When I forked over the $205 to Amazon for the Hauppauge HDPVR high definition television to PC recorder, I thought two things: “I hope it’s worth it” and “How the hell do you pronounce Hauppauge?” I found out the answer to both questions this week when my recorder died after 22 months of otherwise perfect operation.
Before Crasstalk came along, I spent most of my free time working on MythTV. I don’t care for the DVR service that the cable providers are offering. The monthly fees are a part of it, but that the menus on those provider DVR units are also full of ads is unacceptable. There are already ads during the content, product placement ads in the actual shows, they even shove ads in with my monthly billing statement. MythTV is partially an act of defiance on my part. I want at least some control over the content stream coming into my home. Continue reading
