I haven't really followed developments with MythTV - a homebrew Personal Video Recorder project - since I wrote about it (DIY Tivo) back in June 2003. I have just noticed that there is now a bootable Knoppix Linux CD preconfigured for running Myth TV - KnoppMyth. Which is kinda cool. The aim is to make Myth TV installation as trivial as possible,
I still plan on trying this out, though I'll probably not use the bootable disk just because that sounds too easy to be truly satisfying. One of these days...
This thing is kind of neat - 3.2Tb of disk containing seven days of TV. You don't need to tell it what to tape, it grabs everything. And it is a research project of the BBC - promise.tv.
Promise.tv wholesale recording introduces serendipity into time-shifted televiewing. Previously, there was no possibility of the chancing across programmes, as they had to be selected for recording ahead of transmission. Promise.tv encourages programme skimming, where the viewer can browse through all of the recorded programmes looking for something which catches the eye. Promise.tv provides the 'lucky dip' approach to seven days of viewing.Awesome. I can flick channels for hours and hours and hours. With this thing I could flick yesterday's TV for hours and hours and hours. Hmmm. Useful?
I just looked at the search stats and for some reason I've got visitors coming to this site and searching for dijital television. I don't know why but it made me laugh, then I wondered if such a thing might exist and what it might be. A tv that is embedded in a wedding ring? But that would still be digit-al tv, any suggestions for dijit-al tv?
Here in the UK there are 5 analogue terrestrial channels available free (erm, apart from the license fee) to everyone (BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Ch. 4, Ch. 5) through a normal television. Then along came News Corp. and BSKYB who launched PayTV, subscription satellite broadcasting (loads of channels including the BBC stable, CNN, Sky's own channels, CNN etc.) for which folk pay somewhere between 10 and 40 pounds or so a month depending on the configuration of sport and movie channels subscribed to. Then two of the ITV franchises launched ITV digital which went bust but the platform of digital terrestrial was taken over by the BBC, Crown Castle International and BSkyB with Freeview. Freeview offers about 30 channels for a one off charge of around £60 pounds for a set-top box, no subscription. Freeview's channel line up is limited though, especially through not carrying Channel 4's E4 for late night Secret Life of Us fans. So now BSkyB will offer for a one off charge of £150 or so, a satellite dish, receiver set top box along with some 200 channels.
Sky's free channels will include the five terrestrial channels, BBC digital channels such as BBC Three, BBC Four, CBeebies, CBBC and News 24, as well Sky News, the ITV News Channel and CNN. It also includes more esoteric stations like the God Channel and Exchange & Mart TV. But it doesn't include ITV2, E4 or those satellite channels which are part of a Sky subscription package.The switch off of analogue is pencilled in for 2010, will BSkyB's new offering bring the government any closer to achieving it? Oh yeah and there are the cable people too, if they bother to return your phone calls.