[mythtv-users] Bounty request to enable ITV HD in Trunk .22

[Brian Wood]

On Thursday 18 June 2009 07:21:00 Another Sillyname wrote:
> OK
>
> I understand that ITV HD is still not working in Trunk.
>
> I'm not a programmer but at best an educated tinkerer so it's outside
> my scope to fix it.
>
> There are a number of tickets and threads about this dotted around as
> well as an existing itvhd.diff that doesn't appear to fix the problem
> (and we'd all prefer the fix to be in trunk rather then a patch anyway
> I suspect).
>
> So here's the deal, who is willing to take on the job of writing a fix
> and how much bounty do you want for the job?
>
> There's likely enough people wanting this to raise a few quid and then
> get it incorporated in Trunk .22 (mythtv is pretty heavily used in the
> UK and the football, including the World Cup is likely going to be in
> HD).
>
> All ideas and proposals accepted......

Just a personal opinion, but I suspect the "bounty" approach won't work too 
well with Myth.

I think the devs do what they do because they want to, not for any 
remuneration. There have been attempts inthe past by many folks (including 
me) to try and contribute funds, at least to help offset the bandwidth and 
server costs, and we have been met with a distinct lack of interest.

I can understand this, people who contribute money seem to eventually feel 
they can demand things and/or get some sort of preferential treatment, and 
I'm sure the devs do not want such pressures on top of what they have to deal 
with now.

In my experience, attempts to try the bounty approach with other projects have 
failed, mainly because most people vastly underestimate the actual costs of 
developing commercial software, and so the amounts offered are usually way 
low, possibly insulting the devs by undervaluing their work.

I think the devs would do it if they could, and will get to it when they can. 
The time required for a developer not involved with Myth to get up to speed 
and actually produce usable code would be long, further increasing the true 
value of such an effort. Such a developer would also necessarily make demands 
on the present devs, if only to help him/her learn what's gone before, 
resulting in the present line of development being delayed.

I wish you luck, and I certainly hope the problems get corrected eventually. 
Nobody would be happier than me if your offer results in working code (as 
well as work for starving developers).

-- 
Brian Wood
beww at beww.org