PVRBlog is reporting that there will be a new programming guide service available to MythTV called LXM Suite. Users will be charged a small monthly fee (6 months for $30 during their trial period), but hopefully the coverage and reliability will improve.
This is a good thing for MythTV that has previously relied on Zap2it data for non-commericial use only. Hopefully this will pave the way for other micro-providers to develop for the platform. Once MythTV is successfully installed, it’s a pretty competitive DVR product, and LXM Suite may make it even better.
Maiku, who writes a user journal at Build Your Own PVR.com, wrote a nice How To on getting MythTV installed on a Mandrake distro. MythTV is a daunting task, but it’s a pretty cool product and every time someone puts one of these How To’s together, it gets a bit easier for the next person.
Build Your Own PVR points out that the Jarod Wilson has updated his extremely helpful MythTV How To to include the new Fedora Core 3.
Even if you decide to build a MythTV box based on another linux distribution, it’s a really handy place to look if things go wrong during the install (which in my case, happens frequently).
One site that is particularly helpful for Linux PVR users is the PVR Hardware Database, which is a community-driven WIKI that includes a comprehensive hardware/software configuration database. It’s very useful for people trying to decide which hardware to buy to build a MythTV or Freevo box. Much of the success to building a functional Linux DVR is finding someone else who has done it before and has posted it up on a web page, and PVR Hardware Database is a good place to start.
Since the last time I looked at the site, it has grown a lot as a resource, including some great links to install guides for both MythTV and Freevo. It’s a great resource and we’ll be adding it to my links section under MythTV.
Anandtech.com has the second part of their comparison between MythTV and MCE. For someone considering those two options, it’s a must read.
Some highlights:
- MythTV does a better job compressing video recordings (in XVID format) and using disk space.
- MCE has tighter integration with the OS such as recording things in the background while you use another app in the foreground
- MythTV has more support for different hardware like capture cards, etc. and was impressive in utilizing the CPU to record on cheaper capture cards, transcode and compress files in the background, etc
- MCE is easier to install considering it comes bundled with hardware right out of the box
- MCE has integration with services like Video on Demand from Movielink
- MythTV is not shackled to DRM and copyright protections so things can be duplicated, burned, transfered, or used in any way the user sees fit
- MCE does a better job playing DVDs
The final chart does a good job summarizing their results, but I encourage you to read the whole thing.
