Jay has a great video blog post about the PVR/TIVO/DVR media box that Dan Melinger has created. It’s fascinating to me because I’m building one of these boxes myself. A friend and I have been doing some tests of various Linux distros to see which we can make jive with Mythtv. As it stands now Mythtv seems to be more myth than tv. Its not because MythTV is not designed well but rather because I/we know very little about Linux. But hey, we’re geeking out and learning bout it.
Melinger uses XP and SageTv which seems to be a much easier solution. I know Dan is very tech based on his thesis paper so I’m sure he chose the XP route for a reason. Maybe he chose XP to test the usability for the masses? He could have just as easily done it in Linux. Whatever.
Why does any of this matter you ask? Is this the future of television/video blogs? TIVO style viewing is not new. What is relatively new is the ability to create a chunk of media and beam it out over the weeb to your tv screen through one of these boxes. How long will it be before you and I share our media alongside the traditional media outlet’s content? Photos/Music/Video on my tv via the weeb using rss enclosures bittorrent etc? Soon? You bet.
If none of this pseudo geek talk makes any sense to you this will. You and I will soon be able to send each other movies/music/pictures and we’ll be able to watch them on our televisions.
I’ll say it again: Lean back meets lean forward media.
More info to come on the boxes we are creating and their unique form factor.