Were pseudo-cutting cable (sudo cut /cable, hehe). Denise and I love sports, so its difficult for us to completely eliminate ESPN, FSN, etc. So in order to reduce our monthly bills without losing our channels, DVR, etc., I decided to build my own DVR which would also serve as a media server (pictures, videos, music, computer backups, etc). So rather than buying Set-Top Boxes for every TV in our house, we will now pay $2.50/mo for one CableCARD and then attach the TVs to small paid-for (not rented) frontend devices (FireTV, Nexus Player, Raspberry Pi, HTPC, etc.). I didnt use this guide, but it basically explains what I did. Rather than using Mythbuntu, I just used straight-up Ubuntu Server and added the MythTV Backend. Total cost for the server hardware, HD HomeRun Prime, and FireTV was $410. The software is all free and/or open-source. Our monthly payment is reduced by $50-70/mo depending on our TV package. Then for every TV/frontend we add, well save $20+/mo. on STB rentals/fees. So the capital investment will easily pay for itself within a year. If you dont care for ESPN, etc, but still like your DVR features, then you could completely eliminate the TV portion of your cable bill and just use the OTA signals of your local broadcast networks. Also, if you already have an old computer laying around or if you want to use your current setup, you could easily setup the MythTV Backend without any hardware costs other than the HDHR and frontend device (which were $140 off Craigslist). Not to mention, you can learn a lot about how Linux and operating systems in general work in the process.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 18:22:27 +0000
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