On Thu, 2005-10-06 at 12:30, Kirk Bocek wrote: > John, I'm just getting started with MythTV, so I'm probably not the right person to > ask. I've seen postings on the various lists about HDTV so I assume the answer is > yes, it can handle it with the right hardware. No, there are no fees. MythTV uses > some freely available scheduling information to do its thing. I haven't gotten that > far yet, so I can't say too much. Yes, I've read that MythTV and do commercial skipping. > > Some links to get you started: > > http://mysettopbox.tv/ > http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php > http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto/linux-htpc/ > > There's lots, lots more out there. > > Kirk > > John Hinton wrote: > > Got some side questions.... Does this system have the ability to record > > HDTV? Does this system 'autoskip' commercials? This sounds like a great > > alternative to the $800 dvr/hdtv receivers which seems to now come with > > a $5 per month 'dvr fee'? Where does the $5 go? Why does it exist? Is > > this a way to appease the skipping of commercials or just another way to > > make money for the use of a signal you're already paying for? Anyway, > > I'm feeling like I'm being taken for a ride... HDTV is the future... why > > can they charge more for HDTV service at all? It is a federal > > 'standard'. All broadcast some day will be in HDTV. Sorry... an off > > topic rant... but I'm looking for a cure to the dvr issue at the moment. > > > > Thanks for any help. > > Yes you can setup mythtv to handle HDTV. Have not done that myself yet but many people on the list have. You need to install one of the HD capable capture cards. I believe there is also an option to use a firewire connection from HDTV converter boxes that cable companies provide. Actually been some discussion that cable companies are required to provide the firewire connections. The auto commercial skip feature is one of my favorite features. It is not 100% but does auto skip about 90% or better of the commercials. It depends a lot on the particular show. Some shows the skips are perfect all the time. Other shows will miss some skips. But for the most part it works much better than I expected. I think the monthly fees on some of the other dvr options is to cover channel listings costs and to make money. mythtv has worked out a deal with http://labs.zap2it.com to provide free channel listings. You just have to fill out a survey about every 3 months. Personally I just use the analog cable channels provided by my cable company. Canceled the pay channels a long time ago, rarely found anything worth watching on those channels. Whats really nice is that you can setup a backend system (or more than one backend system) and lots of frontend systems. The frontend systems can view any of the content on the backend systems. My next project is to build a diskless netboot frontend system.