I know there is NexTV, but after having used OverseaTV, the UI on the boxes (tried 2 different ones) and the glitches in the streams, I gave up on that route as something I was willing to pay for.  I currently have the DishNetwork language package and, well, their customer service is so terrible and $30 for the watered down three channels (counting German Kino), I would like to get rid of them.

The main requirements for me are:

1.  Good selection (ARD, ZDF, etc)
2.  The ability to record (DVR, etc) programming for later viewing

For (2) I am willing to jump through some hoops to integrate things with mythtv, etc. 

But a source for decent programming seems to be the missing ingredient.  I guess one option would be to explore Shift.TV, download the recordings, and then make them available on my local server (for the family)

Can anyone think of other options?  Are there any decent network rtsp/mms streams?

Thanks
-jim

I think you need to take a second look at Nextv.  I have used them for over 1 year now and love the service.  They have ARD, and ZDF both live and time-shifted which is great.  The quality has been really good.

For recording shows , I actually run the box through a VCR or DVD recorder which works out great. 

 

The thing I like is being able to watch on a tv versus having to watch it on a computer.

 

 

I just spoke with a NexTV rep, it is a one time fee of $37 + shipping for the box (which came to about $70 total), despite their site saying "30 day free trial" on their site.

Given the experiences I had with OverseaTV due to both poor quality of the IPTV devices they used (very slow navigation, sometimes hard to read, etc) and very poor picture quality (interlacing issues, heavily pixelated, some pauses) -- I am not willing to fork over $70 that I won't get back.

-jim