[mythtv-users] Design a low cost, dual tuner, one box solution.

Another Sillyname anothersname at googlemail.com
Mon Jul 12 21:23:11 UTC 2010


On 12 July 2010 21:42, jedi <jedi at mishnet.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 08:54:49PM +0100, Jason Ward wrote:
>> On 11 July 2010 23:06, Nick Rout <nick.rout at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > there have been threads before over the years about "let's make/design
>> > a consumer level mythtv box". They usually founder on the fact that
>> > everyone wants different things in their myth machine, and that you'll
>> > never make something cheaper than the consumer electronics
>> > manufacturers can!
>> >
>
>    It's even worse than that. State of the art cable tuners are completely
> disallowed from open systems entirely. Such tuners are restricted to members
> of an industry cartel and those willing to play by their rules. This not only
> impacts hobbyists but also smaller "garage" operations that might have a new
> take on the PVR.
>
>    Then there are the Tivo patents. There's no telling how far a court will
> let them apply those if Tivo Corp threatened by such a garage operation.
>
>>
>> This issue is addressed by having one designer with specific goals in mind,
>> and I suspect to create a true consumer class device also forking from
>> MythTV, which might not be as bad as it first sounds so long as the designer
>> of such a box was submitting patches back to MythTV and then from time to
>> time, dropping their own branch, rebranching MythTV and then applying
>> patches to bring this "new" branch back to the place they needed for their
>> device, chosen interface, chosen feature set.  Much as Ubuntu do the above
>> described process each 6 months with Debian.
>>
>> However, that's no small commitment and someone would have to be sure they
>> could build a viable business model around it, whilst not being better
>
>    Tivo is having enough trouble with their business model an they are a bully
> and an early mover in this area.
>
>> served by just going down the exist consumer class devices route.
>>
>> It might be that "Another Sillyname" actually has identified a niche best
>> addressed by a project like this, but I don't envy him bringing it to
>> fruition.
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Jason

The motivation here isn't financial, it would fit very well
conceptually with using an open source product to benefit the wider
community.

I doubt we'd want to go as far as a complete fork, however a set of
build patches to enhance the specific functionality would be very
likely.


Jedi

Cable connections are not major issues for this project as it's
primarily UK based.

I would expect 80%+ of users would use DVB-T and the rest would use
DVB-S(2).  Cable user use in the UK would be negligible to the point
of it wouldn't make sense to address it.

Tivo patents don't hold in the UK as far as I am aware.

Regards


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