3 ms·

I’ve run homebrew DVRs since the MythTV/Hauppauge era and it’s true My family won’t adapt to anything in the living room with a keyboard and mouse, and getting

by mingus88 11mo ago

I’ve run homebrew DVRs since the MythTV/Hauppauge era and it’s true My family won’t adapt to anything in the living room with a keyboard and mouse, and getting a reliable remote on any PC based solution is often problematic.

lesuorac 11mo ago
I just have a remote control an esp8266 and it posts to the PC's webserver. A bit convoluted I guess but it's still under 1k loc so w/e.
mrguyorama 11mo ago
Not even those dirt cheap bluetooth devices with a trackpad and mini keyboard? Those are great and it just works. Or what about the Steam Controller? It's UX is similar to some nicer smart TV interfaces. The real solution is you build an app that is nice for your family to use and just tells the boxes what to play. Sure hope your family doesn't use iPhones!
- fireflash38 11mo ago
  If you're using Firefox or run Linux, you won't be getting the stream quality you have paid for.
devilbunny 11mo ago
The hands-down best DVR experience I had was a TiVo Slide remote (the top slid back to reveal a small but fully functional keyboard) paired to a PC running Windows 7 Media Center with a four-tuner InfiniTV Cablecard adapter. Obviously it's been a few years, but that was just smooth all around once I got it set up. Very high WAF. But Windows 7 is gone, and so is the TiVo Slide remote.
- ascagnel_ 11mo ago
  And so is CableCARD, for that matter.
  - devilbunny 11mo ago
    Maybe they're not handing them out any more, but I've still got one and it still works in the TiVo (Edge?) that I have. It replaced that WMC DVR because WAF. Her genuine preference was for our old ReplayTV and its interface, but they didn't live long enough to make HD DVR's. Turned out after I had already bought all that stuff due to flakiness that it was just some bad RAM that, really, was overkill - I could have just taken out the bad sticks and kept on rocking, in which case it probably would still be our DVR.

lesuorac 11mo ago

I just have a remote control an esp8266 and it posts to the PC's webserver. A bit convoluted I guess but it's still under 1k loc so w/e.

mrguyorama 11mo ago

Not even those dirt cheap bluetooth devices with a trackpad and mini keyboard? Those are great and it just works. Or what about the Steam Controller? It's UX is similar to some nicer smart TV interfaces. The real solution is you build an app that is nice for your family to use and just tells the boxes what to play. Sure hope your family doesn't use iPhones!

fireflash38 11mo ago
If you're using Firefox or run Linux, you won't be getting the stream quality you have paid for.

devilbunny 11mo ago

The hands-down best DVR experience I had was a TiVo Slide remote (the top slid back to reveal a small but fully functional keyboard) paired to a PC running Windows 7 Media Center with a four-tuner InfiniTV Cablecard adapter. Obviously it's been a few years, but that was just smooth all around once I got it set up. Very high WAF. But Windows 7 is gone, and so is the TiVo Slide remote.

ascagnel_ 11mo ago
And so is CableCARD, for that matter.
- devilbunny 11mo ago
  Maybe they're not handing them out any more, but I've still got one and it still works in the TiVo (Edge?) that I have. It replaced that WMC DVR because WAF. Her genuine preference was for our old ReplayTV and its interface, but they didn't live long enough to make HD DVR's. Turned out after I had already bought all that stuff due to flakiness that it was just some bad RAM that, really, was overkill - I could have just taken out the bad sticks and kept on rocking, in which case it probably would still be our DVR.