03:37:59PM -0600, Matt White wrote:
>> It would be nice not to need the receivers, but everything works very
>> well, so I won't complain.  It's a heck of a lot better than the
>> Dish/ExpressVU PVR solution...
>>
> 
> Any thoughts on what's wrong with the Dish solution?  I recently switched from
> an ExpressVu HD dual tuner PVR to myth, and there's things I miss about
> the ExpressVu PVR, but the balance favours Myth.

My experience was with the single tuner PVR (Expressvu calls it the
6140, if I recall).  Off the top of my head:

  - I find the scheduling system clunky.  If you pick a program from the
guide, the only choice is to record it on that channel.  If you want to
do an "All Channels" record, you need to set up a search (I hate
on-screen keyboards, don't you?).  There doesn't seem to be a way to
exclude channels, which means if I do an "All Channels" record I end up
getting programs recorded from described video channels, french channels
(Canada), etc.  Myth is head and shoulders above this in recording choices.

  - I don't want to have to watch all my recorded stuff on the same
TV...with Myth I can watch anywhere I have a frontend (including my
laptop or desktop computers).  I understand that this is mitigated
somewhat by the dual tuner PVR, if you have the one that has dual
outputs so you can drive two TVs.  Here in Canada, Bell has dropped that
one - they'd rather you had to buy two receivers.

  - The PVR I used felt sluggish and underpowered.  Hopefully, the dual
tuner one has a bit more grunt.

  - Stuff the PVR will never do: MythWeb, MythVideo, MythMusic.

And the big one for most of us, I assume - it's a lot of fun to play with.

-- 
Matt White
Arts and Science IT
University of Saskatchewan
whitem at artsandscience.usask.ca


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