Posts from — August 2007

September 1st, 2007 will mark a tipping point for the Do It Yourself (DIY) PVR Community.

Starting tomorrow, Tribune Media will discontinue its free zap2it channel guide service. This service, which MythTV and many other popular software titles was dependent on, will no longer exist. To fill the void, a non-profit company called Schedules Direct has been created by several members of the PVR community. Currently, Schedules Direct provides channel guide data for $5 / month with a goal of $20 / year in the near future. Creation of this entity is a big step forward for the community by ensuring the availability of guide data and encouraging the growth of Open Source software. Congratulations to all those involved.

With the creation of Schedules Direct, a subrelease of MythTV has been announced (0.20.2) which will includes the integration of Schedules Direct along with several other features and bug fixes. More information on the release
All current MonolithMC customers can follow the upgrade instructions

In addition to the DIY PVR community hitting a major milestone, MonolithMC, Inc. is announcing the next generation of its product line. Welcome MonolithMC - v.2.0. This release incorporates software updates, hardware updates and company improvements, including:

• Ubuntu Feisty 7.04 - the award winning Ubuntu release yet
• MythTV 0.20.2
• Schedules Direct integration
• 1GB Ram Standard
• AMD 5200+ X2 Dual Core Processor Upgrades Available
• Bigger and Cheaper Hard Drives - up to 750GB!
• Lower prices on all MonolithMC units - starting at $599!
• MonolithMC Support site is now Live!

We look forward to the continued success of MythTV, Ubuntu and the Open Source community and once again congratulate all those who have contributed!

Zap2It Labs is shutting down Sep. 1st. Thankfully, members of the DIY DVR Community have come together to form Schedules Direct which will offer the same XML based TV service. There will be a charge for the service which is initially set to $15 / 3 months, and the owners “expect pricing to drop by the end of the initial term. Our goal is $20/year.”

The upside to this is that the feed and the grabber are both maintained by the community, increasing functionality and efficiency.

As always, all MonolithMC’s will receive an update to adapt to these changes, once they go live.

Stay tuned!