The Power of Open Source Software Compells Thee

[dsrtao]

So, I've had two RCN installers in my house recently. Both of them were all-around installers, with lots of experience with pulling cables, hanging boxes on the side of the house, installing VOIP boxes, cable modems, TV set-top boxes including HD and DVR systems.

They were both seriously impressed by my MythTV system. What made them happy?

- High quality picture display. "We never get a picture that crisp on an SD channel" said one guy. (Has anyone ever seen a female cable installer? The gender ratio looks pretty skewed to me.)

- High quality fast-forward. "That's much sharper than on our DVRs, and faster, too."

- Expandability. "You can just add another hard disk when you're running out of space? Great!"

- User interface speed. "Everything's so quick".

- Commercial skip. "That's automatic? And it figures out where the commercials are by itself? No cable company would ever sell something like that! It's great!".

- Video cut-editing and the ability to burn to DVD.

Comments

[its-just-me.livejournal.com]

I have never heard of MythTV

[dsrtao]

From my description, what must it be?

http://www.mythtv.org

[its-just-me.livejournal.com]

(reads webpage) It seems to be written in Swahili. Is this real?

I should clairfy - I'm a decade out of touch with tech speak so I have no idea what I'm reading.

[dsrtao]

The pretty pictures are here...

http://www.mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythFeatures

Does that help?

[its-just-me.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw those but those could easily be mock ups for convincing non-tech people like myself that it's real.

Please put me out of my misery and tell me? : )

[dsrtao]

Yup, it's real. MythTV is software that runs on Linux, on normal PCs, that allows you to record and play back TV programs. You can buy hardware to pull TV from:
- over-the-air broadcasts
- the analog output of cable boxes
- the digital output of some cable boxes
- the analog output of satellite boxes
- the Internet
- DVDs, VCRs, etc.

and you can display this on your monitor, or on a regular TV, or on an HDTV. And you can control most of it (certainly all the daily things) through a normal remote control.

Currently the software is version 0.21, which means that you have to be pretty technical to install it and get useful things done. When it gets to 1.0, it's expected that pretty much anyone who can read and follow directions will be able to do everything with it.

[its-just-me.livejournal.com]

Well that's just fantastic then! What's the overall cost? I assume one needs to have some prior service? (please don't point me to a link - it's hurty)

[dsrtao]

You need a reasonably modern PC, but the ones they sell for $500 these days count.

You need whatever tuner/recording hardware you need for you particular situation -- an over-the-air HD tuner can cost $60 or so. The most exotic tuner in semi-common use is the Hauppauge HD-PVR, which can record HD from satellite or cable boxes with no digital output. That runs $250. I don't have one.

A remote control costs about $30, including a USB interface for your computer.

After that, it's whatever you want to add, at the time you want to add it.

gender disparity

[(Anonymous)]

I really liked the woman who used to fix my VCR. Now that it's even harder to get it serviced, she seems to have disappeared. Other than that, I've never seen a female tech person for anything related to TVs.

[mangosteen]

So, I'm curious. How much time do you spend hacking on your MythTV configuration to get it working Just Right(tm)?

Typically, I only hear about MythTV from people who are much more into the tinkering aspect of getting it working, than actually using it as a DVR.

[dsrtao]

On a daily level, no time at all. Eliz sets recordings and watches things without any tweaking.

When the cable company screws things up or changes something that used to Just Work, I have to spend up to a day or two fixing it.

And sometimes PC hardware screws up, but that's rarely much more complicated than a power cycle.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Too bad it doesn't come with the live-in sysadmin needed to install it, keep it updated, and handle service problems.

Seriously...the project is coming along, but 30 pages of installation instructions? Yikes.

[dsrtao]

Repeat previous comment: this is version 0.21. It's a wonder that it works at all, and amazing that it works so well. No surprise that setup time may be measured in weeks.

When 1.0 is announced, I would expect most people to be able to boot from a single CD or DVD, answer a dozen questions, and get a functional system. You can almost do that now with MythBuntu.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

When 1.0 is announced

Why, will anyone have a TV by then? YouTube seems to be winning...hence the Viacom lawsuit. (Also, Google has deep enough pockets for it to be worthwhile.)

I"m snarking, because I'm a UI/usability nerd. This project, like so many FOSS things, seems really far back along the curve on some fronts -- more noticeable because (a) non-package installation is one of *nix's great weaknesses and (b) the actual user interface is pretty decent already.

[dsrtao]

0.21.

How usable was Photoshop 0.21? They didn't even show it to the world.
It takes Microsoft 3 major versions to get anything usable, and then they break it in another 2-3.
Linux 0.2 wasn't so hot.
Mozilla? It wasn't great at 1.0, but it was better than the competition.

At this point, MythTV is better than the competition for usability and featurefulness. The install is a bitch-and-a-half, true. But the competition is charging money, too.

Most people install MythTV from packages. But it has to be usable all over the world, with all sorts of hardware, and that means serious configuration has to be done. Right now that's per-user. Eventually it may be per-country, and for larger countries, per television mode.

Open source project: feel free to make constructive criticism. Standing around snarking isn't.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

You're being incredibly defensive here. Who is it that's talking with you? What does he usually mean by this sort of thing? Why are you reacting this way to what he says? Why is he talking about himself in the third person, anyway?

Pushing people toward a version 0.21 product that they can't use can turn them off to it, never to return -- or worse, to spread the word that it's an impossible to use bugbear. Could it be too soon for MythTV to start garnering converts among the non-geeks? It happened to Linux. Never to return, until eaten by a different monster (Apple).

Snarking *can* be constructive criticism, in this case, a reminder of priorities. Installation is something that geeks often scoff at implementing, because it's "the easy part". But for the consumer, it's the first part, the most important one, the one that happens first, and if it doesn't happen, the whole thing can stall.

In point of fact I did poke around the MythTV site for a while today, and was...horrified. I couldn't actually figure out a place to start helping, other than to stand around pointing at the broken stuff.

[dsrtao]

Incredibly defensive? I disagree on incredibly. Possibly "overly".

It is too early for MythTV to be installed by non-geeks. Non- and semi-geeks residing in the houses of geeks can use it successfully.

Snarking is rarely constructive criticism, because, asyouknowbob, it's not just what you say but also how you say it. Especially: installation is known to be the difficult part of this project, and many, many, many people have wandered by, snarked or flamed, and wandered off.

The MythTV site itself is a mess. It's updated last. First is the dev list (and code checkins), second is the user list, and third or so is the wiki. The site gets an update on major version changes, sometimes.

There are also the simultaneous aspects of pride in doing something difficult, and in getting great results, and in being able to look down on people who use lesser systems.

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

I had to have Charter out not long ago, and the first tech to come out was a woman. Actually a fairly cute woman and I was highly tempted to flirt with her, especially when she said she lived nearby and had long wondered who drove the cool car in my driveway. But I refrained. :-)