I hacked on the original TiVo and MythTV a bit; did not contribute much back, but I had a lot of fun. Video output from my few boxes were fed back into NTSC mod

I hacked on the original TiVo and MythTV a bit; did not contribute much back, but I had a lot of fun. Video output from my few boxes were fed back into NTSC modulators; I added extra channels to the CATV distribution and could tune into my TV, music, music video, and movie library from any TV. Basically I built a mini VoD system in my house. I tried to keep this up into later years to little success using gradually more purpose built hardware. I think the dream finally died for me after my Dune HD gave up the ghost. I started an Internet radio business in 1998 so this actually predated my involvement in the HTPC stuff. We programmed several genre stations of our own, properly and legally and built audio encoding appliances that we would sell as a simulcasting service to traditional broadcast stations. Even though we were operating legally and paying licensing, we eventually got killed by the Metallica v Napster suit which prompted the licensing agencies to retool their fees and prompted commercial broadcasters at the time to put a hold on all Internet streaming. Everything in one place is what customers want, but the businesses that own the stuff want customer attention and lock in. Why anyone would want to dedicate their career to enforcing this attitude for a giant multinational corporation is beyond me. This idiocy is the reason the youtube mobile app doesnt let you watch video in the background and hides the clock, for instance. It's untenable. Ultimately I gave up on the whole mess. I still own some TVs, but these days they are mostly off. I don't have the stomach for it. The music services fortunately have mostly figured it out: there are a number of places where you can choose to either select and purchase from or subscribe in bulk to "nearly all the commercially distributed music there is" for a fee commiserate with your desire to either buy the product or be the product. For video, it's alphabet shit soup.