The Ethics of MythTv
I often talk about my beloved, home-built MythTv PVR. Sometimes fondly, sometimes with a grudging acceptance of the difficulties of a custom-made solution. Many times, in my attempts at self-deprecating humor, I probably give a different and unfairly burdensome representation of things. I am reminded of last week when I was lamenting to my 63 year old office mate about being old at 31...
The holy grail of entertainment, to me, is not a super cool, sleek device that you attach to each television in your house. Super cool means small, stylish, and quiet. That also means expensive and I'm not paying for art in my A/V rack. A big, honkin' ugly server sitting in my concrete-walled basement closet is just fine for me, thank you.
To me the holy grail of entertainment is a single house computer that services my audio-visual needs as cheaply as possible giving me as much control over media as possible. It pushes audio to my yet-to-be-installed speakers. It modulates video over all of the cable running through my house. It is a computer with a terabyte, maybe, of storage that lets me do whatever the heck I want to.
Alot of people say: Just get a tivo. The idea of a device used only for tv viewing is limiting and, to me, absurd given the pricing involved. But I am a technophile and I am good at building things well. I built a home computer for $532 that would have cost me $1400 from Dell at the time. That was 2 years ago and this computer (which I am using to type this blog) runs 24/7 with no complaints. I am also a hobbyist. And I am also a strong believer in owning what I buy.
Now, few people want to own much of the mind-sucking crud that passes for television these days. I have no need to keep DVD's of Will and Grace for the next 30 years. But a long time ago (relatively) people fought pretty hard to give us fair use to record things and if my VHS VCR can do it, I'd like my PVR to do it too. Anything less is... less. Coupled with charging more for the privilege of doing less is insulting. Being happy about it is inanity.
So I chose to not purchase a tivo for each television in my house. I know people who own 2 tivos. I've read online where people have, over the years, bought up to 6 tivos for their homes (including upgrades). I assume this means an additional 6 lifetime service agreements -- which makes no sense to me. Fortunately, this confusion is going away because tivo is no longer going to offer lifetime service agreements. But, forgetting that for a moment, the new business model is "you lease the equipment, you lease the content".
No. And this is the ethic of mythtv. If I pay for something, I want to own it. I do not want to pay for the same show twice.
As such, I love the MythTv project. I love having a Linux box in my home where I can story my music and pictures. I love having a home web server. I love scheduling things over the web. I love being able to add recorders at $50 a pop to record 2, 3, 4 shows at once. I love being able to upgrade to any sized harddrive. I love being able to stream videos using mms. I love being able to watch content on my wireless laptop. I really love the built-in commercial skip features. I love the now-painless DVD burning. I love that my shows are in any format I desire. I love that I decide when my shows are deleted. I love that this is all legal under fair use.
I love that as people are buying new series 2 ans 3 tivos, and incurring more monthly fees, my "series 1 PVR" has been upgraded for free to perform the same functionality.
Tivo has come a long way... it is starting to try and be a computer that happens to record video. This is a good thing, especially for the non-technical. There are things you can't do on Tivo that you can do in mythtv, such as customizing remote control buttons in the application, upgrading hardware, writing your own programs to work on your recorded videos, getting scrolling messages across the screen, video editing and transcoding, mame game playing, voip support, etc... etc... But these things aren't hard to put in a computer, it is just outside of the tivo market. No harm, no foul.
But I will not pay $300 or a monthly fee for a computer in my home that I do not even own.
And yet, there has been a tremendous backlash against open PVRs. Often, this backlash has been by the largely uninformed, or the fear mongers. Why? No one wants to feel that a cheaper solution is technically superior. No one wants to believe that more money buys you less ability.
So, some FUD...
1. These things are really hard to install
If you are not a hobbyist, you probably shouldn't try this one at home. I might also say if you are not a hobby woodworker, don't try and build a small planter. Does that make a small planter hard to build? No. A fully functional myth installation takes about 2 hours if you are familiar with Linux. Up to 2 days if you are not familiar with Linux. My installation took a week about a year ago, and I have been fiddling with it and poking it ever since. I will probably fiddle and poke with it forever, but I was recording shows almost immediately.
2. A "free" PVR costs more.
Well, maybe. I spent about $500 to build a pretty fast computer (faster than the one I am typing this blog on). When recording TV shows, I am using about 5% of the CPU. When playing back a TV show, I use about 5% of the CPU. I can record 2 shows and play back a third show all at once with less than 50% CPU usage. It's overkill. But I want a general purpose computer for my home. So, it's pretty cheap. I submit it is cheaper than buying more than 1 tivo and whatever monthly service fees are attached. In fact, I don't know anybody who has just 1 tivo. They have at least 2. Why? They want to upgrade. When I wanted to be able to record an extra channel, it cost me $50 for another video card and $5 for a cable splitter.
3. You will not be able to record high definition
Yes, you will. Are you playing a DVD on a linux box? Do you own a modified x-box? Have you ever downloaded a song for free? Have you ever played a MAME ROM that you shouldn't have? Welcome to breaking the law...
No one wants to break the law. And, I am optimistic no one will ever have to.
We have a right to record analog shows. Once hd-tv comes along, set-top boxes, by law, must allow (at least) local channels in HD through a firewire port. My guess is cable companies will also allow basic cable through too. The mechanism by which all of this will work is up in the air, and there are too many doomsayers. Cablecards may fizzle. (v1.0 is a dud. v2.0 is just coming out, but others are already gunning to replace it). I'd gladly pay an extra $5 a month on my cable bill to have basic cable sent to me unencrypted.
It is too early to tell how this will work out, but it is foolish to cry that it will not. Many will remember cries of the death of open source multimedia players because Linux would not be allowed to play DVDs. Manufacturers will offer cards. The idea that only Microsoft operating systems will allow television programs is absurd and, frankly, not legal. When faced with something which violates our right to fair use, the answer is to fight it in the courts, as the EFF has done, and with some success.
The right answer is not to pre-emptively bend over to make the ensuing onslaught easier.
If my last resort is to install a $100 time-base corrector to remove macrovision protection from the analog out of my television, then so be it. The VCRs I have include time-based correctors and I would love for someone to challenge in court my right to hook up my VCR to my television. Welcome to the land of FUD.
4 - The time has past
We are talking about events that will not firm up for 4 years. I wouldn't trade my year of PVR ownership for anything. I know those who have had nothing for the past year and congratulate themselves on this 12 month void. I will happily be recording analog video for the next 4 years, for a total of 5 years before this is even an issue for me. That's $100/year of open-source ownership bliss. Or, $8 a month. Top that price point...
After that? I am an optimist. And I will always own the content I pay for. I think there are changes afoot, and I think there is alot of consumer ambivalence, part of the "let's wait and see what we are fed" mentality. For every good source of intelligent debate there is also some mind-numbing crap. Here is one example.
-Ed
The holy grail of entertainment, to me, is not a super cool, sleek device that you attach to each television in your house. Super cool means small, stylish, and quiet. That also means expensive and I'm not paying for art in my A/V rack. A big, honkin' ugly server sitting in my concrete-walled basement closet is just fine for me, thank you.
To me the holy grail of entertainment is a single house computer that services my audio-visual needs as cheaply as possible giving me as much control over media as possible. It pushes audio to my yet-to-be-installed speakers. It modulates video over all of the cable running through my house. It is a computer with a terabyte, maybe, of storage that lets me do whatever the heck I want to.
Alot of people say: Just get a tivo. The idea of a device used only for tv viewing is limiting and, to me, absurd given the pricing involved. But I am a technophile and I am good at building things well. I built a home computer for $532 that would have cost me $1400 from Dell at the time. That was 2 years ago and this computer (which I am using to type this blog) runs 24/7 with no complaints. I am also a hobbyist. And I am also a strong believer in owning what I buy.
Now, few people want to own much of the mind-sucking crud that passes for television these days. I have no need to keep DVD's of Will and Grace for the next 30 years. But a long time ago (relatively) people fought pretty hard to give us fair use to record things and if my VHS VCR can do it, I'd like my PVR to do it too. Anything less is... less. Coupled with charging more for the privilege of doing less is insulting. Being happy about it is inanity.
So I chose to not purchase a tivo for each television in my house. I know people who own 2 tivos. I've read online where people have, over the years, bought up to 6 tivos for their homes (including upgrades). I assume this means an additional 6 lifetime service agreements -- which makes no sense to me. Fortunately, this confusion is going away because tivo is no longer going to offer lifetime service agreements. But, forgetting that for a moment, the new business model is "you lease the equipment, you lease the content".
No. And this is the ethic of mythtv. If I pay for something, I want to own it. I do not want to pay for the same show twice.
As such, I love the MythTv project. I love having a Linux box in my home where I can story my music and pictures. I love having a home web server. I love scheduling things over the web. I love being able to add recorders at $50 a pop to record 2, 3, 4 shows at once. I love being able to upgrade to any sized harddrive. I love being able to stream videos using mms. I love being able to watch content on my wireless laptop. I really love the built-in commercial skip features. I love the now-painless DVD burning. I love that my shows are in any format I desire. I love that I decide when my shows are deleted. I love that this is all legal under fair use.
I love that as people are buying new series 2 ans 3 tivos, and incurring more monthly fees, my "series 1 PVR" has been upgraded for free to perform the same functionality.
Tivo has come a long way... it is starting to try and be a computer that happens to record video. This is a good thing, especially for the non-technical. There are things you can't do on Tivo that you can do in mythtv, such as customizing remote control buttons in the application, upgrading hardware, writing your own programs to work on your recorded videos, getting scrolling messages across the screen, video editing and transcoding, mame game playing, voip support, etc... etc... But these things aren't hard to put in a computer, it is just outside of the tivo market. No harm, no foul.
But I will not pay $300 or a monthly fee for a computer in my home that I do not even own.
And yet, there has been a tremendous backlash against open PVRs. Often, this backlash has been by the largely uninformed, or the fear mongers. Why? No one wants to feel that a cheaper solution is technically superior. No one wants to believe that more money buys you less ability.
So, some FUD...
1. These things are really hard to install
If you are not a hobbyist, you probably shouldn't try this one at home. I might also say if you are not a hobby woodworker, don't try and build a small planter. Does that make a small planter hard to build? No. A fully functional myth installation takes about 2 hours if you are familiar with Linux. Up to 2 days if you are not familiar with Linux. My installation took a week about a year ago, and I have been fiddling with it and poking it ever since. I will probably fiddle and poke with it forever, but I was recording shows almost immediately.
2. A "free" PVR costs more.
Well, maybe. I spent about $500 to build a pretty fast computer (faster than the one I am typing this blog on). When recording TV shows, I am using about 5% of the CPU. When playing back a TV show, I use about 5% of the CPU. I can record 2 shows and play back a third show all at once with less than 50% CPU usage. It's overkill. But I want a general purpose computer for my home. So, it's pretty cheap. I submit it is cheaper than buying more than 1 tivo and whatever monthly service fees are attached. In fact, I don't know anybody who has just 1 tivo. They have at least 2. Why? They want to upgrade. When I wanted to be able to record an extra channel, it cost me $50 for another video card and $5 for a cable splitter.
3. You will not be able to record high definition
Yes, you will. Are you playing a DVD on a linux box? Do you own a modified x-box? Have you ever downloaded a song for free? Have you ever played a MAME ROM that you shouldn't have? Welcome to breaking the law...
No one wants to break the law. And, I am optimistic no one will ever have to.
We have a right to record analog shows. Once hd-tv comes along, set-top boxes, by law, must allow (at least) local channels in HD through a firewire port. My guess is cable companies will also allow basic cable through too. The mechanism by which all of this will work is up in the air, and there are too many doomsayers. Cablecards may fizzle. (v1.0 is a dud. v2.0 is just coming out, but others are already gunning to replace it). I'd gladly pay an extra $5 a month on my cable bill to have basic cable sent to me unencrypted.
It is too early to tell how this will work out, but it is foolish to cry that it will not. Many will remember cries of the death of open source multimedia players because Linux would not be allowed to play DVDs. Manufacturers will offer cards. The idea that only Microsoft operating systems will allow television programs is absurd and, frankly, not legal. When faced with something which violates our right to fair use, the answer is to fight it in the courts, as the EFF has done, and with some success.
The right answer is not to pre-emptively bend over to make the ensuing onslaught easier.
If my last resort is to install a $100 time-base corrector to remove macrovision protection from the analog out of my television, then so be it. The VCRs I have include time-based correctors and I would love for someone to challenge in court my right to hook up my VCR to my television. Welcome to the land of FUD.
4 - The time has past
We are talking about events that will not firm up for 4 years. I wouldn't trade my year of PVR ownership for anything. I know those who have had nothing for the past year and congratulate themselves on this 12 month void. I will happily be recording analog video for the next 4 years, for a total of 5 years before this is even an issue for me. That's $100/year of open-source ownership bliss. Or, $8 a month. Top that price point...
After that? I am an optimist. And I will always own the content I pay for. I think there are changes afoot, and I think there is alot of consumer ambivalence, part of the "let's wait and see what we are fed" mentality. For every good source of intelligent debate there is also some mind-numbing crap. Here is one example.
-Ed
posted by Ed at 6:30 PM
4 Comments:
A little too complicated for this simple gal who owns a TV, but it's only purpose is to play DVDs, videos, or playstation games. A gift of Net Flix this year, as well as finally getting rid of those DVDs we never watch again, or don't like, has been great.
But then, if I had my way, I'd be fine without TV altogether; I'm a book worm. Da Hubby, however, would be most grumpy without these things. I bet he'd love the MythTv though...
Just small retort as I pointed out in, what I believe is the source of this blog entry, is that if digital rights management hits the streets like planned...
Open source recorders like Myth will be a myth...
We can discuss personal preferences for a fortnight, but it doesn't cover the fact that Myth might be shut down because of these things.
Thats it!
Phil,
I was a little surly yesterday, so I apologize if I came across gruff. I *do* think there is alot of FUD going on about all of this, and I *do* think at the end of the day there will be a way to keep up the mythtv.
But, I also do agree that there is a very real movement to kill this project and others like it. Why? It really does offer the functionality of a tivo for no (software) cost.
I have no plans to buy a big-screen tv in the near future. Good old fashioned analog TV is good enough for me for a while, which means that I've got at least 4 more years out of my PVR. I'll put money on the idea that 4 years is plenty of time to figure out how to use mythtv for HD-TV over cable.
But you are right, it is an argument over what will materialize in the market. Only one way to tell that... tea leaves.
-Ed
Duely noted...
We all have a list of needs, and we all find the best way to get there... at least we try to. How we get from point A to point B is the interesting bits call life...
So........ lets see what happens. I spent the same amount of money on my Tivo as you did Myth with very little interaction needed to program or setup other than to press thumbs up or thumbs down... and to get a season pass.
Otherwise, I have no plans for second or third tivos... just no need for me!
I have two working TVs, and thats probably 1 too many.
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