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Re: MythTV Invades Cable, TiVo

On 2006-03-27, Erik Funkenbusch <erik@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Mar 2006 15:28:13 -0600, JEDIDIAH wrote:
>
>>> I wouldn't call it a "cheap" PC.  I've never seen a MythTV box that wasn't
>> 
>> 	All it takes to turn a PC into a respectable bit of "Tivo" 
>> hardware is a $100 TV tuner with onboard MPEG encoder. At that point,
>> ANY recent PC is going to be remarkably more powerful than ANY tivo
>> currently on the market.
>
> Finding one supported under Linux, that can do full screen encoding and
> decoding at 30fps is usually not very cheap.  

	You have 0.0 clue. Go crawl back under your rock.

>
>> 	More ram.
>> 	Better CPU.
>> 	More Disk.
>
> And you pay for those things.

	You have 0.0 clue. Go crawl back under your rock.

	We talking PC's vs. Tivos here. The sloppy seconds you
get at Computer Reniasance are going to be better spec'ed than 
even a new Tivo.

	The series 1's only had 100mhz cpus.

>
>> 	Even decoding video is not going to be that big of a deal on 
>> the off chance this thing is sitting in your living room next to the
>> TV while you're using it.
>
> And that's another issue.  You're not going to want to put it in an
> el-cheapo enclosure, because a) they look like crap b) they SOUND like a
> jet engine taking off.

	...as if the Tivo enclosures are anything to write home about.

>
> That means you want a "quite" PC, and the components for a heat pipe based
> system is expensive.

	Pricewatch says differently.

>
>>> far more expensive than a TiVo.  Of course, part of that is because you
>>> typically want a huge hard drive, and decent CPU performance because you
>>> don't want to lose frames while you're doing other things with your MythTV
>>> box.
>> 
>> 	It doesn't take much box for that. Just like with a Tivo, the
>> hardware MPEG encoder does all the heavy lifting.
>
> Even with hardware encoding, there's still some CPU required, and if you're
> doing something like encoding MP3's at the same time you're recording, it

	A 486 can decode mp3.

	...and we're once again back to the meagre hardware of the
real tivos that don't have a problem with this sort of thing either.

> could cause problems.  Of course you can nice things to give the encoding
> task a higher priority, but then that can cause havok with the
> responsiveness of your user interface.  And if you're going to dual tuner

	Sounds kind of like a TIVO.

> it, then you're going to want a dual core CPU to handle encoding mutliple
> tuners AND doing whatever else you want it to do.

	Oh puleeeze.

	Someone needs to beat you with a cluestick, repeatedly.

-- 

	Nothing today, likely nothing since we tamed fire,     
	is genuinely new: culture, like science and              |||
	technology grows by accretion, each new creator         / | \
	building on the works of those that came before.

				 Judge Alex Kozinski
				 US Court of Appeals
				 9th Circuit


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