Yeraze's Domain 3.0

I still haven’t built my MythTV.  I’ve been doing alot of thinking & research, tho, and have discovered a few more things.  First, the bad:

1. Currently, watching Live TV on MythTV is pretty much a bust.  Reports are of 9-15s delays when switching channels, due to the time required to get the buffering started.
2. Still no help on getting a direct interface to my set-top box.
3. Still no info on getting multiple set-top boxes.

But there is good news:

1. After closely monitoring our TV habits, I’ve discovered that we don’t really watch any of the digital channels.  Rather, the only digital channels we watch are NickToons & NOGN, to catch later reruns of Rhianna’s shows.  Get these in the media library, and we wouldn’t need them.  That means I can save myself a few bucks a month by ditching digital, & connect to the Cable directly (bypass the set-top box).
2. By bypassing the set-top box, I can easily get multiple tuners working.
3. NewEgg has the Hauppauge PVR-150 for $64
4. Watching Live TV may not be that important.  I’ve been told that once you have a DVR operating, your entire TV life changes as you’re no longer restrained by viewing time.  I can just schedule SpongeBob & Dora for Rhianna, Law & Order for Laura, and Stargate/Battlestar/StarTrek for myself, and then we’ld probably never watch Live TV again.

And the Ugly, or complicated:

1. Still gotta get this working, with just my Abit BP6 to run it on.  Hopefully that’s enough processing power.
2. Eventually gotta get this into a DVR case like the Cavalier4 or the SilverStone.
3. Need to find a way to get functionality to our other TV in the bedroom.  There are reports of using the MediaMVP ($99) to do this.
4. Network access… I have a 802.11g router in the house, is that enough bandwidth to stream video?
5. Getting a remote that can operate it “easily”.. WFA will be pretty low with a keyboard for input..

I just finished another Scriptlance contract, and hopefully the funds will wind up in my paypal account shortly.  Once they do, I’ll probably go ahead & order one of the PVR150’s for experimenting with.  I’ll post more when I know more
[tag:mythtv][tag:dvr][tag:pvr][tag:gadget][tag:hardware]