digital rights in the free world

[rao]

It's been a long time since I've posted. Below is a rather technical and rambly post about how I'm now able to make perfect digital recordings from my Comcast high definition cable box using free software, as well over-the-air high definition (once I swap out my old tuner for a new one), and how the happiness that has resulted can be destroyed by

Comments

[leslieerin]

As you probably know, I don't understand a lot of that stuff, but I wanted to comment to say "hi" and ask when you might be down this way again? Any time soon?

[rao]

I'll probably be around NC sometime this Spring. I'll let you know in advance and maybe we can grab a bite to eat and catch up on everything that's happened over the years.

[leslieerin]

Absolutely! I'm moving to Carrboro on Saturday. I'll post the new # when I get it. Until then, the cell is 919-612-3628.

[nsj]

After 9/11 and the huge revenue hit the nets took in its wake, the broadcast industry was reeling. Then bring on the Age of TiVo and other PVRs that might give advertisers pause about spending money on ad time. Top it off with some music downloading, and you've got an industry that is, at best, on its heels, and at worst, shell-shocked and perhaps a bit paranoid. The industry is still arguing amidst itself over what to do with TiVo and its cousins.

Regardless of one's stand on the issue of music downloading/sharing et al., one has to acknowledge that the recording industry perceives it as illegal and as a threat -- and the courts seem to be in agreement there. I would posit that had it not been such an issue, this wouldn't be now, either. That's not to say that it wouldn't end up being one, but the idea that their content can be distributed without their knowledge or consent and in a potentially modified form scares a lot of broadcast execs. This isn't quite the same argument as VCRs because, as you know, the digital copies are

MythTV

[macros]

I got my myth box up and running well this weekend and must say I'm quite happy with it. My initial efforts with an old bt878 card were passable, but the cpu usage was way too high. I picked up a pvr-250 and after a few hardware issues (why oh why haven't irqs died) life has been good. I just love being able to cat /dev/video0 and get an mpeg2 stream out of it :).

Having a card that supports Xv motion compenstation also helps if you don't have enough hardware. The only cards I'm aware of are nivida's binary stuff and whatever is in the epia m-10000 stuff.

HDTV

[macros]

The pcHDTV card appears to have GPL drivers based off of the bt878 dirvers. This does OTA ATSC, it can do NTSC as well but I don't think the driver support is there yet. The card is also only $200.

http://www.pchdtv.com/

MDR-200

[ql1]

I envy your hi-def cable sevice, mine only gives me component out. I don't suppose you know if MDR-200 will take component in and output a digital stream via firewire. That's probably too much to ask, but it would be cool. Thanks

Re: MDR-200

[rao]

The MDR-200 does not have an MPEG encoder -- it only has an ATSC/MPEG decoder. So the answer to your question is no.