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MythTV

Tue, 2006-09-12 08:19 — Matthew Davidson

Tom's Hardware has reviewed MythTV and concludes:

"Perhaps the most profound and telling advantage to MythTV [over Windows XP Media Centre Edition] is that its status as a community-based product means anyone can lend a hand in the development process. Possible contributions range from suggesting new and improved features, to creating and implementing new components. In fact, that is how many of the bundled plug-ins and add-ons found their way into the existing MythTV suite, and many more follow suit in each new release."

Comments

Tue, 2006-09-12 10:04 — danieljames

lounge room nesting

Perhaps at times it can be a little slower for some apps to reach maturity than others, in the proprietry world and in the Free world, but something I love about the gnu free world is that apps like MythTV are living evolving things.  It happens to be an example of an aplication that has reached a considerable level of maturity very quickly but it will still continue to evolve.

More importantly; there are those that don't want to bother with setting their clocks on their VCR and those that love to get the sound well balanced in the space of their lounge room and connect a multitude of devices together in a network of functionality.  I know people who would not consider themselves techies, but feel compelled by their DVD collections, BOSE speakers and flat panel screens to tinker with and research their design of a media lounge.

Free Software is the only real solution that I can see that has the potential to fill the requirements of this growing cultural nesting response to digital media consumption.

The problem with proprietry software is not the price, that is the inconvenience of their flawed distribution model.  The real problem is that they feel that it is ok to sell solutions and not let them go.  They want 'users' to be waiting for their next release or paying for the upgrade to get that better functionality.  Proprietry software developers feel it is unethical to want to get function that is specific for your needs and desires. They would like you to be limited by and dependent on their imagination and distribution.

With MythTV we have a Free solution to lounge room media nesting.  People are free to tinker or benefit from other people's tinkering and suggestions.  We are able to have direct influence on the development.  A media lounge enthusiast (they are far more common than you might think) can implement her media network of devices with software like MythTV at the centre of her interface with that network. 

Free software is very much at home in the media lounge,  because it comes from a culture that will give new users a starting place to get simple operation and allows enthusiasts to be limited only by their imaginations in their design and nesting of their digital media experience.

As for me and my house . . . my digital media experience is a radio/cassette deck, a VCR with 00:00 flashing on the clock and a $25 pentium II.