TVSquad

We haven't heard anything from Monolith Media in a while. The company puts together affordable Linux-based home theater PCs running MythTV software.

But this weekend the company announced its second generation of MonolithMC computers. MonolithMC v.2.0 will include:

• Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04
• MythTV 0.20.2
• Schedules Direct integration (which replaces Zap2it Labs program guide data)
• 1GB RAM standard
• Prices starting at $599.
• Hard drives up to 750GB

The MonolithMC looks like a great deal for anyone who doesn't want to futz with putting together their own MythTV system. It's not clear what kind of processor or TV tuner you get for $599. And one of the problems with any Linux-based media center is that you won't get CableCard support. But throw a few standard definition tuners and an over the air HDTV tuner in there, get a good antenna, and you've got a great low cost open source media center.

[via Darknet]

The folks behind MythTV pushed out a new release this weekend. As you can probably tell from the title, this is a point release, moving from version 0.20.1 to 0.20.2. But don't let those low numbers fool you. MythTV is a powerful media center application for Linux.

The update includes two major changes:

1. Support for Schedules Direct program guide updates
2. Reduced MythTV front end memory consumption by up to 75%

There's a slew of smaller updates and bugfixes as well, including faster startup of the MythTV frontend, improved default theme images with better scaling and anti-alias, and fixes for ATSC channel scanning.

Probably the main reason to update your system is the support for Schedules Direct. In a few days, Zap2it Labs will stop providing the free program guide data that earlier versions of MythTV relied on. Unlike the Zap2it Labs data, Schedules direct program guides won't be free. You'll need to shell out $15 for 3 months of data. It's not clear if MythV 0.20.2 will support CT TV guide data which is available for $30 per year.

[via Digg]

Zap2it Labs is about to shut off the free TV guide listing service used by MythTV, GP-PVR, Media Portal, and other free PVR software applications. As we've been reporting, two separate groups are stepping up to continue offering TV listings.

But neither Schedules Direct nor CT TV will be giving the data away for free. That's because unlike Zap2it, (which is a subsidiary of Tribune Media Services), both groups have to pay to license the data.

Schedules Direct announced earlier this month that their program guide information would be available at a price of $15 for 3 months. As more customers sign up, they're hoping to bring the cost down to $20 per year. This week, CT TV announced that it would charge either $3.50 per month or $30 per year (which comes to $2.50 a month).

Considering CTpvr has long been an also-ran in the world of software-based PVRs, CT TV could become a real money maker for the company. That's assuming free PVR users are willing to pay for TV listings at all and don't just find a way to improve applications that scrape the same data off of online TV guide pages for free.

We finally have an answer to that age old (or two day old) question: how much will MythTV, GB-PVR, and Media Portal users have to pay for access to TV listing data.

Now that Zap2it Labs is set to shut off its free TV guide data service on September 1st, two groups are stepping in to provide that data. Neither can afford to provide the data for free. We don't know how much CTpvr will charge, but Schedules Direct has announced their pricing: $15 for 3 months of data.

The goal is to eventually bring that figure down to $20 per year. But until Schedules Direct has a better idea of how many subscribers they'll have, they need to set a price that will let them continue to provide the service without going into debt.

The service hasn't been rolled out yet, but you can register for the Schedules Direct mailing list to be alerted when the service goes live.

[via Slashdot]

There's good news and bad news for users of free PC-based PVR suites like MythTV, Media Portal, and GB-PVR.

While Zap2it Labs plans to cease offering the free television program guide data used by these programs in September, there are at least two groups planning to offer similar data. And both are close to having tools in place to pick up where Zap2it leaves off in September. That's the good news.

The bad news is that neither group will be able to offer this data for free. It's not surprising. Zap2it was offering the TV episode data in an XML format in addition to its online TV guide. The company was is owned by Tribune Media Services, so providing data to the open source community cost Zap2it nothing.

That's not true for CTpvr or Schedules Direct, the two new groups planning to offer TV episode data. Both now say that they will be charging users for access to the data, although pricing has not yet been set.

Most users of commercial PVR applications like BeyondTV, SageTV, and Windows Media Center won't be affected. Those companies get their data from alternate sources. So you have a choice. Pay for the software, received the program guides for free. Or get free software and pay for the program guides.

Come September, MythTV, Media Portal, and GB-PVR users could be stuck staring at a blank screen. That's when Zap2it Labs will stop offering free program guide data in the easily parsed XML format used by those and other PC-based PVR applications.

The developers of CTpvr, another software-based personal video recorder are developing a product that will offer data that is nearly identical to that currently offered by Zap2it. TV listings will include data like genre, cast, crew, advisories, and original air dates.

CTpvr hasn't announced pricing yet, but the company will charge users a monthly or annual fee for access to the data. For that reason alone, I suspect that this system will be used by CTpvr customers, while free and open-source applications like MythTV will look elsewhere.

Several MythTV, XMLTV, and MacProgGuide developers have already come together to form Schedules Direct. The group, previously known as EasyTV Data, is looking at alternatives to the Zap2it Labs data that can be easily plugged into PVR software to provide you with that electronic program guide goodness you've come to rely on.