PVR Wire

Freevo 1.6.0 has been released

Matt Crape — 2006-10-30T15:14:00+00:00

Filed under: Linux, News, Software, Freevo

The fine folks over at the Freevo project released their latest stable version, 1.6.0, on Saturday. Of course with the usual stability & performance increases, there are also a couple of new features.

Some of noteworthy fixes include some code to clean up a few remote control problems, a few caching issues seem to have been fixed, and there are also a few interface tweaks. As far as new features goes, a few new plugins have been added, multi-tuner support is now built in, and there are more skins available to add some life to the Freevo interface.

Although Freevo may not be as popular as some of the other homebrew solutions, it has so far with stood the test of time. However it still seems behind in a few areas, especially when you consider that it only recently received support for more than one tuner card.

As with any software upgrade, you may want to watch out for new issues that may arise. Since the release, things have been fairly quiet on the Freevo-users mailing list but that's not to say that it's bug free.

Found via.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Most poll voters planned to watch Super Bowl live

Todd W. Carter — 2006-02-06T16:12:00+00:00

Filed under: Advertising, News, Charter Communications, DirectTV, Dish Network, Time Warner Cable, Beyond TV, Freevo, Media Center Edition, MythTV, SageTV, TiVo, Polls

Out of the 234 PVR Wire readers who responded to our poll on how they were going to watch the Super Bowl, most were planning to watch it live rather than rely on their PVRs to isolate them from the commercials. Nearly 40 percent said they would watch the big game live, followed by 27 percent who were planning to delay their viewing by minutes.

Only 7 percent said they would delay their viewing for another day. But not everyone was going to watch the game: 26 percent said they had no plans to watch the Super Bowl this year. It looks like the Super Bowl may be one of those rare events where the networks can count on live eyeballs and a PVR audience that keeps the fast-fastforwarding to a minimum. The only other program that may attract similar loyalty is the Oscars.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

TiVo big winner in PVR Wire poll

Todd W. Carter — 2005-06-28T11:42:40+00:00

Filed under: News, Charter Communications, Comcast, DirectTV, Dish Network, Freevo, Media Center Edition, MythTV, TiVo

It's been almost a full week since we published our PVR poll. The response has been great! On Sunday afternoon, we were at 489 votes, so yesterday I asked for more votes to take it over 500. Now the total is 547 -- and probably still growing.

The winner, at 50 percent, is TiVo. But when you add the standalone TiVo's 275 votes with the DirecTV TiVo's 72 votes, the total of Tivo users is 63 percent. So nearly two-thirds of our readership own a TiVo, which helps us decide which news items are more important and which tips and hacks will be the most widely received.

Still, 37 percent of respondents own something else, so we're not going to forget about you! And I imagine that some of the other 63 percent wouldn't mind trying or owning another kind of PVR if they saw it was better or more convenient.

ReplayTV received 57 votes, or 10 percent of the votes. Dish Network had 6 percent, Comcast came in at 29 votes for 5 percent, linux solution MythTV had 24 votes for 4 percent and Windows Media Center had just 20 votes for 4 percent of the vote. Another Linux program, freevo, had three votes for 1 percent. Interestingly, 33 voters, or 6 percent of the total, don't own a PVR.

TiVo (275)

50%

ReplayTV (57)

10%

Windows Media Center (20)

Dish Network (31)

DirecTV TiVo (72)

13%

Comcast (29)

Charter (4)

MythTV (24)

freevo (3)

Don't have a PVR (33)

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Turning a VCR into a PVR

Todd W. Carter — 2005-06-15T08:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Hacks, Linux, Software, Freevo

You've got to love it when someone spends time on a project for the sheer joy of doing it. That seems to be the case with the gentleman who gutted his old VCR and turned it into a PVR.

Specifically, he took a spare computer and the drive from a DVD player and installed them inside a dead, gutted VCR. The plan was to run the open-source PVR software freevo without upsetting his wife by positioning a computer near the TV set.

He calls the project "VCRVO" and has extensive photos and instructions at his Web site. While the project is cool, I'm glad I'm single and can do any thing I want, aesthetics be damned.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Podcast: Hauppauge sees growth in PVR cards

Todd W. Carter — 2005-06-07T12:40:49+00:00

Filed under: Software, Beyond TV, Freevo, Media Center Edition, MythTV, SageTV

Here's PVR Wire's first shot at a podcast. It's really a 29-minute telephone interview, but I guess anything that's converted to mp3 format nowadays is called a podcast.

I interview Ron Petralia, vice president of sales at Hauppauge Digital Inc., a manufacturer of computer products that have PVR functions.

In this podcast, Petralia and I talk about:

Hauppauge's PVR products.
Windows XP Media Center PC sales.
Do it yourself efforts to create PVRs. "I wouldn't call it mainstream yet," he told me. "But it is a growth area that's been extremely popular for us."
The company's decision not to sell its HDTV card yet.
An upcoming Mac version of a PVR product.

The conversation is slightly too promotional for my tastes in some places, but this is an unedited podcast. There's plenty of information for homebrew users of Hauppauge's cards, so it's not a half-hour commercial. I hope you like it and I look forward to your comments.

Again, you can download the podcast here.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Operation Do It Yourself begins

Todd W. Carter — 2005-05-31T09:44:15+00:00

Filed under: Linux, Software, Apple, Microsoft, Beyond TV, Freevo, MythTV, SageTV

Operation Do It Yourself officially begins this week.

This is my months-long effort to build, install and test alternatives to TiVo. I'm already beginning to get in some of the necessary equipment and software from manufacturers and software providers that have been gracious enough to lend me review units.

I've already installed and tried out eyetv 200 from elgato. It's for Macs and it's basically a simple TiVo-like device that plugs into your Mac via a FireWire cable. It uses the Mac for hard-drive storage. I hope to have a review of it online within the next few days.

I've also been following the MythTV and freevo mailing lists. I think I can handle the MythTV installation and configuration, but I likely will skip the freevo effort (unless someone convinces me otherwise and possibly holds my hand through the process).

Meanwhile, I have a registration key for the SageTV software, so I can try that out as soon as I'm ready. And SnapStream TV is sending out one of its review units this week so I can try out Wonder TV 3. I'm also trying to find a vendor that will send me a Windows Media Center PC, but, as you can imagine, these are not cheap and that effort is a little more difficult.

So, what do you think? Will I find one of these TiVo alternatives more satisfying than TiVo itself -- or will I end up sticking with TiVo (or perhaps a Charter Communications PVR, if it's released soon)?

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments