Now that MythTV 0.18.1 is out, are others planning on signing up for the LxMSuite of services?

http://www.lxmsuite.com/

I'm happy to pay for a service, but I'm not sure if I'm that impressed with the lineup of services I'd be getting for my monthly subscription.

If the program listings were going to be truly "enhanced" over what I'm getting with DataDirect right now, I'd be willing to pay, but as far as I can see, the only advantage is not having to take the survey.

Movie show times? I can get that via the Web; don't need to do it via MythTV. Recommendations might be nice but frankly I hardly have time to watch the TV I'm currently watching.

I was underwhelmed with the new theme's look.

The idea of "bounty points" is intriguing but I'm not sure it's worth doing a subscription for.

Has anyone signed up for it? Does it look to be worth the cost? Thanks.

I feel the same way. However, I'm almost afraid NOT to sign up because I think it could be truly beneficial to Myth in the long run. I'm willing to pay out the $30 on the promise that good things WILL come. It's a bet, I guess...

Ah LxM... It is an interesting idea, and I agree with ceenvee703. I too don't mind paying a little for "truly enhanced" features, but I really don't see it in what they have right now. Not being a huge fan of black overly decorated user interfaces (this coming from a OS X guy... o well) I really dislike their theme. For me other than stability, the one thing I would really love to see for myth is an insanely great UI. Granted this would be totally subjective, but default themes are embarrassing, and theirs is no better.
.18.1 holds a bigger promise for me. Built in DCT-6200 support, that may once and for all stop breaking my ch6200 compile every-time the system changes.
I will be keeping an eye on LxM and look forward to supporting their efforts as time goes on. It would be great to hear some feed back as people start using it.

One thing to keep in mind. LxMSuite is just as much about giving back to the MythTV developers as it is about subscribers getting something. A large part of what you get, is new functionality, bug fixes and features in Myth either ahead of when they would normally be done, or in many cases even done at all. The whole idea is that the community gets to actually contribute and help make Myth even better instead of just sitting back consuming.

There are a few of us (Isaac included) who have talked with the president of Technovera and know what it is he's trying to accomplish. It's *all* good for Myth.

As for the theme... It's by far the most polished and attractive of the themes out there. Given that I'm responsible for a few of them that's not just me spouting off. You *really* have to see the theme on and HDTV to appreciate it. It's no where close being as dark as it appears. And if you don't like it, or the existing themes you're prtty much left with 3 choices 1) Create your own. 2) Become a LxMSuite user and vote on the themes or 3) Stare at something you hate every time you turn on your TV.

To me, the reason to get LxMSuite would be to support Myth development. To that end, I'm puzzled why there isn't a standardized way for folks to contribute to the Myth devs directly, via PayPal or some other means. I've ponied up a little here and there for open-source causes (including KnoppMyth) and will continue to do so where such means exist.

I'll probably subscribe to LxM, even if I never use their service or directly use their code. The enhancements funded through LxMSuite will improve Myth for all of us.

Honestly, tho, the biggest improvement I've seen in Myth in the last year is the committment by Jarod to port bugfixes and improvements to "released" versions. This will go a long ways towards giving folks like cesman a stable branch to use for distributions like KnoppMyth.

_________________
Do you code to live, or live to code?
Search LinHES forum through Google

As far as "giving back" and/or "just sitting back consuming," I've donated monetarily to KnoppMyth repeatedly, and have helped quite a bit with the wiki. I've tried to help in other ways too. I'd be happy to donate to Isaac/MythTV if there was an option to do so (there may be an option to donate but it's not in an obvious location).

From the LxMSuite webpage, it's unclear whether the development that you are funding and voting on is limited to LxMSuite add-ons, or more fundamental MythTV utility. If the latter, that could be a valuable thing. In fact, it might be good to have a list of some of the things you could vote on if you signed up. If XvMC was on the list, I'd definitely ante up.

Themes are a personal taste. I don't like the one theme that's being offered--that's my right. Once there are a bunch of themes being offered, if there's any I like, I'll be more inclined to sign up. I like the default MythTV theme just fine, frankly.

The reason there isn't a paypal donate link or anything of that sort on MythTV.org is because Isaac isn't comortable taking money from people primarily. And lets not forget that the moment people start paying for something they often start making increased demands.


It's great that you've donated time/money to open source. By and large however most users don't. There are tens of thousands of MythTV users one would think that with that large of userbase we'd have a user manual by now, or at least ONE complete theme that wasn't done by a programmer. (Technicly Oscar isn't a programmer but he's also not an artist).



They say in several places that you're funding open source development.


"What do you wish Myth could do that it doesn't do or doesn't do well enough?" that's pretty much the things you could vote on list. There have been a lot of ideas floated up by the users that never get implemented becasue the person with the idea can't write code and the idea doesn't "scratch the itch" of any of the developers. There are bugs that go unfixed because they don't affect any of the developers. Money is a good motivator for developers. Money makes it possible for developers to spend more time working on open source and less time at a 9-to-5.




Nobody said you had to like it. I just wanted to make sure you understood that it looks much nicer on a TV than it does on a monitor.[/quote]

Are you saying that there is no list, just a request list or "suggestion box?"? Or is it that the list exists and it's made up of the things that most people wish MythTV could do or could do better, but that the list is only available to people who subscribe?

If the former, that's not the way it sounds from the website, and it would be way too vague to warrant spending $$$ on a subscription. You'd be unlikely to get a consensus on anything, IMO.

If the latter, like I said, I'd be more inclined to ante up if I could see at least some of the list and know specifically what I could be voting for.

Consensus isn't needed...

From the website Every month, each LxMSuite community member will receive "bounty points". These points can voted for or against any given features, functions or plugins. Think of it as a “Survival Show” for software and Send your ideas and feature requests to ideas@lxmsuite.com. When the bounty system is activated we'll use ideas sent to that address to seed the initial list.




There *are* some planned features that will be developed independant of the bounty system. Those include shoutcast playback/recording, podcast support, the recommendation engine, "Bonjour" support and lots of other odds and ends centered around making Myth easier to install/use and putting more content in your hands. Much of their planned development will benefit every single Myth user, others (much like the MythMovieTime plugin) will depend on data that's only available to members.

anyone who is involved in this could you elaborate on what is "improved" about the guide data?

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

Xsecrets

The improved guide data orginaly referred to the fact that Tribune ws going to provide 16 days instead of 14. Now it primarily refers to the whole no survey thing. The 16 days should be back shortly. Sometime soon the ability to manage your lineups from within Myth will be added.

On a related note, the DataDirect::TV prodcut we all get from zap2it labs is a feature-frozen product. There will be no new features of data fields added to it. TMS will be focusing on providing value those that license their data. Even something like the lineup managment API will not work with thier free offering.

well if they could figure out a sane way to setup qam recording on a cable provider that strips PLIP that would definitely be worth some money.

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

Xsecrets

My initial thoughts we cool! If I wasn't on the road, I'd have signed up right away. But, if I were at home, I could have made a tin foil hat.

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

I already singed up.. because (as a few of you know that have talked to me) i get nervouse when big companies give away a costly service for free. Most of the decenters are going on the assumption that Datadirect will keep supplying free guide data.. I personaly dont trust that at all! Some of you remember the scraping days, i DONT want to go back to that. If people signed up for lxm we would give the biggest chance of never having completely HOSED data again. Thats my version of enhanced guide data. I truely hope Lxm gets the support from the community it needs, cause we are shooting ourselves in the foot just hoping that datadirect loves spending time and resources giving away a product the charge other people for.

-andy

do we know what this means in for KnoppMyth both in the short and long term. How does their service install/integrate with the current Myth and then to KnoppMyth. Obviously our KnoppMyth masters will be working with the new .18.1 which will bring some support, but that is not really what I mean. There is a lot of talk about making Myth easier to install, but Cecil has done some serious work in making this easy to install. R15 has been the easiest ever. Very close to zero config for me. This has been amazing. Are they going to reinvent the wheel? I know there is a lot more people using other HW and distro's so there is always room there, but I could see wanting to support LxMSuite and continue with KnoppMyth.