Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
It relies on programme metadata being correct and it can occasionally get confused as to what is new or not. You can refine Series Links to ignore repeats and save disk space, though by doing so, the box could inadvertently miss a fresh episode.
Keyword searches bring up popular titles and people first
The 1TB hard disk stores about 100 hours of HD or around 500 hours of standard-def TV and there’s a Deleted Recordings bin in case you didn’t actually mean to hit the erase button, though it won’t stay there if the disk gets full.
A cheaper 500GB version is joining the line-up and effectively replacing the V+HD hardware. It is also available to low or middle-tier TV package subscribers – rather than just premium XL, which you need to have if you want the 1TB model – however, the £3 per month TiVo service charge goes up to £8.
Even simple name searches are intuitive, with results sorted by relevance rather than strict A-Z, so you’re likely to find what you’re looking for after entering two or three letters.
It takes about a day after installation for its suggested recordings to appear. The programme guide and main screens look crisp and informative but deeper menu screens – mostly relating to recording management – are less detailed and could do with being revamped in a software update.
Programme suggestions
An ‘apps’ area is limited but due to grow. For now, it has a brisk standalone version of the iPlayer (including BBC radio), plus apps for YouTube (which can also link from programme searches), eBay, Twitter, weather and quiz games.
COMMENTS
When will these companies realise that they are now just another utility?
About the same time you realise that someone who thinks "I'd go get a small-ish, quite PC (something like a Fit-PC2, but maybe with more oomph) drop XBMC/Myth on it and stream from a common source " isn't the target demographic for this device?
This is for ordinary people, they don't want to do what you describe, they want someone to come round, install the magic box for them, then leave so they can watch tv...
Not bad...
... but not a patch on a custom MythTV build.
A custom build will definitely cost more - at least £300 for a reasonable rig.
It'll also more than likely take you an entire weekend to get up and running, assuming you've got the chops.
Built myself a MythTV box 18 months ago and it's still going strong - hooked up to Telly via HDMI.
I'm running Boxee and XBMC on it too, so it covers all the bases.
Copy stuff across the network, schedule TV recordings (remotely too), watch from any computer in the house (with mythtv frontend), or share folders via Samba and watch recordings on any device (android mobile for instance) - plus it's yours to hack away on and install whatever else your heart desires. I use mine as an SVN repository and home Apache dev server too.
Highly recommend this route if your geeky enough to be able to do so - and this being The Register, I'm sure most of the readers here are.
The fact that your not in any way locked down by the hardware or vendor, that you can add more storage space, more ram, run anything you want on the box - is awesome.
Never looked back.
Nothin' o
"Fifty-seven channels and nothin' on". Sums up their offer
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