Re: GeeXboX (linux multimedia)

[Keith Winston <kwinston twmi rr com>]

Jarod C. Wilson wrote:
> I'd been meaning to set up a Freevo box for some time, but I hadn't come 
> across MythTV yet. Thus far, I like the look of MythTV better (and both 
> look better than GeeXboX). I've got some spare time on my hands right 
> now, so I think I'll give that a shot in the very near future...

I've been meaning to build one of these myself with MythTV.  A friend of 
mine beat me to it and built one for about $650 including case, video, 
disk, etc.  Current solutions require a lot of CPU power because of a 
lack of Linux drivers for native MPEG-2 hardware encoders (this may 
change soon).  The magic of TIVO (with a 54 Mhz processor) is that it 
uses a native MPEG-2 hardware encoder.

The main reason I wanted to build one is that I refuse to set up a phone 
line (or even share one) and pay a monthly fee for TIVO or Replay 
"guide" services when perfectly good free Internet guides exist.

However, I may never get around to building one, because I've read that 
TIVO will soon release a TIVO BASIC that will not require a subscription 
or a phone line connection.  If that is true, I could never build one as 
cheaply as TIVO.  On the other hand, if you want all the other goodies 
of MythTV (like MP3, photo, weather, etc.) it may still be worth it to 
roll your own.

Best Regards,
Keith
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