HDTV via GNU Radio

NortonDC writes "High Definition TV has been successfully captured in its native data stream from an over the air broadcast by a software defined radio that is Free and open source from the GNU Software Defined Radio project."

Comments

hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds too useful to exist.

It will taste the blade of DMCA before the end of the month.

Re:hmmm

[DoraLives]

It will taste the blade of DMCA before the end of the month.

Which ordinarily might goad myself and others to scramble around and get it before the lid gets clamped down good and tight.

Except for one small problem.

When all is said and done, you're receiving television.

Never mind.

Re:Oh great.

[Fulcrum of Evil]

GNU TV, where the scripts are open-sourced before the show airs and you know all the jokes before the intro starts rolling.

How is different from network tv, where the scripts are rehashes of something from 10 or 20 years ago and you know the entire plot (painful jokes included) in the first two minutes.

Yeah. Until they make it illegal.

[rice_burners_suck]

I give it not one month and the RIAA, MPAA and Microsoft will be jumping on this like flies on poop to make this illegal. I can already see all kinds of garbage being invented that will make HDTV more expensive and less flexible for consumers in order to protect the alleged rights of huge multinational corporations to eternal perpetually increasing profits.

All of the above represent part of the reason that I have completely stopped watching television. Did I mention that I don't purchase software that has any sort of copy protection? That's true as well.

The best way to fight DRM, copy protection, and all this trash legislation is to speak with your money: Don't buy products containing this crap. You could go further and do what I do: I buy the competition's product and then send a letter (not an email but a letter on real paper in a real envelope with a postage stamp and my real address on it) telling the company WHY I have just purchased their competitor's product as opposed to theirs. Nanny nanny boo boo.

Re:Yeah. Until they make it illegal.

[cpt kangarooski]

I'd be happy to do so.

Basically, I think that self-help is unacceptable in conjunction with the legal protections conferred by copyright.

That is, a copy protected piece of software will never stop being copy protected. Even when the copyright holder loses their rights in the work. I'm fully prepared for copyrights to be granted, and for copyright holders to be able to pursue me for infringing on the rights.

BUT only where I stand to benefit from this as an ordinary person or author. Which means that I expect that after a reasonable period of time, I should be able to use, copy, alter, and base derivative works upon it. Upon any copy, with no particular difficulty beyond something inherent in the medium and not used as a deterrant. (e.g. a CD needs a CD player, but there's little special about that; adding encryption to it is not ok)

If someone wants to release copy protected works, then I think that they should do so without benefit of a single legal remedy. If they want the help of government and society in protecting themselves, they must acknowledge that it is a quid pro quo, and honor their end of the agreement. Copy protected works will never truly enter the public domain; they are an effort to cheat the public. Such publishers are much more reprehensible than the pirates that prey upon them, IMO.

Similar arguments exist as to why software developers should be required, as a prerequisite to getting copyrights, to deposit a full, complete, and well-documented copy of the source code with the Library of Congress. (n.b. that this is NOT open source, merely 'disclosed' source.)

Re:Cost: $1,299.00

[cybermace5]

By taking this defeatist attitude, you are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The card is $1,300. The reason is economics: people do not buy them in mass quantities, therefore they are rare and expensive. These cards are typically used in fringe high-tech situations, and honestly $1,300 is an awfully good deal considering what the same capabilities would have cost five or ten years ago.

If the card is already down to $1,300, instead of $13,000 or $130,000, the price can be reduced to $130. Once software radio becomes a demanded product, the push to increase production will make the cards more available.

Again, if you want to play around with cutting-edge tech, the card is pretty inexpensive. I've been dealing with high-speed video vendors who want $60,000 for essentially an overclocked VCR. And that's half of what they cost ten years ago.

These guys have done something few are able to do: take an idea and actually follow it to completion. The first personal computers weren't cheap enough to give away in cereal boxes either, so give this some time and encouragement.