Why I'll never use MythTV

[BigMoose]

ATI had an official driver back in the day when I last tried, which was over 2 years ago (had to check my join date here!) but with no hw accel it was useless for HD.

Auto refresh rate would be very handy! It takes me ages of wondering why playback looks a bit crap before I realise I'm playing a 60Hz vid at 50.

[re-Barr]

Well, I tried myth and apparently there is a driver conflict between the Nvidia 8600 GS and the Hauppauge 1600. Which left it a total no go for me. What good is the tuner card with no way to view it? I don't think I will be trying it again... at least for a long time.

[stubright]

I used GBPVR for quite some time without any problems and I applaud Sub for the fantastic job he does with it. My issues are and always have been with Windows and because of those issues I was tempted by and dabbled with the darkside known as Linux and Mythtv.

Except for the quite steep learning curve, that has to be expected with anything new (I dabbled for about 6 months before putting a system in place), I have found it to be a very reliable and stable machine. The fact I have Hauppauge TV cards and nVidia graphics, certainly helped, but that was more by luck than judgement. My windows+GBPvr took up about 35gig (not including recordings) on my HD and my linux/mythtv takes up about 4gig.

Now everything is Linux except my wife's PC and her god forsaken incredimail. Is there a cure for 'insisting on pretty/fluffy graphics in every email' you send?

[stustunz]

Curious What issues are you talking about with windows
My windows machines are very stable these days and always wonder what people have issues with?
When they post statements like yours

[InVermont]

My windows+GBPvr took up about 35gig

Then something is very wrong, and not with Windows or GB-PVR
My C:\ partition is 12GB(Windows and GB-PVR), typically with 6+ free.
Except when I used the Cinema plugin and downloaded trailers; then all bets were off...

[stubright]

I'm sorry I should have been a bit clearer, when I said Windows+GBPvr I meant Windows plus everything associated with windows, other folders such as 'program files', 'program files (x86)', 'user folders' swap file, hibernate file, etc which all came to 35gig. The 4gig for linux included the equivalent folders.

As far as Windows issues are concerned, it was never a stability issue just minor niggles, one was that the pc would sometimes go to sleep other time it would be on for days even though it was meant to sleep after 30mins.
Updates were another issue, or should I say the way Microsoft implemented them. A fresh install of windows would take forever to fully update and the first update you do you get a message from Microsoft essentially saying 'in order to update windows you need to update windows. Then when you've done an update it will tell you that you machine is fully up to date, which would be fine if it was true. Another scan for updates and another bunch to download.
Finally the cost, Linux is free Windows is not.

As I said in my original post GBPvr works fantastically and out of all the Windows pvr software I've tried it's the only one I would recommend.

[stubright]

As an addition, how many times have you done an update where ms has said your updates are complete please restart and when you restart it says 'installing updates do not switch off'. When it restarts after that it says installing part 1 of 3 etc. (lie after lie from windows update). Defragging your hard drive! a must in windows but not necessary in Linux. Viruses, the inherent nature of linux means it is less susceptible to viruses, likewise with malware.

Boot times, my pc boots up from power button to no disc activity in about 45secs. Windows never managed that and it got slower over time, it was always a good couple of mins before the hd settled.

[stustunz]

What version of windows?

[martint123]

My windows PVR machine is locked down with DeepFreeze, does not do windows updates, sleeps or hibernates and only reboots at my request when a USB tuner dies once every 6 weeks or so. I can reload the system, should the system drive need replacing in around 5 minutes.

I, like many others here, arrived after much heartache trying to get a working PVR via the Myth or linux route. I found both the software and forums somewhat unfriendly compared to here.

[SickBoy]

The only time I've ever considered going to Myth was for better drivers for video over firewire direct from my STB. And that was for about ten minutes. Had I been more motivated I would have just taken my STB downstairs and hooked it up to my Gentoo box in my office and tried to get it working there. So I guess I was not very motivated.

I'm a *nix fan but in general I think Linux is a bit more high-maintenance than Windows with the sole exception of (anything Ubuntu can do OOTB).