Pretty snazzy looking prebuilt MythTV PVR

greggh · Post by **greggh** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 7:29 pm

http://www.slashgear.com/pre-build-myth ... 152985.php

coolfrood · Post by **coolfrood** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:44 pm

Pretty cool though it seems somewhat overpriced to me. I built my own (admittedly ugly) Myth box for a whole lot cheaper than that.

mowestusa · Post by **mowestusa** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 9:46 pm

coolfrood wrote:Pretty cool though it seems somewhat overpriced to me. I built my own (admittedly ugly) Myth box for a whole lot cheaper than that.

Just curious what did you end up spending? I'm thinking of putting one of my machines back behind the TV where it won't matter what it looks like. It seems like if you build from nothing, you have to put in at least $400 after you by a cheap case, motherboard, processor, ram, and big huge hard drive, and DVD drive, then you have the tuner card. Oh a video out card too.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 3:54 am

That article barely scratches what this thing can really do, here's the actual site of the guys that have built this unit with more info and several configurations to chose from as well.
http://store02.prostores.com/servlet/tvease/StoreFront

The hosts of The Linux Action Show had interviewed one of them about their product -Episode 21- and how they came to that design as well as the price point of $499.
http://www.linuxactionshow.com/index.php?paged=3

coolfrood wrote:Does anyone know of a bittorrent client that I can use that has a web-based interface. I want to use it on my myth box which is headless, other than the TV. It would be great if I can easily schedule downloads for torrent-based videos. RSS support would be great, but I can live without that.

Exclusive Features:

* Built in Bit Torrent downloading
* Rip and Burn DVD's to and from your hard drive with your remote
* Rip and Burn CD's to and from your hard drive with your remote
* 9 in 1 card reader to transfer pictures, music, and movies straight to your hard drive
* Live updating local weather
* Hundreds upon hundreds of free live internet television channels to choose from
* Extra PCI slot to add TV tuners if you would like.
* Truly an all in one Media Center Solution.

If you really think about it, $499 really isn't that bad of a price if you're starting from nothing and if you were to price the pieces and build something yourself, you might be able to save a few $$ if you already have some of the items but in the end you just might end up spending a bit more too. It's just a matter of making the decision on whether you want to invest the time and build something yourself or go with something where all the work has been done for you and can just fit right in with the rest of your entertainment equipment. The choice is yours.

coolfrood · Post by **coolfrood** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 8:03 am

mowestusa wrote:
coolfrood wrote:Pretty cool though it seems somewhat overpriced to me. I built my own (admittedly ugly) Myth box for a whole lot cheaper than that.
Just curious what did you end up spending? I'm thinking of putting one of my machines back behind the TV where it won't matter what it looks like. It seems like if you build from nothing, you have to put in at least $400 after you by a cheap case, motherboard, processor, ram, and big huge hard drive, and DVD drive, then you have the tuner card. Oh a video out card too.

Yes, that is exactly what I spent for my MythTV box. I think I could've done it for $100 less if I had cheaped out a bit on the hardware though. I chose to go with a fairly beefy Athlon XP, a Hauppauge 150 and 320 gigs HDD. In theory, you can do with a tuner that doesn't have a hardware encoder if you have a reasonably powerful processor.

This is all standard def though. I'm not that big a TV enthusiast to use HD yet. That's another different ballgame altogether because you need an HD tuner and also a RAID configuration AFAIK.

coolfrood · Post by **coolfrood** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 8:09 am

Basic_09 wrote:That article barely scratches what this thing can really do, here's the actual site of the guys that have built this unit with more info and several configurations to chose from as well.
http://store02.prostores.com/servlet/tvease/StoreFront

The hosts of The Linux Action Show had interviewed one of them about their product -Episode 21- and how they came to that design as well as the price point of $499.
http://www.linuxactionshow.com/index.php?paged=3

If you really think about it, $499 really isn't that bad of a price if you're starting from nothing and if you were to price the pieces and build something yourself, you might be able to save a few $$ if you already have some of the items but in the end you just might end up spending a bit more too. It's just a matter of making the decision on whether you want to invest the time and build something yourself or go with something where all the work has been done for you and can just fit right in with the rest of your entertainment equipment. The choice is yours.

Yes, I agree with you about not having to configure anything. For me, the configuration was part of the fun, and I suspect that's true for a lot of other people. http://tvease.net/wiki/index.php?title= ... ison_Chart lists the spec comparison and I see that the $499 model doesn't even come with a tuner and only an 80 gig HDD. This, to me, seems pretty steep in price.

Post by **Patrick** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 9:07 am

coolfrood wrote:I see that the $499 model doesn't even come with a tuner and only an 80 gig HDD. This, to me, seems pretty steep in price.

That's definitely over priced. You want at least a 200 gig HD. Video chews up HD space pretty quickly especially if you eventually start doing Hi-Def.

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 12:11 pm

I like the form factor a lot. My solution, if I ever actually build it, will have to be more of a PC next to the TV kind of deal since I have 80% of the parts I'll need already. I could use a beefier HDD, a sound card, and a Lian Li (or other snazzy looking aluminum case). I already have everything else.

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 2:06 pm

What I thought separated MythTV from other similar programs was it's server-client relationship. I've always thought that I would make a big honking machine with room for at least four hard drives and hide it in a closet, and then just have a small client machine with a decent video card to go next to the TV. Surely a gigabit connection for all machines involved would be sufficient for HDTV, wouldn't it? I have an HDTV tuner card (pcHDTV card), but lately I haven't had the funds to buy anything else for it.

granduke · Post by **granduke** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 8:17 am

Some guy on digg priced out the components of this model at Newegg and it came out at $351.93.

granduke

mowestusa · Post by **mowestusa** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:41 pm

granduke wrote:Some guy on digg priced out the components of this model at Newegg and it came out at $351.93.
granduke

So by the time you include shipping the unit to people, and I don't believe that this guy is getting big discounts for the parts because he is building and doing the install completely himself, no manufacturing process. I say that charging $150 for getting everything set up and working properly and to ship it safely to its destination is fare. This does not seem overly expensive. Remembering that this guy wants to get these into the homes that have never used Linux and never would consider Linux normally, I think he is giving a fair deal. For those in this forum who have the talents to set it up themselves, I can't imagine any of them buying one of these. But this is not for the majority of people in this forum or even for the majority of Linux users. This is for the none Linux geeks who want the ultimate computer hooked up to their entertainment center.

I think we should thank this guy for taking the trouble, on his own as a side business that he does not plan to support himself with fully, to bring Linux to more of the masses. Besides I would say this is not overpriced when you compare it to an XPMedia Center box which is its competition, not the white box a Linux geek puts together.

I would be tempted to buy one (if I had the money for any kind of myth box) just so I did not have to figure out how to get the remote working, my skills and time are limited.

Post by **dann** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 8:54 pm

I agree with you 100%. After listening to these guys on the Linux Action Show I am glad to see that their product has finally come to the masses and I wish them the best of luck. Would I buy one? I'm not sure, I'm more into building one myself, but I would definitely recommend one to a less technically savvy person.

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 9:08 pm

dann wrote:I agree with you 100%. After listening to these guys on the Linux Action Show I am glad to see that their product has finally come to the masses and I wish them the best of luck. Would I buy one? I'm not sure, I'm more into building one myself, but I would definitely recommend one to a less technically savvy person.

Yup. The only thing I have an issue with is the teensy HDD in the low-end model.

coolfrood · Post by **coolfrood** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 11:30 pm

I have nothing against these guys for trying to make a business out of this. I agree with the comments of other people who say that this is perhaps not the best solution for the kind of technical people like me and other listeners of TLLTS.

One thing that will go against these guys is the fact that they are still more expensive than TiVo. Sure, they provide a lot more openness and lot more features as compared to TiVo, but the initial price is going to be a barrier, never mind the fact that TiVo is a subscription-based model and this is one-time pricing. I think what these guys need to do is tie up either zap2it, or even have their own value-added subscription service. For instance, they could provide a nice bittorrent repository. This would help them bring down the initial cost of hardware and get a subscription-based revenue stream. Anyway, I think this is a good start and I hope that these guys are successful. It's good to see an open project compete with the likes of TiVo.

mowestusa · Post by **mowestusa** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 12:02 am

coolfrood wrote:One thing that will go against these guys is the fact that they are still more expensive than TiVo. Sure, they provide a lot more openness and lot more features as compared to TiVo, but the initial price is going to be a barrier, never mind the fact that TiVo is a subscription-based model and this is one-time pricing.

Actually, I believe they plan to come out with a lower priced model with an encoder card included for less than the latest generation TiVo. That would be their TiVo killer. At least that is there plans. They also have plans for an even higher end model too. Right now they developed this to meet their needs, and they are releasing their product to the public and see what happens. I don't know what they are planning on doing to bring down the price some more for the TiVo killer, but it should be interesting. By the way doesn't the TiVo have an 80gig drive?

So keep your eye on them, they might come out with something you will want to get for your grandma.