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Telly MC2100, a Linux-based PVR/Media Center
An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices has published an article about the Telly MC1200, a new convergent PVR/mediaplayer made by Interact-TV. The Linux-based device supports up to three internal hard drives on which it can store and manage libraries of digital music, photos, and DVDs/video. It can also burn CDs and save DVDs to local mpeg (DivX?) files, and it can pause and record live TV in TiVO-like fashion. The device is based on a 1.2GHz VIA C3 processor and has 256MB of PC2100 DDR SDRAM memory, expandable to 1GB."
Wired Magazine PVR Test
from the more-money-than-brains dept.
h p?products_id=72
I bought one. My money, nahh, company money for R&D.
Buy one here and rip it to shreds so you can learn all about it!
http://store.interact-tv.com/store/product_info.p
I'll post my review sometime.
For that much money, I'd rather build one myself.
+210$ for 250GB instead of 80GB
+76$ for WiFi
+60$ for a CD burner
ouch!
I would rather build this myself Can I?
Sig: BEEeeeP,,Please press pound, so I can get on with my fucking life!
But obviously for someone who already assembles their own mini-ITX systems the price point isn't going to perk much interest. /. would be more likely to be interested in good prices on mini-ATX boards.
Naturally not everyone puts together their own systems, but a hell of a lot of those who don't know someone who will do so for a bong hit, a few beers or a bat of the eyelash or whatever.
So it's cool to see people out there trying and saying it's time for this kind of device, but I bet most people on
Talk about PVR done right. I've been a big fan of Tivo, and if I hadn't moved out of Tivo land (USA), you wouldn't be able to pry mine from my cold, dead hands, but this is very tantalizing. It doesn't put restrictions on you, instead trusting you to do what you should. You can put your DVDs to the hard drive so you have a DVD jukebox, it's based on open source, and there's a developer version. (Though I must admit, I wish their program was OS, I think there's room for both types of software.) Hell, if nothing else, just buying the device and installing MythTV on it would work, if you wished. The whole built-in webserver, CD-ripping capabilities, and it starts at $800! I'm going to send them an email to see if it works with PAL tuners...
Ewww.. it comes with an infared keyboard - these suck in my experience. They skip keypresses often enough to make them useless for typing anything of length. I use mine as a remote control because I haven't bothered to get a LIRC remote yet, but it seems like you'd need one or the other. If you want wireless typing, you've gotta go with rf.
Where's the source code for public download then? (or at least, some parts of it)
I would imagine that the saving DVDs to local files feature would just keep the streams as MPEG 2 otherwise, on this CPU, the rip to divx would take quite some time. Of course from there you could convert it in the background.
I can't find it in the article or on Interact's website. I hope they use XMLTV (because then at last, there'd be a PVR I'd consider buying).
That blows. Considering the fact that this thing will be on 24/7, it should be absolutely silent rather than 'quiet'. Can I use the software on this machine, instead?
BBQ ASAP! BYOBB
It can also burn CDs and save DVDs to local mpeg (DivX?) files
Having skimmed through the article, I can't find any mention of exactly how this PVR backs up DVDs. However, I would almost certainly rule out DivX backups for a couple of reasons:
1. Encode time - You don't want users sitting around waiting for encoding to complete. Even if this is done in the background it will likely degrade the PVR's performance and reduce the picture quality of the DVD being backed up.
2. DeCSS - converting to another format will require circumventing protection on the disc. This will create some iffy legal issues, as it makes it easier (in theory) to exchange DVD content.
3. The DivX codec itself requires a license does it not? It might be free for personal use, but certainly not for a commercial app. If any compression is going on, it will probably be to an open format such as XviD.
I think that the VOB files on the DVD are simply saved to hard disk, or maybe the player makes an image of the whole DVD. The PVR can then easily playback the DVD as per normal, except that it is now running off the hard disk.
One only has to witness the superiority of British automobiles to see why!
You seem to forgot that even if the code is released under the GPL it is still copyrighted by the author(s), and possibly some IP laws might also influence on the issue.
Remember: Copyright laws have, will be and most certainly will always be proven in a court of law of civilized countries.
Now here comes the dilemma: Let's think like the Real World here - assume that GPL hasn't been proven, and possibly it'll never be proven:
1) If GPL isn't a legally binding contract - we're infringing on the copyright of the original author by modifying the code and selling it over and over again - "we" as the Company who sells the code lose. (See Copyright laws on "derivative work").
2) If the GPL is valid, we are violating it by not giving the modifications back as source code - "we" lose again.
The GPL is pretty well designed so that either way, the original author and the OSS-community wins.
IANAL again, but few insights offered here..
The article at Linux Devices http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT4917820524.html says it uses a 1200mhz (1.2ghz) VIA C3 CPU, yet the offical site says "VIA C3 933MHz x86 Processor". If thats not dodgy, I don't know what is.
Can I download the source?
They aren't obliged to give you the GPL'd source if they haven't sold you the binaries, ie. if you're not a customer for this unit.
this guy was not offtopic. informative at the very least. come on mods, think!
U can't just copy encrypted VOB files to HD and play from there - all you get is garbage.
Go ahead, try it yourself before posting such crap.
Fucking idiot!
The guys at Interact-TV are great. Their device has a lot of potential. Not only that, but when I had issues, they were more than happy to address them.
I bought the MC1000 last year November. I was so excited to get it. I am not surprised that the Wired article said the Telly was buggy. I eventually had to return mine. I really wanted this to work, and it kind of. But it crashed so often and didn't do what it was suppose to well. At first, it didn't record, rip CDs, didn't play DVDs as it should, tune in some channels, and a few other minor things. I returned it for some work and they fixed many of those problems. When I got it back, it still didn't rip cds properly. There were gaps in the audio, the names for album and song title were corrupt.
There were several minor annoyances that I just got tired of this thing not working as it should. I didn't mind that it wasn't super quiet, I knew it was computer and not the best. I think the price was fair for no monthly fee and basically having an open platform and open source. I think they will or could make a really good device if they just make it work without crashing and simply do what it is suppose to. If it is going to rip CDs, well I want to know when I put a CD in it will rip.
Even thought I returned the one I bought last year, I am still monitoring their product releases to see when they might have something solid for me.
What's most interesting to me is the single PCI expansion slot and open source OS. Means this thing is open to some serious customization. For instance, I could potentially hook this up to my wifi network.
Sorry to go slightly offtopic but although Divx is probably more well-known and more downloaded, Xvid seems to me to be the better codec (especially if your privacy matters to you).
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
The article mentions XUL (XML user-interface language), is that anything like Mozilla's XUL? Mozilla Foundation seems to be quite protective of its acronyms...
MC2100 or MC1200? Headline and article are kinda incongruent.
No PAL yet? I thought NTSC and PAL were easily provided for no extra cost on new TV/Video boxes these days. Its only a decoder, right?
My hyperlinks aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
At first I thought it didn't have one but i read more and found out it's optional. How in the hell do you have digital audio out as an "Option", especially when the thing costs $800? I know these units serve more purpose than Tivo but the Cable/Sat industry wins here if you can rent from them. I pay $7 a month for PVR/DVR. Let's say they upgrade the boxes every 2 years. It would take 11 years for the cost of renting to equal the cost of buying this thing. I will have traded for updated boxes 5 times by then, while I'd be stuck with 11 year old technology if I had bought this $800 toilet, I mean PVR. Optional digital out, WTF?
It's a good trick if you can do it. But at least the MC1000 (which I have) is not a finished product. 3.0 version of OS is still not available. Was due in Feb/04 1. ) Non selectable recording resolution. Default is poor and pixilated. 2 No Live TV pause function. Minimal expectation in anything calling itself a DVR/PVR. 3 Incomplete Web Interface. Web interface does not allow selecting programs to record. Why bother with a Web interface if you have to go to the Telly app to actually program the thing. 4.)No way to use Firewire input for DV. All this hardware, and no software to control it. At least it is not documented 5.) Have to drop into linux to rename video files input from external sources. Can\'t rename files in video library easily. 6.) Awkward input of audio MP3 files. Many won't load into library since they do not meet some "undocumented" metadata standard. 7.) Video recordings over 2G in size can't be downloaded from the Web interface. Get Permission denied error. 8. Currently Zap2It Data Direct Service listings service is limited to the most basic functionality, and you have to "renew" every 3 months. But at least it's free.... Telly is a prototype that is not even 50% there yet. At least not with the current OS (2.8x). Anyway I went and build one myself with dual boot Myth/Sage and am using the MC1000 pretty much as a firewall/DNS/Wins server now. At least at that job it is meeting expectations.
The support is basically limited to emailing you that. "That problem will be fixed in 3.0"......
It sounds like all of the problems with this computer are in the software. Could you buy it, add a hauppage 350, and then just put myth TV on it and use that?
I do security
...when are we going to see inexpensive MPEG encoder chips becoming standard on PCs? I'd love to have hardware encoding in my PC that would let me turn an hour of DV-AVI into MPEG2 in 20 minutes, but I could live with something that did it even in real time.
The hardware can't be that expensive given that it shows up in $300 set-top boxes. You can buy cards that do this (and usually a bunch of other things), but they're almost always really expensive.
Is it a licensing thing? Even that doesn't add up given set-top DVD recorders that make essentially unlimited MPEG2 encodings.
...for home-theater buffs. No component video; while S-video is a step up from composite, anyone with (or wanting) an HD monitor wants component. No support for 1080i -- which means that even my little $800 samsung TV can't be used at its full resolution, let alone my brother-in-law's fancy 40-in LCD. Nor can you play DVDs at their full resolution and rectangular format.
Although it claims 5.1 audio out, there's no telling what the audio quality is like, compared to a decent receiver. And none of the sound-processing options of a receiver, or Dolby or THx movie encodings, etc. And no hi-end audio inputs, so it can't be used as a receiver, to switch between and record from other audio sources.
Compared to DirecTivo, it has only a single tuner, not two, so it can't record two simultaneous shows while playing back a recording, or record one while watching another. It doesn't have the season pass -- seek out and record every, or every new, episode of a series regardless of schedule changes -- or wish lists -- find and record every program whose title matches a search string. It has a "favorites" feature but does it auto-record "suggestions" based on your viewing patterns?
Compared to Tivo media management, there's no indication it will work with OS X, and definitely no connection to iPhoto or iTunes libraries. If you've already got gigabytes of music a/o photos stored in those (or other) apps, you don't want to either move them all to a new media management solution, or duplicate them in two unrelated and uncoordinated systems.
Interesting how much excitement can be generated over a so minimal product description, merely because it's Linux under the hood. I doubt that people here would be giving that announcement much positive response -- or even grudging acceptance -- if it were running Windows.
The point should be whether the box does a good job of its primary function: video record and replay.
--- Bill
I am kinda missing the component video output ... ... I can live with that maybe ... but no digital optical audio ? even no digital coax ??? (I prefer it over optical, as you can extend it more easily, and cables are cheaper ... of course for close connections i choose optical ... just like the hum of that red light that sneaks out as my rottveiler tends to get behind the TV ...):)
.. (or anything that travels in an only digital way to your amp ....)
.. i did not buy an amp for TV+my game consoles to hook an other 5 speakers up into my living room ...
...
... 2 laptop drives for silent storage and a 100buck DVD/CD reader/burner ... buy an lcd for usb port ... and use mplayer for avi, ogle for DVD ... ....
... and the ones that don't ... i don't smoke :)
and you know what
so no hdtv connection, no chance to enjoy DTS
5.1 hookup is there, but hey
where is the display ? not that I like to stare at the LCD (i actually dim it to minimum (nice feature on sony amp & dvd) but I expect to play mp3's and Do not want to have a TV on just for OSD
sorry for the strong critics , but instead of that I would shove a digital receiver card in a mini ATX mobo with a 2gig celeron and a sb live for digi out
of course there are people who roll their own cigarettes
Are you telling me there's a penguin on the telly?
-- MarkusQ
I've been looking for a box like this for a while now, and while mythTv seems to satisfy my every need I really can't be bothered with the hassle of learning linux, buying components and putting the whole thing together... so unless anyone can point out someone selling silent livingroom mythtv boxes that are already built...
According to Wired magazine this PVR is "Pricey. Crashes frequently. Lackluster, awkward operating system."
Creative Demolition