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Monolith Media Center Brings You MythTV

Posted Aug 16, 2006 at 5:40PM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Tags: gaming accessories, HDTV, Linux, Monolith Soft, MythTV

The makers of the Monolith Media Center claims that it is the "easiest way to get MythTV into your household."

For those who don't know, MythTV is an open source application for Linux started by Isaac Richards (a name that will go down in history). MythTV lets a computer function as a digital video recorder and home entertainment system.

Basically, Isaac Richards got fed up with low-quality cable TV boxes with their ads and slow speeds. Not wanting to make another TiVo, he decided to come up with something much more extraordinary: the mythical convergence box. So MythTV was born: it lets a low-cost computer system become a PVR ("Personal Video Recorder," a device that saves videos digitally to a hard drive) and a digital home entertainment system with email capacity, a web browser, games, etc.

The Monolith Media Center lets you take advantage of MythTV without having to go through the hassle of building your own MythTV box. Many people are intimidated by having to look for hardware, doing the building, and then trying to get the Linux configuration done. The Monolith MC is built to order, so MythTV is already configured. There's also a web configuration utility, and it quietly receives nightly upgrades to improve its features, security patches, and bug fixes.

Here are just a few of the things we can say about this box:

Power. It's a MythTV Media Center Suite on top of the Ubuntu Linux OS (Ubuntu is a powerful, flexible, and popular Linux distribution).
Intelligence. Just one example: you don't have to look for a remote to skip over commercial breaks. When it recorded the show, it kept track of the breaks and will skip right over them for a "seamless" viewing experience.
Flexibility. MythTV allows for transcoding. It lets you record your TV shows and movies in your choice of format (from small low-quality files or huge breathtaking ones), and you can change the format of those recordings. On top of that, you can compress them by choosing Xvid MPEG4, or send them to your iPod.

It's not that cheap: it's about $649. But that's with free Electronic Programming Guide Access, Remote Control, IRBlaster, A/V Cables, ASUS P1-PH1 System, 200GB Hard Drive, Single TV Tuner, DVD-R Drive; upgrades include Dual-Tuners, 400GB Hard Drive, HDTV Tuners, DVD-RW drive, and 3.2GHz P4 CPU.

Our verdict: it's a fairly powerful (if not absolutely cutting-edge). It lets you avoid the hassle of making your own, and it gives you flexibility (for example, it lets you avoid the loss of control that some users report with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center).

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I am a Ubuntu user and I was wondering if you know if this DVR lets you fully take advantage of Ubuntu (root access, synaptic package manager, terminal , apt -get for installing new applications from the repositories ect) or is it a "walled garden" type of thing where lots of the functionality is automated and all the user needs to do is press record?

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