Anyone Using MythTV or Freevo?

[technobard]

I got off to a rocky start using MythTV. I'm convinced it was the machine more than anything else. Long story. Anyway, I replaced the Linux box recently and MythTV has been humming along. For those who don't know what I'm babbling about, MythTV is a linux-based personal video recorder solution (PVR). Think Tivo, only more features and more control. It's not quite ready for Joe Consumer, mainly because you have to know too much to get all the bits working. But when it works, it works great! I intentionally picked a motherboard chipset that works very well after finding out that the one I had been using was probably the worst possible choice.

I've been recording cartoons for my son, archiving them off, and burning them to DVD. If you already have the hardware (you'll have to add the tv capture card) and you're willing to spend the time, it's worth it.

[Belisarius]

Ah, a media box is pretty low on the wish list right now. I do have Tivo though, and it's agrivating how slow it can be sometimes. Plus, it's impossible to sort recordings by anything other than date. Easy to find stuff to record, but impossible to sort the stuff you have recorded.

Problem is that I only spent $300 on Tivo (which included a manual HD upgrade), whereas a Media-PC would cost quite a bit more.

[technobard]

By cost alone, if you don't already have the hardware, it's definitely not a good deal. My original attempt used existing hardware. When that didn't work, I had to spend a little more to get what I needed. The tv listings are from a free source, so the Tivo monthly fee disappears. But it's really not something you do if cost is the only factor. You have to want to do it. The time involved (in the first attempt for me) was a lot more valuable than the money I thought I was saving.

I was just curious if anyone else from this crowd was exploring the same stuff.