gbpvr vs. mythtv

[elite]

how about online scheduling? With mythtv they have a webserver built in and you can schedule, view, and delete recordings. They also have places for videos, music, settings, steamingtv, statistics, and status along with the epg listings.

*** EDIT ***

Found EWA in the Wiki... Nice!

Yep pretty much all is covered, either natively or via a plugin, check out ubustream (I think it is called) for streaming from bbc etc...

Seriously, if you have xp installed somewhere, stick gbpvr on it and have a play, even without a tuner installed you can still flick through the menus/screens etc and see if it gives you everything you need

[maxxgraphix]

Try it, you'll like it. Mines been so stable it's kinda like an appliance. Played with myth and a few non-free others. GBPVR was the best in my opion.

[toboR]

Try it, you'll like it. Mines been so stable it's kinda like an appliance. Played with myth and a few non-free others. GBPVR was the best in my opion.

maxxgraphix, you hit the nail on the head.

I started my search though all the available PVR options, looking for something that would turn my dedicated pc into an "appliance". I tried MythTV with Ubuntu and Mythdora, but it was an uphill battle. There were some friendly people in the Linux camp willing to help, but I finally reached the breaking point. I felt like a traitor going back to Windows, (or a wimp for giving up), but I have to admit that GBPVR has helped to fulfill my philosophy of a PVR appliance.

It's not perfect (yet! ), but it's getting there. If you don't like to tinker, it works fine "as is". If you like to get your hands dirty, or if you want to feel like you're still using Linux, there are lots of things that you can change, break, curse, fix, etc.

Kinda like trying to fix the toaster.

[rabbitinpumpkin]

Agreed. It depends on how far you're willing to go with your hardware platform. Mind you, most of my experiences were from 2 years ago. Because a majority of PC boxes will support windows 2000/XP, you'll have better luck with GBPVR. It just works well and has well documented tweaking instructions thanks to the wiki docs.

Mythdora, Mythbuntu and KnoppMyth are all great alternatives, especially those avoiding MSFT products. But you need just the right hardware combination.
Bleeding edge or some hardware combinations do not work very well with some Linux installations.
It's been only the past year or so that wifi cards have been made easier to install with Fedora.
If you don't mind spending $1,157.57 on a dedicated home media entertainment server, there's the KnoppMyth KRP hardware certified Dragon.
http://mythic.tv/product_info.php?products_id=44

But I noticed most DIY hobbyists, prefer to pick and choose their own parts which tends to be the reason why their Myth installs go wonky.
It IS getting better as most of these sites has a posting of recommended hardware.

Example:

I run a 2 year old Shuttle xpc (SN41G2 v2) amd xp 2600+ (barton core) 1.9GHz with 1.5GB of RAM and ATI RADEON 9250 Pro (soon to be upgraded to a xfx nvidia 7600 GT).

This supports recent Linux distros well, so I'll be trying mythbuntu next week or so after I get the new Nvidia card. The major issue that prevented me going this way were the crappy linux ATI drivers. I don't blame the driver developers so much as the politics/lack of support from ATI (although it's improving since AMD took over).

Since this system is the only desktop computer, I'll be keeping it as a Windows XP machine with a 2ndary boot partition for different linux distros I want to try. GBPVR will be reinstalled and there will be much rejoicing.

[treads6464]

I go into more detail in other posts i have about Myth but overall GBPVR is just plain easier to set up. Someone with basic XP knowledge can set up GBPVR and like others said, if you run into problems, the community here is much more helpful.

[nitrogen_widget]

Windows / GBPVR has been in my experiance easier to set-up than linux / myth.

The one thing I think Linux excells in when placed up against windows is the performance with cheap software encoder cards on lower powered equipment.

Other than that, I keep playing with Linux solutions because I love the free aspect of a live media distro.

[blackpaw]

I tried all the linux myth deritives - OpenSUSE Packages, KnoppMyth, MythDora, MythBuntu (MythBuntu was my favourite). Oddly enough I actually didn't have the hardware problems others have But I did buy my hardware with Myth in mind.

The recording/server side of it is great - the web interface, the auto scheduling - outstanding.

What put me off in the end was when I moved it to the living room, I found it horrible for LiveTV viewing and interactive viewing. On the fly recording etc was really awkward and usage with a remote was painful.

I actually came back to GBPVR - had tried it out early on in my search before I had a full understanding of how media centers could work. Came back to it with a fresh appreciation - the interface is brilliant, great to use with a remote for LiveTV browsing, viewing of recordings and casual scheduling. The web interface is really good and what I use for planned schedules and the season pass stuff.

The season pass is less flexible than Myth's but good enough and theres some plugins (XRecord?) that promise a more myth like experience there.

I tried the other windows alternatives - SageTV (Yuck!) No Web Interface - nuff said. MediaPortal looks promising but its really only at an alpha stage and they don't seem vaguely interested in Season Pass.

And of course the GBPVR community is really good.

[drbenjamin]

I'll join the chorus here. I was halfway into setting up 2 PCs as Myth boxes when I stumbled on gbPVR. Not only is it dramatically easier to set up (and I was a UNIX system administrator at one point), but it supports these wonderful devices called mediaMVPs. Unless you need HDTV, I recommend you look into them. About the size of a Sony Walkman, you can stick one next to each TV and have them all served by a modest PC stuck in the office. IMHO they complement gbPVR perfectly - no drivers, no stuttering, no maintenance, they just work. Very high WAF too.

[fsnertz]

I ran MythTV for 2 years - and it was rather solid at what it did. Getting it up and running took many weeks and lost hairs, but once it was up, there were few complaints.

Personally, my biggest issue was lack of IR blaster support for my satellite receiver. Plus there were little things that should have been much better on Myth but were not - e.g. rinky-dink interface, crappy-@$$ video filenames, marginal DVD (DeCSS) support, abysmal MP3 playback interface, that all contributed to a VERY low WAF (wife acceptance factor).

GBPVR was so slick out of the box, the wife LOVES using GBPVR. My 5 year old navigates the menus on his own. For whatever GBPVR lacks compared to Myth, it exceeds expectations in all other categories.

GBPVR's WAF factor is so high, I joke that MythTV users must all be geek bachelors.

[martint123]

GBPVR's WAF factor is so high, I joke that MythTV users must all be geek bachelors.

I think that you may be right