Musings on MythTV

I have been using MythTV for about a year and a half now and I was thinking about the useability and economics of it all. I started out with a ReplayTV unit that had a $12 dollar a month fee, over 18 months I would have paid $216 in fees to ReplayTV. My MythTV system cost: PVR-350 $150, PCHDTV $40, Computer $350 = $540. Labor = countless hours.

As you can see MythTV is not a winner on cost. But the real question is: Does MythTV provide enough extra value to make it worthwhile?

MythTV has a lot of features that ReplayTV didn't have: Automatic commercial skipping, ease of space addition, music library, video library, web browsing, good web interface, DVD burning, easy feature additions (Digital Tuner?) and many more. The addition of a digital tuner is an interesting capability to analyze. With ReplayTV I could not add anything, which limits me to analog over-the-air channels or cable or satellite. With my MythTV system I added a digital tuner card and now I can cancel the locals on my DISH subscription, over a year that would save me another $60. Then there is the fact that maybe I mostly watch local channels anyway... Maybe I can just cancel my TV service entirely, that would save $480 over a year. Now real cost benefits begin to emerge that are made possible by the flexibility of MythTV.