[mythtvnz] Is it finally time to say goodbye to MythTV

[Stephen Worthington]

On Tue, 28 Aug 2018 01:34:22 +1200, you wrote:

>I’ve been a long time MythTV user. Since version 12 back in the days of
>analog capture cards and sky ir diodes. It’s been a wild ride.
>
>Last night my faithful MythTV box gave up the ghost. It’s been threatening
>for a while but it looks like the power supply died and took out the ssd
>boot, motherboard and also hard disk.

I have never yet had a power supply dying cause any damage to other
components.  But I normally buy reasonably expensive power supplies
with good protection circuits.  I also have a spare power supply on
hand at all times to replace one that dies - I use it to run my
test/development PC when it is not needed in a production PC.

>The box is six years old and it’s my 4th box in all those years.

I have only changed my motherboard once since my first MythTV box
arrived (3-May-2007).  But I have changed everything else gradually as
I upgraded things.

>My question is, is it now at the point where myth is no longer needed.
>Faced with the prospect of dropping the best part of a grand on a new box
>as well as precious time to rebuild (I have a newborn).
>My TV is also as old and is showing its age so it’s really time to get rid
>of the 50kg plasma as well.
>
>Modern smart tv’s seem to have all of the features and more of myth so
>apart from auto ad detection and the feeling of sticking it to the man, is
>it actually at the point where myth is no longer needed.
>
>I’m looking at a Panasonic oled.
>
>Would be interested in the groups thoughts.
>
>Toby.

If you are thinking of using the TV to record to a USB disk, then the
user interface is going to drive you crazy - TVs do not do a good job
of recording.  And they normally have only one tuner, so when you are
watching TV, you can not record anything other than what you are
watching.  I am not sure if modern TVs allow you to play back
something else at the same time as recording - I would hope so, but
you should check.

What does seem to work for people is to have available on demand
access via Internet to TV programmes, either via a free-to-air
channel's on demand service, or via subscription sites.  If you can
get all you want that way, then just a TV may work, if it has all the
necessary apps or you can get access to the sites via its web browser.
But most people report that their TV, even this years models, will not
do all that very well - the say they need a good external box like an
Nvidia Shield to do that.

As well, you need to know that TV's apps will normally run out of
support in less than two years, and after that they will stop working
when any changes are made to the sites that require updating of the
apps.  Nvidia have a good record so far of keeping the Shield up to
date, but that is not nearly as long as MythTV has been kept up to
date.