Introduction | Setup and Maintenance | Features | MythTV Only Options and Cost | Verdict

MythTV only options
MythTV has a few options that are unavailable with a Series 3 including the ability to easily burn shows to CD or DVD. Granted you could purchase a DVD recorder and connect through the Series 3 but in the MythTV you can perform these functions provided you have a CD/DVD burner. You can also use the MythTV box as a DVD player converging yet another audio/video component.

Even more impressive, MythTV can easily support “frontend machines” for video connected to your network. A frontend machine could be a network-connected lightweight PC running Linux or Windows, a Mac Mini running OS X or even a slightly modded XBOX running Linux. These frontend machines are remotely served content from one or more backend servers.

Really, one of the few features a TiVo Series 3 has that MythTV does not are DRM restrictions. Due to this and the other MythTV

only options, MythTV's flexibility again wins the category.

Comparison of Cost
The suggested retail price of a TiVo Series 3 is $799.99 but we’ve seen the price hovering around $650-$680. In addition to the hardware costs, the TiVo service is as much as $19.99/month unless you want to lock into a multi-year commitment at which point you can purchase 3yr service for $299 or $8.31/mo. Therefore, the absolute cheapest you could purchase a TiVo Series 3 with 3 year service is $949.99 or as much as $1519.63.

MythTV costs are much harder to determine. If you use an old existing machine the total costs could be as cheap as $30 for a TV Tuner. Most people will upgrade hard drives, add an IR Blaster, add a remote control and purchase a couple of HD TV Tuners resulting in costs up to $500. You could also purchase a new computer which would further increase the cost.

Introduction | Setup and Maintenance | Features | MythTV Only Options and Cost | Verdict

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