Every few months somebody writes one of those “build-your-own-TiVo” stories. This latest one is in Wired News, and it focuses mainly on MythTV, which is Linux-based software program for turning a PC into a digital video recorder:
Thanks to the combined expertise of about half a dozen hackers from all over the world, the project is close to assembling a complete software package for homemade DVRs. Version 0.9 of the MythTV software is due out next week. Based on Linux, the free software features an easy-to-use graphical interface, which can be navigated with a standard remote. The MythTV software offers all the basic DVR features — it can pause and rewind live TV, and fast-forward through shows and ads. It supports multiple tuner cards (and multiple simultaneous recordings) and boasts picture-in-picture capability if there’s more than one tuner card installed. It also offers basic video-editing capabilities and allows shows to be archived to video CD. MythTV grabs programming information from the Net using XMLTV, an open-source project that scrapes television listings off the TV Guide website. The software supports a wide range of hardware. It can make a fairly basic device out of a spare computer, or an uber-DVR that can record hundreds of hours of programming and up to four programs simultaneously.
Read [Thanks, Mike]
