[geeks] TiVo Observations (new owner)

[Joshua Boyd]

On Fri, Jul 16, 2004 at 01:54:51AM +0000, Lionel Peterson wrote:
> > From: doctor obnox son of a bitch <drobnox at visi.com>
> > Date: 2004/07/15 Thu PM 11:00:03 GMT
> > To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
> > Subject: Re: [geeks] TiVo Observations (new owner)
> 
> >  Anyone here ever build your own TiVo-equivalent?
> 
> I thought about it, but if you want it *outside* the server room, you'll 
> probably want to buy a small-form case ($$), an appropriate video card ($$),
>  and a big HD ($$), then spend hours working on getting everything just 
> right...
> 
> Or, wait for an opportunity to get a machine w/o required support
> contract (I have a Replay 40 hour unit I bought for $150, an 80 hour
> Replay for $300 (each with 3 years included service), and a new 80
> hour TiVo for $200 (with lifetime 3-day program service))...

Heres one thought though.  MythTV and FreeVo can probably be fairly
easily hacked to do HD-TV, but a TiVo or ReplayTV probably can't.

A lot of HD can be done easily enough with firewire MPEG2-TS streams.
Of course, some of that stuff has copy protection that will get in the
way.  For that, well, there is always a component HD analog -> HD-SDI
converter, paired with a HD-SDI PCI card, for the dedicated home theater
nut (I say nut because the combo will likely cost in the ball park of
$4k), at least until someone figures out how to break the firewire copy
protection system.  I wish I still had my articles discussing it, but,
of course, it would be economically unfeasible to do so in this country
(not that the gear is unfeasible, but the ensueing court battle would
be ruinous, even if I had a hope of winning).  Thank's alot DMCA.  Make
it impossible to time shift HD content, a practice that is legally
protected for NTSC.