Please don't admonish me for what I am sure is a silly question to you guys.
Here is the expanded question, as I peruse these forums and investigate tuner cards, the question arises, why MythTV.

I can certainly agree with people to don't want to use Windows MCE.
But, the advertisements for these cards say they can be used with
regular windows.

What are to real advantages of MythTV over plain Winxp.

I know some of the obvious answers are:
Supporting open source software is better that supporting MS.
Linux has low overhead allowing more CPU for the tuner.
It's fun to build something yourself.

Is the answer as simple as; WinTV on WinXP kinda sucks?

Thanks

For me, it came down to stupidity.
I was only interested in HDTV, as all of my local stations are now HD OTA.
You can't build an HDTV-only MCE box. It won't recognize an HD tuner without first having an SD tuner.

"That's pretty stupid", I said to myself.

Ok, that wasn't the only reason, but it was the decisive one. And I get XP Media Center as part of a M$ Subscription, so cost of the OS wasn't a factor.

My other motivation was freedom to make my own choices about what I wanted to do with the box, rather than having a company like M$ or TimeWarner decide for me.

Oh, and I have been a loyal TiVo subscriber for years. But I got tired of waiting for HD.
I'll take my $100/yr subscription fees and spread them around the Myth community, and/or make contributions to the code base myself.

Yeah. I can especially understand trying to avoid drm. I mean, I believe in paying for content. I just don't like my computer being controlled by drm, sometimes in adverse ways.

Thanks for your input.

I was a KnoppMyth user for a couple years and just this past week wiped the machine and install WinXP and the open source pvr software gbpvr. I was having a hard time with my hardware under Linux (PVR150 and Avermedia M179) and frankly just didn't have time to fight the fight anymore. While Knoppmyth makes things a lot easier for you (and for that I am grateful), it isn't always an easy road. I've gotten everything running fine under XP now and am even working on a custom skin.

I won't say that I won't eventually make my way back to MythTV, but it won't be anytime soon. Just my two cents.

When I first got my TV card I used XP to set it up and use it, but it was not practical for use in my living room. I looked at the free options for XP but was not overly impressed with them.

I am a tech by trade so I liked the idea of KnoppMyth and also the cost. Although the cost was the primary driving factor I have since come to appreciate is the flexibility of the system as a whole and the features that it provides. A lot of which can not be offered by other packages.

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Girkers

I actually considered doing a Sony MCE system that was 200 disk dvd jukebox. But then noticed it had no ability to serve up multiple dvd's to other tv's in the house.


No support for CableCard bla bla bla..


When the Tivo Series III comes out that will be my heavy duty dvr for HD due to the enctyption issues. Myth will deal with SD content since that's the bulk of my recording and I'm sure the Tivo will be made more useful so I can intergrate it into the system at a later date.


When comparing costs the Myth system provided more function per dollar than MCE can and possibly could. Plus I dont necessarily have to worry about virii attacking my dvr.

If you are looking for a computer for your desktop, and you want to watch a TV show on it once in awhile, by all means load Windoze and whatever TV recording program came with your card when you bought it at Fry's.

But if you want a complete set-top box (see ULR, above) and you want to control it ONLY with a remote, and you want it to handle HD and SD, DVDs and MP3s, etc., then MythTV is the logical choice.

The people who have best success with MythTV are those who identify their need for a solution and then choose the hardware and software to implement it. I had troubles at first with an RF remote keyboard/mouse I bought. The keyboard was problematic under Myth, so I ditched it and replaced it immediately with one that was compatible. I was committed to the solution, not to any piece of hardware or software.

KnoppMyth is absolutely the easiest way to get MythTV up and running. Scan the Tier 1 and 2 forums here and learn what does and doesn't work. MythTV is equal to or better than any other set-top box platform available. And KnoppMyth makes it rock.

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Do you code to live, or live to code?
Search LinHES forum through Google

You are comparing oranges with apples.

MythTV is a set of applications, Windows XP is an operating system.

Windows XP does not come with any built in applications for watching and recording TV. You will need additional applications for that. Maybe in the future even MythTV will be available as such application for Windows XP (there is currently some work in progress for a frontend for Windows, although I'm not sure what state it is in).

This was my first attempt at a pvr, so I've never tried the Windows versions. Besides, I would always use an open source package over closed source for this purpose because the more I buy retail software, the more I find out there are hidden little gotcha's in there as time goes on (games, dvd copying software, etc).

While it may be a challenge to beginners to Myth or Linux to get this going, and I can understand why they may give up in frustration, I find the following positives:

-great learning tool if you want to learn more about UNIX/Linux. After all, it's much harder to learn unless you have an end goal, and making a pvr is a great motivator, IMHO.

-it's open source, well supported, and is being improved regularly

-my wife likes it What more need I say? I was able to wrestle the VCR from here, it was tough to convince her at first, but now she would kill me if I tried to take the myth box from here...

-has a great feature list, everthing I wanted from such a box was already baked in early on, and new stuff is getting added.

-the comfort of knowing that features current and future will not be dictated by the media companies like what happend with tivo.

-ability to contribute. Every user of this system is a potential beta tester and contributer to the project, if they feel like it.

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MythRig: Shuttle SN41G2 + PVR-350->TV + KnoppMyth R5Beta7

Thank you everyone!!!

Very good input. It is interesting that there are so many different takes
on why one chooses KnoppMyth.

I've decided that the main driving reason for me will be, as stated above,
to learn Linux with an end goal. I've been wanting to learn it for
a long time but never had a reason to jump into it.


Again, Thanks!!

Really, installing KnoppMyth won't take much linux-knowledge. And once installed, you won't even notice that it's linux behind myth.

My wife knows nothing about linux, she can't even handle non-swedish Windows-applications and a command line scares her to death. But she has no problems using the mythbox.

Have you tried it yet?

Oh man, have you seen what it does when commercials start? Oh, it's beautiful. Before I know it, BAM! That commercials gone and my show is back on, baby! Yeah!

And you know? I have learned SOOOO much from reading and lurking in these forums for the past year. I know that I can see all of my background processes and be comfortable in the fact that there isn't something "running home to Momma" whenever it thinks it should.

Yes, it's like having kids. It can be a pain in the butt. But, if you roll your sleeves up and really dig in, It's worth it!

Props to Cecil, XSecrets, tjc, and everyone else who has been patient and worked their butts off to make Knoppmyth what it is today: Freakin' awesome software!!!

Enjoy!
Mike

my big reason was commercial skipping, that and i had a better first go with knoppymyth then MCE (and im a windows geek) first time i put my 500 in to knoppymyth it did exactly what i wanted MCE didnt

the other factor is mythtv isnt part of a corporation like m$ dont get me wrong here i love m$ but they must adhear to all the rules to keep friends with the RIAA/MPAA with mythtv i can make it do what i want, and i dont choose to be friendly with the RIAA/MPAA

another factor is the ability to front end with the orginal xbox that feature is awesome.

besides you dont need to run updates weekly on linux since no one is trying to hack them. where as every hacker knows there is a MCE server sitting all over the place

None of the off-the-shelf PVR boxes seem to do enough for me. If im going to build a PVR to my needs, why not use the free one instead of paying MS tax?

I am going to try the following,
DVB-T (my old DEC2000T usb)
DVB-S (dedicated pci card gonna buy it soon)
Analogue (old 878 card)
Cable-(from STB over composite using above tuner card)

All in one huge backend server. I will also put my existing movie collection on the HD (rip all my DVD etc)

The idea is that they all have different channels, I want one front end for ALL channels, not 3 stb's on my shelf. Its terrible trying to find what source the tv has to be on for what STB, then find the right remote for that stb, then channel surf etc.

Also, the channels that are duplicated (bbc etc) have multiple sources for recording one, watching another.

If I get it working, ill have one remote that gives me access to every single FTA channel, all my cable sub channels, and puts them all through a PVR.
To top it all off, i can build a second front end for the bedroom, and have all the same in there with no need for messing about with STBs again.

Lets see you do THAT with MCE.

For the last couple of years I have used the sofware that came with my TV Tuner to schedule recordings, in WinXP. I don't record a lot, but when I do record something, I really don't want to sit down at my computer and watch it. My wife REALLY doesn't want to watch a show on the computer either. And I'm really tired of spending the time it takes to author a DVD just to be viewed once and then thrown in the trash...

I started looking around for some type of DVR software and found MythTV. As far as features go, it has everything I want and a lot more actually. I personally like the ability to build additional front ends to put on other TV's around the house. Not only that, but I can upgrade to multiple tuners for a relatively small amount of money and hassle.

I should explain that I'm just now finishing up trying to get eveything working on a 'test' system that's barely worthy of MythTV (Duron 700), but I'm just about convinced that I can make this work. I'm a linux newbie, and I'm sure I'll take a long time to get all the kinks worked out, but I think it will be worth it. Oh, and I showed my test system to my wife and she said she's willing to use it and doesn't mind if I spend a little cash to beef up the system considerably (about 100-150 bucks to get an Athlon64 2800+ system going, have the CPU already...).