OpenMedia

OpenMedia are very pleased to announce that the basis for their myPVR software platform has now been upgraded to MythTV 0.20. This new release has been made available free of charge to all of our existing customers so that they can enjoy the enhancements made by the MythTV team over the six months. In addition, OpenMedia have made a number of improvements specific to the New Zealand market. These improvements have focused on customers who wish to record SkyTV, and initial support for the soon to be launched “Free To Air” New Zealand Digital TV Service. °

If you want to see a demonstration of myPVR and MythTV 0.20 in action why not visit us on stand 301 in Hall 3 at Big Boys Toys from 10-12^th November.
Key Major Changes for myPVR 1.20 based on MythTV 0.20

• Upgrade of MythTV baseline to MythTV 0.20 (plus fixes).
• Upgrade of MythPlugins and MythThemes to 0.20 (plus fixes).
• Inclusion of the MythCenter-Wide Theme for 720p and 1080i displays.
• Replacement of MythBurn with MythArchive for DVD creation and file archiving.
• Improved channel changing performance for Live TV.
• Initial support for UPnP devices.
• Enhanced DVB support ready for the new NZ Digital Network. °
• MHEG support for interactive Digital TV. °
• MythWelcome support.
• Selectable transcode modes – great for removing adverts.
• Web interface now has improved support for Internet Explorer.
• Support WEP and WPA encrypted wireless networks. ¹

Additional Bug Fixes and Enhancements

• Preparation for the FreeView digital network. °
• Improved memory handling in the video capture driver.
• Uses very latest NVidia Display Drivers.
• Support for H264 playback for MythTV and MPlayer.

Enhancements to SkyTV Support

• Improved and simplified SkyTV installation and removal. ²
• Enhanced process for updating SkyTV channels.
• SkyTV Documentary channel and other recent channel additions.
• Support for WTV + KTV channels. ³

° Full details on the FreeView Digital TV support will be made available closer to the official launch of the service.

¹ Wireless network support is an optional feature.

² SkyTV support requires an existing SkyTV subscription and connection to a SkyTV supplied set-top box.

³ WTV + KTV are an additional subscription based service that are separate from a normal SkyTV subscription.

OpenMedia are very pleased to announce that myPVR will be supporting the recently released MythTV 0.20. Technical Director Steven Ellis has commented “The recent enhancements to the MythTV software make it the perfect delivery platform for the new FreeView digital network here in New Zealand. We are already testing both MythTV 0.20 and the FreeView network and hope to make a full release in the very near future. Our customers can be assured that we have carried out all the appropriate integration testing for the myPVR hardware platform”.

All existing myPVR customers will get an upgrade to the updated software as part of their standard support contract.

OpenMedia is very proud to announce that it has sponsored the launch of the new mythtv.co.nz news and information site. We hope that this will be a useful portal for people seeing information on MythTV in New Zealand, as well as place for MythTV advocacy.

One recent news item featured is a comparison of MythTV and Windows MCE 2005 carried out by Toms Hardware. The article is titled “The MythTV Convergence“.

Chris Barton at the NZ Herald poses the question in a recent article on whether his perfect FreeView set top box ever appear. We at OpenMedia like to think that we already have such a unit. Take a look at the Herald’s article below for more details

• Chris Barton: Lack of vision threatens our brave new world

Also this week the Sunday Star Times covers the additional channels that the new FreeView platform is supposed to be offering. Catch the article on stuff.co.nz‘s website.

• Digital to open up TV channels

If you have a chance take a look at Issue 49, the July edition, of tone. As part of the Toneworld section on page 8 they have covered myPVR. They liked how well we stand out against the competition from mySky and Windows MCE, in particular the network capabilities and music jukebox.

Well the big news of the week is the Governments announcement on the future of Digital TV in New Zealand. It appears that we will be going with a dual DTT (Digital Terrestrial TV) and DTH (Direct To Home via satellite) path. This is great news for the New Zealand consumer as it will provide up to 18 TV stations in a high quality digital format. The “Freeview” group will be made up of TVNZ, TVWorks (CanWest), Maori TV and TAB.

For more details take a look at the following media releases -

• New Zealand Government Release
• NZ Government Digital Background Document
• TVNZ’s Media Release
• BCL’s Media Release

Plus TVNZ have just launched a Digital TV Website.

The story has also been featured in most of the New Zealand press -

• 18 TV channels and it’s all free
• Free-to-air digital TV from next year
• Digital TV to cost taxpayers $25m
• Future of free-to-air digital TV revealed
• Free TV Enters Digital Age. Finally.
• Freeview is coming to a small screen near you
  

So far we have yet to see any online announcements from CanWest.

Now what does this mean for existing, and potential, myPVR users? Well once we have full technical details then we can confirm support, but we are already testing myPVR with the initial DTT test broadcasts.

OpenMedia is thrilled to announce that they will be at Big Boys Toys 2006.

At our stall in the Technology Hall, the public will be able see myPVR in action, complete with hands on demos.

Sales orders will be taken at the show.

To meet with customer demand we are now able to offer a much simpler case model, without the media reader and LCD panel. Unlike our standard case this myPVR unit can be used both horizontally or vertically. All other features are of the same high standard as our other models.

Please take a look at our sales page, or contact us for more details.

Yet another mention in the last week under the interesting title of “Nearly Free HTPC? That’s a Myth” c/o the following site. Interesting the way these sites are starting to pick-up on Linux and MythTV as an alternative to Windows MCE.

Well it looks like myPVR and OpenMedia are making news all over the world thanks to our recent appearance on the well known IT news website Slashdot. Hopefully we have managed to answer most of the questions raised in the very interesting feedback that was generated. Another IT resource Digg also covered our launch this week.

HDBeat gave a reasonable write up to myPVR. They pick-up on the way we are using Linux and MythTV to differentiate from the alternative Windows based solutions. Shame they didn’t mention the price is in New Zealand Dollars rather than US Dollars.

One question we have regularly been asked is how does myPVR compare with commercial products like Windows MCE. A recent article called “Windows Media Center vs. MythTV (or Making my own PVR)” might be of interest. MythTV came out as a better product than Microsoft’s alternative.

We’d like to take this moment to thank our web hosting company OpenHost for doing such a good job of dealing with the huge spike in traffic that was generated by this coverage.