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Is The Public Stuck With The Broadcast Flag?

peeping_Thomist writes "The only company that sells HDTV tuner cards for Linux has run out of cards to sell, and they are now missing deadlines for new getting new cards. Linux users who want to view and record HDTV face an uphill battle. Meanwhile, the dreaded July 1, 2005 deadline for manufacturing DRM-free HDTV tuners is fast approaching. MythTV supports HDTV tuner cards, but so far no one has made a move to, as the EFF puts it, "buy, build, and sell fully-capable, non-flag-compliant HDTV receivers" prior to the July 1 deadline. The current combination of MythTV and pcHDTV (assuming pcHDTV cards become available again) may, as the EFF says, be "great for geeks," but it is a far cry from the TIVO-esque simplicity a mass market demands. Unless someone can get bring a DRM-free hdtv recorder to market before the deadline, it seems the general public will have no chance to avoid the broadcast flag."

11 of 302 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How about just not watching TV? by neiffer · · Score: 5, Funny

    This from someone who has the second post on a /. story... :)

  2. I felt some anxiety.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I felt some anxiety over that July 1, 2005 deadline, but then I realised that I don't even watch TV.

  3. Re:How about just not watching TV? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    AL: And the second thing we need to discuss is my new proposal for our party program.
    AL: 'Each citizen upon reaching the age of 18 must pass a general-knowledge and political test or be executed for stupidity'
    JL: Hmmm...
    JL: Wait! We don't want that do we?
    JL: I mean the masses are easier to control if they're NOT educated
    AL: True. How about THIS then?
    AL: 'We support a balanced selection of TV-channels with, among others, a state financed sports and reality-tv channel. And as we realize that not everyone can afford their own TV, we will also supply one free TV-set per household.'

  4. Re:Tune out - and unplug. by DreadPiratePizz · · Score: 3, Funny

    Quitting television is *very* difficult, and takes effort and sacrifice.

    Very true. I can't even think of what I'd do if I missed an episode of the Real World.

  5. Boo hoo hoo!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You people need to shut the hell up and stop complaining. The government needs to have 100% control of television to make sure you're not being subersive to it's socialist and New World Order goals. Can't use Linux with it? WELL CRY ME A RIVER! Linux is a criminal and terrorist operating system and needs to be promptly banned.

    You people make me SICK!!! I hope anyone caught modifying their TVs is "Waco'd" along with their families. Quit whining, the New World Order is here and it's here to stay! Do as you're told and shut the fuck up!

  6. Re:What about Europe? by jeffkjo1 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I find it humorous that Sony, a company with it's hand in filmmaking, markets a region-free DVD player over-seas... or at all really.

  7. Re:Linux-only company by s7uar7 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Until you realise they only made 10 ;)

  8. Re:Pirate TV Stations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You mean like suprnova?

  9. Old fashioned units by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny


    "A way to NOT make criminals out of the market is to make a metric assload of the appropriate ICs, then build the cards later. Completion is just a chip insertion away. "

    1 metric assload = 1.0*10^-3 Goatsefull.

  10. Re:Sell them in canada? (to US visitors?) by hunterx11 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Kind of like today how people have to go to Canada to buy decent toilets.

    --
    English is easier said than done.
  11. Re:What me worry? by bani · · Score: 2, Funny

    uh oh, is that the sound of an FBI raid at your door?