30.4.10

The Future of TV

The MythTV menu (default blue theme) Taken fro...Image via Wikipedia
During a recent bad experience with Comcast here in the States, my wife and I came across a dilemma that we know we will soon face in Israel, and that is the world of TV viewing.

We are both hockey fans, and we ordered the NHL Center Ice package back at the beginning of the season. The service was wonderful, and for about $40 a month, we were able to see most of the games that were being televised. Ironically, one of the games they decided not to show was the one where our favorite teams played each other.

At any rate, while the service was good, the accounting on Comcast's part was very shotty, so we ended up arguing with them on exactly how much we owed them. While the contract stated we were to be billed monthly, Comcast continually attempted to bill us for the full amount.

This led to us being without service for two days as we tried to find a representative that could intelligently talk about our account and the plan that we had purchased and paid for.

We know that we will face a different situation in Israel, where what we deem the "local media outlets" will no longer be local. We want to be able to view world programming, and retain those things that we like, as well as keep our music and film collections intact.

We would like to be able to view streaming video and podcasts, as well as get RSS feeds of our favorite blogs and info from our friends right there on our TV.

It is also understood that we must learn to live in a small amount of space very happily, which leads to attempting to consolidate and make everything more efficient.

Enter MythTV.

Being a Linux geek, I have known about this technology for quite a while, but have never actually worked with it. There is a report going around somewhere that a large number of people are dumping cable and satellite companies for online viewing. I can certainly understand. With the advent of grid computing and the ability to find much more interesting viewing material online than on the tube (with the obvious exception of NHL Center Ice, which I can also purchase online...) it makes good sense to go ahead and prepare for it.

I'm not entirely certain about the HOT procedures, but the channels look pretty good. Some of them I like better than here. MythTV can handle them there, too.

I plan on putting in in a rather small case, but a very potent system, which will save space, but have as many functions as a Ginzu knife. I promise to tell more about this whole process, but you will have to go to my main blog for that.

The primary gist of what I am saying is three things:

  1. Comcast sucks.
  2. We need a transferable entertainment system.
  3. Baruch Hashem for letting me be an open-source geek.
That's it for now. Shabbat Shalom!

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