I thought I'd chime in here too. I admit I haven't even tried any other HTPC packages out there. I went with Freevo from the start and have been using it ever since, from it's humble beginnings (in my hands) playing back video and audio in a beige box tower, to the TV-tuning, cable box controlling, radio streaming, podcast-playing powerhouse that it is now (and in a nice Antec HTPC case, too).
I do like the customization and plug-in architecture. It allows me to put in just the idlebar stuff I want, or if I'm not playing games I can take that out completely. I will admit I feel you need to be more knowledgeable to do the configuration... wading through the local_config file can be daunting at times. It will be nice when it's eventually an easy to use system of menus (either on-screen or via web). And speaking of web, love the web interface. I use it almost exclusively for scheduling and keeping tabs on programs. Just last week I was over 100 miles from home when I realized I'd forgotten to set a recording for the Formula One race. All I had to do was whip out my phone, call up the web page and set the recording. Piece of cake! But the number one reason I love Freevo is because Python is not a terribly hard language to learn. If Freevo had been written in C/C++, I might have gotten enough motivation to contribute. But with it being in Python, it was easy to jump in and start twiddling and tweaking and see the results immediately, without any recompiling. The barrier to entry for anyone who wants to contribute or even just modify their local version is a lot lower, in my opinion. And that is good! As for the future of it, I'm eager to see Freevo 2.0. Just listening to everyone talk about the plans in these last few e-mails has gotten me excited all over again. I don't know how much I can contribute just yet, but a few things sparked my interest: * "Streaming" source - I don't know if I can help make it happen, but I vote for it. I haven't been dabbling in the direct-over-firewire recording I was working on before, mostly because I don't have the grunt to play back anything more than SD resolution and haven't found a good re-encoding solution/setting for what is recorded in HD. I should dust it off and give it some more work. But this leads me to... * M2TS parser - Obviously goes hand-in-hand with the above, since the output from the cable box is a raw MPeg2 TS stream. I'd be willing to give it a look and see if I can make heads-or-tails out of the spec and how to adapt it to the metadata parser. I wouldn't count on me for this... but if I get some spare time I'd give it a try. I had a few other issues with the direct-recording... but that's a discussion for another thread. Regardless, I love the way things are looking. James Springfield, OR USA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Got Input? Slashdot Needs You. Take our quick survey online. Come on, we don't ask for help often. Plus, you'll get a chance to win $100 to spend on ThinkGeek. http://p.sf.net/sfu/slashdot-survey _______________________________________________ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
