If money was not a concern...

[geekt]

I don't get why it's soo difficult to make a good Linux "HTPC" with FTA capability (I've grown up calling the STB/Set Top Boxes ), considering a LOT of the more expensive and feature rich receivers are Linux based. It SHOULD be a simple matter of upgrading the distro to give most Linux receivers 4:2:2 or whatever. There seems to be an odd divide here, and I'm not sure why. I don't see why you can't buy FTA boards for use in HTPC's, and just slap whatever distro you like on there, and support all the formats different FTA cards support, plus whatever other features you wanted. I guess perhaps the custom FTA HTPC market isn't big enough for them to warrant marketing boards just for them.

 

[Vorg]

It's called monopoly. But VDR and MythTV can do a lot. VDR is more DVB friendly while MythTV is more for storing photos, home movies and such.

VDR can work with many ATSC and DVB-S/2 cards and there is an IPTV plugin. You can't easly use Hulu yet with it though like you can with MythTV . But getting the Xorg/Xine/vdpau combo working can be tricky.

 

[geekt]

Don't get me started on the satellite monopolies...actually...don't get anyone started... I wish we had laws like in the UK where all the sat receivers had to use standard equipment. I also wish there was a law that all ad supported programming targeted at the US that's approved for general audiences HAD to be unencrypted. It completely pisses me off when I see a news channel, or one of the standard channels, and it's encrypted with Nagra3 or whatever. I wonder how much more it costs them in equipment to encrypt all those channels that should really be in the clear.

 

[Tron]

If we're going to talk about computers and OTA recording, I've taken Linuxman's wise advice and got a Silicon Dust HD Homerun dual tuner.
It was about $90 factory refurbished, and interfaces over the LAN.!.
I've been burned in the past by USB and PCI cards, and this spanks 'em all.

I have two HD Homeruns and love 'em! I wish they would make a DVB-S2 FTA option that would work the same way...

 

[geekt]

I wouldn't think there's much point in getting an HD receiver without S2 these days. It's likely not very future proof.