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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
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!
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.
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
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?
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!
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.
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.
Huh? I do this regularly on my Mac using DiskCopy (part of the OS) or Toast. Now I'm not the type of Mac user that thinks this can ONLY be done on a Mac, so, well, I guess I logically assume it can be done on other OS's with no problem.
--Jim (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.
The support is basically limited to emailing you that. "That problem will be fixed in 3.0"......
...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.