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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
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.
You can build something like it using MythTV, see various links in this story http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/09/004 7207&tid=186&tid=137&tid=106.
Not confused enough? http://translate.google.com/translate?u=www.slashdot.jp&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=ja&tl=en
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.
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..
However, if you don't modify the kernel or any of the tools you don't have to release the source code of your application. My bet is that they went the NVidia road: a binary module.
The owls are not what they seem
MythTV actually handles this gracefully with a background transcoder, it eats basically only eats CPU time that would be idle and on these kind of machines that can be a lot.
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.
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.