What is Digg?92 Comments
- cliffzdude, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14Sample is just 7 people = not statistically valid.
- EmmEff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9As a long-time MythTV user, I am surprised to read this. For example, the out-of-box configuration for the PVR-250 remote is odd. I have to press "MENU" to select a channel/show when in the EPG.
Also, while watching live TV, I'd like to be able to display and select a recording to watch. Instead you currently have to back out of the "Watch TV" menu item to the main menu, select "Media Library", etc.
Also, it should startup in LiveTV mode and everything should be accessible from there.
In fact, having thought about it more, it needs a lot of work in the area of usability. The UI was developed by a software developer, not a UI expert. - sirfergy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Wow, 7 people are all they used? I wonder what those 7 people would have thought of TiVo or MCE? Maybe those 7 people should tell us who they think will win in 2008 for president.
- briguy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8It should get even better after this summer's Google Summer of Code
- spdorsey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6MythTV is VERY usable, if you aren't the one installing it.
I tried for WEEKS to get it up and running on several machines, with no luck. It's great when it works, but you better hope it does not break. You have to have a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science to install or fix it, IMHO. - colincornaby, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8MythTV is available for Mac OS X x86:
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Myth_on_Mac_x86 - hpowers, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11now if only they would do an installability test. I fear there numbers might dwindell a bit.
- politech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@mooninite
Err, I've used all of them. Are you saying that MythTV is absolutely perfect and needs no improvement from it's present iteration? If so then you disagree with the entire Myth community which is working on improvements as we speak.
It's much more productive to be a mindless fan-boy. - T3rry, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8And 5/5 Myth Users are Linux Gurus.... I am a linux virgin and i had no hope in hell of installing myth, i tried for about 3 days before giving up and buying Beyondtv, which i may add i am VERY happy with.
- skubiszm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Do they have any similar studies evaluating Windows Media Center, Media Portal, or Beyond TV? I would like to see how they compare.
- fatdog789, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Agreed. In my informal poll of seven people I found around the house, all of different ages and backgrounds, I was the only one that had heard of MythTV. Only one other person knew what a tv card was...
My point? The sample size is too small to be meaningfull. - jav1231, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Too bad the page announcing this wonderful news wasn't so...well, 1996.
- MajorD, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5This is VERY good news. The ONLY reason I haven't replaced my Tivo with a Media PC is because my wife could not operate/navigate the Myth TV interface (and others I've tried). Pretty much a deal-breaker.
- golgo13, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5As opposed to having to install Windows MCE? Let me see, there's free software that anyone can run on a 600 mhz P3 or there's a paid OS install. Next up is the activation process which can be all sorts of hell. To spice it up lets ask a few questions here and there during the 3 hour long install process to annoy users. Top it off with a few updates from service pack to service pack to Windows Genuine Advantage.
I'm really getting tired of people saying Windows is easier. As if there's no learning curve associated with Microsoft's products and we're magically born with an innate sense of how to properly use Windows. The truth is there's a huge learning curve associated with Linux products. Be patient, you had to be to use Windows. If you don't want to be patient or run Linux that's fine just don't blame it on perfectly usable software. - roblabanca, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Xbox Media center is a great front end and its very easy to use. I use it in combination with TvTad on my XP machine.
Only downside is that not everyone has a modded xbox hanging around....I like it so much, now I have three. - agentgray, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I wonder how it scored in the "install-ability" test?
- nonhuman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. 7 people is way too few if you want meaningful results.
- golgo13, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4There's an even better fix. Map one of the buttons to quiting/restarting the program. If for what ever reason you really wanted to exit the system, one quick press of the button backs you out. If you need to restart the program one press restarts it. So tell me, do you have this ability with Microsoft's Media Center Edition? If you decide you want a button that turns the entire computer off can you do it with MCE? The whole point of open source software is that you have control. Yeah, my remote wasn't mapped correctly when I set up MythTV but two days later and not only was it correctly mapped for MythTV but it was also correctly mapped for other external programs. By the way, can you use the remote control with other programs under MCE? Hey, this is a question that I've alwasy been meaning to ask. Can you record a show and watch it with a Mac or Linux computer or is it DRM'd? Not only can I do that, but with a press of the button on my remote I can transcode shows for an iPod, Treo, etc...
- Fluxx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5It's not so much the install process as the hardware requirements/compatibility. At least it was when I looked at MythTV last time...
- deadbaby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3My only compliant about MythTV is the font rendering. I've tried various themes and the text still looks horrible compared to the font MCE uses.
- amdcursed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3sagetv for Win is where its at. As for Mythtv, setup isnt hard, and neither is usability, but where it lacks are simple things such as smart recording and speed between menus.
- tracker1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I have an MCE box at home, and am pretty happy with it, I have GameTap installed on it, which gets a lot of play.. the only kind of sucky thing is it doesn't recognize mkv, mp4 and other video formats.. if you install divx, etc you do get support for AVI packaged video files... I like it a lot, I'm not using the MCE remote though, I got a remote that also supports my receiver, tv and vcr in addition to MCE. If you have a copy of nero 6 ultra, use the NVE from that to transcode the dvr-ms files, or burn to cd (support was removed from v7).
- pauliephonic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Have you tried Transcode 360 for xbox 360 media extender?
http://runtime360.com/projects/transcode-360/
Works an absolute treat, plays xvid, divx, vob files with full pause, rewind etc.
Plays AC3 as well (no ffwd, rwnd)
Just one extra button push to play via transcoder, couldn't do without it. My old modded xbox with XBMC hasn't got used in months.
Paul - mattclare, on 10/12/2007, -1/+43.79 score to use it, -3.79 score to install it.
If you want to use MythTV purchase the hardware of least resistance or you'll be sorry! - thegreatsam, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I sure hope it will get better. 3.79/5 = 75.8%, which doesn't strike me as all that good.
- politech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I have a co-worker who is also of the opinion that the XBox (original) is the best media center device out there and he also has one for every TV.
But modchips, softmods, soldering irons ... for my grandma or aunt, I think not - dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Not sure if it'd make it play in Windows MCE, but try the Combined Community Codec Pack.. I think (empasis of think) it will let .mkv be player in any ffdshow player (Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic, WinMC etc)
- Ben - spdorsey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3MyhtTV is a great solution that has a great interface (customizable, if you have time to learn how). But it's difficult to install, even using Jarod's guide (you all know what I'm talking about).
- arnaudh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I spent way too much time trying to install MythTV a few months ago, to no avail. Has it improved?
Maybe the MythTV guys could spend a little less time hyping up their app, and a little more time on making it easier to install it... Until then, it will remain just another toy for Linux geeks. There is no way in its current state it can pretend to be an alternative to TiVo or even Windows Media Center, and that's a real shame. For !ç&è#'s sake, TiVos are Linux boxes. - CharlesDarwin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4What about those 5 dentists that could never quite agree on anything.
- politech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've been using the Xbox 360 media center extender with some success, but the DRM restrictions and lack of support for streaming DVDs hurts usability. I've also been using the MS Vista beta, but MS has a long way to go to match up with Myth from a usability standpoint.
What MS has going for it is ease of setup. Myth TV could still stand some improvement in that respect. - spdorsey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I had no such luck when installing Knoppmyth about a year ago on my Intel Mobo on-board SATA. I had to use an IDE drive.
- tlimon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3As mentioned above, Try SageTV for Windows. Works well, supports "placeshifting", pretty easy to set up. Enjoy.
- yoshihama, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Note that the usability test focused on "using" MythTV, not installing it.
@cliffzdude
In terms of usability tests, 7-8 people is a standard number. Anything smaller and you're likely to miss big issues. Anything bigger, and the majority of the feedback is duplicates of what the others already said. - hunchbehr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2there's also the option of using Mythdora, I've tried from scratch (hard, very hard) and I did also use Jarod's guide which still took days but now I use Mythdora without any issues. The guys have it setup so its very easy to get up and running in hours (yes HOURs), its Fedora based and one of the easiest installs going with everything included. http:\www.g-ding.tv is the homepage if you want to check it out.
- dgnome, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2We were sort of hoping to be dugg and whatnot so in fear of catastrophic amounts of hits I made the site as simple as possible.
- ardnut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Also, while watching live TV, I'd like to be able to display and select a recording to watch."
You can do this in the latest SVN, so it will be in version 0.20. - Ahnteis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think that their divx support is finally working as of most recent version. (Seems to be in my install anyway.)
- dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Installing is simple, espically with apt-get/yum etc, it's the configuring/setup part that is the hardest.. Trying to get a TV card, an remote to work like they should, if you don't have very specific hardware is a pain.. My fairly obscure remote worked as soon as I plugged it into Windows Media Center, but I couldn't get half the button to work under MythTV, after searching around for a few hours.. The TV card I couldn't get to work under either (the program that came with it worked on Windows, but it's awfull)
If you have hardware that is fully supported (i.e buying it specificly for MythTV) it should be easy to get running, espically with something like MythDora (A customized Fedora Core isntaller, that's got MythTV isntalled and some-what setup)
One small advantage MythTV has over Widnows Media Center is since it uses mplayer (or xine?) which has very good codec support built in, theres no need to install something like the Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP).. Although this takes a few seconds to do and'll allow WMCE to play most files.. Another thing is playing bin/ISO files is far easier in MythTV..
As for usability (once everything's setup), I personally think MythTV and WMCE are pretty even.. MythTV probably wins for recording TV, and multi-room instalations (with the seperate back/front ends), and the webinterface for setting shows to record, for things like flicking though menus, I think WMCE was more intuitive/responsive (Trying on a 1.8GHz AMD with only 256mb, I was surprised how well Windows MCE performed)
Media Portal, it seems nice, but I find it very sluggish, both on the 1.8GHz/256mb media-playing-PC (which is now a server due to weird problems with it, building a new one soon hopefully..), and my 2GHz/512mb laptop (not tried it on my main machine)
- Ben - disruptor108, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I have a BS in CS and I'm using KnoppMyth to install MythTV, and I still haven't been able to get all the features to work at the same time. I've been trying on and off for about 3 weeks now. I fix the sound and get it working, and then the video breaks. Fix the video and then the sound breaks. I'd love to take advantage of all the features, but I haven't reached that point yet...
- spdorsey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Never used windows media center, but I used BeyondTV for a long time after not being able to fix my MythTV .17 install. It was good, but their implementation of DIVX lacked to the point that I decided to switch back to MythTV. I couldn;t get MythTV running, so I bought a Tivo series 2 and a Mac Mini. Now I can do anything I want, and I don;t have to worry about breakage. KILLER interfaces, too.
- alphamerik, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Although the score may seem low, in the public arena anything greater than %70 probably means it it quite good. Look at IMDB ratings, you will very rarely find anything above an 8.
I use MythTV, and overall I think it is quite good. On the other hand, there are some small annoying things I wish they would fix (running 0.19).
As far as the installation complaints, most of the problems with setting up MythTV are getting the stupid device drivers working. - Rsulliv1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2How does mythTV work for people with digital cable? Does it replace the cable company's box? can you get a high def input card to work with mythtv?
Anyone have any good links for answers?
Thanks! - fani, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I use my old ATI AIW 8500 Radeon and its PVR software and it works very well.
MMC 9.02 is what I use and it is simply awesome.
It has so many features, GuidePlus+ integration for scheduling,listing. I really like it. And its not like I don't have a TV.
I have Comcast and it works great too.
I tried MythTV on my linux box but too bad - I could never get to install. I revisited it many times but always gave up. - Kyderdog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2it would be nice if it worked with dish network or direct tv...I mean as in being able to automatically change channels instead of recording the channel the box is set to
- TheWorkz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I have been wondering the same thing.. I dont have any answers for you on MAC.. But with a mactel, you could always run windows. :)
http://winmyth.sourceforge.net/ - This front end kinda is ugly for Windows.
The other option is MediaPortal, which I have found to be similar enough to mythtv and is also free.
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/
Also, it is funny that a usability test getting 3.79/5 is of coarse Linux users who tend to be a little more technical than normal win users. - frankinla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Having built my own MCE system, as well as a few Linux boxes, I'd say MCE 2005 got it right all around. It worked on the first install (yes, I've read all the horror stories) and the set-up was a piece of cake. Having owned Apples since the old LC II, I was never was much into Microsoft till MCE.
Linux, on the other hand... The newer versions (last install was Suse 10.1) install pretty easy, but after that it gets messy. If I need to refer to "instructions" for installing something as basic as Java, they need to work on the UI. XGL looks pretty interesting though.
But as an everyday appliance/pvr/dvr, the only advantage of Myth would be saving $120 on the OS, the trade off being complicated installs and upgrades, and tech help written in such a way that CS major could comprehend. That and the fact that simply playing a DVD could get you arrested... well.
Still waiting on Apple. But I've been waitng on apple to do this for years. - EmmEff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Why are people having so many problems installing MythTV? Yes, it's more than installing a binary and running it but geez, it's not rocket science to follow one of the many guides for setting up MythTV on the OS of your choice.
- golgo13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It depends on what cable box and how the cable company has configured the cable box. You might need an ir emmiter and an external channel changing script. Sometimes you can connect via firewire. You won't be able to digitally record channels like HBO, you'll have to use an analog capture card for that. Yes, there are HD capture cards available.
- refulgentis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Is it available for any OS besides Linux? I have an Intel Mac and I need software like this, and would really like it to be open source.
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