[mythtv-users] Why cant we make a STB?

[Mark Knecht]

On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 4:01 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> On Thursday 05 February 2009 15:52:05 Mark Knecht wrote:
>
>>
>> I'm an EE. I worked in Silicon Valley for about 25 years before I
>> bailed 5 years ago. I did mostly chip design and managed chip design
>> groups but for about 2 years managed a group that also did board
>> design for the chips we developed.
>>
>> My #1 input on this sort of thing is that most folks probably don't
>> have a clue about either the amount of time it takes or the costs of
>> doing hardware design - even board level design. It seems simpe and
>> straight forward until you really get into it. Chip specs are one
>> thing, but there's the cost of tools, the cost of manufacturing
>> boards, the cost of assembling boards, the costs of building systems
>> around those boards, the costs of testing, and then the costs of
>> revisions because a bunch of folks like us on the list aren't going to
>> do it perfectly the first time. It's expensive, takes a LONG time and
>> a lot of money, and when you get done and it's built and working the
>> market has moved on and our design is underpowered and overpriced.
>> Your market for selling these things is always smaller than you think
>> due to features in the design and compitition.
>>
>> The best thing someone can do from a price POV is to use standard
>> parts to build the hardware and buy in quantity. Buy 100 motherboards,
>> 100 video cards. Show some sales guy at NewEgg that you're serious
>> about making a product that he can sell you parts for once it's in
>> production. Configure Myth around that hardware and make it turn key
>> for the user. Even if the price is a bit higher support from a
>> community like this may make the difference in terms of actually
>> selling it. Sell it to everyone subscribed to the list for $300 or
>> $400. Get a reputation that it actually works. Bring in some money and
>> then, ONLY THEN, worry about the cheapest cost or doing something
>> custom.
>>
>> Just my 2 cents. I've been there multiple times.
>
> I agree with most of what you say. If anything you have understated what's
> involved in building a product.
>
> I certainly would not even consider buying components in industrial quantities
> from NewEgg or anyone like them. They are geared to selling to consumers, at
> large markups.
>
> There are distributors that specialize in selling in quantity to OEMs, NewEgg
> is not one of them.
>
> --
> beww
> beww at beww.org

I cannot disagree. I've never built anything like what you alll are
talking about here in any quantity. Biggest builds I've done of Myth
boxes was 4 at a time. That was with parts from NewEgg and it worked
well. I set up a little production line on my kitchen table one
afternoon and got all 4 built and booting Gentoo by the next morning.

I suspect there are much better places to buy in larger quantities. I
only mentioned NewEgg as a place with a lot of options.

- Mark