"Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center (OpenELEC) is a small Linux distribution built from scratch as a platform to turn your computer into a Kodi (previously XBMC) media center. OpenELEC is designed to make your system boot fast, and the install is so easy that anyone can turn a blank PC into a media machine in less than 15 minutes."
You’ve made my point for me, as OpenElec is designed a light weight linux distro to run XBMC as lightly as possible.
With the large community of Pi owners and talented users its not surprising someone did manage to install MythTV however if you follow the threads of other users there were significant issues encountered and it was likely heavily underpowered for the task and would likely not be able to perform well related to inherrant hardware limitations. I fully expect someone to revisit this with Pi2.
I posted a link do a video knowing full well what was being shown but you are welcome to grin if you feel it somehow redeems you. Could clarify what you meant when you said, “I’ve given up and gone the appliance route.” Are you implying that Tablo has limitations?
@7p, I think what he means (and I speak from my own experience) is that trying to run your XMBC/Kodi can be a pain because it requires constant updating. The upfront costs are high, the system is usually buggy and the care and maintenance can be painful. Let’s just say Kodi is not Plex. It may be more edgy… but it requires babysitting.
@cjcox, we don’t agree about many things so it doesn’t surprise me you have difficulty running Kodi. Of course if Kodi ran on Roku you would be screaming about how its fantastic Ask yourself is simple question and be honest with yourself, do any of the criteria listed for not liking Kodi apply to Tablo? Are you being honest to say the functionality of Tablo is comparable to what was shown in that video?
I literally got tired of the constant tinkering needed to make all these solutions work on general purpose PCs and platforms.
I’ve had some form of media management for going on 10 years now and TV recording for at least 5, with the last three years of OTA only. Been through many releases of MythTV, xBMC (now Kodi), Plex, Mythbuntu, Mythfedora, Gentoo XBMC, etc…
It just got to be tiresome to constantly do an update because if a loss of service, or because a security patch was needed or whatever else.
I now maintain a Plex server on my NAS and Tablo for recording OTA, Roku and/or SmartTV for the frontend. I will the appliance vendors deal with the headaches of the updates to make sure their stuff keeps working.
This comes at a price, as any appliance based system comes with a compromise. For example, Tablo has to have some device work as a frontend and it won’t connect directly to a TV as most of its competitors do. I’m willing to live with this as I wanted a Roku 3 anyways for other purposes. Also, as some of you have seen the Live TV stream has some issues with it and looks downright dreadful compared to Live TV on the TV itself.
My current NAS has just enough juice to transcode Plex videos, so I avoid using any front end client that does not natively support the videos I have stored on the NAS. Had I stayed with a General purpose computer I would not have this issue at all. But again I’m willing to leave with that so that I don’t have to deal with constant maintenance needed on the PC to keep it moving forward.
The final straw for me on this front was when the hard drive in my MythTV PC finally went south, you know 3 days after the drive warranty expired. I don’t have the time or the inclination anymore to fix and tinker with stuff.
@lurker, I share some (not all) of your prior experiences and will tell you I was exactly where you are last spring. I’m in no hurry to flash an Android box into a DVR but we’ll see where thing are after the new apps are released. Welcome to Tablo :)
Thanks, so far it has been very positive experience with Tablo, once I understood its paradigm (oooh I actually used that word in the right context).
It has some growing pains to get through and features to add, but this is a breath of fresh air for sure. And I love supporting small companies, specially when they are in my backyard.
@cjcox, we don't agree about many things so it doesn't surprise me you have difficulty running Kodi. Of course if Kodi ran on Roku you would be screaming about how its fantastic ;) Ask yourself is simple question and be honest with yourself, do any of the criteria listed for not liking Kodi apply to Tablo? Are you being honest to say the functionality of Tablo is comparable to what was shown in that video?
You were very confused by why somebody would prefer an appliance over building, operating and maintaining their own equipment. I was merely trying to show an example from my own experience. Hopefully you folks know that I build a lot of this stuff and play with this stuff… and will continue doing so.
But by all means, if somebody want to build their own (e.g. super OTA DVR + Kodi thing) and operate and maintain it (and pay for it)… I certainly won’t get in the way, in fact, I think it’s a lot of fun. I was merely trying to give a valid example why somebody might not want to do that.
Is that clearer?? (just fyi, I own a CuBox currently running GeeXboX, but it doesn’t do OTA DVR stuff currently).
You were very confused by why somebody would prefer an appliance over building, operating and maintaining their own equipment. I was merely trying to show an example from my own experience. Hopefully you folks know that I build a lot of this stuff and play with this stuff… and will continue doing so.
I assure you there is little confusion on this end. I’m still waiting for your to apply the same criteria you used in forming your opinions of Kodi and how Tablo rates using your same standards.
You were very confused by why somebody would prefer an appliance over building, operating and maintaining their own equipment. I was merely trying to show an example from my own experience. Hopefully you folks know that I build a lot of this stuff and play with this stuff… and will continue doing so.
I assure you there is little confusion on this end. I’m still waiting for your to apply the same criteria you used in forming your opinions of Kodi and how Tablo rates using your same standards.
Uh… I’m leaving this thread… get some help dude… sheesh.
Hey Everyone, my main topic is a bit derailed. I know there are tons of other more fancy options out there and I am in the IT field so its not a big deal.
But with that said 99% of the population is not savy. The purpose of this write up was to give them a simple way to get a setup so that someone who is not IT savy can cut the cord and you can explain to your grandpa (or father depending how old you are) that the old way of flipping through the channels is no longer relevant and you have this control that is much smaller and easier to use.
Having to explain to my father (69 years old) that to watch regular TV you need to switch to HDMI 1, to watch basic cable channels go to HDMI 2 and to use the ROKU to see Netflix use HDMI 3 and finally for the Blue Ray use HDMI 4 (which he does not do).
My goal was to say turn on the dam TV and use the Roku period! Move the arrows to what you want and read whats on the screen with the big pretty boxes. My father figured it out in less than 10 minutes and his IT saviness ends with playing Solitaire in Windows so if he can figure it out with that setup then most people can.
That was my goal, nothing more and nothing less. If people have a ways to add more stuff but keeping it simple using the ROKU I am all ears and would definitely fit in my original post write up.
Ask yourself is simple question and be honest with yourself, do any of the criteria listed for not liking Kodi apply to Tablo? Are you being honest to say the functionality of Tablo is comparable to what was shown in that video?