MythTV turns out to be as fun as I hoped. MythTV is open source software that turns your computer into a personal video recorder like TiVo. It presents you a list of available TV shows, you select shows, and it records them if the computer is on. We've already recorded 25 hours (50 GB.) Also, RCA's ANT706 indoor/outdoor TV antenna turned out to be big, but it gets a lot better reception than rabbit ears.

After installing MythTV, I added the following script, called "mythtv", to /etc/X11/Sessions, making it easy for anyone in the family to start MythTV directly from the login screen:

#!/bin/sh
# Shrink to a lower resolution (easier on the processor)
/usr/X11R6/bin/xrandr -s 3
# Run mythtv
/usr/bin/mythfrontend
# Reset to full size
/usr/X11R6/bin/xrandr -s 0

MythTV has only a few visible bugs and they are easy to work around. I finally get to watch lots of Andy Griffith!