If you are a PVR enthusiast and it comes time to choose a new PVR, do you build it yourself and possibly save some money, or do you play it safe and buy an off the shelf solution?DVR Playground decided to toss two of the top PVR solutions into the ring together to see who would win: MythTV or the TiVo Series 3. Some of the factors that they looked at included ease of use, setup and the features included with each product.
DVR Playground made sure to note that the biggest downfall about using MythTV (and most do-it-yourself PVR's) is the hassle involved with setting it up. Whether it be the actual software setup, or even choosing the right hardware (think surround sound and hi-def output), things are never quite as straightforward as is you had a manufactured PVR.
However, if you are technical enough that you feel comfortable playing with the guts of a computer, then MythTV is probably your better choice. But if you are giving this Grandma and you don't want to get calls every day when she can't watch her soap operas, then the good old TiVo is probably your friend.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-14-2007 @ 2:53PM
Al Nyden said...
Correct me if I'm wrong but I the biggest disadvantage of MythTV or any other PC solution is that you can not receive cable or satellite channels. Maybe Windows Vista is going to change that, but I haven't seen a good solution yet. MythTV might have tons of great features but you are talking about only getting free over the air channels, which are basically the major networks.
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2-16-2007 @ 9:19AM
cckrobinson said...
I think the author is under estimating the cost of building a comparable MythTV system. The Tivo has essentially 6 tuners, even though you can only record from 2 at a time. It also has HDMI and supports 1080i playback. Your mythTV box would need a beefy CPU\video card to do the same. Also, HDMI support doesn't come cheaply. I totally agreee that MythTV is a great option, but don't sell the Tivo short.
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