TiVo vs MythTV

[dsrtao]

I've got a TiVo HD and a homebuilt MythTV system. Both have been working for years, but I just transplanted the TiVo in to the main den system (swapping out an original Series 1 TiVo that is no longer subscribed.)

What TiVo gets right:

- the remote is the best ergonomic unit I've ever held.

- SemiLive TV is faster to change channels and records continuously even when the box is 'off'.

- CableCard tuners are great. CableLabs ought to be destroyed for their refusal to allow open-source or even unembedded implementations of the CableCard.

- initial setup is much easier, and much more user-friendly

- some of the on-screen displays are better designed

What TiVo gets wrong:

- there's advertising on the .main menu

What MythTV does better:

- expandability of disk space. My MythTV has almost 4 TB of disks attached. When disk prices come down, so does my cost of adding storage. The process is transparent: hook up disks, copy files if desired, add to a storage group.

- adding tuners. I have three currently and have run as many as 5 simultaneously.

- adding front ends: I can run the system from (currently) four stations in the house, and I can add more. TiVo will let you share with other TiVos, but you can't really consider them all at once. A MythTV also makes a dandy home media server.

- copy/transcode to other systems. It's easy to burn to a DVD or copy to a USB stick or transcode to a format for a mobile video device.

- open source means everything can be changed.

In summary: TiVo if you are willing to trade choice and flexibility for ease of setup and ads. MythTV for the opposite choices.

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Comments

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Huh. By and large I agree with your breakdown, but the TiVo remote actually bugs me.* It's extremely comfortable, but its symmetry makes it very easy to do exactly the opposite of what you intended.


*Or rather, did bug me back when I had a TiVo.

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

The Series3/Glo remote helps with that - they added non-symmetrical ridges to the bottom so you can tell when you pick it up which way it is pointing.

[cellio]

Any thoughts on economic factors? (I don't have a good feel for the expected lifespan of either, so computing cost/year or similar is hard.)

[dsrtao]

Comparable, depending on what tuners you buy for a MythTV. A good Myth box is about a $450 PC, plus tuners ranging from $30 to $300, plus a yearly programming fee of $20. A TiVo HD runs $300, plus $400 for lifetime service. At that price, the Myth box has the advantage off the bat of more disk space and the ability to burn DVDs; the TiVo has an advantage in connecting to cable for HD, but it can't talk to satellite (which Myth can, for the high-end of the tuner range).

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

An important point is that, since Myth can't use CableCARD, to record HD from cable you need a cable box for each tuner and a capture card capable of recording from component input - which are available but expensive. And you still have some quality loss from the analog loop and re-encoding.

Bumping a TiVo to 1-2TB is fairly trivial and you can do it yourself for the cost of the drive(s) with MFSTools or WinMFS. Though you currently can't go beyond 2TB, AFAIK.

[dsrtao]

HD OTA has cheap tuners ($30-$50) for the free service. If your cableco allows it, capture of HD from a cable box is as simple and cheap as a $6 FireWire cable, no analog steps involved. Anything your cableco puts out in unencrypted QAM can be captured cheaply and all-digitally as well.

Myth can't use CableCard because until now, CableLabs has not allowed the sale of CableCard tuners. They just did, and so the next step will be hacking for compatibility under DMCA. This is nasty because one part of the DMCA contradicts another part... IANAL, but it's a badly written law.

[dsrtao]

Standalone CableCard tuners, of course. Integrated have been available since the beginning, not that that helps anyone except TiVo.