"Dissenters," right?

I'm not confident that Datadirect will keep supplying data for free either, but that's not my main concern. If Datadirect decided to close up tomorrow, I'd certainly jump to LxMSuite rather than webscraping, but how many would do the same? Particularly the subset of users who want everything for free (as in beer).

I'll likely subscribe as well, once I decide to make the jump to 0.18.1 or higher (things are working so well right now with my backend I'm loath to mess with it). I just wish LxMSuite would do a better job of communicating what people are going to be getting for their money; that's my main concern, I guess.

KnoppMyth will still be KnoppMyth.

I imagine, it is currently just an option in mythtv-setup.
You mean
Isn't easy enough?!

Glad to hear it! It is the goal, may it as easy as possible.

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Call me cheap, but I would be more likely to pay if it was around $2/month for listings only. I really hate monthly subscription fee based services and avoid them unless absolutely necessary. They are starting this out at $5/month and hinting it may increase after the "Pilot Phase." On the other hand, I completely understand that listings data doesn't just appear out of the ether, so I would be willing to pay a little for it (or maybe endure some banner ads at the top of my program guide instead). What I don't want is to pay for a bunch of other fluff (read value-added services) that I don't want/need.

One of the greatest strengths of open-source is the ability to customize a product for yourself. It would be nice if they offered a simple listings service at a smaller price, with the option to add other features (silver/gold/platinum memberships???).

smaller then $5 a month? figure out what kind of base it would take to run a business off of $2 a month.. that would be great if you had 25000 people signed up.. but thats not realistic.. myth is a nitch they can never hope to have any custoemer base like tivo.. i was thrilled to have a $5 a month cost.. figure out how many myth users it takes a $5 a month to keep the lights on and a 10$ an hour worker after taxes.

The title of this thread was "Opinions," and that is mine. I agree that it will take a lot of people paying $2/month to support a business. It will take a lot of $5/month subscriptions also. I think they would rather have my $2 than nothing. If their "value-added" features are worthwhile, then they will make more money from people who are willing to pay extra for them (maybe even me at some point). I am sure they have thought through their business plan, and the $5/month is what they feel like they need to survive. My feeling is not that they are bilking us, but I won't be signing up for their pilot phase because the price is beyond my threshold for pain for this feature.

I am interested to see how many people have signed up or are planning to. Someone should start a poll...

You did state

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

here is a big question... how accurate is the guide data? A big overwhelming factor for me and I imagine other is the wife factor. I live in ontario, ca and have adelphia cable. Zap2It has been fairly accurate, with only the occasional rare hiccups. There are still a couple of digital cable channels (accessed via firewire and svideo from the moto6200) that it always lists the 3 hour east coast times for. The more recent problems are the issues with networks starting early or ending a little late to throw things off. (Yea I know you can adjust for this with start and end adjustments, but lately a few seem to be changing things WAY to often.) Once again I am currently downloading a couple of tv torrents because the last 2 min were hacked off. Good guide data will not likely fix this problem, but it is imperative that it be accurate and updated. Anyone have any feedback on this part of their service?

Since TMS provides the data for Zap2it, I'd think there would be no differences in the accuracy.

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

I don't get it? money, points, addon features....its still an Open Source project. I dont see points-on-a-list doing much in the way of insenting developers, that do this for fun, to add/work on features they woldn't work on without the points.

just go back a month or two on gossimer when the discussion about 'generating a stable release' was on going....it was filled with devloper quotes such as (paraphrasing) "we developers dont care if you even use the software" Seem they do what/how they want to. I have no problem with this....hey, its their project and I haven't written one line of code.

I often contribute to OpenSource projects that I use significantly.
Come to think of it, I probably should wonder over to some of the sub-projects and give there (IvyTV, LIRC) if they are setup to accept. Issac doesn't take money for his work, Id contribute there.

Isn't a big advertised benefit over Tivo "No monthly fees"

I just dont see the benefit, at least not at $5 a month. If Zap2It goes away, I guess I'll need data from somewhere. Deal with it then.

just my $.02

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R5F1 - Dell P4 2.4Ghz 500MB - PVR250 x 2 - GeForce FX 5200 - Onboard sound/NIC 80GB ATA/250GB ATA/400GB SATA

well I think the theory is that they will be putting bounties (money) into features that the members vote on which in turn just might incourage the developers to work on that feature, because the get some money out of it.

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Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

No, I don't think it is... Not picking on you Khrusher. I'm some what surprised by the way some folks are acting toward this issue. Prior to having a donate link, folks would ask how they could help. If they could send money? If I had a paypal account, etc. I wasn't investing my time in developing KnoppMyth for the money.

KnoppMyth was/is my way of giving back to the community. Simply put, IT as a whole wouldn't be where it is w/o folks building on top of one another's work. Some companies and individuals have obvious forgotten or don't care about this fact. In time, I relented because folks wanted to show me hope much they appreciated the effort. When ever I receive an email stating how well someone likes KnoppMyth or I get a donation, it is heart felt. My feeling is that Isaac thinks LxMSuite is how folks can give back.

When I first heard of LxMSuite, I had no idea what it was. I read the email on the mailing list and I thought cool! I have never spoken or exchanged emails with Isaac. I know the general attitude on the mythtv-dev list/channel is by developers for developers. Currently, if a feature is to be included in MythTV, a developer must spend his or her time on it. The LxM method gives the developer a reason to add a feature. Let's face it, for some money is a motivator.

As far as I'm aware, direct data isn't going anywhere. If it does, it won't be because of LxM. It will be because Tribune Media Service doesn't want to keep spending resources giving away something for free. Free software is great, but not everything in life is free. Five dollars a month is a combo meal....

To answer your question Khrusher. I see MythTV as superior to Tivo (or any other PVR software) because it is Open Source. You have options. You can get as involved as you want. You can compile LFS, install Fedora or Gentoo (of course if you have sense, you'll simply install KnoppMyth ). You can contribute code or docs. Now you can contribute financially.

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Cesman: one thing i would make an argument about is your webserver for KnoppMyth. You are already spending your time making KnoppMyth work, would you accept donations if it went only to pay for your webserver?

Cesman already does accept donations. If you go to the front page www.mysettopbox.tv there is a donation link. It's Issac from the mythtv project www.mythtv.org that doesn't accept donations.

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Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

I agree that a benefit is OpenSource which provides lots of options. But, I would bet cost is a factor that pushes many into the pool. I for one took a look at cost.


I didn't start this project because I wanted a hobby, I wanted PVR functionallity. Tivo has initial cost (hardware) and monthly fees so I was putting it off. I fell upon the mythtv site by accident. I had an extra PC in my office...so I was on my way. I do like the 'hobby' aspect of the myth project, but not everyone does.

Cesman, your work makes mythtv accessable to those that want a PVR and not (much) of a hobby. To those folks, $60 /year may be the catalyst to move them to Tivo.

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R5F1 - Dell P4 2.4Ghz 500MB - PVR250 x 2 - GeForce FX 5200 - Onboard sound/NIC 80GB ATA/250GB ATA/400GB SATA

I certainly don't think MythTV is a hobby (KnoppMyth exist so setting up an Open Source PVR doesn't become a hobby), I think it is a serious PVR. Even owning a Tivo can become a hobby. Installing bigger hard drives, setting it up on a network... From what I've read, if you goof when installing a bigger drive, there goes your Tivo. This isn't the case with MythTV. MythTV provide greater functionality than Tivo (period). If MythTV's programs guide were only available via subscription, I think one would be pretty stupid to switch to Tivo over $60.00. Tivo's yearly subscription fee is over twice what MythTV's would be (assuming $5.00 a month). Options aplenty. Sorry this is dragging on, but again, I'm puzzled by how some are reacting to this...

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!