RE: Mac Mini as PVR/DVD burner/Freeview

["Andy Laurence" <andy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hawes,Timothy Edward (GEG) wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Andy Laurence
>>
>> Sadly, whilst MediaPortal
>> (http://mediaportal.sf.net) looks good,
it doesn't automagically
>> update the EPG over the air.
>
> So presumably it needs a 'net connection and does it that way ? Whose
> site does it look at ?

It uses XMLTV, so works on any site that supports it.  I believe the Radio
Times website is currently used, but I'm waiting in a vain hope that over
the air EPG will become automatic.  Currently, you have to open a
configuration application and manually update the EPG.  It takes about 10
minutes, then about half an hour for the application to either crash or to
close.  Once it's up and running, the application appears to work well
though.  I even caught SWMBO (who is 100% non-technical) watching something
she'd recorded on it last night.  I had given her no instruction on how to
use it, she just found the remote and went from there.  To give an idea how
easy it is, when I caught her, we went to another room.  As we left the
room, she grabbed the mouse (it's currently sat on my desk) and asked
"how
do I pause it?", to which I responded "press the pause button on
the
remote".  If she can be confused by that, it must be easy to use for
her to
play the program!


The best part over Tivo, IMO, is the fact you can browse all the menus
whilst what you're watching remains in a little box in the corner.  Of
course, it's also better quality as it records the actual stream, I can
burn
the recordings straight to DVD, and I can watch the recordings over the
network on my laptop (or any other media player device).

Cheers,
Andy
--
http://www.andylaurence.co.uk