[SlugLUG] What Am I Missing Out On Continued...

[Rohan Sheth]

I'm posting this for someone who is having trouble posting as their
message continues to be rejected by mailman for no apparent reason.

Subject:
RE: [SlugLUG] What am I missing out on?
From:
"Michael Paul Soland" <mpsoland at ucsc.edu>
Date:
Sun, 21 May 2006 04:25:12 -0700

To:
<sluglug at sluglug.ucsc.edu>


I had a bunch of URLs in this before, but it got rejected.  If you need the
locations to download the packages, just Google the words in quotes.
----------

I guess I should chime in here too since I've been having a blissful
experience with something that hasn't been mentioned yet.

I've been particularly happy with the Linux community's push to offer a free
and open source alternative to M$ Media Center and Tivo with MythTV!

Mythtv dot org

Here are the main "selling points" (if there are any for free software):

1. Most TV tuner cards are supported thanks to projects like "ivtv"

2. It's friendly to most distros.  I use it with Fedora Core 4 (easy install
with yum).  There's even have a no-frills Knoppix/MythTV distro if you don't
want to manage a boatload of front-end systems.

3. The fully featured web interface allows you to schedule recordings while
you're away from home.

4. Features commercial flagging (not quite autonomous yet, but getting
there) and a very nice and intuitive in-line editing interface help a person
to cut out all of the commercials in a recording and save the cutlist.

5. The client (mythfrontend) and server (mythbackend) programs allow you to
multicast a variety of streams all over your living quarters.  If a person
had enough bandwidth to spare, they could even stream content to clients
across the internet.

6. A nifty Perl script called "nuvexport" enables you to transcode recorded
shows to DVD format (and over a dozen other formats) for archiving your
recorded programs.

7. Another Perl script called "myth2ipod" transcodes shows to an
iPod/Quicktime format and put them into a Video Podcast for distribution.
It can be manual or run automatically when a program is done recording.

8. "Zap2It" free subscription for your cable/Dish Network/DirectTV lineup
automatically keeps your TV-guide up to date.

9. I've been running it since November and they've made a great number of
improvements and simplifications to the setup/configuration program.

I can't really say enough good things about this software suite.  The amount
of time I save not watching commercials is priceless.  With a dual tuner
(i.e. Haupage 500) or two separate tuner cards, you can even get
picture-in-picture working on a TV that doesn't even have that capability.

-Michael